Immigration- A Law not A Wall

Posted By Uncle Jimbo

The main objection to McCain from many on the right is his support for immigration reform that includes recognition of the fact we are not going to deport 12M people. Allah at Hot Air notes:

MM told me last me night she was shocked to find that even among the anti-amnesty stalwarts of the Malkin readership, 57% are still willing to pull the lever for Maverick next year if it comes to that.

His support for amnesty is suppsoed to make him apostate because any amnesty is bad. Now everyone is free to hold any opinion they want, but if the goal is to actually make our borders more secure and take control of who is in our country, then you need to look at whether your positions and tactics are helping that.

There are two issues in play here, the physical security of the borders themselves and the enforcement mechanisms to deal with those who are trying to or have bypassed our physical security. If we did either one of these well that would solve the problem, as it is we do both excrementally. We are not going to physically secure our borders in a way that makes them impregnable, so we need to decide what a border barrier is intended to do.

Right now if you look at our border from the South all you see is green lights, and a few scattered yellows but no reds. There are two purported reasons to create a physical barrier on this border, one to stop drug smugglers and terrorists from sneaking bad things and themselves into the country. There is no way to deter this behavior with legislation or regulation. The second is to stop economically-motivated illegal immigrants from simply walking in. These people can be deterred by the difficulty of the actual border crossing, but even more effectively by enforcing laws against hiring illegal immigrants. We have been using a nudge, nudge, wink, wink enforcement methodology and consequently have 12M people here doing the jobs Americans won't do at reduced wages.

Now if we make our Southern border impregnable that would stop almost all of the economic immigrants, but the drug smugglers and terrorists would simply have to find another way in. The odds of us fencing our border with the Republic of Canadia are near zero and given their immigrant-friendly policies we would simply shift the real danger from South to North or to our porous ports. Any terrorist worth their salt ought to be able to get a student visa anyhow so physical barriers are not the solution to the most dangerous people trying to sneak in.

So we can stop the economic immigrants with a good wall, but is that the best way? There have been quite a few places around the country where laws have been enacted making it illegal to hire or rent to illegal immigrants. Shockingly when these laws have been enforced the illegals have packed up and left.

If these policies were followed around the country the problem of economic illegals would be solved. But for every place that enacts these laws there is a Berkeley or San Francisco declaring itself a Sanctuary city. To be effective employer enforcement needs to be nationwide and therefore federal law. Since Congress is solidly Democratic that is not going to happen absent some sort of compromise that gives them something they want.

Quick review, a wall in the South would stop economic illegals but not terrorists. Employer enforcement would stop illegals without the wall. So we don't need a national wall we need a national law. To get a national law we need a compromise that gives the Democrats something they want, and they want amnesty for the folks who are already here. Now everybody whose head just exploded chill out. Seriously relax for a second and listen.

We more or less invited these people into our restaurant kitchens and onto our lawns. We do not have the national will to deport 12 M and we cannot get a national employer enforcement program without a compromise. We don't even really know how many illegals we have. The answer is to combine an employer enforcement program with a registration, background check and path to citizenship AMNESTY program. Anyone with felony convictions, uh buh bye, productive citizens, welcome to life as a taxpayer. You eliminate the underground economy, you identify the bad guys and kick them out, and you remove the incentive for economic illegals. Where is the downside?

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Immigration- A Law not A Wall

The main objection to McCain from many on the right is his support for immigration reform that includes recognition of the fact we are not going to deport 12M people. Allah at Hot Air notes:

MM told me last me night she was shocked to find that even among the anti-amnesty stalwarts of the Malkin readership, 57% are still willing to pull the lever for Maverick next year if it comes to that.

His support for amnesty is suppsoed to make him apostate because any amnesty is bad. Now everyone is free to hold any opinion they want, but if the goal is to actually make our borders more secure and take control of who is in our country, then you need to look at whether your positions and tactics are helping that.

There are two issues in play here, the physical security of the borders themselves and the enforcement mechanisms to deal with those who are trying to or have bypassed our physical security. If we did either one of these well that would solve the problem, as it is we do both excrementally. We are not going to physically secure our borders in a way that makes them impregnable, so we need to decide what a border barrier is intended to do.

Right now if you look at our border from the South all you see is green lights, and a few scattered yellows but no reds. There are two purported reasons to create a physical barrier on this border, one to stop drug smugglers and terrorists from sneaking bad things and themselves into the country. There is no way to deter this behavior with legislation or regulation. The second is to stop economically-motivated illegal immigrants from simply walking in. These people can be deterred by the difficulty of the actual border crossing, but even more effectively by enforcing laws against hiring illegal immigrants. We have been using a nudge, nudge, wink, wink enforcement methodology and consequently have 12M people here doing the jobs Americans won't do at reduced wages.

Now if we make our Southern border impregnable that would stop almost all of the economic immigrants, but the drug smugglers and terrorists would simply have to find another way in. The odds of us fencing our border with the Republic of Canadia are near zero and given their immigrant-friendly policies we would simply shift the real danger from South to North or to our porous ports. Any terrorist worth their salt ought to be able to get a student visa anyhow so physical barriers are not the solution to the most dangerous people trying to sneak in.

So we can stop the economic immigrants with a good wall, but is that the best way? There have been quite a few places around the country where laws have been enacted making it illegal to hire or rent to illegal immigrants. Shockingly when these laws have been enforced the illegals have packed up and left.

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