Nothing President Bush said last night (5/15/06) will have any real impact on illegal immigration. I hate to criticize the President but that’s my professional opinion. I have several payroll companies that prepare payroll for businesses around the country.
Immigration, legal and illegal, is driven by the opportunities offered in this country. Those opportunities exist because we have the "Three Rules of Wealth" as I use to call them when I taught High School.
- "Rule of Law" You know the rules and they don’t fundamentally change, and you know the consequences of your behavior if you violate them.
- "Private Property" You get to own the tools of wealth creation. Tangible and intangible assets that let you create profits. ""Rule Number One" guarantees this"
- "Free Enterprise" You are not restricted to what you can do as long as you follow "Rule Number One" using "Rule Number Two."
You are not going to keep people out when these rules apply to them even if they are illegal. If they did not apply employers would steal from illegal immigrants, banks would just seize their accounts, school districts would turn away their children, hospitals would refuse to treat them, etc.
So how do you keep illegal immigrants out of the country? Cut them off from the opportunities that the "Three Rules of Wealth" provide. How do you do that?
First you must have a perfect system of identifying citizens and legal aliens. Sorry, but it means a national identity system. Which, by the way, solves the big ongoing criminal problem of identity theft. Why not just make the illegal immigrants carry an ID card, because they won’t.
Second, penalize businesses that hire illegal immigrants severely. Make it a felony to hire an illegal. All businessmen like an edge. Some currently get the edge by hiring cheap illegal labor and taking advantage of it. No business is wrongly hurt if the playing field is leveled. If average wages go up they go up for every company and everybody raises their price to compensate. This will also appeal to the conservatives because once illegal immigrants can’t get a job many will go home.
Third cut off all benefits for illegal immigrants. No schools, no free hospitals, no food stamps, no welfare, no sanctuary, no government benefits no nothing. No prison either. Hard labor until they pay for there transportation out of country. If their country of origin won't take them, hard labor till they find a country that will take them or they die.
Fourth seize their bank accounts, seize any property they own, take their cars and houses. Remember they are criminals the moment they cross the border without documents or overstay their visa. Give half to the person that identifies them as an illegal and half to the government.
My guess is in 30 days after this plan is enacted that 90% or more of all illegal immigrants will have left the country. When you take away all opportunity in this country, the opportunity however meager, in their country of origin will seem desirable.
Children of immigrants that are citizens can not be deported. That is part of the "Rule of Law". If their parents who must leave don’t want to take them then set up orphanages until they are 18. Educate, feed, house, cloth, and care for them. They are fellow citizens after all.
Is this harsh, yes of course. Nothing else will stop people from seeking a better life. You must make what they have where they came from to appear to be better than what is available in the United States. Nothing less will do. Otherwise the strong, motivated, hard working people of the world that want a better life for themselves and their families will continue to come hear regardless of the current penalties that they know are not enforced.
Do I agree that this is what we should do. Absolutely Not.
This is no way to treat people. But nothing less will stop them from coming and coming and coming. Which is not necessarily bad. If people are going to come here we want strong, hard working, motivated people like our own ancestors that emigrated here or survived the imposed hardships of slavery and lived through it. How to integrate them into the "American Dream" is a whole different discussion.
