A law that increases border security and punishes employers who exploit

[Pushed To The Left]

illegal immigrants? I believe that "amnesty" has become a wedge issue to divide people who basically agree on the important parts of the immigration issue. So let's hypothetically eliminate this wedge issue. Would you support a law that goes after "cheap labor conservative" employers and increases border security?

[Trillo]

1. When you write "cheap labor conservative"

does that imply that cheap-labor liberals would be exempt?

[Pushed To The Left]

2. In my opinion, a true liberal would not

exploit people that way to make a profit.

[Yupster]

6. I talked to an oil guy today

and he told me that getting rid of illegals would ruin him.

He said half the guys working on his rigs are suspected illegal though they have socials. He said they have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy in effect.

The "cheap labor" guys are paying around $ 20 an hour with the lowest paid making $ 12 an hour.

We talked for a while and he said he has a lot more in common with the illegal workers out in the oil patch than he does with the congressmen in Washington.

By the way, an effect of this oil boom is making the oil industry a primarily Hispanic occupation. We are starved for workers down here and the workers available are Hispanic, mostly legal, some illegal, but as the job slots are filled, the oil industry is becomming a largely Hispanic enterprise.

I hear every once in a while about someone who's unemployed for three years and can't find a job. Folks. We're starving for workers down in West Texas. Every kind of job is needed because the oilpatch is drawing in teachers, city-workers and everyone else which is creating shortages everywhere.

[Trillo]

7. $20 per is close to what relative-time in a classroom seat

suggests is an appropriate minimum wage for high school graduates (model based upon 1995 compensation data), what some prefer framing as a living wage.

This morning the ACLU sent me some criticism about the immigration legislation under consideration, I don't know if this exact text is online, but there is a link to a number of immigration articles at the bottom:

AMID WIDESPREAD PROTESTS, FLAWED IMMIGRATION BILL STALLED

Tens of thousands of people marched this week to pressure Congress to pass legislation that would provide legal protection and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, legislation to reform the nation's immigration laws stalled in the Senate last week. Lawmakers must modify that legislation to better protect privacy, judicial review and due process rights, or the gains agreed to will be undermined by the details.

"Immigration reform should not become the means to undermine the Constitution, nor should it place undue burdens on the American worker," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office.

Several proposals in the legislation would expand deeply flawed policies that have already eroded due process and civil liberties and should be jettisoned or overhauled, including:

* Lack of privacy protections in the proposed Employment Verification System: The proposal would require all workers to obtain a federal agency's permission to work, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. All employers would be required to participate in a national employment eligibility verification program.

* The new program would likely use an Internet-based system to check the names and Social Security numbers of all employees -- citizens and non-citizen alike -- against two government agencies' databases. Estimates of implementation costs are at least $11.7 billion annually, a large share of which would be borne by businesses.

* Direct all immigration appeals to one court, perhaps the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. This radical proposal would undermine the rights of immigrants to judicial review. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has no experience with immigration, civil rights, or related constitutional claims.

* Institute one-judge pre-screening of cases that get to the federal circuit court level: Under this provision, if the judge does not act on a case within 60 days, the case gets dismissed. If the judge does find the case meritorious, that judge would then issue a "certificate of reviewability" that allows the case to be heard by a three-judge panel. Given the high workloads faced by America's federal courts, it is all too likely that many immigrants' appeals would never receive serious review from a judge and would be dismissed without any judicial consideration of their merits.

* Expand the government's authority to detain immigrants suspected of being undocumented mandatorily, expedite their removal and/or indefinitely detain them if they are from a country that will not accept their repatriation.

When Congress returns from their recess, they need to hear that the people want a fair, open, transparent and achievable process for improving immigration status. These proposals would prevent too many of the 9 million illegal immigrants from successfully navigating the path to being legal citizens.

Immigrants -- legal or undocumented -- play a vital role in society and breathe new life into our economy. The United States is a nation of immigrants, and the unjustified attacks confronting today's immigrants are the same ones that many of our own families faced.

As near as I can tell, the tracking URL the ACLU included resolves to:
http://www.aclu.org/immigrants/index.html

[Erika]

3. We'll see how the GOP will vote to fine employers

Don't hold your breath.

[Critters2]

5. Are there Democrats proposing this?

[MercutioATC]

4. That would be the most effective solution, IMO.

[TahitiNut]

8. How about a pardon and green card for any 'illegal immigrant' ...

... who provides material evidence and testimony leading towards the conviction of employers exploiting 'undocumented workers'?

I'd be strongly in favor of this (as I said 3 weeks ago). http://journals.democraticunderground.com/TahitiNut/110

"There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong."
-- Henry Louis Mencken

[Pushed To The Left]

9. I like that idea!

Some critics would call it "amnesty", but it would actually be a form of enforcement. It might be a good way to form an alliance between some of the young people that have been protesting across the country and anti-illegal immigration people.