http://www.paysonroundup.com/section/lo ... tory/27164

How to turn illegals into legals

YOUR TURN

By Tom Garrett, Roundup columnist

Friday, January 26, 2007

Every once in a while, politicians do something that surprises me by making an honest effort to resolve a problem regardless of how or where the chips fly.

The intention of the Payson Town Council to do something about illegal immigration is a fine example. And before someone out there begins calling me anti-Hispanic, let me explain why I say the town council is right to go after businesses that hire illegals.

1. Illegal immigration is ... well, illegal.

2. Illegals depress the wage scale in any area where they settle, and the wage scale in this area is already too low.

3. The correct person to go after is not the poor illegal who has come here to make a buck, but the unscrupulous businessman who hires him, profiting by breaking the law and by gouging the poor illegal who has no choice but to accept whatever little he or she makes.

4. Making it difficult for illegals to get hired will encourage them to go back home, and will discourage others from coming.

And please don't bring up the old saw that the illegals are only taking jobs that no one else wants. That is absolute total nonsense and anyone who espouses that point of view knows full well that it is. The simple truth is that any job has to pay a wage that will attract workers or no one will do it, and if no one takes a job at slave labor wages, then those wages have to rise to a fair and equitable level through simple supply and demand.

I am not someone who likes to see businesses hurt, but I totally agree with the requirement that all businesses be required to show that they are hiring only legal workers. In fact, I would be in favor of a confiscation law like that in effect for drug dealing. Let an employer find himself in danger of losing his business for knowingly (note the word "knowingly") hiring illegals and watch under-the-table, slave-wage jobs disappear in a rush.

As for the immigration laws, if they need to be changed, then change them, and if they don't, enforce them. It doesn't take the National Guard and 20-foot walls to keep illegals out. All it takes is about five minutes of thought. The real problem right now is that there is no penalty for getting caught and sent back.

That's all it would take. Facing real punishment, illegals would go back home rather than be arrested and sent back home to prison. Then they could apply for immigrant visas, come back here as legal workers and take a job at the wages they, and all other working men and women, deserve.