Talk Show Hosts,

Individual states and our federal government all have laws governing illegal immigration into our country. The laws on the books are not enforced and our lawmakers do not want to deal logically with the issue.
More walls, fences, check points and government employees are not the answer. As we have seen for years illegal immigrants get in and out of our country with no wall or check point stopping them.
The American business owner is not being held responsible for their role in this situation. American business owners caught with an illegal immigrant under their employment should pay a heavy fine and/or go straight to jail. If a state does not have strong enough laws against the hiring of illegal immigrants, then it must move to legislation yesterday.
Stronger penalties and enforcement for illegal employment will cut down on illegal immigrants flooding into our country, and we will also see that there is no job that an American will not do!

Thanks for any time that you might devote to our situation,

Kurt A. Cosby
U.S. Navy Retired and small business owner in the Pensacola Florida area


sent to: all radio and tv talk show hosts that I can find

With all due respect Sir, this is your problem. You can't see the big picture.
Jail all the employers who employ illegals ?
Just a few things :

- illegals are working mostly in construction, meat factories, farms, hospitality. While construction and hospitality wouldn't have the problem removing the illegals, farming and meat factories would. You take those people away, the USA won't have food.
Before you'd say Americans will do that, please follow this link :
www.csmonitor.com/USA/2009/0605/p17s08-usgn.html

Only 400 hundred detained, and the town dies. After more than one year, there's only 150 Somalis (!), not one american worker. The factory works at 30% because there's no Americans who'll fill the jobs.
Before you'd say raise the wages, let me tell you, we want capitalism, not socialism. Socialism would do that. Capitalism care about one thing, profit. Rather than raise the wages, companies would just move south of the border, and pay $1/day for Mexicans. Import all the vegetables, and fruits from South America. It'd be cheaper than paying Americans $20/hr picking tomatoes.

- if you jail the employers, you'll probably kill the businesses. Do you think where's illegals there's no Americans ? Americans would lose their job too ! Supervisors, office workers, secretaries, management etc....

- not to mention, if you close businesses, other, more business might have close down, because they are in close business relationship.
Example : if you took a look the link before, if they close the factory, farmers who had brought their cattle won't be able bring no more, truck companies won't have nothing to deliver, plastic wrap won't be needed, etc... many many American job would be lost...

- And think about all of the business that will have to close if you take away their ( illegal alien ) customers. They have done nothing, maybe spend all their life savings to open a restaurant, gas station, barber shop, etc, because many many people arrived to their town. Illegals, but how would they know ? All business pay their taxes, if you take away their customers they'll go bankrupt, and instead of paying taxes they'll go Welfare...

- Illegals live somewhere.... if you kick them out, maybe many Americans won't be able to pay their mortgage. Do you want more foreclosure ? Don't we have enough ? Don't we have one of the worst recession ? I know, they weren't suppose to rent homes to illegals, but they did anyway ( but mostly they didn't know they rent to illegals, it's easy to make fake IDs ). Yes, we can punish them, but that won't help us.

While I'm mad at illegals, and the problem they caused to the USA, I have to accept, deporting them would not help us, it would hurt us.
I know we have 10% unemployment rate, but... in 2000 we had around 4% and we were blooming... so we have 6% real unemployment rate, the 4% is the people who don't want to work. We have huge illegal immigration to the South, while our unemployed people scattered all over the USA. Relocating all these people nearly impossible. I'm not sure we have the unemployed Americans and the illegals at the same place...

And catching all these illegals.. look Joe Arpaio, Mariposa county's sheriff. He's really going after illegals, and look :

" According to the sheriff's office, since April 2006, deputies have arrested a little more than 3,000 illegal immigrants.

www.mcso.org/

According to the sheriff's Web site, that number now stands at only 3,642. In fiscal year 2008-09 in Maricopa County, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded to 3,200 calls for assistance from metropolitan police agencies other than the sheriff's office and took into custody and deported 13,200 illegal immigrants detained by local and state police.

The sheriff's office has reportedly turned over 30,527 illegal immigrants to ICE, the overwhelming majority of whom were arrested by officers from another law enforcement agency."

So few in so long time... do you really believe we can catch all the illegal aliens and their employer ?

YES, employers that break the law should be fined and/or go to jail!

Your reply would have readers believe that by holding people in this country responsible for their actions that America would dry up and blow away!

For decades ours lawmakers with help from the media keep singing that same old song, "Those are jobs that Americans won't do!" We will never know if we keep going down the same road you and our lawmakers would have us keep going down.

btw: What other laws to you believe Americans should ignore?

How about putting everyone to jail and take away their right of driving if they don't use the turn signal when changing lanes on the highway ? They broke the law...

Can you explain why that meat factory I linked here before still can't hire Americans ? If Americans will do any job...

I don't say America will blow away if we deport these people. I'm saying if we do deport them, it can be a serious blow to the already weak economy.
You do not understand capitalism ? Do you seriously believe employers should raise wages much higher to attract Americans ? If that's the case, why do companies moved their factories to China, Thailand, etc ? Why don't they open the factories here ? Do you like it or not, America and Americans need the cheap labor. Our economy built on it. First it was the slaves, then the Chinese in the 1800s, then Irish, Italians, Blacks again, now Hispanic.

And as I say, go and try catch all of them.. illegals and their employers. In that link I posted, they caught 400 illegals, 20 something still in the deportation process after more than one year ! How long would it take processing 12 million ? Catch them and hold them in jails, paying billions and billions... and once they back in Mexico, they can just walk back.

Or... we can bring out all of them offering work permit after paying fines, make them pay back taxes, learn English, and they can apply green card ( not citizenship ) after a while, let say 5 years if they did not commit any crime.
It worked in England... they let poor, post communist countries ( Poland, Hungary ) to the Europian Union, let them into their job market... millions and millions rushed to work for cheap, and the employers had no reason employ illegals anymore, taking risks, because they got their cheap labor. Illegals can't get jobs now, because legals will do the same jobs for the same low wages.
Believe me, if we let those illegals who's already here stay and work, they will not let the new illegals taking THEIR jobs...

Now you've missed the "Big Picture"! You still assume that by holding employers responsible and Americans having to follow the law that America somehow will fall apart. I don't buy that for a second. Your attachments and comments are based on the system as it stands today. The belief and theory that we can't survie without Illegals working in this country is a non starter.

Americans do and will work for a decent wage and there is no job an American will not do, no matter how many times you hear it over the air waves! If the employer can't pay his LEGAL EMPOLYEES a decent wage, then he or she shouldn't be in business in the first place. Business fail and start up everyday.

Once the jobs dry up for Illegals they won't want to come here in the numbers that they have been. Don't get me wrong it's not going to stop all of them, but it will slow them down.

But we want to stop the illegal immigration, not just slow down...

Yes, we need to create new laws, and hold employers responsible if they hire illegals, but only AFTER we fixed this mess we're having. Now it's almost impossible prosecute the wrong-doers, because there's so many of them. Cease the root of the problem, let these illegals get in to the system, pay taxes, etc. so the employers will get their cheap labor, THEN start punishing those who'll still hire illegals. It'll be much easier, and actually possible.

I agree, Americans will do anything for a decent wage. But...

While raising wages for unattractive jobs, nobody would raise for those jobs people want to do... bank tellers, soldiers, retail workers, etc would get the same wages.
And if you raise the wages in the food business, the food's price will be much higher, while many people would get the same wage...

Many people in huge debt already, what'd happen if one lbs tomato would be $5 instead of $1.5 ? Dozen eggs $5 instead of $2 ? Even fast food prices would be much higher..

Imagine, paying $15/hr for the dishwasher to attract Americans, while a cook gets $14... the restaurant owner would have to raise everyone's wages... that would make the food cost much more for you too ! How many people could afford paying $30 for one entry in the TGI's instead of $15 as it is now ?

Believe me, there is a reason why the 90% of the WalMart's merchandise made in China. Indonesia or Thailand...


And don't fool yourself. Illegals didn't take your or anybody's job.
In 2007, when we had 12 million illegals, we had 4.9% unemployment.
2009, we have less illegals, and 10% unemployment.The jobs we lost, well, did not the illegals took. They still work in those jobs we didn't take in 2007.

4.9% unemployment is what... 6-7 million people ? I can imagine that many people don't want to work, they're the lazy ones, they'd rather live off of the Welfare checks, or sell drogs, use drogs, can't get jobs because they were hard criminals, etc.
Illegals took the jobs we didn't want. Now we want those jobs. OK, let's take them. But once the recession is over, and everybody will be back to their old jobs, who will do those jobs again ?

In 2007, an estimated 43 million were declared poor in America. Of that number, half can trace poverty to drugs, lack of motivation, or the uneducated who lack skills. That's 21 million Americans who do not give back to the great USA and just leach the system. Blame the immigrants?

We need to fix the immigration system before start punishing people. Period.