Immigration Reform, Part III

The first option, automatic deportation, presupposes that we can somehow catch and deport 12 million people and send them back to their old countries. However, the creation of a police state is not an option that is acceptable to many civil liberties advocates. Furthermore, there is a racist element in that approach -- it would create a situation where people would look on someone who looks Latino and immediately thing, "illegal." And it would play in with the scaremongering and conspiracy theories that Malkin, Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Dobbs, and Tancredo spout over the airwaves of FOX News on a regular basis.

The second option, open borders, entails a loss of control over who comes and who goes. It was the policy that we followed for the first 100+ years of our existance, and it was the policy that the Native Americans followed for the most part. The main problem with that is, are we seriously willing, as a nation, to accept that kind of loss of control? Even the radical libertarians over at Political Flesh Feast balked at the idea of open borders.

The third option, known as Blanket Amnesty, is what Ronald Reagan did in the 1980's. However, all that did was pass the buck on immigration to another generation. Although it was a temporary solution for the problem of immigration, it did not address the long-term issues that led to these problems in the first place.

So, we are left with trying to find some kind of middle ground here in this debate over immigration and trying to find some way to make our immigration laws enforceable and fair to all concerned. From the last time, several changes were made -- there are tighter safeguards for employer sponsorships against wage suppression; employers would only be allowed to hire prospective immigrants if they pay them within 90% of prevailing wage; they must also go through a job bank set up by the INS. There are also tighter border security requirements, including increasing the number of border patrol agents tenfold as well as provisions for the enforcement of laws against the overstaying of visas.

Furthermore, all immigrants who come here illegally who come here for the purpose of committing felonies unrelated to their status would be deported. The goal here is acceptance -- one of the main goals of the immigrant community is acceptance. If we are to achieve that goal, the immigrant community has a responsibility to learn and to follow the laws of this country to the best of their ability. If they achieve and/or maintain a reputation as being law-abiding, then they will be able to achieve the goal of acceptance by the rest of the country.

1. Renegotiate NAFTA, CAFTA, and the China Agreement.

All of these bills failed to adequately protect our workers from losing their jobs to outsourcing. All future trade agreements should have adequate protections for workers so that they can be retrained if they lose their jobs, there are tax incentives for companies to stay in this country instead of leave it, and adequate environmental protections as well. Not only did NAFTA result in the exporting of jobs overseas, it resulted in the impoverishment of millions of Mexican farmers, triggering the big increases in immigration that we see today. You can read more about my fair trade ideas here.

2. End the Occupation of Iraq, get out of the Middle East, and get off of foreign oil.

In order to do all this, we need to create jobs through the construction of Ethanol and Biofuel plants as well as Wind and Solar farms. This would create millions of new jobs and thus drive wages back up as businesses would compete to attract workers, not compete to undercut the competition.

3. Fully Fund the INS so that they can enforce immigration laws; fully fund the IRS to allow them to verify that employers are not hiring illegal immigrants.

The whole principle behind these policies is simple - the more jobs we create, the more wages will go up. The more people that come into this country, the more wages will go down. Our goal as a party should be to become as inclusive as possible while preventing insidious wage suppression that is disguised as "inclusion." In addition, we should be able to enforce immigration laws fairly and equally and not hand out blanket punishments, but to take each individual situation into account. Immigrants are our guests and as such should be treated with the same standards that we treat our own people through our Constitution.

In addition, the IRS used to be diligent at cracking down on employers who would hire illegal immigrants for substandard wages before Ronald Reagan. But when Reagan took office, he abolished that practice, allowing Corporate America to drive down wages.

4. Laws against wage suppression.

If an employer "downsizes" an American worker and then turns around and hires a legal (H-1B, etc.) or illegal immigrant to perform the work for less money, they should be held liable for both civil and punitive damages.

There should be crimes of wage suppression. Companies may not dismiss employees for the purpose of employing other individuals at substantially lower wages. Dismissed employees would be allowed to file lawsuits recovering triple damages for wage suppression. In addition, it would be a crime for employers to entice immigrants to come and work here in this country for the purpose of bypassing US immigration laws.

5. Fair and reasonable penalties.

All people who overstay their visas should pay a fine, repay back taxes, and be placed on probation on condition that they obey all laws and make timely payments. Furthermore, they should wait 10 years before they can apply for their citizenship instead of the usual five-year waiting period. If they subsequently commit any crimes beyond a simple traffic violation, then they should be deported.

6. Children and Family members.

Many immigrants have children and come here to provide better lives for their children. Therefore, the above penalties are median penalties and judges should make their decisions with the best interest of the child in mind. The Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution requires that all children born in this country - even to two illegal immigrants - be considered US citizens.

7. Eliminate quotas and Restrict Employer Sponsorship.

The problem with the quota system is that it is too arbitrary. Instead of quotas, any employer with a valid tax ID number with the IRS should be able to sponsor an immigrant to work in this country and get them a Green Card (if they wish to work here) or temporary work permit (if not). Furthermore, anybody can sponsor an immediate family member (parent, grandparent, brother, sister, son, grandson) and children who are US citizens should be considered sponsors of their parents for purposes of these reforms.

Note that there should still be penalties for a sponsored immigrant if they came here illegally - but that they should still be legally be in here provided that they contribute to this country.

However, there has to be tight safeguards for an employer-based sponsorship plan to work. First, the INS would create and maintain a database of all prospective immigrants who wish to immigrate to work here in the US; the purpose of the database would be to match immigrants with job skills with employers looking for those job skills; it would be similar to the Job Service sites. Prospective employers can only use this database to employ prospective immigrants. Furthermore, they must pay these immigrants within 90% 100% of prevailing wage for the area. There would be laws creating the crime of wage suppression (see below).

All immigrants who are sponsored by their employers under this provision would get a Green Card. They would be able to keep this card even if they leave or are dismissed from their job. Upon sponsorship, all immigrants would meet with INS personnel, where they would be advised of their rights as immigrants, including the right to form unions, to change jobs, and to file complaints against employers for labor law violations and wage suppression.

8. Benefits.

All immigrants who pay into the Social Security Trust Fund should be able to receive their benefits from it. The Equal Protection Clause requires that all people be treated equally in the eyes of the law.

9. Border Security -- Expand Border Patrol

People who enter at the border with Mexico or an airport or seaport illegally and are caught should be taken to deportation centers, directed to the proper applications so they can fill them out, and then sent home.

Walls for the borders would not be practical because they would interfere with migratory animal routes. However, we can afford to hire ten times the number of border patrol agents that we do now and have them perform regular border patrol duties.

10. Unionization of Immigrants.

The INS and the NRLB should go to employers and hold regular information sessions and fairs educating immigrant employees about their rights to organize unions and advise them of their rights under our labor laws. Union reps could be at these fairs. Employers would be required to advise all non-supervisory employees of their rights to form a union and bargain for better wages.

11. Immigrants who commit felonies.

Immigrants who commit felonies should be deported after serving their time in prison. Immigrants who flee for the purpose of escaping crimes committed in their former country should be deported. Immigrants who violate the terms of their probations should be deported.

12. Asylum.

People of any country which is deemed to be Not Free, as defined by here. should get automatic refugee status. They should keep it until the political status of their home country becomes "Partially Free." People from "Partially Free" countries could be considered on a case-by-case basis and people whose countries became Partially Free could apply on such basis.

In addition, people who get their Refugee status could get employer sponsorships. Refugees who committed felonies would be subject to the normal laws governing those offenses.

13. Immigrant Employers.

Many immigrants who come here start their own businesses. People who demonstrated their intent to start their own business in this country could come and would be subject to periodic inspections to ensure proper understanding of labor laws.

14. Legalization of Pot.

The legalization of Pot would create more jobs in this country and would thus bring up wages in this country.

15. Microcredit.

Many people come to this country due to economic hardship in their own countries. We should engage in Microcredit loans to residents of countries that have high numbers of immigrants per capita who immigrate here. This would bypass corrupt political systems and give people the resources they needed to survive in their own countries.

16. Peace Corps Expansion

In conjunction with (15), we should expand the Peace Corps and create projects that would develop impoverished countries whose people frequently immigrate here.

17. Hearings

People should have the right to have their cases appealed through the Court System. The courts should be just as open to immigrants as they are for any other person.

18. Extend the GI Bill to include recruitment and training of INS agents.

This would provide incentive for people concerned about immigration problems to provide a hand in the solution without taking the law into their own hands.

19. Aggressive enforcement of Labor Laws.

Fully fund the NLRB and appropriate agencies to investigate and prosecute any instances of labor law violations. There should be an emphasis on detecting instances of threats to close down plants in response to union organizing and threats to fire workers for organizing unions. Employers would be required to post a complaint hotline at their place of work which employees could call to report labor law violations. In addition, it should be a felony for any representative of an employer to make such threats against employees.

20. Create High-Speed Rail.

This would provide millions of jobs (and consequently drive up wages) as well as save energy. See this recommended diary for more information.

21. Bounty Programs.

There would be a reward program for illegal immigrants to report employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants or who bypass US immigration laws. Immigrants who turn in evidence that leads to the arrest and conviction of employers for wage suppression, knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, or labor law violations, or whose information leads to substantial civil judgements against corporations would get reward money as well as an accelerated green card and pathway to citizenship.

22. Temporary VISAS.

There are many people who come here temporarily on tourist, student, or business visas. The criteria of those would be unchanged; however, the problem is that many illegal immigrants are people who come here legally and who then overstay these visas. All people who come here on one of these visas would be given an ID card, and then records entered into the database. It would contain information on when they entered and when they would leave the country. All persons who come to the country must have valid contact information so that the INS can contact them if there is a problems. When they leave this country, the time of their departure would be recorded.

If a person were to overstay their VISA, then the INS would first notify that person that they have overstayed their VISA and ask them to leave the country. If an immigrant then fails to leave this country, the INS would then have the authority to have a judge issue a warrant for their arrest so that they could begin deportation proceedings. Mitigating circumstances, such as medical emergencies, would be considered.

Employers could not hire immigrants with only temporary visas; they can only hire immigrants with valid green cards or through the INS sponsorship database. The exception would be that employers could hire people with valid student visas through the INS database and allow them to convert their student visas into green cards.

23. Jurisdiction Issues

It would be the primary responsibility of the INS to locate and arrest immigrants who are here illegally and initiate deportation proceedings. It would be a secondary responsibility of local law enforcement; they would not refer people for deportation unless they arrested them for offenses other than traffic violations.