Illegal immigration and employers.

Many people think of illegal aliens as individuals just trying to find a better life for themselves and are just doing jobs United States citizens just won’t do, and in many cases this is somewhat true.   By offering these people employment and services illegal immigration, though, is only made worse and at the same time benefits numerous criminal organizations to include alien smugglers and illegal document vendors.  It also supports less than ethical immigration attorneys, requires more tax payer money for border control, medical and educational costs.

Employers who hire illegal aliens are to blame for much of these problems.   If there are no jobs to come to there is no reason to come.  I believe in securing our border, but no amount of security will stop people from entering as long as there is money to be made or benefits to be had on the other side of the fence.  Much like drugs, as long as there is a demand it will find its way here.

The solution is as simple as not hiring these individuals, but that’s not quite as simple as it sounds.  For instance, if I’m a construction contractor and the going wage for legal workers is $10.00 an hour for labor, but illegal aliens will do it for $8.00 an hour it is very tempting to hire the illegal worker.  This is especially true when the contractor’s competition is already using illegal workers and would be able to undercut any bids from those using a legal workforce.

Fixing this problem could be as easy as the establishment and enforcement of strict employment law and sanctions for hiring illegal workers.  If it is more expensive for that contractor to hire illegal labor due to fines and possible jail time, not to mention losing his workforce through deportations, he or she will be forced to hire those legally allowed to be here.

I’m not advocating charging every employer that hires an illegal alien.  There are very good fraudulent documents out there and cases of identity theft that an employer cannot be expected to detect.  There are procedures out there to limit this though and these include filling out the I-9 Form correctly at the time of employment and systems such as E-Verify that search both Social Security and Immigration databases to detect fraudulent documents.  E-Verify is a free system and it is mandatory for certain government contracts and is also required by law for employers in certain states.

Solutions are out there to solve the illegal alien problems, but the biggest obstacle is politics, with both parties having reasons to want illegal aliens in the country.  If this country truly needs workers, which is hard to believe when we have close to 10% unemployment, then we should make it easier for individuals to enter the country legally to work.  Amnesty programs just reward illegal behavior and encourage more of it as was shown with President Ronald Reagan’s amnesty program.