The Only Way Forward????

A blogsite called "The Firm Center" has advanced what it calls the "Only Way Forward". While not totally devoid of merit, I find it intensely interesting when someone professes to know the only solution or way forward on a complex problem. Some quotes from H. L. Mencken are instructive in this regard:

“There is always a well-known solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong. In the United States, doing good has come to be a favorite device of persons with something to sell. Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice."

"Firm" accurately describes the great divide in immigration reform over what to do about the 12- 20 million illegals. However, it is presumptuous for him to presume that his ideas are the "only way forward". Firm shows us where his sentiments lie when refers to the process of “repatriation” as “chasing some away”.

Many who oppose granting legal status acknowledge that rounding up all12 million illegal immigrants and repatriating them is not the right approach because it fails to recognize the legitimate needs of employers for foreign workers. Few wish to take such drastic action. A more measured approach is preferable in which employers are forced to provide irrefutable proof that they have made a good faith effort to hire citizen workers at a fair wage before they can hire or retain any foreign workers. This is a workable solution but not the only one.

Firm believes the only way forward is to offer illegal immigrants temporary visas for a long-enough period – say five years – so they would risk paying a fee and gaining legal status, even though there would be no guarantee that Congress would extend their visas. Those who didn’t come forward in coming months would forfeit any hope of ever becoming a legal resident. This sounds a lot like a status quo or amnesty proposal because it rewards the illegals with the object of their illegality, the ability to remain and work in this country.

If government created this mess, as Firm believes, then we need to have ways to hold accountable those who failed in their obligations to the American people. We could begin by declaring any failure on the part of any Administration to enforce immigration laws to be an impeachable offense. Subordinates in the INS, ICE and Border Patrol would similarly be held accountable with the threat of termination for failure to perform their duties faithfully.

No one wants the status quo. To begin with we want more border security and vigorous enforcement of the laws already on the books. Then we need the process for employers in need of foreign workers outlined above; a machine-readable, tamper proof, photo, biometric ID that specifies the type of work the foreign worker is authorized to do; and finally a immigration status verification system and workplace enforcement to hold miscreant employers accountable.

Firm doesn’t get to decide who is and who is not a fair-minded advocate on either side of the debate. We should not accept an arbitrary number of foreign workers just because they are already here and because of malfeasance on the part of our government. Those who want to put illegal immigrants on a path to permanent legal status say their approach is "both realistic – since the economy depends on millions of undocumented workers and the government doesn’t have the capability of hunting them down and driving them from the country – and compassionate, because it would allow them to come out of the shadows and stop living in fear." This reasoning is questionable from several points of view. First, make no mistake about it, not just some but most of the illegals could be repatriated if the job were to be put into the hands of private enterprise. Training and initial supervision could be provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to assure that the job is done right. The identification and repatriation could be accomplished at no cost to taxpayers. The contractors should recover all costs and a modest profit from the illegals, their families, their homeland governments and/or their employers. To describe this legitimate process for enforcing the law as "hunting them down and driving them from the country" betrays Firm's biases. This is merely the the sting of justice Mencken was referring to in his quote above.

When Firm speaks of compassion, where is his compassion for American workers and American taxpayers? He doesn't say how his way forward will assure that American workers are able to get jobs at a fair wage to support their families. As Mencken points out, doing good has come to be a favorite device of persons with something to sell. What bill of goods is Firm trying to sell us? Amexico perhaps? Maybe he hasn't taken the long view at all and remains focused on a short run, shortsighted solution to a long run problem.