Immigration

A thought occurred to me this morning: If we really want to do something about illegal immigration, then we pass a law requiring employers to pay undocumented workers double the minimum wage. After all, as we have learned from the "war on drugs," if the demand is there, then there will be a supply. We have to cut off the demand.

As it stands, employers can hire illegal immigrants, pay them slave labor wages, give them abominable working conditions, and the government will do nothing about it. Yes, it's illegal to hire undocumented workers, but who is enforcing that law? No one. The employers own the Republican Party, so they control the government. Therefore, George W. Bush wants to grant amnesty and institute a "guest worker" program. Right.

The reason they are hiring illegals is because they save money that way. Never mind the American citizens who are thrown out of work and therefore can't buy the products made by these employers. That's a different argument. So what I'm proposing is to make it more cost-effective to hire legal workers--Americans and legal immigrants.

Of course, that isn't all that needs to be done. I heard on Air America Radio this morning that what (else) is needed is to put pressure on the Mexican government to clean up its act and straighten out their economy. Jimmy Smits's character on "The West Wing" made the same argument. There needs to be a strong Mexican economy so that workers won't have an incentive to leave to find a decent life.

Amen to that, too.