DHS Tool To Push for "Tool Sharpening"
Nick Gillespie | August 10, 2007, 8:50am
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is bearing down on that most-terrifying threat to the American way of life: People from down Mexico way who sneak into the country in order to work long hours for relatively low wages (at least to start with).
Reports the AP via the Cincy Enquirer (which serves a region with higher-than-average unemployment and lower-than-average immigration from Latin America):
The Bush administration is planning new efforts to curb illegal immigration by raising fines and speeding up deployment of border agents after failing to push through legislation earlier this year.
The proposals would raise civil fines on employers who hire undocumented immigrants by as much as 25 percent and overhaul temporary worker programs, according to a summary of the plans obtained by The Associated Press....
[E]mployers will face possible criminal sanctions if they don't fire employees unable to clear up problems with their Social Security numbers.
The Homeland Security Department will ask states to voluntarily share their driver's license photos and records with the agency for use in an employment verification system. The sharing is meant to help employers detect fraudulent licenses, according to the summary, which was provided by a congressional aide....
Chertoff alluded to the new enforcement tactics in a speech this week in Boston, calling it "tool sharpening."
"We shouldn't have a patchwork of laws. We should be doing a comprehensive federal solution, but we haven't got that thing done," Chertoff said. "What I can tell you is we will certainly use every enforcement tool that we have, and every resource that we have available, to tackle the problem."
More here.
reason on immigration here.
wayne | August 10, 2007, 10:32am | #
Tim,
I suspect you have not read many of my prior posts, so I will treat you with civility.
I also have no problem with people who want to make a better living, better their lives, etc; and I agree that the problem is "ours" and not "theirs"; and I have said so many times. I actually don't have a big problem with open borders either, but only with SIGNIFICANT changes to the benefits provided to residents. As the laws currently stand though the flow of immigrants has strained our public schools, shuttered our hospital emergency rooms, and driven state budgets into the red. American citizens have neither the obligation nor the ability to support the world's poor.
"THEY TOOK R JARBS!:" Here, Tim, you engage in ugly stereotyping implying that those who disagree with you are stupid, uneducated hicks. So unsophisticated that we can not pronounce the word "jobs" nor spell "are". this is, of course, an ad hominum attack that you hope will lead others to discredit our arguments, because "we are obviously too stupid to have a legitimate argument".
I am from California, though those from Kansas that I have met are intelligent, well spoken and thoughtful.
Finally, yes there is a reason to value the poor born in the US more highly than those born elsewhere. Those born in the US are US citizens, the others are not. If you want to feed the poor in other countries then just watch late night TV and you will soon see a heart breaking ad soliciting your charity.
So, let's see. You made a dumb argument, engaged in a transparent ad hominum attack, and don't understand the full costs of immigration. And you justify that because you want cheap fruit.
Who is the douche bag, Tim?
Timothy | August 10, 2007, 10:52am | #
Finally, yes there is a reason to value the poor born in the US more highly than those born elsewhere. Those born in the US are US citizens, the others are not.
That's not a reason, it's completely arbitrary. Furthermore, it's a tautology, but we might as well ignore that. The fact that they're US citizens is an accident of fate, really, and at the end of the day immigrants are just other people from some other arbitrary geographical region. I'm not really in the mood to get into some deep debate about the relative merits of nationalism vs cosmopolitanism, but does it make any sense to oppose immigration between, say, Kansas and California? The economics of it are really exactly the same, it's just that we're looking at different arbitrary regions. Additionally, working for a living isn't exactly charity.
It appears that purchasing power effects on low-skill natives are either positive* or fairly neutral**, which pretty much destroys the usual argument about immigration depressing wages for low-skilled natives. Or, at the very least, paints a much murkier picture than the usual DEMAND KURVE! explanation offered by immigration opponents.
And let me be very clear, one reason to care more about immigrants is this: if you're low-skilled and native born to the US it's probably your fault to a certain extent, whereas if you're from Mexico it's likely not as much you're doing. EX: Dropping out of high school and knocking up/getting knocked up, your fault. Being born in a poor, rural town in Mexico where there aren't any schools, not your fault.
Lastly, if we're concerned about making sure everybody fills out the right form, make the form simpler, there, problem solved.
*http://www.princeton.edu/~ies/Fall06/PeriPaper.pdf
**http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/FACSEMINARS/pdfs/2007_05-18_Cortes.pdf
John | August 11, 2007, 11:32am | #
Subject: Bird feeder
I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed. Within a week there were hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food.
But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue.
Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tile, the chairs, the table...everywhere.
Then some of the birds turned mean: they would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket.
And others birds were boisterous and loud: They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food.
After a while, I couldn't even sit on my own back porch anymore.
I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone.
I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio.
Soon, the back yard was like it used to be...... quiet, serene and no one demanding their rights to a free meal.
And now, the plot shift you've been expecting...
Now lets see... our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care, free education and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen.
Then the illegals came by the tens of thousands.
Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services; small apartments are housing 5 families; you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor; your child's 2nd grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn't speak English; Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box; I have to press "one" to hear my bank talk to me in English; people waving flags other than "Old Glory" are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.
Maybe it's time for the government to take down the bird feeder.
John
