As I related in this morning's diary by Crashing Vor, Our Know Nothings, "I have been commenting here on the subjects of immigration/illegal immigration, trade, and economics for about five years and I don't really believe that writing a diary on one of these subjects is going to add or detract from my credibility re. these subjects."
For much of the time that I have been a member of Daily Kos, Duke1676 and I have been adversaries on the subject of illegal immigration and some time ago Duke invited me, as polecat did just a few moments ago, to write a diary on the subject. While I responded that "I have been commenting here on the subjects of immigration/illegal immigration, trade, and economics for about five years, and I don't really believe that writing a diary on one of these subjects is going to add or detract from my credibility re. these subjects." it was polecat's honest invite "You write it and I'll rec it, as well as participate" which has now changed my mind.
Now on to the random responses
1.) "Just Go After The Employers"
a.) Prior to 1986 it was not illegal to hire an illegal immigrant. In 1986 as part of the Immigration Reform And Control Act, the I-9 Form was created. The I-9 Form makes it a crime (felony perjury) for either the employer or the prospective employee to falsely sign the form.
b.) As part of IRCA in 1986 USC 8 1324 made it a crime to "knowingly" hire an illegal immigrant.
Any person who, during any 12-month period, knowingly hires for employment at least 10 individuals with actual knowledge that the individuals are aliens described in subparagraph (B) shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both.
c.) Additionally USC 18 1546 makes it a crime to use false documents to enter the US or to falsely gain employment in the U.S.
Whoever knowingly forges, counterfeits, alters, or falsely makes any immigrant or nonimmigrant visa, permit, border crossing card, alien registration receipt card, or other document prescribed by statute or regulation for entry into or as evidence of authorized stay or employment in the United States, or utters, uses, attempts to use, possesses, obtains, accepts, or receives any such visa, permit, border crossing card, alien registration receipt card, or other document prescribed by statute or regulation for entry into or as evidence of authorized stay or employment in the United States, knowing it to be forged, counterfeited, altered, or falsely made, or to have been procured by means of any false claim or statement, or to have been otherwise procured by fraud or unlawfully obtained
c.) Senator Alan Simpson (the 1986 IRCA was known as the Simpson-Mazzoli bill) has publicly stated that a "tamper proof ID" was included as part of the original IRCA legislation but the provision was stripped out by the Democratic Party in the conference committee before the bill was voted on. With the "tamper proof ID" stripped out of IRCA it is almost impossible to prove that an employer has "knowingly" hired an illegal immigrant.
d.) If an individual presents an employer one of the documents required by the I-9 Form, the employer is precluded by law from questioning the authenticity of that document. In fact, the employer risks an EEOC or ACLU lawsuit for even considering the questioning of the authenticity of one of these documents.
e.) From the perspective of the illegal immigrant I would contend that it is really immaterial whether the U.S. government deports him/her or makes it impossible for them to work in the U.S. If an individual is sincere about making it impossible for an illegal immigrant to work in the U.S. I don't understand why they would be against deporting that same illegal immigrant -- the net effect is the same.
ISR/Westat Legislative History On Employment Verification
2.) "What We Need Is Comprehensive Immigration Reform"
Unless "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" changes USC 8 1324 so as to make it possible to prosecute the employer whether the illegal immigrant is "knowingly" hired or not
-- or --
the "tamper proof ID" of the 1986 IRCA is instituted (Senator Chuck Schumer has suggested a biometrically encoded Social Security Card which must be presented to the prospective employer in the same fashion that two of the qualifying documents required by the I-9 Form must be currently be presented)
nothing will be reformed. Anyone who objectively has read either S 2611 or S 1348 would be hard pressed to find anything which represents "Comprehensive Immigration Reform".
CBO Study On The Effects Of S 2611
Caveats:
1.) Please, as I have stated above I have been commenting here on the subject of immigration/illegal immigration for about five years, and I have pretty much heard every insult and irrational response that the membership here can deal out.
Pretend that for the purposes of this diary I have already stipulated that I am a xenophobe Republican "immigrant hater" such that you can stay on point for the purpose of any response.
2.) As I noted earlier today, there are zero credible studies which I am aware of which quantify or qualify the illegal immigrant population in the United States. Studies done by the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Pew Hispanic Center use the same data sets to create their studies, those data sets being the 2000 Census data and the latest Current Population Survey. Consider for a moment the veracity of any data set for which the question is "Are You In The Country Illegally?"
People will most often believe one study on illegal immigration over another one because they want to believe it, not because they understand the methodology or data set used to create the study.
3.) Some of the membership of Daily Kos insists on conflating (legal) immigration with illegal immigration. In the way of random facts actual legal immigration for the eight years of the Bush administration is roughly the same as legal immigration for the eight years of the Clinton Administration.