More Jobs Needed? Enforce Immigration Laws!
By Thomas D. Segel
March 6, 2009
Not having the benefit of Washington D.C. wisdom, I may not be smart enough to figure out a very economical way to improve the job market for Americans. However, as an average guy living next to the USA-Mexico border I do have some grasp of the situation. As succinctly as it can be said -- If the federal government did its job of securing our border and removing illegal aliens from the workplace, there would be an abundance of employment openings.
The old worn-out line that illegal aliens only take job that Americans won't do, just doesn't fly any longer. Last month the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) raided a Bellingham, Washington engine rebuilding plant and removed 28 illegal workers. The raid had hardly faded from the news cycle before American workers were lining up for the vacant positions.
The answer to boosting our economy and putting citizens back to work seems simple from this vantage point. There are somewhere between 8 and 38 million illegal aliens in the United States. The federal government cannot give you even a close approximation because in addition to not being able to secure our borders, it has never learned how to count.
Now instead of the billions the Obama Administration wants to use just to create or save (What does that mean?) three million jobs, why don't they do what they have been mandated to do by law...and remove three million illegals from the work place?
Last year ICE removed about 300,000 illegal aliens from the work place. That number alone would open up 10% of the jobs the Administration is trying to create. But, why not remove at least the three million illegal workers holding jobs citizens need, and solve most of our problems? They claim is ICE doesn't have enough personnel to conduct more on site raids. Well, then...hire more ICES agents. That too will create jobs.
Training those agents will take too long, some proclaim. We need shovel-ready jobs now. Well, how about this...we have about 700,000 full time police in this country. Why not give them some federal incentive pay (rewards) for locating and removing illegal workers from the ranks of the employed? In fact, there is already a government incentive pay or positive performance pay rule on the books, so it could be modified to cover illegal alien detection and removal from the work force.
If just our police were used to locate and arrest the illegal workers, and we offered each officer a token $100 incentive pay bonus for each unauthorized worker scheduled for deportation, all needed jobs would be available over night. The total cost would be about $300 million to open up 3 million jobs, and fines levied against employers could recover all that was being paid out by the government. That sure beats the tar out of the multi-gazillions of taxpayer dollars they now plan to squander on questionable job producing make-work projects. Another thing to consider...when Obama's make-work is finished, the workers become unemployed again. If illegal aliens are removed from existing jobs Americans should be able to fill, those are permanent positions that will continue indefinitely.
None of this is really rocket science. The politicos just need to toss out the special interest politics and follow our laws. When it comes to Americans being able to put beans and bacon on the table that should trump all other concerns. To not take such action is to tell this country "No We Can't!" instead of "Yes We Can
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.
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