Monday, March 06, 2006

Quick hits on policy

Illegal immigration, border security, economic impact of and dependence upon immigrants:
  1. Control the borders. Use lethal force if necessary.
  2. Make damned sure the borders are controlled and we can identify anyone crossing that border. Pay attention to people crossing the border, less on contraband.
  3. Are the borders controlled? Are we effectively identifying every beating heart that enters the US? OK.
  4. Establish a guest-worker program that is compatible with the controlled borders. Guest workers need to leave the country periodically, whether to vote in their home country's elections or to pay home country taxes, I really don't give a damn.
  5. Only the worker enters the country. No family, no spouse.
  6. Guest workers must leave, once or twice a year, and they have to provide proof that they did. The controlled border lets them back in without hassle when they present this proof. This requirement reduces the impact on the worker being away from home and family.
  7. Like any other Federal law (and this one must be Federal), give it an arbitrary sunset, slightly longer than one Senatorial term. If it works, it will be renewed.
  8. As Federal law, stake out clearly to the States that Federal law decides how these guest-workers can be handled. States may not issue identity documents to them nor recognize any identity documents they wish. Only the Federally issued guest-worker ID will be honored. States can issue motor vehicle operator licenses to them but only in conjunction with the guest-worker ID; the State-issued license will be distinct and explicitly becomes void without the guest-worker ID.
  9. The guest-worker ID will allow them to open bank accounts, rent apartments and post-office boxes, buy, rent or sell automobiles, borrow money, and otherwise enjoy the benefits of a free market.
  10. Deny the guest-workers eligibility for as many State-paid or -delivered benefits as possible. Social Security, Medicare, workman's comp. Let the employers provide these benefits if they must.
  11. The employers are responsible for remitting guest-workers' taxes to their countries of origin, if applicable.
  12. Do not allow unions to force guest-workers to join.
  13. Do not tax guest workers for goods and services for which they are ineligible. Make the relative costs of hiring a guest-worker versus a US citizen starkly visible to everybody---positive or negative.
  14. Wait seven years. Watch ag commodity prices, new home prices, rates for landscaping, hotel room rates, you name it. Vote accordingly.


I haven't always held this opinion, used to lean hard towards the "open borders, free market" view. After some consideration, recent conversations with my brother (keeper of Scooter), and the steady increase of blog and news tempo on the topic, my opinions have changed. The US is still dependent upon inexpensive labor, partly because US law has gradually made native US labor too damned expensive. Illegal immigration is substituted for one big fat inevitable reason, it's cheaper even after massive attempts to interdict it. If everyone can see the true cost of both imported and domestic labor, the policy decisions---the politics---will sort themselves out.