Don't Fence Me In

A Fence??? Whose idea was that?

As I understand it, there are several reasons we need to do something about illegal aliens. Those reasons include the cost of providing services to them including free medical and schooling, etc. as well as adverse effects on the job market. Then there is the security problem associated with terrorists gaining easy entry into the country.
Now I don’t know how to solve all these problems, but I don’t see a stupid fence as even a small step in the right direction. I don’t think I even need to mention the many things wrong with the fence idea or why it isn’t workable. Instead let’s consider alternatives.
Starting with motivation, illegal aliens invade from Mexico largely to gain access to free services and better paying jobs than they can find in Mexico. Now these are certainly understandable objectives, but our intent here is to find a way to stop this. Well, it seems painfully obvious that the sensible answer is to remove the incentive. It would be very simple to just stop giving free services to illegal aliens. Wow, what a concept, huh? Another problem is the silly law that says if you can make it illegally into the country just as you are giving birth then the baby is an American citizen. Come on, Congress passes silly laws all the time, how hard can it be to pass a law repealing the law that makes this possible? Emergency medical services? Certainly we’re going to provide them, it’s the American way. On the other hand, INS should be called immediately to see that the patient and family is deported as soon as they can be moved.
But none of that is the big picture solution. The big picture solution is to take legal action against employers who hire these folks. They aren’t that hard to catch and it would be a lot cheaper to hire more enforcement people in that area than to build this ridiculous fence. When any employer hires someone he must file a form W4 with the IRS which shows the employees SSN. That immediately tells the IRS that the employee is an illegal. The only way an employer can avoid that is to not file. If he doesn’t file that seems an appropriate time for criminal action. If the employee gives a phony number, then the IRS will see it as soon as the form is filed and be able to take action against the employee. Actually, I assume they would pass it to INS for enforcement

Now if our illustrious congress does pass some sort of amnesty bill for illegal aliens, and it certainly looks like they’re determined to, then what? Well, for legal American employees, employers are so supposed to pay 12.4% social security taxes and 1.9% medicare taxes. They are supposed to withhold half of that from the employee’s wages and pay the other half out of pocket. This is in addition to the 20% or so that is withheld for income tax. It is also in addition to the unemployment tax that the employer has to pay out of pocket. That is somewhat variable, but generally 6.2%. So, altogether on an employee making $1000 per month the employer should be sending $405 to uncle Sam. Now this is legitimate workers we are talking about. On a legitimate worker, for every $1000 he is paid $200 is withheld as income tax, $62 for social security and $9.50 for Medicare. Then the employer must contribute $62 social security, $9.50 Medicare and $62 for FUTA. The legal employee actually receives $727.50 and the employer is out an additional $133.50 himself. Now if the employee is an illegal being paid “under the table” the $727.50 only costs the employer $727.50 and that’s assuming he is being paid the same as the legal employee. (Unlikely) Now we know why the employer likes illegals.
My suggestion is this. If we are going to allow illegals then let’s tax the employer appropriately. Let’s just require the employer to pay the same amount he would have sent to the IRS and social security et al into a special fund to cover some of the costs brought on by illegal aliens. And, I believe an additional amount on the order of 20% should be reasonable.

That’s how I see it. How about you?