Does anyone seriously think that Sealing the borders is a real solution?

Question

Or is it just a Billion Dollar Band Aid?

Answer 1

The reality is that we don't have an "Illegal Immigration" problem in America. We have an "Illegal Employer" problem.

Yet it's almost never mentioned in the mainstream media, because to point it out could slightly reduce the profits and CEO salaries of many of America's largest multi-state and multinational corporations - who both own the media and contribute heavily to conservative politicians. Republicans would prefer that the "criminals" covered in the press are working people, and that corporate and CEO criminals not get discussed.

Encouraging a rapid increase in the workforce by encouraging companies to hire non-citizens is one of the three most potent tools conservatives since Ronald Reagan have used to convert the American middle class into the American working poor. (The other two are destroying the governmental protections that keep labor unions viable, and ending tariffs while promoting trade deals like NAFTA/WTO/GATT that export manufacturing jobs.)

For example, when Nike began manufacturing shoes in Third World countries with labor costs below US labor costs, it didn't lead to $15 Nikes - their price held, and even increased, because the market would bear it. Instead, that reduction in labor costs led to Nike CEO Phil Knight becoming a multi-billionaire.)

Republicans understand this very, very well, although they never talk about it.

The fact is that we had an open border with Mexico for several centuries, and "illegal immigration" was never a serious problem. Before Reagan's presidency, an estimated million or so people a year came into the US from Mexico - and the same number, more or less, left the US for Mexico at the end of the agricultural harvest season. Very few stayed, because there weren't jobs for them.

Non-citizens didn't have access to the non-agricultural US job market, in large part because of the power of US labor unions (before Reagan 25% of the workforce was unionized; today the private workforce is about 7% unionized), and because companies were unwilling to risk having non-tax-deductible labor expenses on their books by hiring undocumented workers without valid Social Security numbers.

But Reagan put an end to that. His 1986 amnesty program, combined with his aggressive war on organized labor (begun in 1981), in effect told both employers and non-citizens that there would be few penalties and many rewards to increasing the US labor pool (and thus driving down wages) with undocumented immigrants. A million people a year continued to come across our southern border, but they stopped returning to Latin America every fall because instead of seasonal work they were able to find permanent jobs.

The magnet drawing them? Illegal Employers.

Yet in the American media, Illegal Employers are almost never mentioned.

Lou Dobbs, the most visible media champion of this issue, always starts his discussion of the issue with a basic syllogism - 1. Our border is porous. 2. People are coming across our porous border and diluting our labor markets, driving down US wages. 3. Therefore we must make the border less porous.

Lou's syllogism, however, ignores the real problem, the magnet drawing people to risk life and limb to illegally enter this country - Illegal Employers. Our borders have always been porous (and even with a "fence" will still allow through "tourists" by the millions), but we've never had a problem like this before.

And it's not just because poverty has increased in Mexico - today, about half of Mexico lives on less than $2 a day, but 50 years ago half of Mexico also lived on the equivalent of $2 today. Our trade and agricultural policies are harmful to Mexican farmers (and must be changed!), but we were nearly as predatory fifty years ago (remember the rubber and fruit companies, particularly in Central America?).

Yet fifty years ago we didn't have an "illegal immigration" problem, because back then we didn't have a conservative "Illegal Employer" problem

The hiring crimes of Illegal Employers are being ignored by the law, and rewarded by the economic systems of the nation.

Proof that this simple reality is ignored in our media (much to the delight of Republicans) is everywhere you look. For example, check out a series of national polls on illegal immigration done over the past year at
http://www.pollingreport.com/immigration...

Only the CNN poll asked the question: "Would you favor increasing penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants?" Two-thirds of Americans, of all party affiliations, said, "Yes," but it went virtually unreported in mainstream media coverage.

"Illegal Immigration" is really about "Illegal Employers." As long as Democrats argue it on the basis of "illegal immigration" they'll lose, even when they're right. Instead, they need to be talking about "Illegal Employers."

Politically, it's not a civil rights issue, it's a jobs issue, as working Americans keep telling pollsters over and over again.

"Mass deportations" and "Fences" are hysterics and false choices. Start penalizing "Illegal Employers"
and non-citizens without a Social Security number will leave the country on their own.
And they won't have to confront death trying to cross the desert back into Mexico - Mexican citizens can simply walk back into Mexico across the border at any legal border crossing (as about a million did every year for over a century).

Easy, simple, cheap, painless. No fence required. No mass deportations necessary. No need for Homeland Security to get involved. When jobs are not available, most undocumented workers will simply leave the country (as they always did before), or begin the normal process to obtain citizenship that millions go through each year.

Now even Bush is talking like the Republicans in the House of Representatives - time to "get tough" and give Halliburton a few hundred billion to build a fence.

But still nobody is talking about the real problem here - the Illegal Employers.

Answer 2

I'm not an expert, but why do you call it a Band Aid? If the border is sealed (truly sealed), doesn't that permanently solve the problem? How can illegals keep flowing in if the border is sealed?

And it wouldn't be like Berlin because we'd be free to come and go as we please, only the illegals wouldn't.

Answer 3

No....it's like trying to build the Great Wall of China...It will be a great historical landmark but of no f-ing value come a hundred yrs. from now...or maybe 50. I think better scanning devices would be better. BTW: Big business and business in general-private sector- has become to dependent on the immigrant workforce and will use lobbyists to stop border barriers. We better find a better cost-effective solution quickly....and I know I don't have the answer to that.

Answer 4

absolutely a step in the right direction !!! and as far as it being a billion dollar band aid i doubt it , If look at how much illegals cost this country a year its a bargain that if done right will pay huge dividends as far as the comparison to the Berlin wall the difference there was they were trying to keep people in we are trying to keep them out . nonetheless the Berlin wall was very affective and a us/Mexico wall could be too just in reverse.

Answer 5

I think it's better then nothing. As for the "billion dollar" all I can say is i'd feel better about spending a billion there then on pointless never-ending wars in the middle east.

Answer 6

if terrorists want to get into our country they will, "sealing" the border is a joke. Maine alone has several hundred miles of border with Canada, mostly in wilderness regions where one can cross at will. requiring passports to go to Canada or Mexico does little more than insult our friendly neighbors to our north and south.

Answer 7

It's an easy solution to a complicated question. Ya gotta luv simple minds.

Answer 8

It's a start. The real point is you don't want a solution. Get legal, learn English, assimilate or get the hell out of my country.

Answer 9

It's only part of the solution and at least gives INS better control.

Answer 10

More like a trillion dollars, but it makes us Berlin.