{UAH} How do undocumented immigrants get away with working in the USA?

Tony Owens

Very easily.

When you or I get jobs, our employers fill out an I-9 form where they record the information we showed them to show we can legally work in the US. Such information might be our driving license or state ID card, Social Security card, birth certificate and/or passport. If you have a passport, that proves citizenship and identification, otherwise, you might need to show a picture ID and something else.

They then use something called e-Verify to confirm that the information that we gave them is correct.

People and companies that hire illegal aliens don't do that. They might pencil whip the I-9 forms, for instance, either filling them out without checking the paperwork, just taking someone's word for their name and SSN, accepting fake ID without using e-Verify, or in the case of people who just hire casual workers for day labor on a job, maybe not checking anything at all and paying in cash.

I've heard of people having a maid or gardener come in, who is paid by the homeowner leaving some $20 bills on the table. They heard about this person from a friend or a friend of a friend. Their house is clean or their yard is mowed and they don't really know or care if the person is legal or not.

You hear about raids on chicken processing plants, where pretty much the entire staff is found out to be illegal and deported, but then nothing is done to the manager, & HR person who hired these folks and next week the chicken processing plant is back in business and probably the paperwork on the new staff is just as bad as it was for the last people.

Demand based economy works. If there is a demand for a product or service, it will be provided by someone.

Is there demand for marijuana? It will be supplied.

Is there demand for prostitution? It will be supplied.

Is there demand for cheap labor that won't make waves? It will be supplied.

If you want to end the supply of of a product or service, get rid of the demand. In the case of illegal labor, cracking down on employers who hire people in the US without legal documentation is the only way demand for illegal labor will be ended. Without work, people will go home. Remember, illegal workers are generally taking jobs that US citizens don't want at the wages offered. Make employers hire people who can legally work in the US and see what wages in those jobs will do…I predict that the wages needed to attract US citizens to those jobs will probably be 2 or 3 times what the illegals are being paid, which means that the products or services that the illegals are producing will be more expensive.

Then again, we have about 50% of the US population in the work force, but that includes people under 16 or 18 who are going to school full time and not looking for work and older retirees who don't want to work because they are retired, as well as stay at home parents.

If wages were higher, would more people join the workforce? Adam Smith says so. Higher wages should attract more workers.

Assuming low unemployment, higher wages and still unfilled jobs because nobody wants to deal with the penalties for hiring illegal workers, expanding visa programs to allow people in who have an employer willing to sponsor them would be in order.

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