Feasibility of Repatriation

Writers have suggested that immigration isn't just a n economic issue. It's a managerial one, and any plan that suggests the U.S. deport illegal workers violates one of management's cardinal rules: You have to face reality. Forget the notion that illegals will suddenly heed "the law of the land" and pack their bags. With the better life America provides, "that ain't happening". Which leaves deportation.

The reason that “…ain’t happening” is because so many misguided and myopic employers and politicians are unwilling to make it happen, not for sound managerial reasons but because of the desire for cheap labor on the one hand and because of political expediency on the other. That is the reality we need to face -- the power of big business and immigration lobbyists to divert our attention from what we need to do. We often hear that it is not feasible to repatriate 12-20 million illegal aliens. That idea is dead wrong. The reality is that a similar-sized repatriation has already been demonstrated in 1945-6 when eight million ethnic Germans were repatriated back to the heartland of Germany from the eastern territories. If we have the will to force our politicians to pay attention, it is feasible to begin to repatriate a significant percentage of the illegal aliens in the U.S..

It is strange that big business seems to be suggesting that even if we were to turn this job over to private enterprise, it could not be done at no cost to the government with all costs and a profit recovered from the illegals, their families, their employers and even their homeland governments. Is this the can do attitude of American private enterprise that built our country?

No one expects all illegals to unilaterally pack their bags and leave merely to come into compliance with the law. But what sort of incentive would they have to stay if there was a systematic and comprehensive apprehension, detention and repatriation program that made it clear that we would use all means at our disposal, beginning with duplicate and mismatch social security numbers, to locate the illegals and begin the process of returning them to their homelands? I think many would get the message and start making plans for returning to their homelands on their own, in spite of the temporary better life America provides. If employers are faced with significant penalties, jobs for illegals would soon dry up and there would be yet another reason for them to think in terms of using whatever assets they may have acquired so far and be on their way home.

Deportation is somewhat of a pejorative term so I prefer to use the term repatriation because it implies a more benign approach in which first time offenders are held harmless except for the costs of returning home. It also better suggests that they really didn't belong here in the first place.