I can solve the problem of illegal immigrations simply and easily

[Walt Starr]

Stiff prison senences in the federal pen for employing illegal aliens, 10 years per incident consecutive mandatory minimum whenever the employer fails to follow all INS rules of employment.

Problem solved.

Then you encourage LEGAL immigration and can easily increase the quotas allowed.

[wli]

1. easy route would be precedents saying below min. wage is slavery n/t

[Walt Starr]

3. Paying sub-minimum age is already illegal

and definitely slavery.

[Telly Savalas]

9. Anyone know offhand what the penalty is for violating the minimum wage law

?

I'm guessing it's a bit more than a $20 fine.

Just enforce that law more vigorously. If it turns out the penalty is weak, put some teeth in it.

[Richard Steele]

13. No specifics, but I know it's damn WEAK.

Back in '86 or 87, (right after I was out of HS)
I recall one of my buds was home from college,
and got a summer job at a WaterPark type of place...

They were paying him (and everyone else) $3 an hour, WAAAAY
below "minimum Wage" at the time.

He told me that the Park was charged with violating the
Wage Laws every year...

And, every year, they sent their lawyer
to a 10-minute hearing and plead "guilty on all counts"...

Then the lawyer handed over a check for their FINE,
which was MANY thou$and$ LESS
than it would have cost them
to obey the "minimum wage" laws.

[wli]

18. sounds about like what I've heard n/t

[pitohui]

4. right & slavery is already aga. the law yet not enforced

why is it not enforced

because the punishment seems out of whack, so cops and prosecutors reluctant to enforce, keep in mind most prosecutors have had an illegal fix their roof or mow their lawn, so they have some sympathy for the employer

[pitohui]

2. the main reason it won't work

draconian sentences, or what are perceived as draconian sentences, will cause cops not to arrest, investigators not to investigate

better to have it a mandatory 90 days in the county jail for the employer

this would actually be enforced sufficiently often to serve as a deterrent

don't get me wrong, i like the way yr mind works, but i'm assured that it's the certainty of punishment rather than severity of sentence that serves as deterrent

[Walt Starr]

5. I disagree

Immigration law is federal. There can be no jail sentences, only prison sentences at the federal level. The prosecutors are not the local district attorney, they are the U.S. Attorney, like Fitzgerald.

And that local prosecutor who may employ an illegal alien as his gardener?

A Patrick Fitzgerald would throw the book at him and send him up the river for ten years without blinking an eye if that was the law.

[Igel]

6. We'd also need to make bulletproof IDs.

They're far too easily faked.

But other than that, you'd nail the lion's share of the illegal immigration. Not all, because people would still smuggle in their non-working relatives.

[Walt Starr]

7. Just a couple of things

Being fooled by fake ID's happens, and employers who follow the INS rules would never be prosecuted for being taken in by that. Following the INS rules would result in the forgers being identified eventually.

Non-working illegal alien family members are nowhere near the economic problem that working illegal aiens are. In fact, take care of the problem with those who employ illegal aliens and we could afford to make it easier for legal immigrants to bring in family members.

[havocmom]

8. Yep. That is all it would take. The GOP has no intention of making

employers of illegals go to prison; they would have to go themselves or do without nannies, housekeepers, gardeners...

Of course the real reason employers don't get cuffed and frog marched is the donations to the puppet politicians. They all love cheap labor that can't insist on rights, legal working conditions and so on. The politicians talk one way and then act (or fail to) another. They have no intention of stemming the flow of illegals coming into the country.

[rainy]

10. Every time I listen to Lou Dobbs I can't believe he never

questions the employeers. It's as if they are not allowed to ask who employees these people. They are the ones that should be in trouble.

[Yupster]

11. So how would that work?

I hire a kid to cut my grass who turns out to be illegal, I go to the pen?

A restaurant owner hires a young dishwasher who turns out illegal, he goes to the pen?

A corporation hires an illegal and who goes to the pen? The personnel director?

I think the solution people would come to if this was the law was just never hire anyone who has an accent.

[pitohui]

12. yeah i'm with you

it's an idea & we need ideas but this one ain't the keeper

[Cronus Protagonist]

15. Stop being so sensible

You're embarrassing Walt Starr, or at least IMHO, he should be embarrassed for proposing a Stalinesque xenophobic "solution".

[hunter]

14. Then the bad guys will use labor contractors.

It's pretty common in agriculture and construction.

A large corporation will hire contractors who hire subcontractors who hire illegal aliens. The corporation knows the subs are hiring illegal aliens, but it's not on paper. Most of the subs who hire illegals are living pretty close to the edge anyways, so they are willing to take on the risk of hiring illegal aliens. Generally these subcontractors will vanish into the woodwork rather than pass any legal responsibility up the ladder to the primary contractors or the corporation.

The big shots will still have illegal aliens mowing their lawns and cleaning their toilets, but they will claim they didn't know the agency they were doing business with was hiring illegal aliens.

[Cleita]

16. It won't happen. The same people who make illegal immigration

a wedge issue actually like it. They like the cheap labor and the fact they can dilute the effects of the unions. All those rich people in Texas, Arizona and California like the cheap nannies, gardeners and other disposable employees in the fields, restaurants and other grunt jobs. You don't have to give them benefits or even pay them minimum wage.

The truth is that we can't control our borders, any of them. The fact that they concentrate their propaganda efforts on one border is to tap into the inherent racism of their supporters.

[liberalhistorian]

17. Oh, but...but...but..

but that's LOGICAL, and doesn't allow for racist politician's manipulating public emotions against immigrants. We just can't have that now! :sarcasm:

The business lobby has always worked tirelessly against any kind of regulations on the hiring of illegal immigrants, and their Congressional lapdogs have always kowtowed to them. Besides, it's just easier for the repukes to blame the illegals for everything, instead of holding their best buddies in the corporate world accountable for perpetuating, and even encouraging and recruiting, the cheap labor that illegal immigrants provide.

[1932]

19. We shouldn't criminalize the inevitable consequences of US. frgn. policy

Our frgn policy is designed to make a few people very wealthy and many people very poor.

When most of the taxpayer financed wealth transfer ends up making people who own Bechtel, Brown and Root, and Halliburton very wealthy, we shouldn't be surprised that people in the countries who are poorer as a result end up moving to the cities where those companies are headquartered in order to tirm the hedges and watch the children of the people who are getting really rich from that foreign policy.

I'm not sure criminalizing the symptoms of the problem is the best way to solve the problem.

To me that's like putting millions of black men in jail because we built a domestic economy since the 70's which makes their few alternatives in life include crime and drug use. We should stop criminalizing the consequences of bad policy and start engaging in good policy.

[BikeWriter]

20. Wait a minute here! You aren't suggesting we enforce the laws are you?

:sarcasm:

[ComerPerro]

21. That would work, I really think

It always suprises me how Republicans can campaign so successfuly on anti-immigration platforms while never actually doing anything about it.