More on Immigration Reform

If you are like most Americans, when you fill your tank at a gas stations and pay with a credit card it only takes a few seconds for the card to be authorized and payment completed. Even while you are days away from your home a minimum additional input of your zip code can be quickly imputed to confirm a high probability that you indeed own the card submitted. This control feature is highly successfully administered by the private sector. So why couldn’t the same concept work in monitoring and controlling guest workers as well as all Americans with a tamper proof Identification card. It could be in the form of a temporary guest worker permit, Drivers license or social security card. The most important aspect would be that the data base that contains that digitized verification data would be under the control of a quaisi governmental or private entity and not the federal government. This to me would be the most important feature of an acceptable immigration reform bill.


The next crucial feature would require all currently undocumented workers to get in line in their respective countries of origin. The only ones who could get to the head of the line would be those who carry a letter confirming that they have work waiting for them by an employer who currently has work for them. Our State Department could set up in embassy offices (or outsource the function to private employment agencies) where the paper work could be completed in accordance to the reasonable regulations.

The third feature of a good bill will enable or empower the states with a roll as the States are the best judges of the needs for workers and they should be given the responsibility of setting the numbers of guest workers needed, Then they should also have the responsibility of tracking these guess workers and making sure they depart upon expiration of their guess worker permit. This would limit the guest worker to the state of sponsorship which could also accept transfers to another state wishing to accept him. The states should be compensated either directly by employers or a surcharge on the income tax or unemployment tax under their jurisdiction. (Let them decide).

Forth element is to have licensed bounty hunters who would be authorized by the US Marshall’s office with a capture fee. This fee would be a flat amount of $250 per head and $ 2.00 per hour for each conscription hours that an undocumented individual would be sentenced. The fine would be a minimum of six months hard labor with compensation paid that would equal the minimum wage of their country of origin. The states could assign these inmates to work for private entities at amounts above the wage set and conscription fee to recover their cost of providing room and board.

These four provisions abbreviated above do not address all the problems and injustices of our current immigration fiasco but are essential for creating a workable solution of an ever out of control problem.