Some South Carolina Senators Making Sense

The Senate is trying to address illegal immigration. Most of the efforts have been basically useless and focused on punishing the poor sap looking for a better life. This approach is penny wise and pound foolish, and does nothing to reduce the problem.

The latest Senate proposal on the other hand is a step in the right direction.

passed a plan that would impose fines up to $10,000 for knowingly hiring a worker in this county illegally.

This is a small step down the path that may, with time, make some difference. Its greatest weakness is this proposal is way to easy on the employer, and the 'knowingly' phrase is a huge loophole.

If the US wants to stop immigration, the only path that will work is to eliminate employment opportunity. The immigrants are only doing what free market capitalist and the Horatio Alger fables have told us we are all suppose to do, work hard and take risks to get a better life. No matter what punitive actions we take against this population, as long as there is a demand for their services they will come.

The only way to eliminate employment opportunities is to make the risk of hiring undocumented aliens so high that no one will risk it, and the terms of the current proposal is to weak. We need to look at fines for the companies that run into the hundreds of thousands, if not higher. We need fines for the officers and the managers of these firms that are at least five times higher that the ones currently proposed, and jail time should also be considered. Companies that hire subcontracontractors that hire these workers must also held accountable, again into the hundreds of thousands of dollars with fines and jail for officers and managers who are involved in the process.

If this step is taken, we will see a reduction in immigration, because the only reason that the vast majority of immigrants are coming here is to get some work. Every other step we take is a waste of time and money. We, as a state and nation, are best served by abandoning them, they don't work.




Tags
Immigration, South Carolina