Until The Wall gets built ...

Trump wants $5 billion for The Wall.  Congress is only willing to give him $1.5 billion. With Democrats in control of the House in 2019 I’d be surprised if they budget anything for it. 

The question then becomes not when we build The Wall, but will we ever? 

I’m not counting on The Wall ever being built. 

But I have some other suggestions to stem illegal immigration. 

Almost nobody wants to deal with both sides of the illegal immigration question. And there clearly are two sides.  One side is why illegals want to come here.  The other side is why elements in our country keep encouraging illegal immigration. 

The common thread is money.  It’s really that simple. 

Those trying to enter and stay in our country illegally want to make more money; they have little to no interest in becoming citizens, learning English, or assimilating into our society. They aren’t seeking asylum – they simply want better paying jobs and access to free benefits here.    

They aren’t “yearning to be free,” but yearning to enjoy the privileges of a U.S. citizen without the hassle and expense of becoming one through the proper process.

Their lack of interest in becoming a full-fledged participant in the melting pot tradition of the United States also makes them somewhat unique among most immigrant classes in U.S. history. Most prior classes of immigrants wanted the better life the U.S. offered as well, but they also wanted to be part of the American experience by becoming citizens.     

Not this group.  It’s a game to them. See how long you can beat the system; if you can do it long enough without getting caught, you can win. Bring your family along or start one here and after a few years you’re almost guaranteed to find some judge who will give you a pass to stay. 

Even if you get caught and sent back – which is rare – just come back again and start over – the game is rigged in your favor.  Especially if your kids get born here; that’s the golden ticket.   

Those who want more illegals here are also playing a game.

Businesses are the dominant players, from the ag industry to food service, hospitality and construction.  They are all in favor of more illegal immigration.  Illegals don’t demand as much from employers; they’ll work cheaper and are more willing to do less desirable tasks, too. 

Big city politicians and bureaucrats are also big players.  They want more illegal immigrants to boost their resident populations to get more Federal funding and legislative representation based on simple headcounts, rather than citizen counts. 

Again, it’s all about money.

What’s the solution? How do we minimize illegal immigration without The Wall? How can we realistically address and overcome the forces driving illegal immigration?  

First, we have to remove the incentives for illegal immigrants to try to come here.  At the same time, we need to step up punishment for any and all employers who employ illegal immigrants. If we do both we’ll be on the road to solving illegal immigration. 

Everyone knows who is here illegally.  Our Federal government, state and local governments, public school administrators, and business owners all know precisely who is here illegally. The assertion that no one knows for sure is patently ridiculous. As even advocates for illegals acknowledge, if anyone actually wanted to round up illegals everyone knows exactly who and where they are.  

So it would be easy enough to deny Federal benefits to illegal immigrants.

Before anyone claims illegals are already barred from getting government benefits, get real. Their kids are going to our public schools. Their families are getting food stamps. They're taking advantage of a variety of programs.  And some illegals are ballsy enough to fraudulently claim the Earned Income Tax Credit with the IRS – a program designed for low-income citizens – and, get this, the IRS has discovered it already paid out billions to them. 

The sticky part of denying benefits is what to do about children born here to illegals. At birth they are automatically U.S. citizens via the Constitution, regardless of Trump’s assertion otherwise. As U.S. citizens they are entitled to all the benefits afforded other citizens. 

But their parents aren’t.  What would their parents do?  Would they opt to stay with benefits – and public education – only for their U.S.-born children?  Or would they decide to pack it in and head back to the motherland? 

I don’t know. And frankly, I don’t care. The message sent is the important part. 

The reality is we’ll never be able to deport the 11-20 million people already here illegally.  Nor could we ever successfully apply these conditions to all of them.  But if potential illegal immigrants knew they’d never be able to collect government benefits or send their foreign-born kids to our public schools, I think that would be a powerful disincentive to coming here. 

The biggest disincentive of course would be to dry up potential jobs.  We need to crack down on bogus Social Security numbers.  In addition, we need to mandate that every employer– no matter how big or small – with a Federal tax ID must use the E-Verify system to vet all present employees and anyone they plan to hire for permanent or part-time jobs.

If any business then gets caught still employing illegals after a reasonable grace period, fine them $1000 for every single one.  No exceptions. 

If big businesses have repeated violations just revoke any Federal contracts, subsidies, or tax credits they currently get and prohibit them from bidding on any future Federal contracts for a period of five years. That would get their attention. For smaller ag-related businesses such as family farms, and for other seasonal businesses, we need to take away their excuse for hiring illegals by coming up with a manageable guest-worker program for temporary legal employment; the key word there being “temporary.”

If we were serious about stemming illegal immigration these ideas would work. 

Without The Wall. And for a lot less. 

In fact, we don’t actually need to implement any of these all the way. The simple threat they would pose would make people thinking of coming here illegally think twice. 

That may be enough.