Burglars and Muggers just want to improve their lot in life too, but that doesn't make it any less illegal...
It's a step in the right direction, and it's more than Clinton or Bush did, so while we'll have to wait and see what becomes of it, for now it seems positive.
A local community in my area posted signs in a neighborhood where employers would pick up illegals for day labor - the signs told them (in english only) that it is illegal to pick up workers. So, a local community center tied to a church lent their facility to the illegals and employers so now they still have a place to find their illegal workers -- wouldn't it be easy to crack down on the employers in that area?
In another area, the illegals would hang around Home Depot waiting for day labor. That didn't really work for the other customers! Home Depot cracked down on it and they moved somewhere else.
A local convenience store had illegals hanging out in the parking lot waiting for work. A woman pulled in driving a pickup truck and was basically accosted by the workers -- she got real scared, called the police and now the workers aren't allowed to hang around the store.
But, it's like air in a balloon, they just find other places to hang around waiting for the employers to stop and hire them. One street I drive down on the way to work is full of people hanging around waiting for work. When I drove a pickup truck, they'd approach if I just stopped for a traffic light. The police do nothing, I'm not even sure they can do anything. The property owners don't ask the police to get rid of them, in fact most of the stores like it because these guys spend their money there.
Here's another story -- a guy gets arrested for dealing cocaine after he drives 20 miles from one worksite to another, picks up the drugs on the way, and delivers the drugs to an undercover cop. The guy is illegal, he's driving a brand new Ford truck (paid for with cash), and has a supervisory position with his employer -- he is the guy who speaks English and Spanish and tells the workers what the employer wants them to do. He's also the guy who picks up the workers in the morning and drops them off after work. He has a driver's license that he got fraudulently. The employer trusts him to go to the bank every day to get cash to pay the employees. He got paid over three thousand dollars a week, cash, to do this. The workers got paid about $90 a day! The $3000 a week wasn't enough so he had to supplement his income by dealing drugs -- he sees nothing wrong with this! He has a family with several kids, his wife knew he was selling drugs but didn't see anything wrong with it either. His kids go to school for free, get free breakfast and lunch, and healthcare is free at the ER. He's a criminal, just trying to right for his family. He'll go to jail, get out, be deported (which often is just a letter telling them to leave the country) and he'll be back soon. In the mean time his family stays, his wife will have to work to support the five million kids and they still get free food and education and healthcare.
Something needs to be done, but what?
Should we spend more money on enforcement - go to job sites and require papers to prove that the illegals aren't illegal! Many of them have fraudulently obtained SSNs and D/Ls, so there isn't a whole lot that can be done without a lot of work.
