What Should America Do?

American lawmakers have backed themselves into a tight spot this time. They are forced into making a tough choice. They have to balance their duty to America and its' people against the fate of 11-15 million people trying to make a better lives for themselves. What can you really do with that many people? Some say send them all back. Okay. We couldn't move 450,000 people out of New Orleans, so how can we move a population the size of Florida, spread across the country, most of whom do not want to go? Some say to brand them all as criminals. I cannot even wrap my head around the point of that. If illegals(I know illegal has a negative connotation, but it is a truth, not a judgment) are such a strain on out tax dollars now, how much more of a strain would millions upon millions of criminal trials cost? Let alone families that could be ripped apart and lives that have real roots here be ruined.The point is that there are no easy answers to any of these questions.

I am not 100% sure where I fall on this issue, but I do see it as coming to a head, and that is for the best. All sides make good points. As long as their is a .02% unemployment rate in this country, illegals are taking American Jobs. Even if they are crappy jobs, I do believe Americans should get the first crack. This is also where the gray area in this debate really settles in. Most advocates of amnesty or temporary work programs will tell you that these are jobs that Americans will not do. It is not the job itself, but the wages. The labor that illegal immigration supplies is artificially, and sometimes illegally, cheap. This is America after all, and there are more than enough people willing to turn a blind eye if they can save a buck or three. I don't know if this best thing to do, but if you really wanted to nip this problem in the bud you have to punish the enablers of this behavior. You have to take on the employers. Here is some sample wording for a law that focuses on employers...

If an employer is found to have hired a worker who is in this country illegally they will be fined a total of $1,000,000 per worker in question. This fine will incur even if the worker in question was found to have gained employment by using false identification.

That's it. The first time a company or individual got hit with this, illegal immigrant workers would be seen as the plague. Like I said, I don't know if it is the right thing to do, but there is a real good chance that would work.

None of this would be an issue if our lawmakers had just done their jobs and enforced the border in the first place. You can't really blame any of these people that came into America. It was like a big mansion that said no trespassing, but once you got in no one made you leave. It sure as heck doesn't work in that situation, and it doesn't work here. The answer seems easy, but how do you make a choice to ruin the lives of 15 million house guests who you let in?

I have heard that we as Americans are a country of compassion, but also a country of laws. I agree. Illegal is illegal and it has to stop, now, but lawmakers need to buck up to their past mistakes and figure out an amicable way to take one on the chin. Those 15 million are here now and we have to best find a way to intergrate them into society that works for both Americans and Illegals alike. Lawmakers have to stop using these people as political chess pieces and find real solutions. I am willing to keep an open mind and hear all possible remedies. I hope they are too.