The Immigration Bill

The right is literally going insane over the immigration bill. The Freepers want to impeach the President over it, and those are the ones that don't want to string him up. John Hawking of Right Wing News will personally see to the destruction of ant Republican Senator that votes for it. Hey John, that's our job!

I suppose this means that I should line up on the other side and support the bill, but I'm just not feeling it. This is a classic "Washington compromise" where everything every politician ever thought about immigration is thrown into the bill, making it unworkable at the least and illogical at best. When the David Broders of the world pine for the days when everybody can set down and work together on issues, this is frequently the result. And it's not a universal good.

The fees are so high and the timeline so long that I don't think any illegal immigrant who even wanted to come out of the shadows and earn legalization could reasonably do so. And yet it's still amnesty anyway, so the right is rhetorically setting themselves on fire about it anyway. I think Stephen of the Thinkery, pinch-hitting for Ezra Klein, puts it best.

The idea that people should pay fines when taking advantage of an amnesty shows that this bill is really about one party that desperately wants to hold onto and expand its slim Congressional majority and another party that desperately wants to prevent that from happening. The members of each party are now free to campaign about the victories they achieved in the immigration bill, Democrats trumpeting the amnesty which will add millions of workers ripe for unionization and an expanded tax base for popular programs like Social Security and Medicare. The Republicans will simultaneously show off the thousands of new border patrol agents that will be added, the fences, vehicle obstacles, new technology, and the fines that these miscreants will all pay as penalty for breaking the law of the land.

Of course, the fines will stand as a strong disincentive for people to participate, which will deprive politicians of both parties their victory speeches. A $2,500 initial fee for participating is pretty steep for a group of people who came to the US in order to make enough money so their families back in their countries of origin can eat.

The other great point that Stephen makes is comparing this effort to the War on Drugs. Instead of going after demand, we go after supply. So we criminalize the people who are trying to help their families. Why aren't we criminializing the employer? If it's "too hard" to go after all the employers who hire illegal immigrants then it's too hard to go after the immigrants themselves. And the difference is that the employers are in regular contact with local, state and federal governments in the form of taxes. I guess the employers will need to verify Social Security numbers now. No, we REALLY mean it this time. What about the large, off-the-books, underground economy? Why not institute tough sanctions for employers, even ones that reward illegal immigrants with a Green Card for turning in the employer? Within weeks the whole system would dry up, if employers saw their new hires as opportunists. And without the cooperation of illegals in any criminal undertaking against the employers, they'd skate. So the Green Card is a kind of witness protection program. Those who are truly far gone on the right would go apeshit (you're rewarding criminal behavior!), but over time it's the only workable system. Protecting the border will do precisely nothing. Most illegals that come here now do so by overstaying the tourist visa, and it you made the border impenetrable, more would do the same; all you would do is eliminate the coyote industry.

This bill is pretty bad and I haven't even gotten to the guest worker program, for which the word "indentured" and "servitude" come to mind. Apparently the thinking is that this is the last chance for a long time to get any kind of change in immigration policy from the status quo. If so, I hope the Democrats can work the hell out of this thing in conference. Otherwise, some compromises turn into such mush that passing them is effectively irrelevant. This is one of those times.