The Immigration Issue and Economic Pragmatism

The United States of America was once the place all immigrants fled to when wherever they came from was unlivable.  For exam

ple, the Irish migrated here during their potato famine.  Many groups migrated here for opportunity, to escape religious persecution or simply to get something to eat.  For whatever reason, this country has been built by many different peoples.  This issue usually seems to become a hot topic when jobs are scarce and times are difficult and today this has been supercharged by Arizona demanding to be able to protect their State border.

The current argument seems to be centered on two choices; a path to amnesty for the illegal aliens already here or actively rounding up those that are already here and deporting them.  The first thing that strikes me here is that if our border is as porous as it currently is, deporting them is a non-starter as they will just come back. 

Saying ‘they’ will just come back is not completely accurate as all of the same deportees may not come back but be replaced, to a degree, by others.  Thinking about this for a second, the effects of deporting these people bears an additional economic cost to the country.  An example of this is an illegal alien already here for some time may be working and assimilated to some degree with a positive effect on the overall economy and not involved in any criminal activity.  A study by the Rand Corporation has shown that uprooting illegal aliens and deporting them increases the chances they will turn to crime when they come back.  This study found that 75% of those deported that came back into the country committed crimes.  Why not?  The system has tagged them, taken their fingerprints and put them in jail. Now they feel like a criminal and are even more officially so.  These old but ‘new’ illegal aliens may now be more likely to turn to crime as they have to start from zero again and to make a buck, start committing crimes thus taxing our law enforcement systems resources even more heavily. 

Current laws against employing illegal aliens provide an incentive to turn to the crime industry.  Gangs in Southern California ‘employ’ hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and also account for a large share of outstanding warrants for violent crimes.  These gangs are also a major drug pipeline to South America for people here, illegal or not.  Law enforcement costs money, drug use and dependency costs money for all society, and this is all before you even get to the issues of the major costs to the medical care and education systems.

The State of California is currently home to the most illegal aliens and they also have the worst state budget problems.  One cost estimate to the State of California for bearing the weight of resident illegal aliens from 2004 came in at over $10 billion a year.  The current budget deficit in California is $20 billion (it was as high as $32b but cuts have been made) and it could be said that if they saved that $10 billion yearly since 2004 there would be no deficit.  This is too simplistic a way to look at this as the illegal aliens do contribute to the state economy, but $10 billion a year is a lot of money.  Even if this study from 2004 is high by 100% ($5 billion), the deficit disappears without these costs.

The current system is not working for anyone.  The way we are suffering this problem now is no good for the country, the states or the illegal aliens.  Our border is not controlled or secure from illegal immigration and this porous border is a major homeland security and terrorism issue.  I will restate this as it needs to be hit again; this is a major homeland security issue.  Arizona is not wrong to stand up to protect their borders and citizens as Mexican drug gangs are actually shooting at border patrol agents and the violent drug wars have spilled over into their State.  Phoenix is now the kidnapping capital of the world as drug gangs have started a whole new line of business involving snatching citizens and holding them for ransom.  Many immigrants die trying to get into the United States while trapped in trucks or are simply abandoned in the desert once paying 'coyote's' for passage.  As I said, this system is not working for anyone.

The two major choices of how to solve this problem are amnesty vs. deportation.  Amnesty for 1.7 million illegal aliens was tried in 1986 with many now viewing that as a failure.  Deportation without a secure border seems to just be contributing to the problem.  Without securing the border first, the ability of drug gangs to cross into the States and commit kidnappings and other violent crimes as well as inject illegal drugs into our society contributes to economic costs.  The cost to find and deport ten to twelve million illegal aliens is as immense an economic burden as it is a logistical nightmare.

One of the benefits of amnesty would include an increase in tax revenues as once illegal residents are now on the books and paying taxes.  Italy and Japan currently have a major problem with their social security systems as the demographics of their population have become top heavy.  Their younger generations have been having smaller families and fewer children.  This results in a society demographic much like a triangle standing on a tip.  The lower half of the triangle is thinner and gets more so as you go down, with the top shoulders wide and full of people needing benefits.  Less children means less potential payers into the social security system.  Immigrants tend to have larger families and this widening of the base of our ‘triangle’, and having them contribute to change the demographics of our social security system will help as our baby boom generation ages.  This second point is no small matter and amnesty could actually shore up the social security system such that the dangerous 'Ponzi' scheme that our social security system now seems to be, could be alleviated with more young blood.

The argument about low paying jobs that other Americans supposedly do not want was recently highlighted by Stephen Colbert on his comedy show “The Colbert Report” and during his testimony before Congress.  Colbert is a comedian that targets political issues and while he carried it all a bit far in front of Congress (but who says Congress is not already full of jokers?  Personally, I find Colbert funnier and more entertaining), having a lower cost of labor in the day laborer industry gets Americans cheaper food.  It is not easy to argue against cheaper food.  When times are tough like today, it is impossible to argue against cheaper food.

The currently proposed legislation involving amnesty hits on the immense cost to Homeland Security and the complexities involved with documenting who is who among illegal aliens.  Decades ago on Ellis Island many people gave no papers or proof of identity when entering our country.  A college friend of mine had a Grandfather with a much longer name which was shortened because the clerk on Ellis Island did not want to, or could not spell the full last name.  My friend’s last name is now five letters long.  I am of Italian heritage and a commonly used term of ‘WOP,’ meaning ‘without papers’ applied to my ancestors when they got here.  So riddle me this Batman, why is the current legislation looking for more papers?

Skeptics of the current form of the bill say it will cause a spike in people obtaining illegal documents showing how long they have illegally been residing in the United States.  The reason for this problem is that the current legislation has different tiers and fines for different illegal aliens depending on how long they have been here illegally.  Talk about creating a headache!  While requiring some types of papers and fines to make this amnesty more politically salable to the masses, in reality it creates nothing but a huge logistical problem.  Drop it already.

Getting back to the common problem that has run throughout this issue, from gang drug violence to deportation, to one of the contributing reasons the 1986 amnesty did not work and end the problem once and for all, is that we have an unsecured border. This problem first needs to be solved before anything else can happen.  If we grant amnesty to the twelve million currently here and then another twelve million migrate here over the next ten years, we have to do all of this all over again.  Our economic engine will have to bear all of the same economic costs we are now incurring and when we look back at this ‘amnesty’, once again, it will be a joke.  This will make a future ‘amnesty’ even more politically undesirable and split our country again.  Right now, this country needs reasons to stand together and not to find another issue to argue over.

Building a wall hundreds of miles long will be expensive but they did it in China a long time ago.  There are many alternative and creative solutions that can be explored to give these people a way to shoulder some burden and show they want to work to become a citizen of these United States.  Enlist into the Armed Services and defend the country for a certain number of years and get residency.  One of the things I like best about this idea is that people in the Service learn a skill and they learn to work within a large organization.  Also, the military pays well.  The more they earn the more taxes they pay. Critics of amnesty cannot say a word about giving someone citizenship if that person was ready to pick up a weapon to defend the country.

There has been much to say about our deteriorating bridges and roads.  Another possible road to citizenship is to work for a governmentally approved infrastructure company and get paid less than citizens for a few years in order to pay your debt to our society.  I am no fan of bigger government so these infrastructure companies would have to have sunset regulations on their existence.

Given the ability to work legally, once illegal aliens could probably make a few more dollars an hour.  This increase could help to pay their ‘fee,’ which could be paid back over time via the Internal Revenue Service.  Each new citizen gets a debt they owe the country and the IRS collects that debt via income taxes until the full amount is paid in addition to any regular income taxes they would have normally paid for said salary.  Even better, have the payback to the debt to become a citizen withheld from their weekly paychecks to secure the payment.  Make no mistake, illegal aliens turned citizens will hate the IRS as much as the rest of us do now.  That’s great!  We will all have something in common.

Step one is to secure the border.  We did not do this last time we ran an amnesty program that accomplished nothing, so let us not make this first mistake again.  The people of Arizona are sick and tired of hearing about kidnappings and shootouts along the border and in their State and the crime committed by illegal immigrants traveling through.  The Federal Government has completely failed in the carrying out of one of its main duties, which is to protect our borders.  I am surprised Arizona is not suing the Federal Government for breach of contract.

Once the border is secured, it would be time to figure out who is here.  Run each person through the crime database and if they have committed a felony they are out.  The advantageous thing at this point is that we would then actually have a secure border and that person is not coming back so easily.  If they have warrants out, arrest them.  It would take some time before all ten million plus illegal aliens are documented and processed but once they are, language in any type of legislation that proposes any type of amnesty needs to levy very, very heavy fines and jail time for being here illegally, employing someone illegal, granting housing to an illegal alien, etc…  If you want to go the amnesty road make sure it has teeth this time.  Every other country on the planet has a secure border and tough rules about illegally crossing it.  Why don’t we?

We have a lot of construction workers without jobs right now.  Calling back to the Tennessee Valley Authority and large public works programs, the building of a large fence will not only help solve a national security issue and the amnesty issue, but it will create a lot of jobs that are now so sorely needed.

Seriously, do you think without securing the border first, that deporting ten million plus people will be cheap or actually effective?  Do you think the current system is doing us any good at all? (hint: ask California)

Build the wall, find out who is here, get them paying taxes and in that order.  Finding and throwing out ten million plus peoples that are already living here is too expensive, too much a logistical nightmare and too cruel to people that risked everything to be here.  If they want to work (the Stephen Colbert farm labor benefit), pay taxes (we certainly need the money) and raise kids (the social security system could use it,) that is exactly what this country needs right now.

Nothing else will work.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - 3 p.m.