Getting Tough on Illegals?

Since Congress didn’t act, the Departments of Homeland Security and Commerce announced they would increase action against illegal immigration. Among other measures, they proposed rules requiring employers to fire people whose social security numbers don’t match government records. Employers who still retain these people after 90 days would be fined.

About time! Although I can’t help but wonder why the Bush administration is suddenly getting serious about enforcing immigration law. Is it a result of the grassroots effort to derail the shameless immigration reform bill both Congress and the Bush administration was trying to shove down our throats? or is this an attempt by the Bush administration to pressure Congress to press forward with the flawed immigration reform so obviously favored by the President?

Still, there are an awful lot of illegals who work without a social security number. You see them lined up in various locations in every city. Men from various companies pull up and pick workers like so many apples from a tree. These illegals work for cash under the table and without benefit or recourse should they be injured on the job.

What do we do about these illegals?

…these employers?

More: Thought Cops

(h/t: Spree at Wake up America!) Walt Edwards, a 1950’s Border Patrol veteran and participant in President Eisenhower’s Operation Wetback in 1954 says the government today could do a much better job of sealing the border and controlling illegal immigration.

According to Edwards, “When we start enforcing the law, these various businesses are, on their own, going to replace their [illegal] workforce with a legal workforce.”

Rather than build a fence at the border, Border Patrol veterans say these actions should have a higher priority:

1. End the current practice of taking captured Mexican aliens to the border and releasing them. Instead, deport them deep into Mexico, where return to the US would be more costly.
2. Crack down hard on employers who hire illegals. Without jobs, the aliens won’t come.
3. End “catch and release” for non-Mexican aliens. It is common for illegal migrants not from Mexico to be set free after their arrest if they promise to appear later before a judge. Few show up.

John Dillin of the Christian Science Monitor writes,

The Patrol veterans say enforcement could also be aided by a legalized guest- worker program that permits Mexicans to register in their country for temporary jobs in the US. Eisenhower’s team ran such a program. It permitted up to 400,000 Mexicans a year to enter the US for various agriculture jobs that lasted for 12 to 52 weeks.

While Congress is just spinning their wheels, we’re learning that the encouragement and use of illegal labor has dire consequences. Check out what Michelle Malkin and Hot Air have to say.