How Much Are Businesses at Fault for Illegal Immigration?

A journal in Oregon raises the notion that employers are at the root of the immigration problem. Now, we all realize that the lack of secure borders is also at the root of our problems, but he raises a good point.

Companies including major industrial manufacturers can get away with terrible conditions: unsafe environments, dangerous equipment, unergonomic motions, and other situations where the normal legal American would and should complain about. But your local friendly neighborhood illegal alien will gladly work in those conditions for more hours and less pay. After all, they came here illegally with basically the clothes on their back - and they need the money!

We should let these poor, helpless, innocent “undocumented workers” make a living like everyone else! Right? Well, as a recent raid in a Portland business taught us, many of the illegal aliens have criminal records. Crime is bad enough in many parts of America - we don’t need any more from down south.

Here is his solution:

“Our federal government could solve the problem without amnesty. All it must do is secure our borders and crack down on corrupt employers.

First, the government should secure the border by constructing the 800-mile fence authorized last year by Congress and signed into law by President Bush.

Second, Congress should change our tax laws to prohibit employers from deducting wages of illegal workers. Employers will be forced to choose between higher income taxes or hiring legal workers. In the Oregon Legislature, a bill has been introduced (House Bill 2715) that would prohibit the deduction of wages paid to employees who have not had their Social Security numbers verified. At present this critical bill sits dying in committee.

The federal government has already created an Employment Eligibility Verification Program that allows employers to instantly verify legal presence before hiring. Available on a voluntary basis, more than 17,000 employers are now using it successfully.

If employers decide to stop hiring illegal workers, they would have few choices but to self-deport.”

Employers are at the root of immigration problem
LEE VASCHE
Statesman Journal Opinion Section
June 17, 2007