General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMy (ridiculously cheap) alternative to The Wall.
Arrest the people who hire undocumented workers. It's just that simple.
Let the punishment fit the crime. Did you and your wife hire an undocumented nanny because you both have to work full-time? We understand. That's 40 hours of community service for you. Thanks for helping to clean up our nation's beautiful highways on the weekends, and don't let it happen again.
Are you a builder who hired a crew of eight undocumented laborers to help you build homes? Well, that's a little more serious. Thirty days in jail for you. Spend your month contemplating the idea that crime does not pay.
Are you the owner of a factory who knowingly hired 100 undocumented workers in your operation? Oh, wow. That's pretty bad. Six months in real, my-toilet-is-also-my-sink, prison is for you. May you serve as an example to others, and may God have mercy on your soul.
This would solve the "immigration crisis" overnight. Workers simply won't come here if there is nobody here hiring them. Even Bob and Madge, our dual-income parents, will think twice about hiring an undocumented nanny if picking up shattered beer bottles along Interstate 10 is in their near future.
You never, ever, hear this discussed in our mainstream media. Because the "immigration crisis" is bullshit. And The Wall is even more bullshit.
Turbineguy
(37,322 posts)the republican belt.
My friend in Houston told me people would hire undocumented workers and then call the Migra's an hour before paychecks were given out.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)I really don't know how much lower anyone could get. What a bunch of mother fuckers!
Dave Starsky
(5,914 posts)These people are truly evil. It's one thing to be amoral, greedy, etc. But when you go out of your way to do an awful thing to another human being just to make an extra buck on top of an already ill-gotten buck, that is evil. I don't know how you can characterize it as anything else.
mitch96
(13,895 posts)Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,500 posts)maveric
(16,445 posts)They lure them and expoit them with impunity.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)MAGATS would love doing the work themselves! Especially the day labor gigs and the seasonal crop picking! Put their youth to work making an honest living! Teach them the work ethic!
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)one hundred years from now, that people will still be hand picking fruits and vegetables?
A century ago, most farm work was done with animal labor. Yes, there were tractors, but only the wealthiest farmers could afford them. Tractors did not surpass horses in the fields until World War II pulled all those boys off of the farm.
If undocumented cheap docile labor were not available, the cost of legal labor would go so high as to make the invention, development, and sale of machines to do this work feasible. This would be a good use of solar power, too.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)will be grown in high rise solar and renewable energy and self sufficient farms which can be put anywhere thats needed on the planet. The land will be allowed to return to its natural state. Hunger will be a thing of the past.
Water will be husbanded in the same manner.
Or, conversely, the planet will be dying and only Trump and his friends will have enough to eat.
Its up to us.
Mr. Quackers
(443 posts). . . or so THEY would have you believe.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)that humans will plant, tend, and harvest crops the way they do now? I don't.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,331 posts)customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)with doomsday scenarios, all of which have not come to pass. Yes, we have threats, but we've either been able to deal with them (the Clean Air Act is one such method) or they were simply exaggerated projections that were unrealistic.
We're going to be here, by far the most of us, in 2021.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)is not cheap, but there is a better solution.
No deductions from income allowed for wages paid to people who have not cleared e-Verify. That could be adopted even on an individual state basis for those states with an income tax.
It doesn't clog the courts or the jails, and saves money on lawyers.
Dave Starsky
(5,914 posts)But I guess this is all an academic discussion, because right now we are debating building a concrete (and/or) steel wall along the southern border of the United States.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)But the states don't need to wait to implement this solution. The SCOTUS has decided that states cannot set immigration policy, but they always have the right to set their own tax policies.
The problem is that ranchers, farmers, and the hospitality industry (motels and restaurants) own too many state legislators to effectuate such a solution.
Poiuyt
(18,122 posts)Autumn
(45,064 posts)Last edited Thu Jan 10, 2019, 08:00 PM - Edit history (1)
First offenders can be fined $250-$2,000 per illegal employee.
For a second offense, the fine is $2,000-$5,000 per illegal employee.
Three or more offenses can cost an employer $3000-$10,000 per illegal employee. A pattern of knowingly employing illegal immigrants can mean extra fines and up to six months in jail for an employer.
That is the wall.
Dave Starsky
(5,914 posts)It seems so simple to me. Punish the people who bring the "illegals" into the country, the people who hire them!. The "illegals" wouldn't be here without them. Why does it seem.that this is so easy for me to understand and so hard for everyone else to understand?
My proposal would be to fine these employers the equivalent of one year salary at the going rate for the job for which they hired an undocumented worker. I believe this will encourage people to advertise these jobs so that people can apply for them. If nobody applies for them, then the wage is too low.
Autumn
(45,064 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,331 posts)Cheap and effective.
Eliot Rosewater
(31,109 posts)Mosby
(16,306 posts)Work in the underground economy.
Most landscape companies in the phoenix area for example don't really exist on paper, they pay no taxes and there are no "employee" deductions.
How to fix it? Get rid of cash or require banks to report large withdrawals.