It's About Time: Chertoff Announces Tighter Enforcement of Laws that Prohibit Employing Illegal Aliens

Friday, August 10th, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that his department would ramp up enforcement of laws that forbid employers from hiring illegal aliens. It is about time. "The changes, which would stiffen work-site enforcement, add border agents and increase penalties for rogue employers, could cause havoc in immigrant-dependent industries like agriculture, hospitality and healthcare, Chertoff acknowledged. 'There will be some unhappy consequences for the economy out of doing this,' he said in an interview with The [Los Angeles] Times." (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig11aug11,1,3189676.story?track=rss )

Does this mean that President Bush and his administration have had a change of heart regarding comprehensive immigration reform? Don't bet on it. In fact, the above article in the Los Angeles Times hints that this new enforcement crackdown may be a deliberate attempt to punish and threaten those who opposed the recently defeated immigration reform legislation. Bush may be hoping that the Congress will be pressured to reconsider his comprehensive immigration reform, including a "pathway" to citizenship for the 12-20 million illegal aliens already here by causing serious damage to the economy.

Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez remarked, "We do not have the workers our economy needs to keep growing each year. The demographics simply are not on our side. Ultimately, Congress will have to pass comprehensive immigration reform." He echoed Chertoff who said, "I'm not a lawmaker, but I presume, at some point, somebody's going to take a look and say, 'We've got to find a way to address this problem,' and that's probably going to require some legal changes."

Will this new enforcement effort cause economic hardships? Most likely, it will in the short-term. Industries and businesses who have become hooked on employing cheap illegal alien labor will have to adjust their employment practices. They may struggle to find enough new hires to replace their illegal employees. They will have training expenses that will impact productivity. They may have to increase wages to find qualified legal workers, which would require adjusting their prices or cutting their profit margins.

Consumers are equally addicted to the cheap prices that accompany the use of illegal aliens as employees. U.S. consumers may need to accept that prices will increase if they want to rid this country of illegal aliens. Stricter enforcement of these anti-illegal immigrant employment laws may result in some increase in the rate of inflation. However, this tendency will be modified by the laws of supply-and-demand if more illegal aliens self-deport, a trend that is increasing according to ALIPAC. It should be obvious that the presence of 12-20 million illegal aliens puts pressure on the supply of goods and services and that means pressure on prices, too.

However, the long-term impact on the economy and the country as a whole will be nothing but positive. The evidence is overwhelming that illegal immigration is costing us far more than it benefits us. I agree with Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Solano Beach) who said, "If there's some pain, it's not because we didn't have amnesty. It's because we didn't enforce the law 20 years ago when we should have."

Those of us who oppose this administration's amnesty scams for illegal aliens must keep very vigilant. We need to closely watch that Congress does not waffle when unions, businesses and illegal immigrant supporters pressure them. The first thing to be on the alert for would be efforts to increase the number of temporary agricultural workers or skilled IT workers. Those need to be blocked by quick lobbying responses from those of us who want illegal immigration to stop.