2008 Woodie Awards
Documenting Blame
People aren't illegal, but their actions can be.
Brian Dean
Issue date: 3/29/06 Section: Opinion
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The reason: jobs.
Of course "undocumented" is yet another euphemism to avoid stating the obvious. There are laws governing the entry of foreigners into this country. If an individual enters the country by any other method, that individual has broken the law. And they shouldn't be rewarded for it.
The Senate Judiciary Committee struck down provisions of a previously approved House bill, HR 4437, that would have toughened border security and law enforcement.
This proposal would have also elevated the seriousness of unlawful border crossing to felony status, making it illegal to provide non-emergency humanitarian aid.
The demise of those provisions in the House bill is a good thing. The feasibility of tracking down and deporting 12 million overnight felons seems quite low unless the government resorts to questionably legal methods.
And to punish those whose moral duty compels them to lend a hand to people in need regardless of their citizenship status is just plain ridiculous.
But the fact remains that people who have crossed the border illegally and who have no legal permission to work in the United States are working; doing the jobs that American citizens allegedly won't do while being paid less than minimum wage.
And the Senate bill offers what amounts to an amnesty program by offering a road to citizenship without having to reenter the country legally as thousands of others do every year.
There are also laws governing who has the right to work in the United States. Employers who hire people who don't have that right are also breaking the law.
The solution to slow or perhaps reverse the trend of illegal immigration must start here.
If the Department of Labor went after such employers with half as much zeal as the IRS goes after tax cheats, the incentive for job-seekers to break immigration law would be eliminated.
Employers would then be forced to hire Americans who, for the right price, would indeed do the work.
If out-of-work Americans still refuse, a proper guest worker program may be in order.
The best possible solution to illegal immigration would be to grow the economies and eliminate corruption in the nations people flee.
But the alternative should not require us to look the other way when our laws and borders have been compromised.
