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I’m sick to death of the argument that we can make the 11 million present illegals into “guest workers” and the problem is solved. This is the argument offered by Tim Kane of the Heritage Foundation.
Of course, the fact that most of these people are paid below minimum wage is an issue that needs to be addressed. If we continue to let 11 million people operate outside the wage, safety, and labor laws of our nation, then we’ve consigned them to second-class status. Barbara Corcoran says “their wages will go up, and they should.”
There is a fallacy in their arguments. Here’s the clue to the fallacy: the people arguing for a general amnesty have moral scruples. The people hiring illegals for below minimum wage do not.
Now, let’s take a look at what happens when someone with no moral scruples who has made a living at taking advantage of people that cannot fight back When those people are suddenly given that ability, unscrupulous employers look for a way around the system to continue leveraging their unfair advantage. What do you think these employers are going to do if their present batch of workers are suddenly subject to all of our myriad labor, safety, and wage laws? I’ll tell you what they’ll do – ditch the newly legal migrants, and go trolling in Mexico for a new batch of illegals. What would we do with 11 million new unemployed resident aliens.
In other words, the biggest losers of a general immigration amnesty (at least absent strong border control, which nobody is advocating) are the 11 million illegals themselves. They will suddenly find themselves out of work in a country they know little about, where they don’t speak the language, and have insufficient education to get over the hurdles that businesses have erected to filter prosepctive employees.
I am against a general amnesty for the simple reason that it is unfair to all those who jumped through every stupid hoop the government put up so they could come here. To have 11 million “line jumpers” suddenly get seats at the table is offensive to the general sense of fair play. And while it might be logistically possible to forcibly deport 11 million people, it’s certainly not politically possible.
However, I have two potential solutions. The first one is the most reasonable, the second a bit flippant.
I think that it is reasonable to do things in order. First, we must get control of our border. We need to make sure that people come here legally, and we can filter out criminals. Second, some form of assimilation is going to have to happen. It’s easy to say “Send them all home”, but that’s politically untenable, even without the “anchor baby” issue. They need to learn English, just like my grandparents and great-grandparents did. Third, we need to punish those who profit from the exploitation of workers who cannot complain.
But all this talk of amnesty is just academic if we don’t prevent another torrent of illegals from walking across the border.
Tags: Politics by Brian Corbino
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