See - taking away the incentives DOES work! - Granite Grok

See – taking away the incentives DOES work!

It ain’t rocket science!

by Skip Murphy

There have been many out there that have consistently said that we cannot, as a nation, deport all of the illegal aliens that are here (estimates range from 12 to 20 million).

My response has always been is that we don’t have to forceably round them up, clap them into buses, trains, and planes and then ship them out.  Nope, being a frugal conservative Yankee (are there many others out there like me?  Please?), just make the incentives go away and then they will go away.

By themselves.

So when I noted it here and here, I figured it was time to just sit back and watch.  Now, I am happy to report that my hyposthesis is correct:

Migrants lose jobs as hiring law nears
Employers verifying status fire hundreds, attorneys say

 Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of undocumented workers have been fired as a result of Arizona businesses reviewing the work-eligibility forms of their employees as the state’s new employer-sanctions law draws near.

The fired workers couldn’t provide missing information uncovered during the reviews or confessed to being in the country illegally, say attorneys involved in the reviews.

The number of firings could grow significantly once the law goes into effect Jan. 1 as employers scramble to make sure they are in compliance. Under the law, repeat violators will lose their business licenses.

The key here is that finally our politicians have made the "tough" decisions – protect our sovereignty and our lower skilled workers.  The kicker is that this action has teeth in it – if employers get caught, it will be the kiss of death.  No longer is it at a level where it can be assumed to be simply a cost of doing business.   

The law, signed by Gov. Janet Napolitano in July, is aimed at clamping down on illegal immigration in Arizona by pulling the plug on the job magnet that has drawn undocumented immigrants to the state by the tens of thousands over the past decade.

Get rid of the prime incentive and the rest falls into place.  Take away the money from those that should not be here – start the flow southward and return the problem to Mexico, who rightly owns the problem of creating an atmosphere that cannot take care of its citizens.

But of course, those that profit from illegal workers have their panties in a bunch….

Businesses groups, however, asked a federal judge Wednesday to toss out the law, arguing that it is unconstitutional and invites racial profiling.

Right, bring out the race card.  Tell me, what is it about either supplying false information or no information is racial profiling?  Please? 

Federal law requires employers to ask all new employees for proof that they are eligible to work in the U.S., such as a driver’s license, a green card or a Social Security card. Employers are required to record the information on forms known as I-9s.

I have to supply that info; my sons have to supply that info.  If we do not, we do not work – that’s the law.

This is what seems to drive most of us absolutely bonkers.  We have allowed our society to become a  lawyer driven society – a defense laywer one at that.  Everytime there is something that seems to smack of common sense, you can bet that some lawyer will pop out of the woodwork to find fault with it and go jump off the logical cliff to make a case.

Internal reviews of those forms by businesses have led to the firing of "many hundreds of workers, and perhaps thousands," said Julie Pace, a Phoenix lawyer who is performing I-9 audits for companies. She also represents business groups that filed suit against the state seeking to have the sanctions law thrown out.

I love it – she benefits no matter which way it goes – bill the companies and then recoup lawyer fees in a class suit.  And then lawyers wonder why many of us hold whale poop in higher esteem….

 

 

Employers are not allowed to directly ask whether a worker is legal, Pace said. And many illegal workers could still slip through the audits if they presented fake documents that appeared real when they were hired and they filled out the I-9 correctly. But in many instances, employers are finding that the I-9s were not filled out properly. Upon questioning, employees are admitting that they are in the country illegally, or they can’t provide the missing information.

As it should be…we are a Rule of Law society.  Transgressing that and not enforcing laws that some politician feels that violates his or her sense of right and wrong, is wrong.  Like it or not, they are examples as how our society is to behave.  Saying that this law (legally passed and put onto the books) or that law is "morally wrong" and thus ignorable – what is the message to the next generation?  Frankly, it does send the message of "hey, just do want you want and forget about everything and everybody else".

 

Which leads, taken to the extreme, to anarchy.  I’ve not known a single society where that model has worked – you?

Some economists think the sanctions law could wreak havoc on the state’s economy by exacerbating labor shortages and scaring away companies from locating here.

But a new study by the Center for Immigration Studies, a research organization in Washington, D.C., that favors reductions in immigration, suggests that there are plenty of Americans who could step in to replace illegal workers.

The study estimates that there are 340,000 illegal workers in Arizona, 12 percent of the state’s workforce. If all were to leave, they could be replaced by some of the 710,000 Arizonans who are currently outside the state’s labor pool because they are not actively looking for work, according to the study.

The 710,000 include 196,000 teenagers and 514,000 adults with no more than a high-school education.

It used to be that teenagers DID fill those entry level jobs.  It has been shown that illegals take some of those jobs away.  Another reason is that small business owners cut back on "teenager" slots as the minimum wage goes up beyond its economic value.

This cuts out the chance for high schoolers to learn the basic skills of being employable.  I’m old enough to remember high school kids pumping the gas at the gas station.  In addition, they’d check the oil level, my tire pressures, and wash the windows.  Now, it is not economically viable for those activities to be done any more by a gas station employer.  Ditto for movie ushers – the real ones that escorted you to your seat instead of just ripping your ticket and makes sure the door hasn’t been open for ripping off the theater.

"The question is, is there enough labor to replace the illegals? Yes," said Steven Camarota, the center’s research director.

Dawn McLaren, a research economist at Arizona State University, doubted those findings.

She said Camarota is counting people who have made the decision not to work and therefore are not considered part of the labor pool.

Some may be students living with parents, she said. Some may be disabled. Others may be staying home with children.

"If they haven’t joined the labor force thus far, they are paying for their livelihood some other way," McLaren said.

Ha!  About the only way I can think of, as far as ‘some other way’ is concerned, is having someone else paying it for them – Parents, Friends, or Taxpayers.  In the case of the disabled, truly disabled, society SHOULD be helping. 

Unfortunately, we have become a society where it is acceptable to sit on your duff and scam the system for your sustenance.  It is not a robust lifestyle, but if you are willing to be at the lowest level, with little or no expectations for yourself, who cares?!

Coaxing those people into the labor market would require significantly raising the often low wages paid to immigrants doing manual labor or other low-skilled jobs, she said. But that could lead to businesses closing, higher prices for consumers, and higher inflation, she added.

Basic capitalism….I notice once again that the proven idea that illegals depress wages is missing from the statement.  Americans will do the jobs once the wages rise to the level that law-abiding citizens can accept (and the true FREE market).

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