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The United States Immigration Debacle, Part 3: The Politicians

May 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Now there has been a rumbling of discontent around the issue of our United States immigration debacle. Some talk has been made by a few vocal minorities about sending all the undocumented immigrants home so they can stand in line like the rest and do things right. I don’t know who or when or how some of us Americans decided that the arrangement we had going all these years wasn’t quite working out for them any more, but this is where we are today.

 

New State laws and political stumping are ample evidence that the government is pretending to get involved again. This kind of elevated rhetoric usually only happens at election time. What is painfully obvious is the amount of effort that government has put into avoiding this issue. Why? Don’t the politicians want to be hero’s and have the respect and admiration (and votes) of a grateful nation?

 

Of course they do. And I think they are getting it. Here’s what I mean:

 

If the politicians really wanted to fix this situation, they could have done so at any time along the last fifty years or more years. They are the ones that have been chosen to make the laws after all are they not?

 

And what motivates politicians to take action? Money and public opinion. Let’s take a look at each of these and explore what would happen, beginning with public opinion.

 

There are three possible scenarios that public opinion can be categorized in our situation: A majority anti-immigrant sentiment; a majority pro-immigrant sentiment; or an equally distributed public sentiment.

 

Scenario #1 If the majority of the people are anti-immigrant:

All the politicians would have to do is write up a bill condemning undocumented workers, punish the employers, expel the immigrants and let them know if they are caught in our borders again, they will go to prison for a long time. The specifics can vary, but anything along these lines would satisfy the majority of the public, and their approval rating and chances for re-election are greatly improved.

 

Scenario #2  The majority of the people are pro-immigrant:

All they would have to do is pass a bill and give them amnesty, open up the borders and the majority will have been satisfied. Again, the specifics can vary, but the outcome will be the same. Improved public opinion and an increased chance for re-election.

 

Scenario #3  The nation is equally split among the two different opinions:

No problem here either once you stand back and look at this objectively and keep your eyes on a positive outcome. Propose a bill giving those that can prove employment and residency for the past five years can stay, keeping the productive people here, and everyone else, must leave or face deportation and banishment for ten years. You can argue other possibilities as well, but no matter the specifics, if you give both sides something, then everyone is equally pacified and perturbed, but having half of something is better than nothing.

 

Any of these scenarios could have taken place and the outcomes would have been appreciated by the country. Scenario 3 granted is the most difficult, but give them both something to be happy about, and get on with it. If our country is heavily in one camp or the other, (just look at the data from one of the thousands of opinion polls they take each year) it is that much easier. Give the people what they want and be the hero. Done. Public opinion can be addressed, and should be, by the politicians wanting to keep their jobs another year. Do nothing and now you have a lot of work come election time trying to persuade the voters you did a great job last term and will continue to do a great job next term. So why have we just ignored this situation all these years?

 

If you believe government understands those two basic things, Money and opinion (They take more opinion polls than any company in the world.) then any time you want to understand the government, just follow public opinion or money. Since we just looked at the three possible public opinion scenarios and we can’t explain their inaction, we should therefore follow the money.

 

I think politicians know that businesses really don’t want to elevate the undocumented workers to a legal status because it would cost many businesses more. Lots more. If businesses can pay much less to undocumented workers and get away with it because they are undocumented and unlikely to stand up for their rights, they will. If immigrants become legal, they will get minimum wage, regular breaks and benefits like vacation days, personal time off and overtime, medical and dental insurance, and maybe even 401k retirement plans, as well as understand their rights as workers much more and are more liable to file employment grievances with the EEOC. Prices are going to go up to compensate for the rising costs and their ability to compete with companies from other countries will diminish considerably, threatening their very existence.

 

And us? Some of us think we pay way too much for social and health services for the undocumented now, but wait until they become legal and the products we buy steadily rise in price until acceptable profit margins are made to sustain the companies livelihood. This will put them at risk for being undersold by outside companies whose labor prices are much much cheaper, and I believe the demand for undocumented workers will be on the rise once again.

 

Politicians really are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. They may act like clowns during election years, and some of them have been known to be full-time comics the rest of the year too, but they all know that as much as we like to blow off steam and beat our chests about how much more moral we are than the criminal undocumented worker, we really don’t want anything to change. Neither does business.

 

But we still have one more group of people involved in this situation to be discussed: the immigrant. Having a national debate about what to do about undocumented immigrants without even bringing them into discussion would be quite impossible. Even today we discuss their needs, desires, customs and personal habits to a great extent. Next week we’ll take a look at the immigrant, and where they fit into all of this.

 

Do you have an opinion about this article? Your feedback is welcome, but please let’s be civil. When we lose our composure, we lose the ability to influence others as well.

 

Filed Under: Immigration's effects on citizens, Laws, Politicians, Politics, Republicans, The US Immigration Debacle

The United States Immigration Debacle, Part 1: How did we get here and who is responsible.

May 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The United States Immigration policies and our border with Mexico has garnered a lot of press recently, especially with the GOP primary coming up. Politicians are threatening to veto legislation aimed at helping undocumented students, the President is under attack for trying to allow United States Citizens to keep their families together while applying for legal status for their undocumented family members, and many people are expressing outrage that there are around  eleven million undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States today. Nobody however, is really talking about how we got here in the first place, whose the major players are, and who should be responsible for correcting this situation and prevent it from happening again.

 

I will examine these topics in depth in a five part series called, “The United States Immigration Debacle.” Hopefully by the end, we will have a clearer understanding of how this situation came to be and move on from a paralyzing national outrage, to an intelligent , humane, and workable solution to this problem.

 

First off we need to recognize that there are millions of undocumented people here in the United States, and this is an intolerable situation. Unless you lived in cave five, on hill six, and under a rock, you would have been aware of  our illegal immigration problem for most, if not all of your life. Undocumented immigrants are here and we’ve known about it for many decades. Eleven million people did not just show up last year.

 

Secondly, we need to own up to the fact that while we knew they were, none of us went out of our way and avoided them like criminals or boycotted anyone who employed them so that we actually could stand on principle and demand their eviction without looking ridiculous.  I happen to know a few Americans, and I don’t know anyone who has even tried to boycott a company that uses undocumented labor — not one. And that’s not surprising since it has been virtually impossible for quite some time to live a day without using or consuming a product or service in this country that has not passed through the calloused hands of the undocumented worker.

 

I find it especially humorous when I hear Presidential candidates trying to appear like they employ only 100% U.S. Grade A  American Labor. I realize we hold them to a higher standard than we do ourselves, but to go around putting on airs of piety, and even attacking the ones who are found to have accidentally hired an undocumented person, when we all know politicians eat more than a few meals in restaurants, which are known to be a large employer of undocumented workers in this country.

 

When you stand back and look at the whole situation, it is quite ironic that any of us can claim to be living undocumented Laborer-free, while passing the salad around the dinner table.

 

We all have known undocumented laborers are here, and we all have benefited from their labor. We all live a far richer, easier life because they work so hard for so little.  We are able to eat cheaper, have cheaper clothes, cheaper appliances, cheaper home services, cheaper hotel rooms. . . And that really is the heart of the matter; our strong desire to have something for the lowest possible price.

 

Demand is what fuels the machine we call commerce, and we demand our products and services to be affordable.  There is nothing wrong with that, especially in today’s economy, but whether we like it or not, when we purchase goods and services from an illegal source, we are condoning that illegal activity as well.

 

Not only are we condoning illegal immigration, we are also responsible for creating it. Our demand for affordable goods outstripped the labor supply the businesses could legally employ in order to provide us those affordable goods. If they couldn’t obtain affordable labor legally, they would have to get it illegally, or risk being forced out of business.  We knew this was happening. We didn’t like it, but we didn’t stop wanting cheaper goods and services either. Where businesses got their labor was not our concern. Just get us the discount.

 

So here we are. We have known about the immigrant situation all along, and have participated in it, thereby giving it our tacit approval. To be angry about this now and to try to deport all the people we used to give us what we wanted, would be like reneging on a contract. It would dishonor us as much as it would punish them, and our demand for an affordable lifestyle would only force employers to seek an alternative supplier of cheap labor, setting the stage for this to happen all over again. Getting rid of undocumented immigrants will not change our demand for affordable goods. We need to either change our priorities as to what to expect things to cost, or we need to change the supply method that the employers of these workers use to get their labor, so it is legal, humane, accountable and enforceable.

 

Speaking of employers, next week I’ll discuss the creators of our unspoken agreement with our friends from south of the border. They have a big hand in this, and to leave them out of this discussion would be the same as trying to end the drug trade while completely ignoring the producers.

 

Have a different view? Let’s hear it.

Filed Under: Immigration's effects on citizens, Laws, The US Immigration Debacle

Entering the United States without Inspection is a crime- kinda.

May 5, 2012 by 2 Comments

Whenever an article having anything to do with immigration is written in the I find there are always thousands of people commenting below the article about how bad a crime it is and we are a nation of laws and we cannot let criminals be rewarded, and on and on. Many claim that it is a heinous crime. Some claim it is a felony. Many make the comparison to murder and rape and bemoan how our country will be ruined if we allow even this little change, proposed by the Obama administration, designed with U.S. Citizens in mind, to take place.

I looked it up, just to see what kind of a penalty it was because I would feel very badly if I were to be lobbying for a cause as evil as rape or murder, but I wasn’t about to just go and believe everything these angry voices so emphatically proclaimed.  I had to look it up and see for myself.

Here is what I found.

According to Findlaw.com it is not called illegal immigration either.  The correct term is Entering Without Inspection or EWI for short.  Their definition is as follows:

 

8 U.S.C. § 1325 : US Code – Section 1325: Improper entry by alien

(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection;

misrepresentation and concealment of facts

Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States

at any time or place other than as designated by immigration

officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration

officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United

States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the

willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first

commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or

imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent

commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or

imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.

(b) Improper time or place; civil penalties

Any alien who is apprehended while entering (or attempting to

enter) the United States at a time or place other than as

designated by immigration officers shall be subject to a civil

penalty of –

(1) at least $50 and not more than $250 for each such entry (or

attempted entry); or

(2) twice the amount specified in paragraph (1) in the case of

an alien who has been previously subject to a civil penalty under

this subsection.

Civil penalties under this subsection are in addition to, and not

in lieu of, any criminal or other civil penalties that may be

imposed.

(c) Marriage fraud

Any individual who knowingly enters into a marriage for the

purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws shall be

imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or fined not more than

$250,000, or both.

(d) Immigration-related entrepreneurship fraud

Any individual who knowingly establishes a commercial enterprise

for the purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws

shall be imprisoned for not more than 5 years, fined in accordance

with title 18, or both.

 

It was pretty hard to find this, but that was because I was using the same terminology as all those angry protesters. I never heard the correct term until recently, and that helped me find this article. Funny how simple things are when you relax and call things by their correct names and use the correct definitions.

 

This is a civil crime, NOT a felony– think traffic ticket.

 

Hopefully this clears things up a bit and allows some people to calm down a bit and examine this problem with a little clarity and compassion, because I have to assume that most people have gotten a traffic ticket or two in their lives and I don’t think anyone thinks they are a bad person because of it.  Not only that, but if we go the next step and think about how many times a day we break the law or do immoral things, it is hardly for any one of us to condemn another for any of these petty grievences. We all pick and choose which laws we obey and which ones we decide don’t pertain to us at that particular moment. We all drive ocer the speed limit just about every day and roll through stop signs and fail to use turn signals when changing lanes. We may get away with it most times, but that does not mean we did not break the law. Are people who entered this country without inspection ruining the moral fabric of this country? I think not. We are just as guilty as they are every day of the week.

And one last thing. People are calling the latest proposal by the Obama administration as amnesty, and some people are even calling for the American Citizens to be deported along with their spouses. This wasn’t my first clue that I needed to take some of their arguments with a pound or two of salt.

It so happens that before 1997, spouses and parents could file the paperwork, pay a thousand dollar fee and the documents for their family member would be in the mail. All President Obama is trying to do is repeal this last little amendment to the immigration policies because it turns out that it doesn’t just punish the immigrant, it punishes the American citizens that our laws are designed to protect.

There is no law against marrying anyone we choose, so we should not go around breaking families up because one of them committed a civil infraction. We would be a nation of single people if we did.

If we all just take a breath and relax a moment, we will see that the sky is not falling and America will not go “down the toilet” if we allow our fellow citizens who found themselves in love with someone who entered without inspection to keep their families together, just like they had so easily done before 1997.

 

The Civil Code by Findlaw.com can be found here

 

http://bit.ly/xSiYCd

Filed Under: immigrants, Laws

Marrying a foreign citizen is not a crime

May 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

It so happens that before 1997, spouses and parents could file the paperwork, pay a thousand dollar fee and the documents for their family member would be in the mail. All President Obama is trying to do is repeal this last little amendment to the immigration policies. The current immigration policy doesn’t just punish the immigrant, it punishes the American citizens that our laws are designed to protect as well.

There is no law against marrying anyone we choose, so we should not go around breaking families up because one of them committed a civil infraction. We would be a nation of single people if we did. Imagine not being able to marry someone because they got a parking ticket a few years ago. Sounds ridiculous right? Not for some of us. We now need to check the immigration status of our potential mates, because if they are here without proper paperwork, our family could get broken up and lives destroyed. Sounds romantic doesn’t it?

If we all just take a breath and relax a moment, we will see that the sky is not falling and America will not go “down the toilet” if we allow our fellow citizens who found themselves in love with someone who entered without inspection to keep their families together, just like they had so easily done before 1997. President Obama isn’t trying to destroy our country, he’s trying to protect our families.

The Civil Code by Findlaw.com can be found here

 

http://bit.ly/xSiYCd

Filed Under: Ethics, immigrants, Immigration's effects on citizens, Laws
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