At one level, it’s hard to challenge this line of thinking.
The immigrants did break our laws and they certainly did know they were doing
that. Moreover, there’s no question that condoning past illegal behavior
undermines the rule of law.
But there’s more to the rule of law issue than the simple
question of a path to citizenship vs. amnesty.
Let’s start with how the immigrants got here. The fact is
these people knew that, once across the border, they could easily find jobs.
They knew they could do this despite having no ID showing they were U.S.
citizens.
How is this possible?
The answer is that U.S. employers, spanning a large range of
business from agriculture to manufacturing to services, were willing to hire
people who lacked any kind of credible ID. This created a powerful magnet
pulling people across the border. Immigrants logically thought the U.S. was
operating on two levels: the government
will try to stop us at the border, but after that, as long as we keep out of
trouble, they’re fine with us getting jobs and raising families.
Businesses firmly reject any criticism of their past (and in
many cases, current) behavior. Their view is that, because the federal
government didn’t have any kind of standard ID, businesses couldn’t check for
citizenship. I once attended a state chamber of commerce meeting where this
point was made over and over. You can’t hold us responsible, the speakers all
said.
Blame the federal government. It’s what everyone’s doing.
But this idea is nonsense. Except in the rare cases of
sophisticated ID forgery, employers had all the information they needed to know
that prospective hires weren’t legitimate. And they also had the responsibility
to undertake the easy verification.
Consider a situation, you’re sitting in a bar and someone
offers you ten new twenty dollar bills in exchange for five of your own. Do you
take the deal? No, because you think the money you get will likely be
counterfeit. The law makes you responsible for this kind of judgment.
OK, now you’re an employer and someone comes in, offers to
work for below minimum wage, speaks rudimentary English or none at all, and has
no ID other than an easily forged Social Security card. Do you take the deal?
Not if you apply the same standards as the cash swap.
There’s plenty of easy to find evidence about businesses
hiring illegal aliens. If we wanted to, and in light of the importance of the
rule of law, it would be a reasonable and logical effort for the federal
government to go back and prosecute the likely hundreds of thousands of firms
and individuals who knowingly violated the law.
But that’s not going to happen; the employers will go
unchallenged.
We’ve already granted them amnesty.
