With competing bills going through the House and Senate and this weekends big rally, I thought that I would weigh in...
First off, I am a legal immigrant from Canada on an H1-B visa in the process of applying for my green card. Let me take on some of the meme's that have been going around about illegal immigrants.
cross-posted
They should get in line like the legal immigrants did - For the majority of these people, there is no line that they can get into.
Employment-based visa's are the responsibility of the employer. My employer holds my visa. If my employer decided not to follow the rules, there is little that I can do other than to leave. Illegal immigrants may choose to come over the border, but once here, it is up to their employer to make them legal and many choose not to.
I am a skilled worker (computer field) and eligible for the H1-B visa. On the other hand, unskilled workers generally need to apply for the H2. With my visa, the employer needs to fill out some paperwork and not much more and I'm good to go for 6 years. With the H2 visa, an employer must get a labour certification which requires them to go out and look for Americans to do the job and then submit proof to the Department of Labor that they did this (and incur a ton of legal and other costs). This must be done every year. As a result, many employers choose not to bother with doing this. A farmer trying to hire Mexican farm workers has a much larger bureaucratic burden than Intel hiring Indian software engineers. Most farmworkers would kill to have their employers go through this as its a step towards getting a green card and permanent residency.
Beyond employment-based categories, you can get into the country by being related to a US Citizen (which can take anywhere from a few months to 10 years depending on what the relationship is), be an entrepreneur with $50k or so to invest, or win the diversity lottery (which isn't open to Mexicans, El Salvadoreans, Columbians, Haitians, among others).
Since many illegal immigrants don't qualify for any of these things, they have no line to stand in.
Illegal immigration is unfair to legal immigrants - I've heard this so many times that I could puke. Illegal immigrants aren't hurting me in any way shape or form. Illegal immigration is a victimless crime. (I know what someone is going to bring up..yes there are illegal immigrants who have committed real crimes, but in any population of 10 million people, you are going to get some bad apples..and those bad apples should get deported). I live my life, they live theres. As I noted before, I'm legal because my employer was willing to go through the paperwork. I also make much more than most unskilled illegal immigrants and as such the legal fees and burden are a drop in the bucket compared to my salary and benefits. For a farmer, the greater costs and hassle than what my employer went through probably equal the salary that they pay these folks.
It is not a glamourous life being an illegal immigrant. I can call the police with no fear of being deported. Many illegals have reported that they have been stiffed by an employer because they knew that they faced no reprisals. I, on the other hand, have the ability to use the same legal system to redress my grievances that anyone else does.
Having said that, I should point out that within the legislative process that we find ourselves in, I would hope that some better accomodations are made for legal immigrants. Currently, it can take up to 10 years for an H1-B immigrant to obtain their green card depending on their level of experience and where they were born. During this time, they must be employed for the entirety. If get laid off from their jobs, they technically have 10 days to find another one or be out of status and must leave. And they must remain in the same line of work or risk losing their spot in line. The INS in the past has shown some leniency with people who got laid off, but has tightened things up since 9/11.
We should just kick all of them out - There are over 10 million illegal immigrants in this country. Even if we could find them all and deport them, then what? Who would work on the farms, restaurants and hotels? The impact on the US economy would be devastating.
Furthermore, basic capitalism says that we can't accomplish this. Capitalism dictates that when there is a demand for something, supply will follow. This holds true for alcohol during prohibition and drugs in the current day which flowed into the US from outside our borders. There is a demand for labor that Americans don't want to do, and capitalism tells us that labor will find its way to meeting that demand. We've already tried to seal our borders to booze and drugs with little overall success..the same holds true for stopping illegal immigrants.
Legalizing illegals is rewarding them - Good public policy is good public policy and shouldn't be looked at with exacting retribution. The 21st Amendment was good public policy, though I'm sure that there were people who at the time who said that it would reward the booze drinkers and smugglers. Furthermore, everyone has been a beneficiary of illegal immigration. From the immigrants themselves, to the farmers that employ them, to you and and me who have food on our tables as a result of their efforts. If you believe that illegal immigration shouldn't be rewarded, then stop eating American grown agriculture products.