[Platapus]

Since most illegal aliens are only illegal because they have not undergone an arbitrary and artificially created bureaucratic procedure, perhaps the solution is to fix the bureaucratic procedure so as to allow them to become legal aliens.

At the base of it, we have people coming in to my country and working hard doing jobs that not only do American’s don’t want to do but jobs that significantly increase my standard of living. This is a good thing. I want to encourage people to come into my country and work hard to make my standard of life better.

I don’t want these workers kicked out of my country as I would then lose the benefit of their labour. However, I also don’t want these workers breaking the laws. That is not right either.

One of the more common complaints is that illegal workers don’t pay taxes. Well that is only partially true. Illegal workers don’t pay state and federal income tax but they still pay sales taxes and other fees. What is forgotten is that while they don’t pay income taxes, we, as a country are benefiting from their work. That is not without value.

My solution is two fold

1. Make it very very easy for migrant workers to be able to work in my country legally. There are not evil people. These are workers trying to earn a living for their families. This is not something we need to be fighting.

We should be encouraging not discouraging workers becoming legal. This means shortening the application times, eliminating the applications fees, providing application assistance. Sponsorship needs to be looked at. We can’t eliminate it but it could be modified to make it easier for migrant workers to change employers.

2. After we have made it very very easy for migrant workers to be able to work legally, we than should start making if very very unpleasant for workers to work illegally. This means targeting the employers. This means cracking down on illegal workers and sentencing them to work farms.

Hey migrant worker you have a choice, work here legally and reap the rewards of your labour, or work here illegally and work for the state for free. Hmmmm what do you think people will choose? However you can’t do step 2 until step 1 is complete.

Make it easy for people to do things legally and hard for them to do it illegally. This is not rocket surgery folks.

The concept of illegal aliens, with the exception of racial discrimination, mostly against the Chinese for some reason, is less than 100 years old in the United States. If you were not Chinese and you entered this country in the 1800s there was no legal or illegal status. You where just here working hard.

Clearly we need laws and we need to enforce the laws. But we should also make it easier for immigrant workers to work here legally. This means that prices will go up, but not as high as if we somehow found Americans willing to do the same jobs.

We need to recognize what these people are. What they are doing (working hard for our country) is not what is illegal. What is illegal is the way they went about it (breaking immigration laws). They are and will remain a valuable labour asset for our country.

We should focus on the root problem. It is not the people, it is the immigration system that makes it more attractive for people to break the law than to obey it.

The solution is to make it so that it is more attractive to obey the law than it is to break it.

Don’t tell a migrant worker that they need to wait 3-5 years before being able to work. They need to feed their families this week and there are jobs that are open now!

Don’t tell a migrant worker that they need to pony up immigration fees that can total hundreds of dollars. If they had a few hundreds of dollars, they probably would not be a migrant worker!

Don’t tell a migrant worker that they have to stay with one employee regardless of working conditions or risk being deported. This only encourages exploitation.

Instead tell the workers that they can expect to have their work visa approved in a matter of weeks so they can get to the jobsites when needed.

Tell the workers that now that they are documented, any immigration fees would be deducted from their pay, because now you have to pay taxes (and so does the employer)

Tell the workers that once they are documented, they are free to move to other jobs because now they have the right of negotiation.

The end result will be that we will still have these needed workers working hard for my benefit.