The Way Ahead: Illegal Immigration-continued

They look like they'll assimilate and follow our laws!

Enforce our Laws/Make new Ones: After considering all of these factors, the state of Arizona has declared that they won’t take it anymore. They have chosen to enforce the federal law that the Federal Government won’t. A Rasmussen Poll shows that 60% of Americans agree with Arizona, but politicians in sanctuary cities like, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego are calling for a boycott. Liberal cities far from the border in Austin, TX and Chicago, IL are admonishing AZ for taking a stand. Socialists (Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security) at the highest levels of the U.S. government are condemning the government of Arizona for its efforts to curb a national problem without even having read the short bill. Lastly, the president of Mexico has condemned the Arizona law and warned his citizens against travel to AZ…really? There have been more people killed on the MX/US border in the last few years than in Somalia, Yemen or even Afghanistan, and you are warning people not to visit AZ because they might get their I.D. checked? So, this boycott idea… I’d like to dig a bit deeper. What if by some small miracle, the U.S. government decided to enforce its own immigration law? Would these people call for a boycott of the United States of America? I say we boycott Mexico. Why should we continue to pour billions of hard earned American dollars into a government that is in bed with the drug cartels? There will be no change on the other side of the border until they feel the squeeze that will inevitably come from not having American tourism dollars.

No More Anchor Babies: Section 1 of the 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction there of, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ---Important parts are in bold for the context of this discussion. The original intent of the 14^th Amendment was to protect the rights of freed slaves and their children. The 14^th Amendment overruled Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), which held that slaves and their descendants were not citizens of the United States and were not entitled to Constitutional rights. This law has been perverted to give instant citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. Amending the constitution to close this loophole will dramatically reduce the force of the magnetic field that seemingly pulls people across the border.

Abolish the minimum wage: Minimum wage legislation is another entitlement program. If a worker is not capable of a certain dollar amount of work per hour, why should he be paid for that? Abolishing the minimum wage will let the free market determine a worker’s compensation. How does this affect immigration? Well, let’s take a look. If an expanding small business man has an opening for a low skilled job in a warehouse, he is currently required to pay a minimum amount for the work being done. Let’s say he is willing to work “outside the law” on this one, he can pay an illegal worker less than minimum wage “off the books” and he avoids paying minimum wage. As before, this money is not being taxed and some of it is getting sent back to the country of origin, and we have another employed illegal success story increasing the magnetic force that attracts illegals to this country. On the other hand, let’s say the employer is a law abiding citizen, but cannot afford to pay another employee minimum wage. So he has several options: 1) He could give one of his skilled employees a few dollars more per hour to take on the extra work that would have been performed by the low skilled guy, 2) He could get rid of a higher paid employee, and higher two lower paid ones to increase his man power 3) He could decide not to expand because the extra labor costs outweigh the increased income from productivity. This is a simple illustration of how minimum wage laws hamper small business and hurt the low skilled workers they are supposed to be helping. Without the “price fixing” of labor by the government, the workforce is free to negotiate payment terms with employers. Paying illegals “off the books” at a rate below what Americans are willing to work for is a form of slavery. The punishment for hiring illegals should be stiff. I recommend punishing fines and a “Scarlet Letter” of some kind that lets the community know that you’d rather encourage illegal immigration of low skilled workers than give back to the community through honest business practices and operating within FEDERAL LAW. Additionally, when state and federal law makers raise the minimum wage, where do you think that money comes from? When the cashier’s pay goes up, so do the prices in the store. Now, the cashier has to pay more money for his own groceries. With the abolishment of the minimum wage, prices for goods and services can more closely follow the economic forces of supply and demand instead of government regulations. For some myth busting thoughts on Minimum Wage, I include the excerpt below from a blog entry on Nick Coon’s blog ... don’t know the guy, but like his thoughts on this topic:

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12/15/2009

Minimum wage is one of those things that seems like a good idea to many people initially, but then backfires. Many people don't even understand the consequences of this.
Here are a few minimum wage myths that need debunking:
1) Without minimum wage, people won't be paid what they're worth / will be underpaid.
What someone is worth depends on what wage they secure in the free market, just like the value of real estate is based on what someone will pay for it. If the most someone can find for a job is $2/hr, then that's what they're worth.

2) Minimum wage makes it so that someone can at least hope to make enough money to survive, whereas otherwise they couldn't.
Businesses don't just magically have more money available for payroll just because a minimum wage is instituted. What happens instead, as minimum wage increases, businesses have to pay people more than what they're worth. This results in the business having to layoff some workers to free up enough cash to pay those still on staff. The end result is that there are now more unemployed workers because the business can't afford them. It must either make do with the staff it can afford or go out of business, putting all of its employees out of work.
Minimum wage is meant to make it so that those at the lower end of the income scale make a better living, when in fact it results in a higher unemployment rate among that same income class.

3) Without minimum wage, the days of sweatshops would return.
Perhaps, though no one is forced to work in such an environment. An employer should be free to offer a job at a $0.50/hr wage, just as a worker is free to turn it down.

4) Minimum wage helps increase the quality of life for those in lower income brackets.
Not at all. If a business is forced to pay its workers more, the money has to come from somewhere. In most cases, this is in the form of increased prices for goods and services. Someone making more money because of minimum wage only ends up spending more to buy the items they need to survive, ending right back where they started.
If I were an employer that wanted to offer someone $1/hr to perform a particular job, and someone wanted to accept that offer, why should anyone stand in the way of that mutually-consenting agreement?

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Fair Tax: Abolish the IRS and do away with the Federal Income tax. Institute the Fair Tax! I have already written on this topic and would encourage all to read about this and make sure your elected officials know how you feel about it. The increased revenue realized from the Fair Tax is exactly what our country needs to climb out of this debt hole. When money is tight in your life, you have several options, figure out how to spend less, earn more, or both. The Fair Tax will give us more money. This increase in revenue in conjunction with massive spending and program cuts is the prescription for a wealthier America.

Final thoughts on the undocumented: If you try to enter a movie, sporting event, or concert without a ticket, they won’t let you. If you get caught sneaking in, you don’t get offered a voucher for the concession stand and a comfortable seat. If someone tries to board a U.S. Navy vessel (sovereign U.S. territory) without proper authorization, deadly force is authorized to prevent them. How is the actual land within the borders of the United States of America any different? The truth of the matter is the Left sees a larger population of low skilled, uneducated immigrants (legal and otherwise) as a future voting base. The dream one day to provide amnesty to this base will instantly give the left millions upon millions of votes. Others see this as helping another human in need. This is where my biggest struggle with this issue lies. Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves. However, he also said to “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”-Mark 12:17. In Mark, Jesus is telling us to pay the taxes the government needs to operate and follow the laws of the land. Our nation has laws, laws that must be followed to maintain good order and discipline within our borders. Some of these laws need to be changed, abolished, or replaced, but ignoring laws cannot be an accepted practice in our established judicial, legislative, or executive processes. Additionally, in Matthew 15:4-6, Jesus admonished the Pharisees for giving to the Church before ensuring that their own families were taken care of. I liken this to our need to make sure that Americans are fed and cared for before those in our country illegally. If that means limiting the legal flow, so be it. Nobody said keeping America headed in the right direction would be easy.

BMP