IT IS EASY TO STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION–Where Are the Politicians Willing to Do So?

Democrats have run the economy into the ground. Now they are offering free citizenship to immigrants in a desperate search for votes. That is easy to stop.

People cross our border illegally. They jump the fence, where we bothered to put up a fence, for several reasons. Money is the largest. Illegal immigrants come here to work. They also come here to use our welfare system. They come here to give their children American citizenship and to give their children an American education. Each situation is easy to correct.

Illegals cross the border for jobs. Companies pay illegals less than they pay American citizens to do the same work. Sometimes the employment is recorded, and sometimes the illegals are paid under the table. Almost always, employers claim the wages they pay to illegals as a cost of doing business. That means the wages are a deduction from income for the company.

An executive order simply has to say that paying illegals is…illegal. The executive order says a company can not benefit or receive tax credit for a known illegal act…an illegal act like paying an illegal immigrant. That means every dollar paid to illegals becomes taxable company income rather than an expense. The company is taxed for wages, benefits, social security and Obamacare payments paid to illegals. The job market for illegals will be gone the next day…if we had a president who wanted to stop illegal immigration. Stopping illegal immigration is easy. Many politicians don’t want to stop it.

Before we go on and discuss the other incentives for illegals to jump the queue and the border fence, let’s talk about the politician’s incentives.

The magic of politics is to concentrate benefits and diffuse the costs. I’m going to say that another way because it is such a powerful and important idea. A politician wants to concentrate the benefits of a law onto a small group of beneficiaries, and the politician wants to distribute the costs across as many citizens as possible. Now let’s look at illegals and jobs.

Illegals benefit by getting jobs they couldn’t get in their home country. They wouldn’t need to support any politician in the United States if they entered the country legally. The illegals and their supporters favor a politician with votes or donations only as long as their immigration situation is in doubt and their jobs can be bought with votes. The illegal lobby doesn’t need to support a politician once the illegals have a right to live and work here. The politician has nothing to offer them at that point. That explains why we’ve had an incomplete immigration policy since 1985. Politicians benefited by a leaky border.

Some businesses benefit as well. The business can benefit by paying sub-standard wages to illegals. The illegals will accept sub-standard wages because the illegals can not freely compete in the open labor market here in the United States. The businesses benefit in two ways. The businesses benefit as long as there are illegals who work for sub-standard wages. The businesses also benefit from an open border policy that floods the job market with workers, be they legal or illegal. In both cases, businesses pay lower wages and earn higher profits. That is why businesses pay huge political donations to keep our borders open.

These political payoffs stop when the border is closed and the illegals can’t get jobs. That explains why we’ve had an incomplete immigration policy since 1985.

Illegals and some businesses benefit from illegal immigration. Illegals and their advocacy groups pay politicians. Businesses also pay politicians. The average citizen pays the cost with lower wages and higher taxes. The benefits are concentrated and the costs of open borders immigration are widely distributed.. as I talked about earlier. That explains why we’ve had an incomplete immigration policy since 1985. Politicians will keep the border open as long as we let them.

How long is that?

We’ll talk about welfare and corruption next time.

Image: http://panampost.com/gina-kawas/2014/03/19/the-problem-with-nationalism-and-the-crusade-for-open-immigration/