Thread: Billions to seal borders hasn't slowed illegals

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Billions to seal borders hasn't slowed illegals
Wednesday, December 7, 2005

By ELIZABETH LLORENTE
STAFF WRITER


A mammoth increase in border patrol funding has not slowed illegal immigration because U.S. demand for labor has stayed strong, according to a series of studies released Tuesday by a leading national migration group.

The group, which issued four major reports on illegal immigration for the Migration Policy Institute, said the U.S. government must establish a more effective system for verifying the employment eligibility of prospective workers. At the same time, the group said, the United States needs to revise its work visa program to both accommodate American labor needs and make it easier for foreigners to fill that demand legally.

"The experience of the past 10 years demonstrates that border enforcement alone has not been enough," said Doris Meissner, a former immigration commissioner and now the director of the expert panel that produced the studies. "More robust interior enforcement combined with border control and a practical system for new work visas to meet the ongoing labor needs of U.S. employers are inseparable elements of a well-functioning immigration system."

The number of illegal immigrants living in the United States has risen to 11 million from about four million 20 years ago, the authors say, although funding for border patrol programs increased in that same period from $700 million to $2.8 billion per year. Funds for the detention and removal of foreign nationals also rose, from $192 million to $1.6 billion.

Yet not nearly as much was invested in pursuing illegal immigrants who are already living in the United States, according to an MPI analysis of appropriations from 1985 to 2002. Funds for so-called interior enforcement rose from $109 million to $458 million, they say.

"We've been throwing money at the border, but it hasn't stopped people from coming," said Tamar Jacoby, one of the authors and a Manhattan Institute senior fellow whose specialty is immigration. "The place to have impact on controlling illegal immigration is at the workplace.

"If you want to stop your kids on the way to the cookie jar, the best way to do that is stand at the cookie jar, instead of having a checkpoint at every door that leads to the cookie jar."

Many proponents of stricter enforcement argue that employers fuel the illegal immigration problem because hiring illegal workers enables them to pay lower salaries, and often to cut corners on providing benefits.

The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act made it illegal for employers to knowingly hire illegal immigrants. The law worked for a few years, contributing to a 50 percent decline in the three years after its passage in the number of foreigners arrested by immigration officials and slated for deportation.

"There is considerable evidence that this reduction was partly a result of employer sanctions serving as a deterrent," said Marc Rosenblum, the author of the MPI's "Immigration Enforcement at the Worksite: Making It Work."

But eventually, he said, employers and employees learned to circumvent the law. Counterfeiters produced more sophisticated documents, and employers viewed the government fines - which range from $100 to $1,000 per unauthorized immigrant, and up to $10,000 for major violations - as an "acceptable business expense," Rosenblum said.

At present, employers have more than 25 documents - an overwhelming and confusing amount - from which they can choose to verify legal status in the United States, Jacoby said. Many also are ill-equipped to distinguish counterfeit documents from valid ones, she added.

Jacoby said the government needs to streamline the number of acceptable identification forms an employer can request to four. The government also needs to make sure these documents are tamper-proof, she said.

"I would suggest a counterfeit-proof green card, temporary work card, driver's license and Social Security card - any one of those," she said. "That avoids the issue of a national ID card."

Such a streamlining of ID documents, she said, should come hand in hand with a database of people who are authorized to work in the United States that an employer can use to verify employment eligibility.

Beyond that, the American economy does not have enough legal workers willing or able to meet its demands, the studies say. So the United States should consider increasing the number of foreign nationals allowed to come each year.

The studies estimate that the United States needs some 1.5 million new workers each year, yet it admits only about one million.

"About 500,000 or more come illegally every year," Jacoby said. "Many of them come because the jobs are here, businesses need them. Our laws right now are so out of sync with the number of workers we need to keep American business growing."

Several bills in Congress, and a proposal by President Bush, would create a temporary guest worker program and tighten border enforcement. The White House proposal would require workers to return to their home countries after six years while other proposals would allow those who meet a set of criteria to pursue permanent legal residency.

E-mail: llorente@northjersey.com

Just put Troops on the Borders and Let the Military Handle It. They already have the equipment; they have the gear; they know the drill; and while this is no reflection on Border Patrol....Border Patrol needs Military back-up.

This is a foreign invasion that must stop. Either Mexico and Mexicans respect US or they don't. They obviousy don't. So, therefore, I don't want Mexicans or Guatemalans or Colombians or Brazilians or Middle Easterners, Asians or Europeans entering our country illegally. It is disrespectful; it is costly; it is dangerous; and if the United States can't do this, stop illegal entry into our country, then we can't do anything.

I know better. I know that our military working in conjunction with US Border Patrol and stop this in an instant. It's called Border Law and Order. It just takes personnel, equipment, and the will to stop it.

Billions to seal borders hasn't slowed illegals

Seal the borders? Borders aren't secured much less sealed. WHEN they are sealed, illegal crossings will slow down.

Good Point...had_enuf. Our borders have NEVER been sealed and that's the whole problem...open borders....walk right in...."ya'll come now".

Grrrrrrrr!!!!