The marketplace can work. Illegals are not what I believe he is talking about — once a person is here legally, there are a lot of marketplace fundamentals that get put back in their proper places that are not in place now. If a worker is here illegally, there is little incentive for them to report labor abuse. I have a very close friend that quit a company that started hiring illegals, and was pressuring him as a manager to fire those that were here legally — so they could cut costs by ignoring labor laws. He quit that company and started a different line of work rather than capitulate. I understand that illegals are a real problem. On the other hand, having people here legally is nowhere near the problem.

Once a person is here legally, and they know they do not have to worry about being deported if they face unfair labor practices, they won’t think too much about changing jobs and filing a complaint that could get them a lot of back pay. Those that are here legally can find jobs, but those jobs will pay at least minimum wage; those jobs will pay overtime as required by law; those jobs will provide safe working conditions. As that happens, there will be little incentive to hire an alien over a resident. Of course one part of this would be to make those who under those conditions hire illegals pay through the nose (like two years full time salary for every illegal they hire as a fine paid 75% to the local government in which the illegal lives, and 25% to the person that reports it — as long as they did not hire them in the first place).

Oh well, I’m glad you have something with pictures to occupy yourself with.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/17/071217fa_fact_lizza

Importing another nations poor while maintaining even a modified welfare state will never work. It is a receipt for economic diaster.

America may very well need workers, however an economy always works better when it is the invisible hand of the marketplace guiding commerce as opposed to government subsidy or neglect. By neglect I mean government turning a blind eye to immigration enforcement out of a misguided belief that vocal and influential special intrests speak for the nations economy as a whole.

If immigrants are here legally, then it is no longer a “rule of law” issue, it become economics. Huckabee would remove the rule of law issue by making it so easy to immigrate that it would not make sense to do so illegally. That might actually be a benefit in the long run — employers would no longer have an option of hiring illegal aliens and paying substandard wages. The undocumented workforce would become documented very rapidly (if people could just leave, then come back easily, it would certainly encourage those that are working for less than minimum wage to do so.) Those that are honoring the laws would be first in line, so that would be fair.

I do believe it seems absurd that it would take years to get into the country legally. Weeks would seem like a much more reasonable time frame (I’m not sure why it would take much more than a couple of weeks to assure a person is not a criminal, verify their identity, verify they have sufficient funds to not be a drain immediately on the economy and then admit them on a workers visa.)

He is as bad as Bush, McCain, Kennedy, Lieberman and the other compassionate traitors inside the beltway.

Finally, I do NOT want a Minister of any faith running the country.