The government’s enforcement only policy has really thrown a spanner into immigration reform.
It was only a matter of time before someone stepped back and looked at what was really going on in the government. On one hand they laud immigration reform, say they will push for it, make noises about doing it and then, nothing happens. On the other hand, they push hard for enforcement only, and that has had some nasty repercussions in many industries across the nation. Raid a dairy, a fruit farm, a vegetable producer or another business that needs many laborers and what do you get? Illegal aliens, because Americans who live here, who complain there is no work, will not do the work.
It doesn’t take too much of a stretch of imagination to understand that this almost rabid enforcement only dictum is making America’s immigration problems even worse – it that were possible, and it is. It appears that thanks to the way Congress setup E-Verify, it is wide open to fraud. For instance, more than half of the illegal workers checked in the system popped up as okay to work in the U.S. How?
The reason makes for an interesting back story. In 1986, Congress said it was illegal to hire illegal immigrants, demanded companies ask for the paperwork that said they were legal. On the surface, not a bad idea, except for the fact that a hugely busy black market was formed that marketed fake Social Security cards. Let’s face it. Where there is a will to find work to support your family, there is a way to do it, despite what the law says.
Flash forward ten years, to 1996 and E-Verify, supposedly designed to only accept legitimate Social Security numbers. Say hello to identity theft. Making E-Verify a mandatory program just made the problem worse. The simple fact is that if illegal aliens want work and intend to find it, they will find out how to do that, no matter what. The other fact that most politicians seem to be either ignoring, or hoping it will go away, is that there are numerous industries in the U.S. that need immigrant labor.
What goes around comes around. If the government continues to enforce in the same manner, and the labor markets dry up , it will only create other avenues of fraud to circumvent the system. And that accomplishes what? It doesn’t accomplish anything, except putting industries in a perilous financial situation, not being able to move their produce or product. Americans won’t do the work. So who else will? The answer is undocumented aliens, and they know the work is here and will do anything they need to do to get a job, which begs the question of why Americans don’t do the same thing, since they say they need work.
If we want to drive more workers underground into off-the-books employment, continued enforcement only will be the straw that broke the camel’s back. It will also mean about $17.3 billion in lost tax revenues over a ten year period. If the economy is bad, and legal immigration will help fix it, what’s the hold up?
Sally Odell – Rifkin & Fox-Isicoff, PA is an immigration lawyer in Miami with immigration law offices in Orlando and Miami Florida. To learn more, visit http://www.rifkinandfoxisicoff.com.
