I can’t recall hearing any politician, this president, anyone in the government or the media, acknowledge this obvious fact; that were it not for the hiring of illegal immigrants by thousands of this country’s companies, we would not be experiencing this massive immigration problem present in America today.
Talk about a controversial, volatile, polarizing issue; highly emotional opinions abound, but no really effective solutions are offered. This problem involving some 12 million illegal immigrants has been festering for decades and is now the subject of constant debates that produce nothing but anger and frustration between all the parties involved.
And yet the root cause of the problem has been right there in front of the eyes of this government and the politicians and they pretend that they don’t see it; or better stated, they don’t want to see it.
Trying to come up with an accurate figure of exactly how many of these illegals are in this country is not easy but most estimates indicate that there are some 12 million of them currently in this country, the majority of which are in the employ of U.S. companies.
Trump and many other politicians, along with a good many Americans, rant and rave about these illegals and some even refer to them, collectively, as criminals, rapists and murderers; they demand that the government erect massive walls that illegals could never scale nor tunnel under; they call for greatly increasing border patrols and the use of drones; but they can’t seem to comprehend that these measures are little more than band-aids that completely fail to address the underlying causes of the problem.
Who is primarily responsible, who are the guilty parties that are facilitating this steady inflow of illegals into our country? Well, arriving at the answer to that question is not the least bit difficult. Those responsible, the guilty parties, are none other than the huge number of U.S. companies that clearly break existing laws by hiring these illegal workers. I saw one estimate that indicated that there are over 7,000 of these companies.
The other equally responsible and guilty party is our government in Washington. Its officials are charged with the responsibility to enforce the immigration laws and guidelines for monitoring these activities and punishing those who knowingly and deliberately violate them. They simply aren’t doing it to the degree necessary.
What we have here is a classic example of the law of supply and demand. These U.S. companies provide the demand and the illegal aliens satisfy and fill that demand. If the demand for cheap labor of illegals were not there then the supply would eventually dry up. But do we hear this president, Donald Trump or any other politician talk about the need for these companies to adhere to the immigration laws?
These U.S. companies, many of whom are very large, want cheap labor and they don’t want to give workers health or other benefits; they want to employ workers who are desperate and will work for slave wages; they know how to attract them and have no intention of ending this practice, largely because they know that this government is not giving this problem the top priority it should receive.
This scenario is similar to that which has been going on with white collar criminals on Wall Street; those that break laws and regulations to fleece the American people with their devious schemes and scams; those that the Security and Exchange Commission, the Congress, the Attorney General and this president have refused to bring to justice. The U.S. government, quite apparently, has no inclination to expose some of the most successful companies in America for the illegal hiring that they do.
These companies who hire illegals have as their objective the maximization of profits just as other global U.S. corporations have when they outsource American workers’ jobs to take advantage of cheap Chinese labor. Instead of employing U.S. workers these companies wants dirt-cheap labor from Mexico and other South American countries.
So now let’s talk about what must be done to address and solve this problem.
The U.S. agency directly responsible for enforcing our immigration laws is the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, known as ICE, whose primary mission is “to promote homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade and immigration. This mission is executed through the enforcement of more than 400 federal statutes and focuses on smart immigration enforcement, preventing terrorism and combating the illegal movement of people and goods.”
Check out this website that identifies those laws that are most pertinent to this issue. It’s noteworthy that the fines that apply to an employer who violates any one of these laws are between $2,000 and $3,000 for each illegal hired. This minimal enforcement and the resultant token fines have done little to nothing to mitigate this growing problem; Some companies have been fined as much as $500,000, but ICE gives most of them no more than a slap on the wrist when it should be bringing the hammer down.
Here’s an interesting site, wehirealiens.com, whose purpose is to expose those U.S. employers who are alleged to be employing illegal aliens. If you choose the prompt “Illegal Employers” you can bring up lists of various employers by city, state or regions in this country who are known to be hiring illegals.
It’s time to put an end to this government’s procrastination with strongly dealing with these egregious lawbreakers. There is no longer any question that this immigration problem lies with the companies who hire illegals; then what should be done?
It’s time to enact new laws to severely punish the companies involved and make them subject to prosecution for committing fraud, with fines beginning at $250,000 and going up into the millions of dollars. These companies must be made to realize that these practices will no longer be tolerated and if they refuse to adhere to the laws they will incur huge costs which will continue to be levied until they end their illegal practices.
Now what to do with the 12 million or so of these illegals who are already in this country? Well, it makes no sense to try to deport all of them. While many may disagree it is my feeling that those already here should be allowed to stay with the exception of any who present some kind of threat this society; those should be deported. As far as a path to citizenship, a very complex issue, that’s beyond the scope of this discussion.
So all the fighting, arguing, and endless debating can continue but it won’t solve this problem. The spotlight needs to be turned on the U.S. government to the extent that those in Congress and the White House must come to the realization that ICE must be completely overhauled; that immigration laws and the resources by which to enforce them must be greatly strengthened.
There should be a totally different strategy in dealing with and solving this immigration dilemma. Those companies that continue to flaunt the law of the land relative to this issue must be thought of as a distinct danger to this country. No more slaps on the wrist; they need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the laws that cover fraudulent business practices. They must be assessed extremely heavy fines for their egregious violations.
And if a great many of these companies are driven out of business then that’s exactly what must happen; they will get exactly what they deserve for the damage they have done to this country. The lesson to be learned from all of this is that, in the future, immigration laws must prevail and determine who can enter this country; not the companies who believe they possess the right to make those decisions.
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