Immigration
© 2014 Rick Adamson
By Rick Adamson 2.18.13
The politicians are calling for comprehensive immigration reform. Such a discussion needs to be divided into two parts- Legal immigration and Illegal immigration. Most of the political discussion that we hear does not make a distinction but it is mostly about illegal immigration.
Illegal Immigration
The Democrats want to give amnesty to the 12,000,000, or so, illegal immigrants because that means 12,000,000 new democratic voters. The Republicans want border control first and no amnesty. Some Republicans have even suggested deporting all illegals and letting then get in line for legal immigration, which will never happen.
I do not think it is possible to ship 12,000,000 illegals home but I would like to know who they are. The government knows who I am and who you are but they do not know who the illegals are. We need to institute a worker program that allows non criminal workers to come here to work and then go home. We could register them and do background checks and let them come in with minimal intrusion. But we would know who they are. Under this program we would be able to register the existing illegals and allow them to work. They would then get in the line for legal immigration.
Some States are issuing driver licenses to illegals at the same time that it is against the law to hire them. This should be stopped. A Federal ID should be issued to those who are here legally. There should be no amnesty. We should allow those who come forward and get registered to begin a path to citizenship but no blanket amnesty. Those that are considered undesirable should be sent home.
The greatest incentive for illegal aliens to come to the United States is to find work. If there are no employers willing to hire them, then the flood of illegal aliens will subside as it has during the great recession. The Immigration and Reform Act of 1986 outlawed hiring illegal alien workers, although common practice has proven that measure ineffective for two reasons:
The law requires proof that the employer knowingly hired the illegal worker.
The prevalence of fake documents make it difficult to prove the employer knew that the employee’s work documents were not legitimate.
The Obama Administration has launched a new worksite enforcement policy that ostensibly is aimed at employers and avoids the arrests of illegal workers that was an integral aspect of previous enforcement efforts. As Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Napolitano described it in a November 13, 2009 policy address, "We’ve transformed worksite enforcement to truly address the demand side of illegal immigration. We are auditing the books of thousands of employers suspected of relying on illegal labor to achieve an unfair advantage in the marketplace."
"Addressing the demand side" presumably means going after the employers who supply the jobs rather than the supply side, meaning the illegal workers. But, does the new policy really go after the employers? How does it differ from the enforcement policy inherited from the Bush Administration? As explained below, the new policy will likely have the effect of undermining any effective prosecution of employers for deliberately hiring illegal alien workers in order to hold down payroll costs and to have a more malleable and easily exploitable workforce. That is the antithesis of going after employers.
The new policy centers on an increase in audits of the I-9 forms that have been required of all employees since 1986. When discrepancies between the information on the I-9 form and Social Security Administration records and/or immigration records are found, employers are required to terminate those workers found to be using fake Social Security numbers, immigration documents or identity documents or face penalties. This action is only a form of penalty on the employer in that it means new workers will have to be hired to replace the illegal workers. Similarly, the cost to the illegal alien worker is not detention and deportation, but simply the need to find a new employer. In this new enforcement policy, the alien is free to reuse the same fake documents to apply for a job with another employer. In that sense, the policy is a form of musical chairs for the illegal alien worker.
When illegals are found in this matter they should be deported. Again, the Democrats do not want to offend these potential new democratic voters so they ignore existing law.
According to Minnesota Public Radio News on November 9, 2009, Mark Cangemi, a retired DHS official, commented on the new Obama Administration policy; "Why give people an opportunity to leave the employment without taking any action against them as individuals? Put them into proceedings! Let them argue their case. If they have a case that allows them to remain in the United States under the law, so be it. If they don't, then the law stands to be enforced."
After winning the 2008 election, President Obama has surrounded himself with individuals who support granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens living in the United States.
Members of the Obama administration — including the President himself — have repeatedly made clear their support for and intention to push amnesty legislation through Congress.
Previous debates over amnesty legislation have revealed overwhelming public opposition to any type of plan to legalize the illegal alien population. Knowing this, the Obama administration will likely attempt to make their amnesty proposal more palatable to the American people by tying the legislation to empty promises of immigration enforcement.
The Obama administration’s record on enforcement thus far, however, tells the American people everything they need to know about the administration’s commitment to immigration enforcement. President Obama has undermined nearly every enforcement measure available to him, including:
Delaying — on three separate occasions — a requirement that federal contractors use the federal E-Verify system to ensure that their employees are legally authorized to work in the United States and not illegal aliens;
Gutting worksite enforcement operations by allowing illegal aliens to remain in the workforce to compete with American citizens and legal immigrants for jobs;
Undermining the 287(g) program, which allows federal officials to train state and local law enforcement agencies in the enforcement of federal immigration laws, by forcing agencies who participate in the program to focus on removing “dangerous criminal” aliens, as opposed to all illegal aliens;
Failing to utilize the National Guard to secure our porous borders;
Advocating passage of the PASS ID Act, legislation that would gut uniform security requirements for State-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards and re-establish many of the security and immigration loopholes that allowed the 9/11 hijackers to carry out the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
Altering the immigration detention system in such a way that will almost certainly lead to an increase in the number of illegal aliens who abscond after apprehension.
Accordingly, the Obama administration has not only failed to effectively secure America’s borders and enforce immigration laws, but has also taken affirmative steps to disable enforcement. All of this administration’s efforts are geared toward allowing illegal aliens to live, work, and collect public benefits as the administration seeks the political opportunity to formally legalize their status in the United States.
Costs of Educating Children of Illegal Aliens
The largest public outlay for illegal aliens is paying for the education of their children. This cost is borne largely by state and local governments. Under the 1982 Supreme Court Plyler v. Doe 5-4 decision, states are prohibited from denying K-12 schooling to these children. Many of them are born in the United States and are considered to be U.S. citizens, but, like their foreign-born siblings, they would not be in the country and a burden on the taxpayers if their parents were not illegally residing in the United States.
We need to eliminate the automatic citizenship for children born to persons who are here illegally. Many people believe the constitution requires that persons born here automatically become citizens, however, that is not the case. In fact, the Supreme Court has never heard a case involving this issue.
We need to eliminate the automatic citizenship for children born to persons who are here illegally. Many people believe the constitution requires that persons born here automatically become citizens, however, that is not the case. In fact, the Supreme Court has never heard a case involving this issue.
Illegal Immigration and Public Health
The impact of immigration on our public health is often overlooked. Although millions of visitors for tourism and business come every year, the foreign population of special concern is illegal residents, who come most often from countries with endemic health problems and less developed health care. They are of greatest consequence because they are responsible for a disproportionate share of serious public health problems, are living among us for extended periods of time, and often are dependent on U.S. health care services.
Because illegal immigrants, unlike those who are legally admitted for permanent residence, undergo no medical screening to assure that they are not bearing contagious diseases, the rapidly swelling population of illegal aliens in our country has also set off a resurgence of contagious diseases that had been totally or nearly eradicated by our public health system. Under current law, an alien who worked illegally in the U.S. can only become eligible for Social Security benefits by becoming a legal U.S. resident. But officials at the State Department and Social Security Administration (SSA) are preparing a plan that would pay benefits to illegal aliens who have returned to Mexico.
Legal Immigration
The Case for Immigration Reform
Immigration has a profound impact on the issues that Americans say matter most to them. Concerns about national security, the quality of education, high tax burdens, urban sprawl, and many other “front burner” issues are directly affected by an influx of more than one million immigrants annually. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that, left unchecked, immigration will be the principal cause of a 50 percent increase in our population during the first half of the 21st century. A factor that is important to our national future deserves comprehensive and thoughtful consideration by the people’s elected representatives. Yet while poll after poll shows that the public is anxious to consider a wide array of immigration reforms, legal and illegal immigration continue to careen out of control.
Mass immigration is fueling unprecedented population growth.
Mass immigration is fueling unprecedented population growth.
Immigration now adds more than one million people—the equivalent of two Denvers—to our population every year. At our current pace of immigration, our population will grow to more than 400 million people by 2050. That’s tens of millions of additional people needing schools, jobs, and housing—as well as water and other precious natural resources.
Today’s immigration is extremely costly.
Unlike previous eras of immigration, today’s immigrants are 50 percent more likely to use welfare than native-born Americans. Providing for the needs of immigrants costs American taxpayers as much as $20 billion a year. We cannot provide high quality education, health care, and retirement security for our own people if we continue to bring in endless numbers of poor, unskilled immigrants. America is still working to meet the challenge of assisting our own poor and disadvantaged; mass immigration compounds the problem and impedes efforts to raise the standards of living for all.
Mass immigration depresses the wages of poorer Americans.
The gap between rich and poor in America continues to widen. Job competition by waves of new immigrants depresses the wages and salaries of American workers and hits hardest at minority workers and those without high school degrees. America’s focus must be on training our own labor force to face competition from abroad, not on importing new workers to compete for jobs at home. One exception is that highly skilled and those earning advanced degrees here should be actively recruited to stay and work here. This is necessary because we currently have millions of unfilled jobs because we do not have enough citizens with the required skills to fill them.
Mass immigration conflicts with today’s national security priorities.
Current immigration levels are so high that immigration officials are unable to thoroughly screen immigrants before allowing them into the country—as September 11, 2001 tragically underscored. Lower legal immigration levels, an entry-exit system to detect those who have overstayed their visas, and heightened enforcement efforts are essential in order to regain control of the system and meet today’s heightened need to know who is coming into the country.
Mass immigration is overcrowding our schools.
In the last decade, school enrollments have increased by 16 percent, an increase that the U.S. Census Bureau attributes largely to the immigration influx. Department of Education officials say that by 2100, the nation’s schools will have to find room for 94 million students-nearly double the current number.
Mass immigration is straining our already fragile environment.
As our population grows, demands for resources increase; increased pollution, deforestation, waste, habitat destruction, and soil erosion are the result. America’s environmental priorities can’t be reconciled with the new infrastructure and resource consumption that continued population growth will require. Resources like water and energy are straining under the constantly increasing demand.
Already, America’s sprawling urban areas are encroaching on fragile coastal wetlands and paving over farmland at alarming rates. Just maintaining the current massive level of immigration will require the construction of millions of new homes (and the resulting loss of farmland and open space) and put tens of millions more cars on already crowded roads.
The U.S. today is a fully populated nation of almost 290 million people, not the sparsely settled territory of 150 years ago. Our priority should be preserving our remaining wilderness areas, conserving our natural resources, and ensuring a better quality of life for future generations.
In just the last decade, the U.S. population has grown 13 percent—and 85 percent in the last 50 years. That population growth has put an enormous strain on already overburdened U.S. water and energy supplies and other natural resources. It’s fueling sprawl by escalating pressure for new housing developments, more roads, and strip malls that inevitably encroach on wildlife habitat. Our sprawling urban areas are encroaching on fragile coastal wetlands and paving over farmland at alarming rates in order to meet the needs of a constantly increasing population.
Environmentalists agree that population growth is a serious issue but many don’t speak out publicly for fear of alienating the social, economic and religious constituencies who support continued population growth. This is particularly true when immigration reform enters the discussion. Thus, it often goes unmentioned that Census Bureau data shows that over 80 percent of future U.S. population growth will be due to immigration.
It’s Time to Reduce Immigration to Sensible, Manageable Levels.
Common sense dictates that we must stop adding new burdens to institutions and systems that are struggling. Immigration alone did not cause these problems, but making real environmental headway, safeguarding national security, and repairing our failing educational and health care systems will be all but impossible as long as we continue today’s massive immigration levels.
The Choice is Ours.
