Unintended consequences
As with anything in life I strive to analyze the options and what the possible consequences would be when I act on any of those options
Some of my co workers and I were discussing the immigration problems and they had several comments like "Someone has got to do something" "We should build the wall" "Forget the wall just put a kill zone in with automatic weapons that kills anything crossing" and the list goes on.
There are some fact that we need to consider before we make any of those decisions. The facts and the possible consequences need to be considered before we take any action. Here are a few of those facts and some possible consequences. I am not on any side here and I believe we should uphold the law. I pointed out that most of the problem here is caused by us, the people and the companies that hire those that come in illegally. A tile setter in Texas makes 14 to 16 dollars an hour. The undocumented people that do the same work can charge as little as $5 dollars an hour and it is very difficult for a legitimate company that is paying unemployment insurance, liability insurance, taxes, overtime, benefits, health insurance and so forth to compete with individuals that do decent work and have no licensing and undercut their pricing. This is not right although it is happening. So the homeowner has to be willing to pay the higher price to the licensed contractor to do what is right although many people say "I want to help the poor undocumented person who is trying to support a family" when really what they are doing is hurting American businessmen. Having seen this happen I have also found out that many companies end up pulling strings in order to hire undocumented workers in order to compete in the market place.
1. Undocumented people send billions of dollars out of the country to their families which ends up being privately funded humanitarian help. What if this money was not longer sent to these countries because the undocumented people were sent back? Would it cause any issues?
2. Deporting 12 million (or a more realistic number of 20 million ) undocumented people would take over 24 years to accomplish.
3. Deporting the undocumented people would also mean that they would either leave their 6 million US Citizen children for the states to take care of
4. Who would pay to support these children?
5. Imagine Mexico who already is suffering greatly with employment problems if all of a sudden they had another 10 million people enter the country.
6. When we say we don't care what happens in Mexico we are only fooling ourselves since what happens in another country ends up affecting us financially in a big way sooner or later. Looking at Macro-economics we can learn from the past and predict what may happen in the future.
7. Undocumented people do many jobs that American Citizens do not want. If these people are deported many industries would suffer greatly such as the hotel, food, agriculture, construction and other industries that depend on these workers.
8. Some people say the market would self correct with time although in the mean time the great financial problems that would be caused would devastate the US.
9. Undocumented people pay billions into the social security tax mismatched funds and without them doing so the program would fall apart much sooner than it would without the undocumented people putting into it.
10. Texas is one state that has stopped issuing birth certificates to those born in the country without a father and a mother that are US Citizens. All of the 49 other States recognize that children born within the US are US Citizens. Some people argue what "Under jurisdiction" means. So they say that the undocumented people's babies are not US Citizens because they are not under the jurisdiction of the US and then the people realize that they cannot get a Mexican birth certificate either so they are not recognized in any country. This make these type of people go even further underground.
11. Crossing the border without the proper documents is not a felony but it is a civil infraction of a federal law. If they get caught doing it then it can be one thing, if they don't get caught it falls into a completely different category.
12. Do we separate families?
13. Obama has deported more people than any other president and he said he would only go over criminals although almost 50 percent of those he deported have no criminal record but they were easier to deport because they were not hiding.
14. There is no legal line for Mexicans to get into like everyone keeps saying "If they did it legally we would not have an issue with them" but when there is no legal way for them to come into the US they do it illegally.
15. A cousin that is already here will tell them he will lend them $5000 or $7000 in order for them to get here and when they come they will work and pay off the loan with interest. Many of them only make between $60 and $200 dollars a month in their countries and here they can make many times that.
16. We keep talking about a WALL yet there are special trucks in Mexico that pull up and a mechanical ladder goes up and over and then the people go up and over. There are many tunnels being dug as soon as they bury one another pops up. Many come in boats when they pay rich drug dealers to bring them over. Many come over legally and over stay their visas. This is the most common.
17. Deporting them all would hurt the country financially and emotionally. Charging them all a fine (say $5000) each would help pay for the programs and they would not be put ahead in the line to get citizenship although they would be given permission to work and they would not need to hide.
18. I have friends that have worked for 9 years at the same place with no benefits making minimum wage and they work overtime and don't get paid for it. This is taking advantage of the people and who is responsible for this? We are, the American People, the American businesses.
19. We can save a buck so we do it.
20. For us to consider any of the options we should ask ourselves what the consequences would be and we should also look at the unintended consequences as well and have someone analyze all the data.
21. For people that say they don't pay taxes I can point out that they pay gas tax, food tax, property tax if they are paying any kind of rent, and the list goes on. They are consumers and so they end up paying taxes. You say that many of them get paid under the table and avoid taxes although you also need to know that most of the time they make less, get no overtime, no medical insurance and often will avoid the ER unlike many of the poor american people that abuse it. Sure there are undocumented people that abuse the system.
22. I find it interesting that most of the people begging in the streets are white people with signs, the Hispanics for the most part seek to work to get the money.
23. I can't say they don't bring crime, drugs and other problems although the main consumers of those drugs are US Citizens which brings the problem back into our court again.
24. If we stop hiring them less will come, if we stop buying their drugs less will come. It really does come down to money and of course the concept of a better life.
25. I did a study of the cost of living in Isabel Morales Guatemala and the cost of living (without a car but just with a small used motorcycle) would be $600 a month. If you work in the banana factory you can make 200 a month working 6 days a week. If you work in other jobs you make about $60 a month. If you have 3 people in your home making $200 you can make the cost of living for 2 people. I was going to move there with my family and then I found out the Guatemalan government charges US Citizens to live in Guatemala. The charge is about $25 dollars every three months but if you have 3 kids then every three months you need to pay $75 which is more than a months wage for a regular job or almost half a months wage if you have a really go job. Now after you pay the Guatemalan government what will you pay your bills with?
26. So, I don't advocate that they move here illegally although I can certainly see why they do what they do.