ILLEGALS
I missed Bush's speech last night, but the talk that I've heard about it made me realize that everyone is looking for the perfect middle ground. Bush's talk about guest worker programs and paths to citizenship I think mistakes two separate issues.
Here's the solution I thought of this morning. Two tracks. You have a guest worker track. People can stay in this country as long as they have an employer that wants to hire them if they fill out the resident alien paperwork. They will pay taxes and receive absolutely no government services. If they want to educate their kids, their employers use it as a work incentive with the money they are saving by hiring cheap labor.
If Resident Aliens want to become citizens they have to leave the United States and get into line. No preferences to who their employer was and they have to wait a minimum of three years before returning. A sacrifice yes, but no more than the sacrifice that college students go through when they wait four additional years to enter the job market for better prospects.
Anyone caught working in the United States without their resident alien card will be fingerprinted, deported and tracked by the by the FBI and NEVER be allowed citizenship. The company that employs such a worker will be fined.
That way aliens get to choose whether they want a job now or to be an American later. Successful people we know have the ability to delay gratification because they can see the big picture. The result is that the added workers will help our tax base without straining government resources while the individuals that will make the best citizens have the best opportunity to become citizens. The decision and responsibility will lie squarely on the individual and not some arbitrary government rule.
6 comments:
Sending the hard working man away for three years is unrealistic. California would be overrun by weeds if every gardener who wants to be a resident headed for the border. These cheap laborers improve our country. The downside is the money they sap from public services which they do not contribute towards.
I like the idea of letting them become citizens immediately in exchange for payment of back taxes and penalties. They can stay productive while paying back the country that has financed their productivity.
There would have to be some kind of formula based on what income they can prove for this year, plus a fraction of today's income presumed to have been earned last year, going back how ever many years they have been in the USA, or up to five years or seven years, if they cannot prove that. There would be some red tape, but guys would be stepping forward to ante up if the other option was deportation.
I haven't followed this issue closely, but it seems to me the main obstacle in the way of Mexicans becoming Americans is the government beauracracy that drags the process out for years. I think we should be making it easier for foreigners to become citizens rather than building a wall to keep them out. But I also think the newbies should plan to be productive, and in becoming a citizen they are mandated to stay off the welfare rolls for at least three years.
Our need for cheap labor is borne of government intrusion into business. Minimum wage, social security and medicare payments make it very difficult for some businessmen to hire people and still make money. The Mexicans are valuable because they are willing to work off the books. Once you give them citizenship and social security cards then they have to find employment at wages that match their skill level and that will put them on welfare rolls quicker than the work rolls.
Also, we have already have a plethora of unskilled labor in the United States. Go to any inner city area. They’d be mowing lawns and doing drywall if the government weren’t preventing it through welfare programs and minimum wage laws. Making our citizens work at the jobs these illegal aliens are doing would be called exploitation and racist. And that’s what it will be called once we legitimize them.
I think may have missed my point too that I didn't say that we should send them back to Mexico. They can stay as resident aliens if they register and pay taxes. I just don't see the benefits of bestowing citizenship on them. Why add to the permanent underclass of citizens that Democrats will quickly call victims and shove largesse at?
You make a good point, Tom, that you can't easily fix one problem without addressing other problems. To allow amnesty for all the illegals, we would have to make minimum wage laws apply only to honkeys.
Mr Mexican, we want you to pay taxes and also work for less than minimum wage. And also vote Republican. And also take my lawn debris bin to the curb once you fill it. And see if you can get your wife to wear this outfit when she cleans my house. I would gladly pay her a dollar more per hour.
Good perspective, Scott. The government so often makes easy things difficult to do.
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