Employ Them and They Will Come

My kid spilled his soda on the the picnic table outside. As usual, he did not clean it up and the area became inundated with ants. Should I blame the ants for this situation?

As of 2011, there were 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Some started out legal and overstayed the terms of their visas. Others risked death by traveling through the Arizona desert. All gave up the security of home to to live in the shadows in a new country. What drove them to take the risk?

The patriotic answer to this question is that the United States is the greatest country in the world. Conservatives profess “American Exceptionalism” and condemn anyone who does not subscribe to this ideology. In theory, this seems like a very powerful magnet to the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Unfortunately, when it comes to immigration, our actions have not always lived up to our promise. In 1882 we passed the overtly named Chinese Exclusion Act, which also banned “persons convicted of political offenses, lunatics, idiots, and persons likely to become public charges.” Later, polygamists, political radicals, those with physical or mental defects, Japanese, illiterates, persons of psychopathic inferiority, people entering for immoral purposes and alcoholics were all added to the list of those excluded or restricted from immigrating.

Those that made it past these legal hurdles were not exactly welcomed with open arms. In current day America we celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day as part of our shared national culture. However, when the Irish immigrants first arrived in the mid 1800’s, they were greeted with signs that said NINA (No Irish Need Apply). Once they were assimilated into the culture, they feared the next wave of immigrants, who primarily came from Eastern Europe, because these groups “would be more difficult to assimilate than the earlier immigrants.”

It is easy to say that these are sins of history, but this attitude still exists in modern day America. Just last year, a mayor in Maine told Somali immigrants to his town that when they “come into the country, you have to accept our culture. Don’t try to insert your culture into ours.” So much for the American melting pot.

Perhaps these undocumented immigrants are drawn here by the generous benefits that our government offers. One chain e-mail claims that a mother in Florida who is undocumented is receiving $1,500 a month in benefits for each of her eight children. This despite the fact that an official from the Florida DCF states that “the maximum benefit for a family with one mother and eight children would be $671 per month.” However, that is the maximum benefit if the mother was a legal resident. “Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to receive any 'welfare' benefits and even legal immigrants are severely restricted in the benefits they can receive.”

It is true that the children of illegal immigrants who are born in the United States are eligible for benefits as these children are citizens of the United States.This is based on many factors, including the fourteenth amendment which states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The magnet that draws these immigrants to the United States is jobs. By some estimates, just under eight million jobs are performed by workers without documentation. For every job held by these employees there is an employer who should be held directly responsible for creating the problem.

It is often stated that these workers are performing work that American’s do not want to do, but this is intellectually dishonest. The fact is that American’s will not do these jobs for the wages that the undocumented workers are being paid.

When an employer obtains labor from a pool of illegal workers he does not have to worry about inconveniences such as minimum wage, overtime or workplace safety laws. This harms not only the legitimate worker who has been displaced from a job, but also the entire workforce. Competitors who play by the rules are put at a disadvantage in the marketplace and downward pressure will be placed on salaries

Additionally, the workers in a shadow economy are exposed to additional abuses. Knowing the risks these workers would take by contacting authorities makes it more likely that their employers will illegally withhold wages. These employers may make payroll tax deductions on Social Security numbers that they know are invalid, thereby having the worker contribute to a system from which they will never benefit.

There are far fewer employers than employees. Therefore, it would be a less daunting task to crack down on these law breakers. However, in 2004 only three employers were fined for illegal hiring.

The realities of the last election have forced the Republicans to the table on immigration reform. However, there are still some in the Conservative wing of the party fighting against the tide. Some of this fight may be due to xenophobia. However, the influence of self preservation cannot be discounted. Continuing to focus on the immigrants as the problem artificially lowers wages and helps the business wing of the party. Reforming the system would cast light on the shadow economy and help workers.