Drowning Immigrants in a Sea of Laws

Brian Doherty | April 23, 2007

Interesting in-depth resource from the National Conference of State Legislatures: a guide to the 1,169(!) bills and resolutions regarding immigration and immigrants in this year's legislative session. (So far this year, 57 bills in 18 states have actually been enacted.)

Comments

|4.23.07 @ 11:59AM|#

So far this year, 57 bills in 18 states have actually been enacted.

There is nothing in this world that cannot be fixed by legislation, it seems.

The 2 biggest problems in this immigration issue is the lack of knowledge in economics: First, immigration stems directly from an insatiable demand for cheap, unskilled labor, which the current market cannot supply (thanks to the Fedgov and its labor "protection" laws). Second, the idea that if just enough restrictions are applied to the free movement of people, then people will stop coming to the USA. Yeah, right, and Prohibition stopped people from getting hooch.

Instead of simply wasting ink and resources in trying to stem the flow of human capital, better to simply do this:

1) Eliminate labor laws. Those laws only make labor more costly to hire. You do not even have to worry about wage levels, those will not necessarily go down if you at least eliminate the cost of transactions.
2) Eliminate all payroll taxes. Those are just stupid. They are anti-labor to begin with.
3) Reduce the Welfare state. Let people bring themselves out of the dependancy hole.
4) Let people that want to come to work here to do so without having to pay 300-400 dollars (per year) for a working visa, with paperwork that could choke a whale. Most people that come to the USA do not really want to stay. They are ENCOURAGED to do so by their persecution by the FedGov, prefering to go into hiding than risking not being able to return to work.

Most immigrants would prefer to work in the USA during certain seasons. That would allow growers to offer cheaper produce, and the workers to spend their money on their economies, bringing their families out of the hole they are now, which will mitigate or even eliminate the need to migrate in the long run.

Weigel got it wrong?|4.23.07 @ 2:55PM|#

I'm not going to bother responding to someone who thinks it would be possible to repeal all labor laws.

As for the post, gee, why do you think so many states are trying to do something about the feds dropping the ball? Maybe they know something that the feds - and, of course, the hacks at Reason - don't.

Read how David Weigel got it wrong at the link.

Bonus fun link: take the Libertarian Quiz!

|4.23.07 @ 4:00PM|#

Oh no! The ForcesThatBe must have gotten to Lonewacko! No more CapitalizedWordsWithoutSpacesBetweenThem.

|4.23.07 @ 4:56PM|#

So far this year, 57 bills in 18 states have actually been enacted.

That is 3.2 bills per state. Hardly a "sea."

The 2 biggest problems in this immigration issue is the lack of knowledge in economics: First, immigration stems directly from an insatiable demand for cheap, unskilled labor, which the current market cannot supply

Please stop conflating "immigration" with "illegal immigration."

I am very much for immigration, I just have this odd idea that maybe it would be a good idea to have a healthy mix of immigrates. You know, in addiction to Mexicans, maybe some Chinese, Indians, Koreans, etc.... and maybe some that have finished high school or even have a college degree.

|4.23.07 @ 4:57PM|#

Addition, rather..


*smacks self*

|4.23.07 @ 5:02PM|#

Please stop conflating "immigration" with "illegal immigration."

Only if you stop conflating "illegal" with "wrong" or "harmful".

|4.23.07 @ 5:11PM|#

and maybe some that have finished high school or even have a college degree.

You do, of course, realize that the H1-B quota this year was reached in less than a day.

If you want more educated immigrants, suggest raising the quota by a couple orders of magnitude.

As it is, companies that hire the more educated have too much at stake to violate immigration laws: The result is that the majority of immigrants are less educated.

|4.23.07 @ 5:27PM|#

I am very much for immigration, I just have this odd idea that maybe it would be a good idea to have a healthy mix of immigrates.

Odd idea, indeed. Certainly seems odd to me that you would presume to tell someone else where he can live, work and do all the things you take for granted, based upon your odd idea that his place of birth has any more import than, say, his skin color.

|4.23.07 @ 6:19PM|#

Well said Mr. Torres. Sadly, SinglePsycho is correct, labor and welfare repeal/reform is damned near impossible. The Juggernaut move forward.

|4.24.07 @ 1:46PM|#

"...any more import than, say, his skin color."

Yep, because people from China, India and Korea are lilly white.

Why would you even bring that up?

|4.24.07 @ 2:14PM|#

Why would you even bring that up?

He brings it up because skin color is the single most obvious example in today's cultural understanding of inappropriate discrimination based on a condition of birth.

If you don't like it, feel free to replace "skin color" with "sex", "religion", "hair color", or "second letter in father's surname".

|4.24.07 @ 10:16PM|#

Steven, would YOU qualify to be an "immigrate" under the standard that you propose?

Illegal immigration has been a problem since 1492. For people who are here now to get all holier-than-thou ignores the basic fact that their own ancestors -- OUR own ancestors -- moved in and overpowered the owners of the land we now call America.

So be it. Now we have a country, and it has laws, but those laws need to be FIXED.

The solution to the immigration problem is a simple one -- make it easier for good people to immigrate, and the immigration of bad people will pretty much fade away within a generation.

Consider the immense "market" for illegal immigration "services." Think about the people who are coming here. Most are only looking for a place to make a better life for themselves and their families. If it didn't take YEARS and THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS to go through the process, they wouldn't be giving money to "coyotes," risking abandonment, assault and death, just for the ability to come here and build houses or vacuum someone's rugs.

The coyotes are there because the market is there. The market is there because of government prohibition (sound familiar?). But in this case, it's the government that has priced itself out of the market, and the freelancers have filled the void. If someone had the option of a safe, legal, reasonably-priced and rapid immigration system, the coyotes would lose most of their business. What remained would be mostly those who knew they couldn't pass the immigration checks, and with so many fewer of them, they would be easier to catch and process.

But let's remember that the immigration system is unwieldy so as to make more jobs available to political appointees and their nephews! That's why sensible immigration reform will never pass.