Immigration and Terrorism
Since 9-11 conservative minded citizens in the United States have grown ever more anti-immigrant. This is not to say they were not anti-immigrant before 9-11, but it certainly seems that instead of embracing the melting pot of the last century, Americans are even more fearful.
But there is one county in particular that Americans, particularly western Americans, hate to see people coming from: Mexico. Since 9-11, the Mexican border has sucked away resources in an attempt to abate the flood of illegals coming over the Southern border. A citizens group calling themselves the Minutemen Border patrol has even gone out and augmented government border patrols. The Minutemen claim success, though the government is concerned that they set off motion sensors and could be caught in harms way.
The solution to making the country more secure from terrorists is simple: ease restrictions on immigrants of Mexican Nationality.
This is not to say that the borders should just be opened up and anyone allowed to cross. However, any Mexican looking to leave Mexico to come to the United States should be allowed, legally to do so.
First, by creating a legal avenue for Mexican immigrants to come into the united states, few, if any, would dare risk entering the country illegally, thereby greatly reducing the demand of resources the current border patrol has. This would mean that American border patrols could concentrate on preventing the illegal importation of drugs, weapons, and bombs. Also because few, if any non-violent, non-threatening immigrants would try to come across illegally, the only people coming over the border would be threats to national security, and would therefore more easily be caught.
Meanwhile, many of the reasons people are anti-immigrant-- that is, reasons other than fear of terrorism-- are only exaserbated by restricted immigration. Opponents of immigration often cite the burden on tax payers and that immigrants take American jobs. Both are caused by the fact that immigrants are illegal, not that they are immigrants.
Illegal immigrants do not have social security numbers, and hence do not pay taxes. Legal immigrants however, do. Since illegal immigrants still use resources that are funded by taxes but contribute nothing, they are a burden. However, legal immigrants who pay taxes pay taxes in proportion to the amount of services they use like any other citizen, and therefor are not a burden.
Illlegal immigrants work for less than minimum wage because they don't pay taxes, and hence take low end jobs American citizens are not willing to do. However, legal immigrants will earn at least minimum wage because they paying taxes and it is the law. Certainly employers who use illegal immigrant labor could still pay employees under the table, less than minimum wage. However, a legal immigrant has dramatically more to lose evading taxes than an illegal immigrant does, and more importantly, an illegal immigrant has no choice but to evade taxes because they do not have social security number, but a legal immigrant, having a choice, will more than likely choose not to break the law.
[If more people chose to break the law than not break the law, then there would not be any reason to have the law. If the law is openly broken frequently, it is because penalties for breaking the law are low. For example, many people think nothing of exceeding speed limits by 5 mph. Why? the penalty for doing so is very low, and the law is infrequently enforced. Thus people do not see it as wrong. The same person however, is unlikely to walk into Barnes and Noble and leave without paying for books. Why? The penalty for stealing is high, relative to the gain of stealing a few books. While most people are willing to speed, few are willing to steal. Legal Immigrants who can pay taxes are unlikely not to pay taxes because, like stealing a book from Barnes and Noble, evading taxes has a high penalty.]
Finally, current citizens will have less of a threat of having their identity stolen. Often, illegal immigrants purchase identification from ID brokers who provide them with forms, documentation, and social security numbers so that they can get public utilities like gas and electric, obtain jobs that require social security numbers and obtaining documents like driver's licenses. But Legal immigrants have all this documentation because they have obtained it legally. There for the demand for stolen identities will decrease. As the demand decreases, the value of a stolen ID decreases. As the value decreases, the cost of getting caught-- that is the likelihood combined with the penalty-- increases. Since legal immigrants will lower the value of stolen ID's, less identities will be stolen.
Again, we're not advocating to open the borders. Instead, Mexicans looking to immigrate to the United States would apply, and then within a few months after a background check to ensure that they are not terrorists, admitted to the country and provided the correct paper work. Since many Mexican immigrants pay truck drivers several thousand dollars to drive them illegally over the border, the United States could merely charge a processing few to pay for the cost of background checks. Not only would this mean the process would cost nothing to confirm an immigrant's status, the United States could even turn a profit on immigrants. At the same time, less would be needed to be spent patroling the Mexican border.
Changing American immigrant policy to reflect the real needs of the world today would save taxpayers money while making American borders more secure. So you still think too many Mexicans are coming to the Unite States? Well think about this, a dozen 9-11 hijackers were Saudi Arabian, and none were Mexican.
But there is one county in particular that Americans, particularly western Americans, hate to see people coming from: Mexico. Since 9-11, the Mexican border has sucked away resources in an attempt to abate the flood of illegals coming over the Southern border. A citizens group calling themselves the Minutemen Border patrol has even gone out and augmented government border patrols. The Minutemen claim success, though the government is concerned that they set off motion sensors and could be caught in harms way.
The solution to making the country more secure from terrorists is simple: ease restrictions on immigrants of Mexican Nationality.
This is not to say that the borders should just be opened up and anyone allowed to cross. However, any Mexican looking to leave Mexico to come to the United States should be allowed, legally to do so.
First, by creating a legal avenue for Mexican immigrants to come into the united states, few, if any, would dare risk entering the country illegally, thereby greatly reducing the demand of resources the current border patrol has. This would mean that American border patrols could concentrate on preventing the illegal importation of drugs, weapons, and bombs. Also because few, if any non-violent, non-threatening immigrants would try to come across illegally, the only people coming over the border would be threats to national security, and would therefore more easily be caught.
Meanwhile, many of the reasons people are anti-immigrant-- that is, reasons other than fear of terrorism-- are only exaserbated by restricted immigration. Opponents of immigration often cite the burden on tax payers and that immigrants take American jobs. Both are caused by the fact that immigrants are illegal, not that they are immigrants.
Illegal immigrants do not have social security numbers, and hence do not pay taxes. Legal immigrants however, do. Since illegal immigrants still use resources that are funded by taxes but contribute nothing, they are a burden. However, legal immigrants who pay taxes pay taxes in proportion to the amount of services they use like any other citizen, and therefor are not a burden.
Illlegal immigrants work for less than minimum wage because they don't pay taxes, and hence take low end jobs American citizens are not willing to do. However, legal immigrants will earn at least minimum wage because they paying taxes and it is the law. Certainly employers who use illegal immigrant labor could still pay employees under the table, less than minimum wage. However, a legal immigrant has dramatically more to lose evading taxes than an illegal immigrant does, and more importantly, an illegal immigrant has no choice but to evade taxes because they do not have social security number, but a legal immigrant, having a choice, will more than likely choose not to break the law.
[If more people chose to break the law than not break the law, then there would not be any reason to have the law. If the law is openly broken frequently, it is because penalties for breaking the law are low. For example, many people think nothing of exceeding speed limits by 5 mph. Why? the penalty for doing so is very low, and the law is infrequently enforced. Thus people do not see it as wrong. The same person however, is unlikely to walk into Barnes and Noble and leave without paying for books. Why? The penalty for stealing is high, relative to the gain of stealing a few books. While most people are willing to speed, few are willing to steal. Legal Immigrants who can pay taxes are unlikely not to pay taxes because, like stealing a book from Barnes and Noble, evading taxes has a high penalty.]
Finally, current citizens will have less of a threat of having their identity stolen. Often, illegal immigrants purchase identification from ID brokers who provide them with forms, documentation, and social security numbers so that they can get public utilities like gas and electric, obtain jobs that require social security numbers and obtaining documents like driver's licenses. But Legal immigrants have all this documentation because they have obtained it legally. There for the demand for stolen identities will decrease. As the demand decreases, the value of a stolen ID decreases. As the value decreases, the cost of getting caught-- that is the likelihood combined with the penalty-- increases. Since legal immigrants will lower the value of stolen ID's, less identities will be stolen.
Again, we're not advocating to open the borders. Instead, Mexicans looking to immigrate to the United States would apply, and then within a few months after a background check to ensure that they are not terrorists, admitted to the country and provided the correct paper work. Since many Mexican immigrants pay truck drivers several thousand dollars to drive them illegally over the border, the United States could merely charge a processing few to pay for the cost of background checks. Not only would this mean the process would cost nothing to confirm an immigrant's status, the United States could even turn a profit on immigrants. At the same time, less would be needed to be spent patroling the Mexican border.
Changing American immigrant policy to reflect the real needs of the world today would save taxpayers money while making American borders more secure. So you still think too many Mexicans are coming to the Unite States? Well think about this, a dozen 9-11 hijackers were Saudi Arabian, and none were Mexican.
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