Undocumented Worker Identification

[SHRED]

To get serious about undocumented workers who flood the U.S. labor pool, or as the haters call them, "illegal aliens", it is apparent to me that a Federal program of quick identification of a potential new hire, by potential employers, is needed.

Perhaps have a 1-800 number that could quickly match SS# with name, age, race, sex, or any other creative way to positive I.D. a person. This 1-800 number could be part of a Public Service Announcement campaign on the television and other media much like the PDFA does about drugs. The word could get out.

Also, this would take away any excuse by the employer that they "didn't know".
Along with this program could come legal reform that deals with employers harshly to include, but not limited to:

*Forfeiting their business
*Heavy fines
*Prison time

And for the home owner that hires the maid, nanny, yard worker, helper, etc...:

*Fines
*Loss of real estate
*Prison time

I believe that protecting the U.S. worker is a serious venture and while the above appears Draconian and harsh, I think it is needed to stop the hemorrhaging.
This coupled with a turn around in U.S. policy regarding the H1-B visa program, trade reform, and the outrageous outsourcing of jobs overseas would go a long way, I believe, towards protecting the U.S. worker in the high tech, skilled labor, and other fields of work.

Sure we could spend billions and billions at the borders but to truly slow this down we need to go to the source, we need to stop the "illegal hiring" that is going on in this country and driving down wages and benefits.

Any other ideas?

---

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Other ideas

1. Stop subverting the Mexican political and legal system.

--p!

[SHRED]

2. I'd like to learn more about that...

...do you have some good links?
Thanks

[Dogmudgeon]

3. "We don't need no steenking links!"

:evilgrin:

(Sorry, I couldn't resist that.)

I don't have any links -- these topics emerge and disappear in the MSM frequently -- but I can give you some ideas for searching.

First, look for information on NAFTA/CAFTA compliance issues and balance-of-trade figures.

You could also take a look at the highly publicized immigration problem from both a profit-and-loss and a political pressure relief valve perspective.

But one of the biggest issues is with PEMEX, Petroleos de Mexico. The entire Mexican economy is anchored by this behemoth. Its biggest client is the USA, to whom it sells oil at very favorable prices. And PEMEX is anchored by the mighty Cantarell oil field, the third largest in the world. The Cantarell oil field has collapsed, in terms of production. There is still a fairly large amount of oil in Mexico, but most of what remains is difficult to recover and refine. Financially, this is the end of the Mexican oil cash-cow. (There are frequent discussions about the Cantarell crisis on DU's Energy and Environment Forum.)

At the same time, interest in biofuels has unleashed a wave of American speculation in agricultural markets. Mexican corn is being bought up in record amounts by ethanol producers in the USA and Canada. This is causing severe price inflation in the price of food. Developing our own (and Mexico's) ability to produce switchgrass as an ethanol fuelstock would be more sustainable, but buying up corn is cheaper and easier.

Basically, Mexico lives and dies on the transit of American money, and for all our carping about the immigrants, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. Yet if the Mexican economy tanks under energy-issue pressure, there will be an all-out rush to the USA by millions of long-abused Mexican campesinos -- and a newly-politically-emerging professional and educated middle class.

Justice would demand that we (USA and Canada) invest in Mexican development that benefits as many people as possible, but that's not happening. And as other countries in Central and South America modernize and break the grip of the finance cartels, Mexicans see this and "start getting ideas". Thus, Bolivarismo and the revolts in Chiapas and Oaxaca.

I have barely scratched the surface of US-Mexican issues, but there are plenty there. The trivialization of these concerns into a vulgar sound-bite-based immigration issue is hiding a multitude of sins. I am certain, though, that energy crises are coming, and Mexico will figure prominently, possibly as a whipping boy.

In brief: we (the USA) subvert Mexico by making deals with them that they can't refuse. Or else.

--p!

[SHRED]

5. thanks!

[treestar]

4. Just let all the workers compete equally and then let them

all unionize (illegals can't obviously).

We can't force the economy to operate within the country's borders - there has been international trade since well before the 10th century.

Just deal with it, rather than have these artificial borders. Quit worrying about who works where and start worrying about wages and working conditions - quit letting the corporations get away with this divide and conquer strategy.

They'll just move everything to Mexico in the first place. There's nothing that can be done to stop that other than to join up and unionize with the mexican workers, so they can demand better conditions and wages - just trying to keep them all in Mexico creates a pressure cooker of desperate people in Mexico.