Immigration Reform, Part IV

There should be four different reasons why we should allow an immigrant into this country. The first is for supplying workers at 100% of prevailing wage. The goal is to supply the most qualified workers for employers at a wage that is fair for all concerned.

The second goal of immigration policy should be the creation of jobs. Immigrants start their own businesses that employ people at a rate disproprotionate to the American population. We should encourage and reward this sort of behavior, whether they start a small mom and pop operation, or a multimillion dollar enterprise which hires hundreds or thousands of people.

The third is the reunion of families. In many cases, the problem with our immigration policy is that it splits families so that some family members are stuck here and others are stuck back in their home country. We should reform our policy so that it reunites families that have been separated.

The fourth is the provision of a place of refuge for people around the world. While we can only harbor a finite amount of people, we still have the resources to harbor many more economic and political refugees from other countries than we do now. Our country was founded as a place of refuge for people who could no longer live in their old countries for political and economic reasons; our economic and political vitality as a nation depends on our ability to stay true to this ideal.

What we would do under #4 is to use the State Department's human rights reports to classify countries as Free, Partially Free, or Not Free. Those from countries classified as Not Free would be admitted to this country upon sponsorship from a valid tax-exempt organization. Applications from persons living in coutries classified as partially free would be judged on each individual circumstance. Economic refugees would be evaluated on their economic status and whether they were making money below their host country's poverty levels. Applicants from these categories would be given priority in the employer sponsorship program described below should they choose to apply for that in addition to economic refugee status.

Refugees would be granted a temporary renewable two-year visa under this plan. They could convert it to a green card under the employer sponsorship program described below. However, if they do not, then after the two-year program is up, the INS would determine whether the refugee visa should be renewed. If they find that they should not, then they would have the burden of proof of showing before an immigration court that the changing circumstances in the refugee's home country no longer warrant economic hardship or political refugee status. The refugee would be able to defend themselves in court and call witnesses.

There would be five broad policy goals under this plan.

Border Security

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.

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.

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.

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 subsequent to the passage of this law, 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. Persons who overstayed prior to enactment of this law would be covered under the illegal entry provisions.

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.

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.

Penalties for Unlawful Entry

Fair and reasonable penalties.

Penalties for illegal immigration should depend on each individual circumstance. Those who come here to work hard and play by the rules should be given high expectations and asked to live up to them. Those who come here for the purpose of committing other crimes should be deported.

All people who overstay their visas or who enter the country illegally 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.

Furthermore, illegal immigrants should be required to choose between seeking higher-paying employment (or maintaining it if they are making 100% or more of prevailing wage), joining a union (if the EFCA passes), attending college or technical school, enlisting in the military (if they meet enlistment requirements), or performing community service at the local or national levels in a court-approved program.

Once their cases were adjudicated by the courts, if they were allowed to stay in this country, they would then be required to proceed to the nearest point of entry (see below) to be processed.

Instead of these penalties and probationary conditions, persons could choose to leave for their home countries and file for entry under normal requirements. Persons who subsequently illegally entered this country or overstayed their visas (second offense or more) could be barred entry to this country for a period of anywhere from 1-10 years or permanently, depending on each individual circumstances.

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.

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.

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 specified above should be deported.

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.

Creation and Protection of American Jobs

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.

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.

In addition, we should pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easy for any worker to sign a union card and become a union member and be entitled to union representation. This law would apply to any immigrants with a valid green card in this country in addition to US citizens.

Legalization of Pot.

The legalization of Pot would create more jobs by creating two entire new industries that would create millions of new jobs. It would create a hemp industry as well as a pot industry, which would be taxed and regulated similar to the alcohol and tobacco industries. It would thus bring up wages in this country by forcing employers to compete for prospective employees and thus counteract any downward pressure on wages that immigrants bring.

Alternative Energy and High Speed Rail

In conjunction with the legalization of pot, this would provide millions of jobs (and consequently drive up wages) as well as save energy. Jobs would be created through wind farms, solar panels, and people that would be needed to maintain them; there would also be many construction jobs for the proposed high-speed rail lines as well. There would be jobs created through the manufacturing of components for this infrastructure as well as drivers and employees for the rail services. And on top of that, this new infrastructure would bring hundreds of thousands of dollars to schools (tax base) and landowners (from annual payments from wind farm companies). This would mean that it would once again be profitable for people to create mom and pop businesses from the proceeds of these wind farms (creating more jobs), or start small farms.

Cracking down on wage suppression

Laws against wage suppression.

There should be crimes of wage suppression. Wage suppression would constitute the dismissal of 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.

Corporations who engaged in the crime of enticement or of hiring a prospective immigrant outside the government database system set up for that purpose (see below) would be fined $2,200 per illegal immigrant (that is about how much each illegal immigrant collects from the government on average) that they hired or the entire amount of the costs of that immigrant's welfare payments for each illegal immigrant that they entice to this country, whichever is greater. Proceeds from these fines would go towards the reimbursement of the appropriate governmental agencies.

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 100% of prevailing wage for the area. These wages would be reevaluated every 18 months and adjusted accordingly. There would be laws creating the crime of wage suppression (see above).

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 go to immigration centers set up at each of our points of entry to the US (includes all seaports, airports, and border entry points). There, they 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. They would also be photographed, fingerprinted, and tested for communicable diseases and given valid identification.

This program would eliminate all temporary work visa programs under current law. The reason for that is that temporary work programs similar to the ones that Bush proposes create a form of indentured servitude, where the employer would have the power to deport an immigrant who tried to work for fair working conditions.

In addition, all per-country quotas would be eliminated as well. The goal would be to equalize waiting times as much as possible between countries as well as eliminate arbitrary rules.

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.

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.

Development of Economies in Original Countries to Prevent Immigration.

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.

Peace Corps Expansion.

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

Food Policy.

With the rising cost of food around the world, it is vitally important to create conditions that slow or reverse the recent rise in food prices that would create economic hardships for people and thus trigger more immigration. Policies should include the funding for alternative ethanol programs that do not involve corn, as well as policies that benefit the greatest number of poor people in greatest need in the third world as well as countries which have high numbers of immigrants to the US.
You can read more about food policy here.