My Soap Box

From time to time, I have expressed my opinions on various political and social issues of the day. This is another.

As usual, I was listening to National Public Radio this morning as I was getting ready for work. I caught part of a story on the immigration law that went into effect yesterday or today in Arizona. The story explained the ruling of a Federal Court judge as to various parts of that law. One part I wasn't aware of (and which was fortunately struck down by the Court) was a provision making it illegal for an illegal alien to work in the US.

I got to thinking about this. Isn't it already against the law for a business or individual to employ illegals? Instead of making life more difficult for the individuals who come here illegally from other countries, why don't the state and/or Federal governments penalize those who hire them?

I've been of the opinion for some time that folks wouldn't be so eager to cross the border illegally if there was less work for them here. Actually, I heard something last year that, after the US entered the recession in 2008, the numbers of illegals crossing into the US from Mexico had declined dramatically--like half or fewer of those who had come in the previous years.

I don't live in an area that has significant problems with illegals. Here in Wisconsin, we do have a large number of people from Mexico who come here to work on the farms in the summer. We also have large numbers of immigrants from Somalia and Laos who live and work here. All these people come here to work--and they get jobs of various kinds, usually jobs that "native" Americans decline to do. If there weren't jobs here, I doubt that these people would have settled in this state. I mean, who would enjoy leaving their tropical home to spend winters in Wisconsin with months of freezing weather!

At any rate, I am of the opinion that "cracking down on illegals," building fences, mass deportations, and enacting laws that infringe on the rights of US citizens will do little to solve the problem of illegal immigration. The people come here to make a better life for themselves. If the opportunity to work isn't there, the illegals would stop coming. How about punishing the employers instead of the employees?

Despite not being a supporter of George W Bush, he did come up with a proposal that I thought might have value: the guest worker program. Unfortunately, that never got off the ground. This idea would provide Mexican workers with temporary work permits so they would be entering legally for a specified period of time to do a particular job. Then they would have to return to Mexico. I think they would have been allowed to become guest workers more than once so they could return again and again to work. To me this is the same as what they are already doing under the table and this plan would have legalized what is already happening.

It's time to be creative about solving the problem of our leaky border instead of relying on punitive and restrictive measures that have failed in the past and likely will fail again.

That's my opinion.