Republicans Getting Tough On Illegal Immigrants

The Republican party seems to be getting tough on illegal immigrants. Sen. Frist announced plans to make it a felony to be an illegal immigrant and to impost stricter penalties on employers of illegal immigrants. President Bush is taking a softer approach to the issue and is siding more with companies that employ these illegal immigrants. They want Bush to issue special work passes to allow them to legally come to America to work for a set period of time before having to return to Mexico or renew their passes. This allows businesses to make more money through lower wages and benefits. Basically, it allows them to make more money at the expense of it's employees and makes it harder for honest businesses to compete.

This is a very volatile issue that will leave many Americans at odds with whatever laws are passed. The Hispanic community seems to be most vocal about this issue. I would assume that this is because more of them are from there or have relatives there.

I am a Caucasian male with no strong ties to this issue so it is harder for me to really form an opinion either way. I do understand their need to get jobs and feed their families in Mexico and for many it is easier to do by working in the U.S. On the other hand I do see where this is an issue that has national security written all over it.

I will now attempt to give my opinion on this issue, flawed as it may be. I will support making it a felony to cross the border. I also will support fining their employers who are essentially financing illegal border crossings. When caught the illegal immigrant should be forced to lead authorities to his employer. Then the employer will be fined. As long as the illegal immigrant cooperates fully in helping the U.S. fine the employer, the felony charges would then be dropped. After the employer pays the fine the employer should be given the opportunity to pay all costs associated with securing a worker pass for the individual worker. To avoid the fines, employers can assist their employees in obtaining a work pass. The employers should have to pay all costs associated with every worker pass for every employee they hire.

Also, any employers that want to hire people with these work passes should be contributing to a fund that will be set up to run the worker pass program. This would allow the worker pass to be financially independent and not have to rely on U.S. citizens tax dollars. It is not fair to give these companies a free lunch at taxpayers expenses.

Please feel free to comment on this issue or my opinion. I am very open minded when it comes to this issue due to my lack of a personal connection to it. Educate me.