Nydra's Word

When Chuck Hagel was elected to the US Senate, he made good on his promises to those who had elected him with surprise immigration raids on Nebraska packing plants. But he had messed with the wrong people -- or so it seemed. Almost immediately raids stopped and all was quiet again. Major employers in Nebraska were left without a willing work force.
If you cannot round them up, if we need the workers, if they need the jobs, how can we end this invasion from South of our border. Gore Vidal stated that nothing can keep workers out with the disparity of salaries.
We do have human nature on our side. What can we offer workers to encourage them to come and work and leave their families at home?

The term 'illegal immigrant' implies that all the workers want to stay. Its expensive here. Why wouldn't they just come, work for a while and go home? I've heard many of these workers allow themselves to get caught and deported using free transportation to get home for Christmas.

Foreign workers do love their language, mostly Spanish in this case and Brazilians speaking Portuguese. They love their music as can be heard blaring from many work sites. Their culture and flag mean every bit as much to them as ours do to us. And please don't tell me there is not an American culture. We are a melting pot, not a group of file folder in a common drawer.

Fences make good neighbors. But fences keep people in as well as keeping them out. Who hasn't heard of a Mexican parent who has not seen their children for five years. Grandparents raise these kids and the parent sends money but eventually, the parent starts a new family and create an anchor baby. If we allowed them access to our job market for 8 to 9 months a year, and they paid for a background check and health check at the border, they could visit their children. They could attend a family funeral or be with their spouse for the birth of a child.

Allow legally qualified workers who pass health and background checks to work here for 8 or 9 months of the year, collect the payroll tax, and upon returning home, their withheld payroll tax is wired to their bank. Three months later, they can use their ID to return to the job market.

Employers, like Nebraska's packing plants are not deprived of workers and can rotate employees year after year.

When I consulted for Nova Gas in Calgary, sales tax receipts could be submitted for rebate after returning home. Whether this is still true or not, rebates are not unprecedented.

Opting out of future social security benefits, allows their withholding and the matching payroll tax from their employer to be available for rebate. At $7.50 per hr for 40 weeks, a rebate of $1800 is a powerful reason to go home. If Medicare and Medicaid are not used, that portion of withholding is included. Low wage earners qualify for EITC, so the US Treasury would see little of this payroll tax even if we kept it.

Back home, village flourish as an influx of capital for commerce creates jobs at home. Deserted villages across the border become a thing of the past. Coyotes no longer have a black market and must find real work. The risk of death from crossing the border with a Coyote is history.

At home, their funds go further. Many Americans cross the border for dental work today.

Most important is the easy access to their families for emergencies, death or birth and the only requirement is to live at home a few months each year.

How do Americans benefit? If we raid a packing plant, qualified foreign workers just show their work card. Those without a valid ID are criminals, not victims and we can feel justified in dealing with them harshly.

A Mexican roofer in Michigan returns home each winter, collects the rebate, and may cross easily, so is less likely to start a new family in Michigan. Bringing your family is expensive. As more Spanish speaking children stay home, the strain on our public schools is reduced.

Employers can relax. Any need to punish employers diminishes as working on-the-books is required for a rebate. Foreign workers, in their self interest, demand working on the books.

If even 2/3 voluntarily comply, the job of immigration enforcement, raids and deportation becomes manageable. Legal workers cross at border stations. Encouraging migrants to return home for a rebate quickly returns our sovereignty.

Diseases and the influx of criminals are reduced as immigration services focus on illegal entry.

True immigrants waiting for legal access to citizenship again move to the top of the list. The term immigrant is reserved for those who are legally in line.

The idea of fining employers is added to the ash heap of bad ideas. Once legal foreign workers are available, and a database is available, the sick and criminals are weeded. If American citizens want a job, they have periodic periods to apply as foreign nationals go home. Employers can no longer complain that their workforce is being denied to them.

Withoholding of income tax remains in the US Treasury and pays for the services like Interstate highways that these workers used inside the US.

Immigration to the US is, and should be encouraged as always.

Solutions must abound. Why is this issue not being solved? Are the two parties using this issue to stir up friction and add to their campaign coffers for the 2008 election? 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.