Thursday, August 18, 2005

Illegal ALiens

When I was in the Los Angeles area recently with my family, we often listened to the John and Ken show on KFI AM Radio. It was quite an experience. There was a lot of yelling. There was a lot of emotion, particularly anger. John and Ken were upset about, at least during the time we listened to their show, illegal immigration. They aren't alone.

Illegal immigration is a big problem in the southwestern United States. Mexicans, in particular, head across the border to the United States in hope a of a better life. In southern California, I often encountered young Mexican workers in stores and restaurants who knew very little English. I wondered how many of them were in the country illegally, working outside the system, being paid their salaries under the table and thereby paying no income or other payroll taxes.

John and Ken had a somewhat simplistic outlook on the issue. They wanted not only to stop all ongoing illegal immigration but to ship every illegal immigrant already in the United States back to where they came from. That would be mostly to Mexico, although there are illegals from elsewhere as well. In principle, that seems logical. They cheated the system, they deserve to be sent back. End of story.

Not quite. Nothing is ever that simple. Shipping illegals back, as soon as they step over the border, is one thing. Shipping illegals back, after they have been working without documentation for years, is another. John and Ken make some valid points, as far as they go, but fail to see the larger picture. Yes, American taxpayers educate the children of illegal immigrants who, because they operate outside the system, pay no taxes themselves. Yes, taxpayers cover the costs of other social government-sponsored programs which benefit illegals. Yes, taxpayers pay to build roads and other infrastructure used by millions of illegals, without contributing to the cost via taxes. But that isn't the whole story.

John and Ken don't consider what would happen if millions of people were tossed out of the country suddenly. They seem to think that Americans would take up the slack and fill all of the vacated jobs. I don't think so. And it's not just a matter of increasing the pay for a janitorial job from $6.00 an hour to $10.00 per hour, in order to fill the position. Already, in several cities in California, I saw placards advertising very menial jobs at $10.00 per hour as a starting wage. Remove several million workers from California, Arizona and Texas and what will happen? Economic upset. Bankrupt businesses. And worse.

So what is the answer? Unfortunately, some sort of amnesty for illegals is the only real solution, but only if they have a clean record and deserve to be in the country. After a period of amnesty, immigration laws and policing should be tightened and enforced. There are a lot of hotheads in the affected states with very simplistic outlooks and solutions to the immigration problem. The system needs to be fixed before things get out of control.

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