{"id":52153,"date":"2016-09-30T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T16:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-legal\/supreme\/legal-commentary\/how-to-enforce-limits-on-undocumented-workers.html"},"modified":"2016-09-30T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T16:27:00","slug":"how-to-enforce-limits-on-undocumented-workers","status":"publish","type":"supreme","link":"https:\/\/supreme.findlaw.com\/legal-commentary\/how-to-enforce-limits-on-undocumented-workers.html","title":{"rendered":"How To Enforce Limits On Undocumented Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n \n
\n
\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n
<\/a><\/td>\n

HOW TO ENFORCE LIMITS ON UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS: The Issue The Current Immigration Reform Proposals Leave Out <\/h1><\/td>\n <\/tr>\n

By BARTON ARONSON<\/h2><\/a><\/td>\n <\/tr>\n

Friday, Aug. 24, 2001<\/td>\n\n <\/tr>\n <\/table>\n

After years of waiting, the stars are nearly in alignment for reform of the nation’s immigration laws. Proposals from the White House, Congress, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) itself address both the laws and the organization of the agency charged with enforcing them.<\/p>

There has been considerable attention paid to how the INS will be reorganized, a possible amnesty for illegal immigrants, and how a new guest worker program might be implemented. But there has been little attention paid to the critical question of how, exactly, we will enforce any new limitations on undocumented workers.<\/p>

Immigration: Law and Politics<\/b><\/p>

Immigration law is, probably inevitably, extraordinarily complex. In addition to naturalized citizens, there are four other types of immigrants in the U.S., only two of which \u0097 those with work visas and those with permanent resident status (mostly green card holders) \u0097 can be legally employed. In addition, many with work visas stay too long and become illegal. Dealing with this population of immigrants involves the daunting tasks of enforcement, detention, and legal proceedings at the border; processing applications for visas, green cards, and naturalization; finding the illegally employed; deportation; and much besides.<\/p>

Immigration law and the INS have long been listed in critical condition, but two recent developments have improved the prognosis. On the right, the Republican Party has finally recognized the potential for recruiting Hispanic voters to the GOP. Those voters, as President George Bush knows better than anyone in his party, are considerably more conservative than their political leadership, and can be moved to vote Republican. Immigration, of course, is an issue close to their hearts, and moving toward them on the issue is sound political strategy.<\/p>

On the left, America’s labor unions have finally tumbled to the fact that immigration is their best bet for shoring up their declining rolls. Historically, the unions have objected to expanded immigration on the ground that it took jobs away from Americans. But unionized workers have never lined up for the (frequently seasonal) work that many undocumented workers do. The unions have wisely decided they’d rather switch than fight.<\/p>

The Sad History of Immigration Law Enforcement<\/b><\/p>

Boiled down, the big questions about immigration involve low-wage work. Relatively few people come to the United States seeking asylum from political persecution (though more would if they could). And not many come to earn millions, though the new economy has seen significant growth in the employment of foreign engineers and programmers. Still, for every software designer from India, there are hundreds if not thousands of farm workers from Mexico. The vast majority of the approximately 300,000 people who come to the U.S. to work illegally every year (estimated to number over 5 million at present) come to do work that earns less than $10 an hour.<\/p>

Illegal labor in America is so widespread that effective enforcement of the laws in this area is almost inconceivable. As The Economist<\/i> noted this spring, “Visit any farm in California’s Central Valley, any orchard in Florida, any slaughterhouse in Iowa, any restaurant kitchen in New York, or indeed the garden of any middle-class suburbanite not running for political office, and undocumented workers are everywhere.”<\/p>

\n