Some pundits and presidential aspirants suggest that illegal immigrants and their progeny be rounded up and deported from the United States--because they broke the law by coming here.
However, those deportation proponents seem to forget that our nation is not without blame (for having a system allowing the condition to exist), so the problem calls for more than a "kick them all out and lock the door behind them" solution.
Actually, the task of locating and deporting all (or the majority of) illegal immigrants might well be impossible, but even if it were do-able, the negative economic and societal impact therefrom could be enormous. The costs of locating and exporting 11 million people would be astronomical, not to mention the disrupting consequences of removing millions of illegal-immigrant workers from our labor force.
Several examples of economic disruption come quickly to mind:
• Without immigrant labor, many fruits and vegetables would rot in the fields, while produce prices in supermarkets would skyrocket.
• Inasmuch as immigrants do much of our roofing, their removal would negatively impact both new construction work and timely replacement of leaking, damaged, or older roofs.
• Many manual-labor jobs would go unfilled.
• Some dull, repetitive factory positions (e.g., chicken processors) would be hard, if not impossible, to fill.
Most illegal-immigrant adults are here because they were attracted by work opportunities--jobs many of our legal population don't want (particularly when programs such as welfare and food stamps allow them to choose unemployment instead of work).
A relatively simple approach to handling the problem (but not necessarily desirable to politicians who like the issue better than its solution) follows:
• Provide a system for granting legal status, but not citizenship, to all workers residing here illegally (and to others who somehow manage to arrive in the future--as they inevitably will).
• Ensure that all employers require evidence of legal status from all employees, with significant financial penalties (increasing in the event of multiple offenses) assessed employers who fail to comply.
• Require that all employees of foreign origin be subject to the same income and payroll taxes as U.S. citizens.
No path to citizenship need be provided; only those who seek citizenship (and do those things historically required for attaining it) would ever acquire it.
Non-citizens, even though made legal residents for the purposes of participating in the United States economy, would obviously not be voter-eligible. Identification proving citizenship (including photos) should be universally required of all voters.
Some might complain that the suggested procedure places an undue burden on employers if they must (1) obtain evidence of legal status from immigrant workers, and (2) collect and remit income and payroll taxes to appropriate governmental agencies.
However, an equivalent procedure for United States citizens has been in effect for decades; all prospective employees must show their Social Security cards when obtaining employment, and the identifying information thereon allows employers to properly report earnings and taxes withheld. A similar card for legal non-citizens would provide means for properly collecting, reporting, and remitting withholdings from their earnings.
Having made all residents, whether citizen or non-citizen, subject to the same taxation, no one could complain that immigrants were receiving benefits of living in the United States without helping pay for them.
Nothing about the above-described procedure provides amnesty for either current or future illegal immigrants, and its implementation should not be difficult.
Admittedly, however, politicians and citizens with backbone would be required to enact and effect it.
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Ken Miller lives in Little Rock.
Editorial on 08/31/2015