Unchecked and illegal
A series on forgotten campaign issues
PRESIDENT BUSH and Senator John Kerry raised the issue of immigration earlier this year and have barely returned to it since. Yet millions of people want to live and work in the United States -- many more than the country can reasonably accept -- and the federal government needs to figure out how to prevent people from immigrating illegally. In particular, the government needs to enforce the law that prohibits employers from hiring undocumented workers.
In 1986 Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which combined an amnesty for illegal immigrants with penalties for employers who knowingly hire them in the future. More than 2.7 million people have become legal residents as a result, but employer sanctions are rarely enforced. Last year only four employers were subjected to criminal prosecution under the law.
No wonder illegal immigrants keep coming, especially through the porous southern border. Citizenship and Immigration Services (successor to the Immigration and Naturalization Service) estimates that 8 million illegal immigrants live in the United States. Other estimates range as high as 15 million.
Undocumented workers, most of whom toil uncomplainingly for a pittance, are a boon to employers, but they probably depress wages for low-income US citizens. Because hundreds of thousands cross from Mexico each year, they make effective border control impossible. This illicit migration could also become a screen for terrorists.
US borders need to be more closely patrolled, but even more, employers need a signal that they should not hire undocumented workers. Once underground work is no longer freely available, the numbers crossing the border will decline, making it easier to police.
All of this will require more money, but there is no mention of this as an urgent federal priority by Bush or Kerry. Instead, in speeches before Latino groups, Bush has proposed converting some undocumented workers into legal "guest workers," and Kerry has promised to send Congress another amnesty bill. It would be cruel to deport undocumented immigrants or keep them in a legal shadow world, but these proposals are worth doing only if the 1986 law is enforced first.
The million immigrants legally admitted each year provide an important addition to the work force and enliven US culture. It may make sense to expand legal immigration in certain job categories or from countries with long waiting lists for legal entry. But first, Bush and Kerry ought to offer proposals for bringing illegal immigration under control. A good place to start would be a crackdown on US employers who profit from an endless supply of low-wage, intimidated workers.
TOMORROW: Remember the deficit?
