If Employers Don't Hire, They Won't Come

The flood of illegal aliens into this country is problematic. It drives down wages and contributes to a higher unemployment rate for Americans and legal immigrants. However, the new Arizona "Papers Please" law is unconstitutional and downright un-American. It will clog the criminal courts and take the police away from other more essential enforcement duties. Erecting a fence along the 1969 mile US-Mexico border is not likely to be effective, unless we put up a Berlin-type concrete wall and put guards along its entire length. Such an undertaking is unrealistic and just plain creepy.

We have laws on the books to prevent illegal immigration. The federal Immigration and Nationalization Act provides for the imposition of monetary penalties between $250 and $10,000 per alien against an employer who hires them. The federal government should add staff as required to enforce this provision and raise the penalties to cover the actual costs of enforcement and make it more expensive for them to hire illegal workers than legal workers. We have been letting the employers get away with breaking the law at the expense of everyone else for too long.