So today is supposed to be a big Immigrants Rights and Boycott and Street Protests Day. The biggest problem with the whole system right now is that it’s not a system, it’s a political and economic convenience built on lies and unadmitted half-truths. As long as that’s the case, the situation will only get worse.
The fact is, folks outside the US need US jobs. Employers within the US need immigrant labor. The US needs to maintain a cultural unity-within-diversity (e pluribus unum). Mexico (as the main example) needs to not feel held hostage by the Yanquis.
My two-cent solution, utterly impractical because it requires hard political decisions, spending a lot of money, and inconveniencing folks who can take advantage of the current situation:
- Devise a guest worker program that is easily applied for (including from within the country, initially), is quickly processed, has a very high quota, has strong protections for workers and strict penalties for overstaying one’s welcome. The program should have provisions for good performers to apply for permanent citizenship.
Folks could apply for this from within the country (i.e., if you’re currently illegal, here’s your chance to get on the right side of the law). Yes, that’s an “amnesty.” Suck it up.
Once this program is in place for six months, then the following items would kick in.
- Harsh penalties for companies that do hire illegals. That includes closing the “independent contractor” loophole, as well as companies bearing responsibility for what their subcontractors and subsubcontractors do.
- Harsh penalties for illegal immigration. If there are reasonable avenues for folks to work here legally, then illegal workers can be justly punished. That includes deportatioin followed by escalating prison sentences in this country.
- Improve border security — something short of Fortress America, but still more than what we currently have. Alternately (or perhaps more cheaply) improve enforcement of the above laws, checking on legality status of workers and prosecuting workers and businesses for violation of the law.
What does this all mean? Folks outside the country who need jobs here have a reasonable way to ask for them (and reaonabloe protections and restrictions around doing so), with the prospect of citizenship if all goes well. Businesses inside the country get access to the people they need to keep those jobs in the US (which, even if some of the workers are from outside, sitll benefits the nation). An subculture of illegal immigrants is defused and brought into the open, where they can participate with the rest of society. Mexico gets an above-board economic safety valve, in a way that doesn’t taint it as being the home of illegal immigrants.
It would cost money. Administering a guest worker program well would take a lot. Providing prison space for illegals who second/third-time offenders would likely cost a lot. Enforcement and prosecutions of businesses would cost a lot. And business expenses to monitor and do due dilligence of their workforce would do a lot as well.
But those costs are occuring in other ways, now, as well as other costs, the cost of building an economy based on deceit and illegality. It’s a cost in dollars and in lives, and continuing to be dishonest about it will only delay the pain of rectifying the problem.
UPDATE: Rrg. Comments were inadvertently turned off on this. Sorry about that.
***Dave has the best immigration solution I've seen yet.
I've not said much about the whole illegal/guest/immigrant/workers/people thing because I honestly don't have a solution myself, but ***Dave does: My two-cent solution, utterly impractical because it requires hard political decisions, …
As I was listening to coverage of the marches and whatnot yesterday, a couple of other thoughts came to mind:
I was concerned that the above might come across as being harsh, that it would echo the current House proposals to make illegal entry into this country a criminal offense. Actually, that penalty is exactly what I’m aiming for — but with two significant differences from the current House moves: civil and criminal penalties for “aiding and abetting” by way of offering employement to illegal immigrants, and a substantial and liberal guest worker/green card program that would include employee protections, grace periods between jobs, and regular reporting.
In other words, I want there to be no legitimate reason for illegal immigration. I don’t want someone to say (with some justice) that there are jobs going wanting, and that there are people willing to work them and that it being illegal for them to be here, with all the fear and exploitation that results, is silly and unjust.
Will there be sad stories? Definitely. I do not believe we have the economic capacity to employ every person in the world who could find their way here. But I think we could do a lot more than what we currently do, and to everyone’s benefit. Current immigration levels are as low as they are precisely because there’s a tacit recognition that some of the needs are being met by illegal immigration.
I think immigrants have, and will continue to, enrich this nation. I come, only a few generations back, from immigrants. But I found myself resenting the tone of some of the reporting and speechifying yesterday. The marches yesterday were not about immigrants, pro and con. It was about illegal, “undocumented” (lacking documentation of legal entry) immigrants. Making it all about immigration in general gets us tangled up in side discussions about xenophobia and jingoism that, while important, miss the bottom-line points: what are the economic arguments and best solutions, and what are the proper legal processes?
I’ve been dealing with two immigration processes with employees in my company, trying to transfer them (at their requests) to offices in Canada and the Netherlands. Neither country makes this easy, simple, or wink-and-a-nudge. Neither provides an option for sneaking across the border first, getting amnesty later. Both include present job offers and certification by the company that, no, no local/national talent could do the job that the individuals in question could. I don’t see any reason why the US should not have the same sort of restrictions, recognizing both that we do in fact need people to come in and work in a variety of industries and that we need to provide some legitimate restrictions on crossing the border willy-nilly.
While I did see news footage last night of a huge rally/march in Seattle, everything seemed to be business as usual here in Everett, some 30 miles away. I ran all my errands without trouble that afternoon, not even realizing that it was the day of the boycott.
Well, I heard there were big things in Denver, but out here in Lakewood, not much going on.
There is no real solution to this, since the existing laws aren’t being enforced, and no politician is going to bite the hand of their Owners (U.S. business interests). It is far easier to play to folks baser instincts.
The guest worker program is just a retread of the Bracero program from WWII, which is a bad thing, just as bad as the H1b programs that allow U.S. companies to keep foreign workers as indentured servants.
This is just the flavour of the month for the politico’s in an election year so that they can campaign on being tough on “X” (fill in the blank – Crime, brown people, Gays, etc)
Sadly…to me the funniest part about it is all the conservatives all up in arms about this, since this is how capitalism is supposed to work. This is how thing use to be back before the labour movement, and this is how things are supposed to work in WTO world.
The other thing that cracks me up is the argument that their ancestors came here legally…which is funny because there were no real immigration laws prior to the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924 (There were laws but they were the typical racist ones “White Only” or anti-Asian laws…hmmm sounds familer).
In 1924 the Eugenicists got their dream passed banning and/or limiting the flow of the lesser races into the country and thus preserving the purity of the nation.
This is just a repeat of the No Nothings of the 1850’s (Anti-Irish) and the western U.S. anti Asian folks in the 1860’s – 1900’s( Chinese and Japanese)and will fade as soon as there is another missing white woman for the news channels to obsess about.
Or, the other way to look at it, Congress will pass a law that shows that they are tough on Brown people, and then Bush will use a signing statement to ignore it so that the U.S. business sector can continue to do business as usual (unless Congress can come up with away so that U.S. Business can screw over as many people as possible). Or we can all look for the $50.00 an hour fruit picking jobs that the idiot McCain was talking about.