Once again, sorry about the low volume of posting.
So, what do you think about immigration, legal and illegal? Do you think amnesty won't work? Will the current bill not work?
Please respond in the comments section or by email.
For more on illegal immigration: http://thethoughtsontheworld.blogspot.com/search/label/Illegal%20Immigration
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Open Discussion: Immigration
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3 comments:
Amnesty for the current illegal immigrants is the only reasonable way to deal with the current illegal immigrants. You can't sell citizenship like the current bill does, and you can't deport them all like the hardliners say. Got a better plan?
A better plan is to use criminal prosecutions against their employers (both large and small). There should be a PR campaign: "Employee an illegal, go to jail". The fines should be high enough to cover the costs of enforcement and incarceration. Once the jobs dry up the illegals will go home the same way they got here: under their own power.
Since this would take some time there would be no sudden shock to the economy and things would return to the way they were before all of this when somehow and mysteriously the work was getting done without illegals.
Once that is under way the next step should be to level the playing field between America and Mexico. Americans who are legally in Mexico should have the same level of rights as Mexicans who are legally here in America.
For example, we should be able to own land in Mexico under exactly the same terms as a Mexican, we should be able to legally criticize their government (including protests), and we should be able to hold any public office except president.
Once everyone is legal and the playing field is level, then we can discuss the future.
The issue and possible solutions need to be viewed within a large context. For example, NAFTA might have increased economic activity, but the distribution of the wealth it generated was directed to a narrow minority of insiders to a great degree. Many Mexican farmers and others suffered job losses, and had to sell land that had been in their families for generations.
Facing desperation, they found low-paying jobs in the US corporate factories in Mexico, or made the typically dangerous journey to the US. As undocumented workers in the US, they are subjected to all sorts of abuses.
Now, about a "better plan," what ever it is, it needs to address the larger context. Given that both Democrats and Republicans are part of the narrow establishment that benefits from the so-called "free trade" agreements, the "better plan" will have to be developed and promoted by those of us who are outside of mainstream politics.
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