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Immigration Enforcement? Yes, We Can!
The Department of Homeland Security has finally been given the green light to do its job.
What to do about illegal immigration? Too many people are paralyzed by the magnitude of the problem, and figure that since we can’t deport them all, we’ll have to bite the bullet and let them all stay legally — i.e., give them amnesty.
But this is a digital (on-or-off, one-or-zero) approach to an analog problem. Our goal should not be a magical solution that eliminates illegal immigration, but rather a real-world solution that reduces it over time.
This approach — which has come to be called “attrition through enforcement” — involves a program of consistent, comprehensive application of the immigration law (something we have never attempted), not only at the borders, but also at our consulates overseas and at worksites and elsewhere inside the country. The aim is to reduce the number of foreigners sneaking in to the country (or overstaying visas) and at the same time increase the number of illegal immigrants already here who go home — some forcibly through deportation, but most voluntarily, through what might be called self-deportation. By engineering a steady decrease in the total number of illegal aliens, instead of the continual annual increases we’ve permitted over the past two decades, we can back out of a problem that has taken many years to develop.
But can it work? In particular, can illegal immigrants be induced to pack up and go back?
The evidence is in and the answer is “yes.” The Bush Administration began with a deep hostility toward immigration enforcement and a commitment to amnesty. But as the drive for amnesty was stopped by public outrage, the Department of Homeland Security has been given the green light to actually do its job. There have been significant increases in detention capacity, Border Patrol agents, border fencing, deportations, and local jurisdictions cooperating with federal immigration authorities. Perhaps most important have been the efforts to turn off the jobs magnet that attracts illegal immigrants and keeps them here. Worksite arrests have grown five-fold since 2004 and the E-Verify program, a voluntary online system which enables employers to identify illegal workers, has been ramped up significantly and now vets more than 10 percent of all new hires. Arizona this year has started requiring use of E-Verify by all employers in the state, and soon its use will be a requirement for federal contractors as well.
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Mark Krikorian is Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies and author of The New Case Against Immigration: Both Legal and Illegal, from Sentinel, part of the Penguin Group.
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38 Comments
1. JB:Why bother to require employers to use the E-Verify program, when the state governments hand out welfare assistance with gleeful abandon? Many, many more illegals will self-deport if the government handouts are cut off. Without that, there is no reason whatsoever for you, sir, to be patting yourself on the back for a job well done.
Aug 15, 2008 - 9:27 am 2. ZZMike:Until the President pardons Ramos and Compean, it’s all just empty rhetoric.
Aug 15, 2008 - 10:32 am 3. David Thomson:“Many, many more illegals will self-deport if the government handouts are cut off.”
Many of these government handouts go to American citizens—the sons and daughters of these illegal immigrants born in this country. I am not thrilled by this situation, but there is little that can be done about it. However, the E-Verify program should take care of most of our troubles. It is virtually impossible to find a perfect solution. In this less than perfect world, a roughly 85% effective response will have to suffice. And we can live with that.
Aug 15, 2008 - 10:49 am 4. Paparon:It took 20 years for them to settle here, so at 11% they will be just a minor nuisance in a few years, as the writer stated. the economy is improving in Mexico, many will return. Yes, we must stop the welfare assistance that’s for sure, give enough to them to get on a bus and go home.
Aug 15, 2008 - 11:10 am 5. Bullfrog:Great news for those of us who want to see immigration laws taken seriously AND enforced! Self-deportation over time is a fine solution, but we also need to change the law that makes ANYONE born within our borders U.S. citizens, regardless of the legal status of their parents. This is an obvious loop-hole that needs to be closed in the current climate of open borders, utter disregard for immigration laws, and lack of assimilation by a majority of immigrants.
When Ellis Island was used as a port for accepting immigrants, prospective citizens had to go through stringent checks to ensure they were able and willing to contribute to the common good; we have since become a welfare-state, and the damage is apparent.
Aug 15, 2008 - 11:14 am 6. Dark Helmet:David Thompson,
Retro Active Anchor baby reversal. Solves the entire problem.
Aug 15, 2008 - 11:23 am 7. NahnCee:At what point do you plan to allow Border Patrol agents to shoot at Mexican army / police incursions over the border into US territory?
And why isn’t there a fence in those area(s) to prevent said incursions?
Aug 15, 2008 - 11:28 am 8. uburoisc:I work at a place in Los Angeles, and I would say 50% of our workforce is illegal; what do you think the chances are that if I called E-verify anything would happen? Next to nothing is my guess based on my reading of what gets done in LA about illegal immigrants. I know of many places in LA that have huge illegal workforces, hell, the entire City of Vernon is mostly illegal, and the every level of government of CA knows it. Business, illegal activists, demagogue politicians, and the lawyers make sure nothing happens; they have effectively nullified the law.
Aug 15, 2008 - 11:40 am 9. David Thomson:“Unfortunately, both presidential candidates have an digital, all-or-nothing view of the problem, and have legalization as their chief priority.”
The imperfect John McCain is still the lesser of evils. He has promised to enforce the borders. This alone should suffice. Allow me to be blunt: we have a 70% chance of getting what we want from the GOP candidate—and next to zero from Barack Obama.
I am also concerned about the tendency of many to keep raising the bar. They seem unwilling to concede that much has been accomplished in the last year. There is a very good possibility that the crisis is rapidly ending. What supposedly justifies this continuing negativism? Could it be that a number of anti-illegal immigrant activists are afraid of success? Has this issue become the beginning and end of their lives? Do they have anything else to do if illegal immigration is no longer a serious problem?
Aug 15, 2008 - 11:41 am 10. David Thomson:“Retro Active Anchor baby reversal. Solves the entire problem.”
I personally believe that the founding fathers would be shocked if they saw their words exploited today to justify allowing the sons and daughters of illegal immigrants to instantly become American citizens simply because they were born in our country! Nonetheless, life sucks and then you die. The Constitutional problems are not going to be resolved tomorrow morning. We are going to have to live with this reality for some time into the future.
Aug 15, 2008 - 11:48 am 11. Sandra M:One one American politician that I know of has given an irrefutable argument that silences the self-righteous rabble-rousers of MECHA and LA RAZA.
“It’s our country and we should be able to decide who enters it.”
–Fred Thompson
I’m now recalling his wisdom in articles he’s written, and I’m going to write to McCain that he put Thompson on the ticket as VP. No one dared assassinate Bush, because they would have gotten Cheney who to their thinking would be worse. Same here.
Have you ever seen Fred frown? That’s face language Putin and the Kremlin would understand.
FRED THOMPSON FOR VICE PRESIDENT.
Aug 15, 2008 - 12:08 pm 12. The Wizard:Enough of illegal immigrants. Our seniors, after years of working and paying taxes, stuggle with cost of living, medical assistance, insurance, housing and food, yet we open the government money faucet for illegals that contribute nothing to this country. Round them up and ship them out. I do not comprehend what people do not understand about “ILLEGAL”. The Dems want to register them to vote!!! Outrageous. I am so irritated and irate over this situation. The only way it will be corrected, is with your vote for the candidate that stands up to the travesty and unlawful sanctuary for these unwelcome immigrants. This is not what our founding fathers had in mind!
Aug 15, 2008 - 12:25 pm 13. Mary in LA:Who let the italics out?
Aug 15, 2008 - 12:26 pm 14. BackwardsBoy:Who, who, who who?
Ask this question to the La Raza crowd; Do you have a front door? Is it locked? Or do you think that anyone should just be able to walk into your house any time they want?
Aug 15, 2008 - 12:30 pm 15. gcblues:love to see the border morons, you know that protectionist fascist wing of the right all whipped up. Lets set a few things straight however,
1. bullfrog, YOUR INCORRECT. Ellis island as all immigration in history was ripe with corruption. As a 2nd generation Greek, my family on both sides used bribes, corruption and illegal methods to both enter and stay. It is normal, and like today’s illegals good for the USA.
2. Most of the whining about illegals would end if we ended welfare for all. that is what causes deadbeats not the border. Welfare is a horrible crippling thing, it should end.
3. Americans WILL NOT DO THE WORK. It is BS to think if we all pay just a little more …..baloney, the price goes way up…. so far up most food will all be imported. good job border crazies.
4. English is not special. If you cannot speak at least 2 languages you are an uneducated dolt. Funny, i am an expat. i live abroad, no country has ever demanded i speak their language or become a citizen. indeed if i cannot speak the language i am just considered foolish. Get over it USA, you will become browner and learn to speak Spanish. But don’t worry, its a good thing, a great thing, but do learn before one of your more enlightened spawn bring home an illegal to marry.
without illegals, without illegal portions of our economy the USA would be broke you all should thank god these people are willing to risk so much to keep your ignorant heinies clean. Anyone with a clean police record, and a clean interpol record with a job waiting should be able to enter any country in the world and work. that is how to define Human Rights.
Aug 15, 2008 - 12:31 pm 16. S. Weasel:Yeah, but does anybody know WHY? This puzzles the heck out of me. The current president and the next president, whoever that may be, are all pro-amnesty and hostile to enforcement. We’re repeatedly told that, despite passion at the grassroots, immigration hasn’t been an election winning issue for our side, so…why now?
I’m temped to believe that it’s a bigger issue at the grassroots than they’re letting on — but then why aren’t the enforcement hardliners in Congress crowing more?
Aug 15, 2008 - 2:07 pm 17. S. Weasel:Hey, gcblues: Google “Life in the UK test” and then get back to us.
Aug 15, 2008 - 2:09 pm 18. Phineas Worthington:It seems that the time to address and invasion is before the demographic change occurs.
Aug 15, 2008 - 2:31 pm 19. gcblues:hey weasel, the UK is a welfare state. welfare causes the problem, that and yahoos like you.
Aug 15, 2008 - 2:57 pm 20. wm:Pay now or forfeit later. An individual who learns another language makes a wise personal investment; but a nation that recognizes more than one official language will doom itself to endless secession crises.
Ask any Walloon or Quebecois about how their bilingualism makes their nation stronger.
Just make sure that by “their nation” they know you mean “Belgium” and “Canada.”
Aug 15, 2008 - 4:37 pm 21. uburoisc:gcblues:
Many of your points I agree with, especially your position on welfare. If you permit welfare, you allow every sort of social and political corruption to proliferate with no force of correction to curve the bad behavior. There are no consequences to all sorts of self-destructive thinking and acting in a welfare state, especially one that is taking on huge numbers of third-world newcomers. The immigrants who poured into America in the past had very little welfare and could not afford slack or indulgent behavior; the consequences were often grave.
Cultures are not the same, and they never have been. Some are better than others; some cultures are utterly backward, violent, and barbaric, and money is just as likely to exaggerate their atrocious worldview as it is to curb it. I don’t want “anyone who wants to work” as a qualification for getting in the door; frankly, that’s insane.
As for “all the jobs” issue, yes and no. Many jobs, you are right, Americans simply are no longer inclined to perform (though I think a damn fine recession might just put a stop to that arrogant nonsense), but a lot of work in the US is kept from adapting to capital intensive mechanization and improved efficiency because we have cheap labor to throw at it instead. I work in manufacturing, and my industry is, without question, severely handicapped because there are thousands of low/semi-skilled illegals available to deter steps to a smaller, but much more efficient and skilled workforce.
As for a clean record, I agree, problem is, there are thousands of illegals here in the country who have records and who should be deported immediately, but are being shielded by an assortment of activists, lawyers, and idiot hand-wringers.
If you are second-generation Greek, that doesn’t put you within 50 years of the last big waves of US immigration, frankly it puts you closer to the modern era that so many of us complain about. I doubt you have any idea what the actual levels of corruption were from say, 1870-1930.
Lastly, spare me the shitty tone that Americans are all useless and lazy and couldn’t get along without the illegals doing our work, etc (and I notice you throw in the predictable Eurotrash insult about our monolingual tendencies; we should do better but have not really needed to since we were too busy building a spectacularly successful political, economic, and cultural masterpiece. Incidentally, how many languages did Socrates speak?). If all the illegals left, the entire economy would simply made a series of adjustments, many businesses would go under, many more would thrive. Keep in mind, most of the work the illegals do in this country is unskilled, hardly a indispensable quality. Besides, with the illegals off the rolls, we might finally have the political will to fix social security.
Aug 15, 2008 - 4:39 pm 22. Tcobb:The big problem with dealing with illegal immigration is that there is an alliance of the Democrats and Republications on this issue; a rather evil alliance that caters to the Dark Side of each party. On the one hand, we have powerful business interests that desire cheap labor,and on the other hand, we have those who want to expand the welfare state by importing the poor and uneducated so as to demonstrate that the welfare state is indeed necessary. After all, the great failure of American capitalism is that it doesn’t produce enough poor people who can vote it over to a socialist form of government. Therefore it is necessary to import them. And the corporate interests don’t seem to realize that their addiction to cheap, illegal labor will ultimately end them up in the gutter.
And as for the common American citizen? Who the f**k could possibly care about our interests?
Aug 15, 2008 - 5:24 pm 23. Tcobb:—in regards to my comment above—
Aug 15, 2008 - 5:32 pm 24. Tcobb:“Republications” should actually have been “Republicans.” I’m not even sure who the “Republications” are. My apologies for slandering them.
As atonement for my prior sins, I have attempted to end the italics. Hopefully I have done so.
Aug 15, 2008 - 5:51 pm 25. Jef:I just can’t see this country ever doing much about this issue. It will be just talk, talk, talk until the next big issue comes along. Anyone remember the homeless issue in the 80’s? Last time I checked, they are still around.
Aug 15, 2008 - 7:54 pm 26. bill-tb:If they have no jobs, they won’t come. The fence is good to keep the criminals and drug dealers out.
Aug 15, 2008 - 7:58 pm 27. Dark Helmet:bill……….. now you hit upon the truth, the drugs and the money. That is why there will never be a fence that keeps everyone out. The money.
Aug 15, 2008 - 8:16 pm 28. RN:The ones that abuse the system in America are the ones that know how the system works. Illigals immigrants that don’t speak English, I guess??
Aug 16, 2008 - 3:39 am 29. Amy:Someone should come down to my town on a fri or sat and “document” the Illegals driving up to Advance Auto in their nice cars they don’t have a license to drive or title of ownership for, pulling out one $100. bill after another to buy parts for these cars. They call them Migrant Workers here but they never migrate away. I wish they’d put the screws on the businesses that hire them here and send them all packing.
Aug 16, 2008 - 5:04 am 30. LionRor:uburoisc: I love your notation about Socrates, “Incidentally, how many languages did Socrates speak?” Indeed, Greeks of his time considered their language to be the only civilized language and had a descriptive word for the sounds of other languages, which they considered inferior: barbaroi, or barbarian. In addition, all of Asian Minor down to Egypt used Greek as the language of culture, thought and commerce. Ancient Greece was a culture that was not ashamed of itself, unlike modern America, which runs from asserting itself better than those overrunning it from the South.
Aug 16, 2008 - 6:46 am 31. pappy:the place to start would be to cut any federal funding to sanctuary states and make the leaders serve time in joe arpios jail. then arrest companys’ that hire illegals. the only way to let people know that were serious about illegals is to hit them in the wallet.
Aug 16, 2008 - 8:36 am 32. Rubicon:Keep up the great work Mark. The myths are being debunked and every day, more and more citizens realize they have been sold a bill of goods. Sold to them by a liberal media who seek to create sensational headlines full of exaggerations & portraying the plight of those whose condition is of their own making. In addition, there are politicians involved who are expecting new voters for their political parties (they will capitalize on this once amnesty is granted & tell the newly legalized they “owe” them. Too bad the newly legalized would then only begin to be exploited all over again by legal processes! Add to this greedy employers expecting to make excess profits by exploiting the vulnerable who should not be here to be exploited! Worse is those same greedy employers will discard the newly legalized, recruit more illegals to replace them, and all we will have done is artificially drive up our unemployment rate!
Aug 16, 2008 - 12:16 pm 33. Lewis A. Morris:I wish all of you literary types would learn the difference between immigration, a legal process, and trespassing, an illegal process.
If you enter our country legally, that’s immigration.
If you sneak over the border illegally, that’s trespassing.
Everybody got that?
Lewis A. Morris
Aug 16, 2008 - 1:48 pm 34. HW:Cumming, GA
Having worked in construction for the past 28 years I can tell you one thing for sure, the
guys I worked with from Costa Rica, Mexico, Vietnam etc. that are here legally were really
pissed at the illegals that worked on the same projects. Several reasons for this.
Number one was, they played by the rules and got in the country legally, but got grouped
into the suspicion of being illegal. It was a huge deal for them. Two: they had family
members that wanted jobs that illegals were taking and they didn’t appreciate that either.
The point is that there are many people that are willing to go through the process to work
Aug 16, 2008 - 2:38 pm 35. RN:here legally given the chance. We need to enforce the laws we have so they get that chance.
Make it inhospitable for those that don’t want to follow the law. The vacuum will be filled
by those that will.
Has anyone in this blog been outside The US? Let’s say Central and South America. How about Africa? or Asia. Does anyone care to Know where and by whom most of the products sold in America are made? HOw about the working condition and the wages being paid outside the US borders? My point is, I love The US. I believe is the Greatest country in the World. However, Looking back in history,from a moral point of view, I have a hard time being proud of it. America has thieve by exploiting smaller economies. Sometimes by imposing government onto other, or in the form of ” free trade agreements”. Your message is clear, and it makes sense, illegal immigration is wrong. So, lets demand to our Government to enforce all the laws in existence but at the same time, demand to all the corporations that provide us with food,clothing, cars, electronics and others goods, to whatever country they operate, they must respect the dignity of their employees by paying livable wages, respecting and protecting their environment. Let’s all help to eliminate illegal immigration from poor countries by demanding to our Leaders the implementation of American working standards for corporation doing business abroad. After all, I’m sure we would not mind paying $15 for a single pair of socks or $20 for a gallon of gasoline or $100 for a large pizza.
Aug 18, 2008 - 5:48 am 36. mediaguy007:Try to end Italics
Aug 19, 2008 - 7:56 pm 37. mediaguy007:Try to end the italics
Aug 19, 2008 - 8:00 pm 38. Chief1942:Just who is the “elephant in the room” regrding the “illegal” immigration situation? I present you the United States Chamber of Commerce. With their political, behind the scenes, power we can expect a major battle in weaning their members off the narcotic of cheap, exploitable labor. E-Verify is the closest thing we have to “methadone” for these folks, but they have to admit first that they are addicts. Not going to be easy.
Aug 21, 2008 - 12:59 pm