Want to stop illegal immigration?

[OnionPatch]

Enforce the laws and STOP HIRING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS!!!!!!!!

My question is this: Does the right ever even talk about this? I'm so sick of hearing them get their panties in a wad over this issue. Don't they understand that for every illegal immigrant taking an "American's job", there is an employer hiring them illegally?

[NorCalDem]

1. Why would they want to harm their corporate friends?

It's easier to scream at and blame the poor, Mexican farm hand than to blame the rich fat-cat that hires him!

Don't you know that by now, the Republican way to blame the little guy while you hold all the powerful cards in your hand!

[knowbody0]

2. but that would be the logical approach !

[liberal N proud]

3. They don't want to make it illegal - they want to hire them at below

minimum wage.
They know they can employ the illegals below minimum wage and not report them and get by without paying unemployment as well as other benefits.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

4. This is exactly the problem.

I'm not fond of illegal immigration, but I do not blame the person who enters illegally. I blame the cheap ass employer who pays the illegal subpar wages and then makes incredible profits out of the labor of these people.

Technically, there are penalties for employers who knowingly hire people who do not have the authorization to work legally. And technically there is a government agency that is responsible for the enforcement of these regulations. However, there are not enough people to audit the records of thousands of employers and thus most escape the fines and penalties they would otherwise be subjected to.

I believe there needs to be a two-pronged solution: (1) to enforce the regulations already on the books by auditing employers and heavily fining those who knowingly employ illegal workers; and (2) to establish an unskilled worker visa category that is not complicated, that is fast to obtain, and that requires the employer to abide to a minimum prevailing wage and/or work conditions.

However, there is also no doubt in my mind, as an immigration professional (for legal immigrants) and an immigrant myself (legal), that we need to do better with enforcing the U.S. borders, both the Canadian and the Mexican ones.

After all, the more illegal immigrants enter (or overstay visas), the lower the wages will go (when they are all competing for the same job) and, in turn, their living conditions will deteriorate. I believe no one deserves to live in awful conditions such as I've seen in a tobacco warehouse in NC.

[flying_wahini]

5. down here in Houston

it's a joke! Big business RUNS on illegals, they build virtually all of the roads, houses, high rises, hotels and schools. the strip malls are built by them. all of the people near me that hire
yard workers (90%) hire illegals.
the fast food joints, all the kitchen help in all businesses with a kitchen, hotels and so forth, and on and on and on...
If they had to pay them what they are really worth, (A lot)
then that would cut in to their profit margin.
one republican woman i know, was complaining about how now the
hospitals provide a translator for them! the nerve.
I called her down for it, embarrassed my husband in front of his
work buddies..... it was ugly.

[Sapphire Blue]

6. LOU DOBBS TONIGHT QUICKVOTE

Do you believe employers who hire illegal aliens to fill jobs in the Gulf Coast region should be:

Fined
Arrested
Left alone
Awarded more contracts

Current results:

Fined 28% 1661 votes

Arrested 67% 3972 votes

Left alone 4% 232 votes

Awarded more contracts 2% 92 votes
Total: 5957 votes

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/

[OnionPatch]

7. And so the conservatives

are mostly the ones causing the problems, but of course, the facts will get twisted around so that, once again, it's those "damn liberals" that are causing the problem. (In this case by being lax on immigration or whatever.)

How can people NOT get this? I just can't understand it. Why do they think it's easier to patrol thousands of miles of borders than to pump up hiring law enforcement? Border patrols don't even do anything about the illegals that stay here permanently and don't cross the border.