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May 4, 2006

Quick Take On Immigration Reform

Without having done much research on the subject, I'll just say that I think any reform having to do with increasing legal immigration has to envolve punishing the companies that hire illegal immigrants, whether knowingly or not. A parallel step would be raising the minimum wage and making sure that that's being followed. I agree with Brian's point; shifting resources to increase the deportation rate of illegal immigrants is not an attempt to fix the problems that enticed and enabled them to skirt the system. And enabling "common-law" naturalization after a certain length of time discourages honesty.

Businesses in certain markets have already proven they'll rely on workers willing to take low-wage jobs. I doubt they'll reform in the absense of public scrutiny and government action.

Posted by Alex Harden on May 4, 2006 10:43 PM |

Comments

It's hard to respect those who disregard the laws of a country, come to that country illegally, and then protest about the laws of the country. There aren't a lot of countries were you can get away with something like that without getting shot.

Posted by: jaboobie | May 6, 2006 4:38 PM

I'm definitely not wanting us to take the "illegal" out of "illegal immigrant". I just don't want the government to grant automatic citizenship to any of them without attempting to address the most likely root causes of their ability/desire to stay off the books.

Posted by: aharden | May 7, 2006 8:27 PM

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