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A Proposal on Immigration
The Country Must Stop Using Undocumented Immigrants for Labor
Immigration reform is an issue
that many states of the country have dealt with individually recently. However, the responsibility appropriately
rests with the federal government and the U.S. Congress. It is proposed that the system that allows
more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country must be
corrected. It is suggested that
Congress should approve federal laws so that
1. employers must verify the legal status of
migrant employees with the use of “E-Verify”,
2. employers who hire undocumented immigrants
are subject to fines and the loss of business licenses,
3. it is illegal to be an undocumented
immigrant and the punishment is deportation.
These
measures are exactly those which the states have been implementing. These are the steps that people close to
the problems see as necessary to resolve the issue.
The Background of the Problem
The problem dates back to 1986,
when Congress passed the last comprehensive immigration reform (Wikipedia,
“Immigration Reform …”). This act
granted amnesty to illegal immigrants who had resided in the country since
1982. Since then, immigrants have
continued to enter the country primarily from Mexico, because businesses and
individuals in this country are offering them jobs. The lure of jobs with salaries that are
higher than in Latin America has attracted not only legal immigrants, but
also a great number of persons who entered the country illegally and became
“undocumented”. (The other way to
become undocumented is because of an expired visa.) Contrary to popular belief, it is not a
crime to be undocumented – it is a civil matter (ACLU, “Criminalizing
…”). Although it is against the law to
cross the border without proper documentation, from the point of view of the
law, it is necessary to catch the immigrant “in the act” of crossing the
border, in order to be able to establish the place and time at which he
crossed, exactly. Thus, if an
immigrant manages to evade the border patrol and arrives inside the country,
he is “undocumented” and the popular term “illegal immigrant” simply does not
apply.
The root cause for the existence
of the great number of undocumented immigrants is because businesses and
individual employers want workers who are willing to work for wages below
those which citizens and legal immigrants get. The argument of employers – that
undocumented immigrants do work that legal persons will not do – is simply
not true. Citizens and legal
immigrants will accept any job if the salary and working conditions are fair
(Wharton. “The Immigration …”). Jorge Ramos, the main news anchor on the
Spanish-language channel Univision, characterized the problem exactly in his
book “The Other Face of America”: “And they [undocumented immigrants] can get
jobs because there are U.S. companies willing to employ them, despite the
punishments imposed by immigration law.
That is, for many businesses the trouble of hiring undocumented
workers is better than paying the high salaries of American workers or
foreigners with residency papers.” (Ramos, “La otra …”). The rationalizations of companies are
reminiscent of the arguments of plantation owners in the South many years
ago, who insisted that slaves were necessary for their way of life. No, it is not necessary to treat human
beings as objects of labor – the cheaper the better – then or now. The actions of businesses and employers to
hire undocumented immigrants only serve to deny jobs to legal persons, a fact
that is particularly problematic in times of recession like the present.
Besides having a negative effect
on the labor market, the presence of great numbers of undocumented immigrants
creates all kinds of problems in our society.
Undocumented immigrants and their families impact all types of public
services, including in particular the systems of education, medical
treatment, and law enforcement (Wikipedia, “Economic …”; CBO, “The Impact
…”). Moreover, the studies – such as
these mentioned – usually compare the direct
costs of undocumented immigrants against their taxes at the federal, state,
and local levels. However, this
comparison greatly underestimates the impact, because it implies that the two
numbers should typically be approximately equal. In fact, most citizens do not receive direct
benefits back even close to their taxes, which pay for things like the
Department of Defense. Governments
could not function if everyone received direct benefits back of something
close to all his payments.
The federal government has not done much
in terms of immigration reform since the Immigration Reform and Control Act
of 1986. The last time when Congress
was close to passing a law was in 2006 in the administration of George W.
Bush. Both the House of
Representatives and the Senate approved versions of a law, but the House of
Representatives was controlled by Republicans and the Senate by Democrats and
the two versions were miles apart. It
was not possible to reconcile them.
(The Washington Post, “Immigration …”). The same situation has existed ever since
with very divergent views, and it has not been possible to obtain the votes
necessary for any type of law. This is
especially the case because in the Senate any bill would require a
supermajority of 60 votes because of the “cloture” rule. In frustration, the states have been
passing their own laws, like SB 1070 in Arizona (Univision, “Radiografía
…”). Within these state laws can be
found support in concrete terms for the proposals here.
Proposal 1: Implement E-Verify
As the cornerstone of reform to rectify
the current situation, it is proposed to implement the mandatory use of
E-Verify. This will ensure that
companies and employers hire only citizens or documented immigrants and will
guarantee that in order to obtain work in this country, an immigrant must be
documented.
In order for E-Verify to function
properly, the system must be improved.
Now, there are too many cases in which a person who is legal and
documented is rejected instead of being “authorized to work”, as well as the
opposite, in which an undocumented immigrant with false documents is accepted. However, with regard to the latter case,
most illegal immigrants are stopped by the system and simply do not apply for
the job. Only a few try to use false
documents (Westat, “Findings …”).
Proposal 2: Impose penalties for hiring illegal immigrants
It is proposed that severe
penalties exist for noncompliance: serious fines or loss of business licenses
for employers and deportation for employees who do not use the system or try
to defraud it. Businesses calculate
the cost of compliance against noncompliance.
As Jorge Ramos said in his book, “… for many businesses the trouble of
hiring undocumented workers is better than paying the high salaries of
American workers or foreigners with residency papers.” In other words, the penalties have to be so
severe that companies don’t even think about it. If the cost is about the same, many
companies will try it, in hopes of not getting caught by the authorities.
Fines should exist for all types of
employers, including individuals who hire undocumented immigrants for
domestic work as nannies, housemaids, gardeners, etc. It would be totally inconsistent if
business employers were to receive fines, while employers for the home
received none. The law must be the
law, the same for everyone. Moreover,
many undocumented immigrants use these domestic jobs to maintain their
status. As Jorge Ramos said, “We are
accomplices of undocumented immigrants when they care for our children, when
they clean the house, …” The only way
to be serious about changing this situation is to include all types of
employment of undocumented immigrants and require that all types are subject
to validation by E-Verify.
Proposal 3: Make it illegal to be undocumented
The point of view of the Latino
community is that undocumented immigrants are not doing anything wrong. It takes the government at its word: the
law says that it is not a crime to be undocumented. Then – in its thinking – it is perfectly
acceptable. There isn’t any
problem. Then, isn’t it unfair that
illegal immigrants don’t have all the rights of citizens? … and, of course, isn’t it unjust that the
government deports them if they haven’t committed a felony? Almost every day on Univision, there is a
news item about a “ley antiinmigrante” (anti-immigrant law), by which
Univision means any law that imposes on undocumented immigrants as less than
full citizens.
It is totally contradictory to be
spending billions of dollars in “border security” – to stop people without
proper documents – and then to act as if nothing is wrong if a person arrives
within the country. The reason for
this contradictory policy is clear: to provide a supply of undocumented
immigrants for businesses of the country that use them. Reflecting a sentiment of Jorge Ramos, it’s
time to stop the hypocrisy. However,
Ramos would do so by means of amnesty for 11 million undocumented immigrants
now – and then by allowing anyone who wants to live in this country to enter
as a legal and documented immigrant. The point of view
is that “all are immigrants” – including present U.S. citizens – and others
have as much right to be in the country as current residents. Sorry, Jorge (and Latino community). It no longer is the time of development of
the country, for centuries now. During
that time, European countries needed immigration to their new colonies in the
New World to establish a presence and to prevent another country from
claiming the land. It was a different
time, with different world views.
Today, the country is developed, with problems of overpopulation,
pollution, resource shortages, lack of jobs, economic problems, etc.,
etc. The people of the country do
indeed have the right to restrict immigration to something reasonable and to
something that benefits the country. We
have no obligation to accept the entire world into the country. There are 7 billion people in the world and
many of them would like to live in this country and enjoy the rights,
freedoms, and way of life here. It is
simply not possible to do it. Attempting
to do so would destroy the country with a flood of overpopulation and
poverty.
Taking these things into
consideration, it is clear that the only way that the Latino community will
understand that being undocumented is not acceptable is to make it against
the law. After years of
rationalization that it is not a problem, it is too deeply rooted in the
community that it is legitimate to replace “illegal alien” with “undocumented
immigrant”. In contrast, most citizens
do not even recognize the subterfuge and always use the term “illegal”. It is time to stop the hypocrisy,
contradictions, and rationalizations and call a spade a spade. No, it is not acceptable to be undocumented. It is against the law. It is a crime and the punishment for doing
it is deportation.
Latin community: understand. We mean it at the border when an immigrant
crosses without appropriate documents.
We mean it in the interior of the country as well, the same. It is not acceptable. It is a crime. If anyone tries to do it, he will be
deported. Clear?
ACLU.
“Criminalizing Undocumented Immigrants”. February 2010. Consulted July 16, 2011, in http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/FINAL_criminalizing_undocumented_
immigrants_issue_brief_PUBLIC_VERSION.pdf
CBO.
“The Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on State and Local
Governments”. December 2007. Consulted July 18, 2011, in https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/110th-congress-2007-2008/reports/12-6-immigration.pdf
Ramos, Jorge.
“La otra
cara de América (The
Other Face of America)”. Editorial Grijalbo S.A., Miguel Hidalgo, México, D.F. 2001.
For a review of the book (consulted July 10, 2011), see http://www.fogg.cc/reviews/books/breview070.htm
The
Washington Post. “Immigration Reform
Proposals”. May 25, 2006.
Consulted July 18, 2011, in http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/27/AR2006032701201.html
Univision. “Radiografía de estados con leyes
similares a la SB1070 de Arizona (X-Ray of
States with Laws Similar to Arizona’s SB 1070)”. July 8, 2011. Consulted July 10, 2011, in https://www.univision.com/noticias/inmigracion/radiografia-de-estados-con-leyes-similares-a-la-sb1070-de-arizona
For information on the topic in English, see
Colorlines.
“Statehouses Weighing Immigration Enforcement Bills Styled after
Arizona’s SB 1070”. March 2,
2011. Consulted August 3, 2001, in http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/03/sb_1070_copycat_bills.html
Westat. “Findings of the E-Verify Program Evaluation”. December 2009. See in particular “Exhibit 2” on page
xxxi. Consulted July 18, 20111, in http://www.uscis.gov/USCIS/E-Verify/E-Verify/Final%20E-Verify%20Report%2012-16-09_2.pdf
Wharton. “The Immigration
Debate: Its Impact on Workers, Wages and Employers”. May 17, 2006. Consulted July 20, 2011, in http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1482
Wikipedia. "Economic impact of illegal immigrants in the
United States". April 16, 2019. Consulted in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_impact_of_illegal_immigrants
_in_the_United_States
Wikipedia.
“Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986”. June 17, 2011. Consulted July 16, 2011, in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Reform_and_Control_Act_of_1986
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