Try Carrots for Sending Foreign Workers Home

Bush’s proposal for immigration reform was expensive, unworkable and punitive. As Gore Vidal states, nothing can keep workers out with the disparity of salaries to the South. Since its human nature to act in our own self interest, as even Mother Teresa benefited from personal satisfaction, carrots work better than sticks. There is NO ONE SOLUTION but here is a proposal that might just make the illegal crossings controllable.

Even the term immigrant implies foreign workers’ goal is to stay. As most love their language, music, culture and flag, why not allow foreign workers free access to the US job market for 8/9 months/year to be lured home by a rebate of withheld taxes. When consulting with Nova Gas in Calgary, refunds based on sales tax receipts were sent to my home in the US.

Some benefits (carrots) for the foreign workers:

- ‘Opt out’ of future Social Security benefits and receive withheld Payroll tax including employer match as a rebate.

- Don’t use Medicare/Medicaid services and get a rebate.

- At $7.50/hr for 40 weeks close to $1800 in rebate is a powerful carrot waiting at home.

- Back home, their village benefits from the influx of capital for commerce creating new jobs.

- The ability to cross legally (after a background check) dries up the black market for coyotes who sometimes put people at risk of death..

- Funds go further based on a lower cost of living. For instance, a child’s braces which cost thousands in the USA are only hundreds at home.

- Easy access for emergencies and the requirement to live at home a few months each year means your kids are not abandoned with grandparents for years at a time.

Some benefits for citizens:

- Since only qualified foreign workers receive a rebate, workers with nothing to hide gladly pay for health and criminal background checks at the border.

- A Mexican roofer in Michigan returns home each winter, collects the rebate, and may cross for funerals or births, so is less likely to start a new family in Michigan.

- When more Spanish speaking children stay home, the strain on our public schools is reduced.

- The need to punish employers diminishes as working on-the-books is required for a rebate. Again, foreign workers, in their self interest, demand it.

- With even 2/3 voluntary compliance, the job of immigration enforcement, raids and deportation become manageable. Foreign workers can cross at border stations reducing illegal crossings.

- Encouraging migrants to return home for a rebate quickly returns our sovereignty.

- The return of diseases and the influx of criminals are reduced as immigration services focus on illegal entry.

- Real Immigrants waiting for legal access to citizenship again move to the top of the list. The term immigrant should be reserved for those like my Brazilian son, who came for a year of high school in the 1990’s, legally returned from Brazil for his MBA, legally got a great job and has two cars, a dog and a beautiful wife and child in their new home. He deserves the term immigrant.

Punishing employers adds burdens to our producers and should be minimized. "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face." Once legal foreign workers are available, raids on packing plants weed out the sick and criminals. Employers can no longer complain their workforce is being denied to them.

Most foreign workers from south of the border earn low wages and would qualify for Earned Income Tax Credit contributing little to US Treasury under Bush's plan or as a citizen. There is no refund of what is withheld for Income Taxes.

Immigration is, and should be encouraged. President Bush's immigration bill, paid for by earmarks (using our tax dollars), was proposed only to remove the issue from the 08 election campaign. Hopefully our Senators saw the flaws and will discuss alternatives.

Addendum -- 11/14 Hatefulness grows as this issue remains unsolved. Fences do as much to keep these workers in as they do to keep them out of the country. Once inside, they dare not risk a trip home.