Getting to the Root of Illegal Immigration

By Ed Gogek, MD

You can't solve a problem until you know the cause.

The cause of today's illegal immigration mess is the utter refusal of our leaders in Washington to enforce immigration laws.

According to a Department of Homeland Security report, after George W. Bush took office, arrests at the border dropped 30 percent and arrests inside the country dropped 60 percent. And the Washington Post reports that investigations into employers hiring illegal immigrants dropped by a whopping 72 percent. The number of employers fined for hiring illegal immigrants dropped from 417 in 1999 to only 3 in 2004. Even long-term conservatives like Richard Viguerie and William F. Buckley complain that this administration refuses to enforce the law.

Our State Legislature is no better. Arizona Democrats introduced 40 amendments to sanction employers who knowingly hired illegal immigrants, and Republicans voted them down every time. The magnet drawing people across the border is jobs. We must protect the border, but nothing we do at the border will cure illegal immigration if we keep enticing people here with jobs.

Republicans are making the same mistake they do with illegal drugs—enforcement at the border while ignoring the demand within the country.

Arizona Republicans are so afraid of saying no to business that they'd rather risk our national security. This year they passed HB2577, allowing businesses to knowingly hire illegal immigrants without fear of punishment. Under this bill, if employers do get caught, all they have to do is fire the employee—and tap the next illegal in line for the job.

And it didn't stop there. If a fired employee sued the employer, then the state had to pick up the tab. Taxpayers could get stuck with millions of dollars in legal fees, court costs and damage awards simply for trying to enforce the law. How's that for a disincentive?

This bill would have made it impossible to uproot the real cause of illegal immigration. But all three Republican incumbents in District 4—Jack Harper, Judy Burges and Tom Boone—voted for this employer amnesty bill. Fortunately, our Governor vetoed it, saying, “Real sanctions are supposed to mean the
lawbreaker pays a penalty, not that he gets paid by taxpayers.”

There's a federal website any employer can use to check that new hire is here legally. Over 4000 companies use it. But our state House Speaker refused to require employers to use it because it would be too much of a burden.

As a doctor, I'm a small business owner, and I hate new regulations—but this is going too far. On an issue this important, when we're sending the National Guard to the border and spending millions to build a fence, we can
ask employers to spend five minutes checking a website.

If we're serious about stopping illegal immigration, we have to dry up the demand drawing millions of people to our border. We have to stop hiring people who are here illegally. Both political parties want to protect the border, but only the Democrats will go to the root of the problem.