A Plan for Dealing with Illegal Immigration in the U.S

No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, you really can't blame the State of Arizona for taking the issue of dealing with illegal immigration into its own hands. You can certainly disagree with Arizona's way of going about it, but you really can't blame it for doing something about it. Afterall, Arizona, like many other states in the Union, have been waiting many years for the federal government to step up to the plate with some sort of clearly-defined, consistent policy and corresponding plan of action on the issue. And they're still waiting. So Arizona finally took matters into its own hands. Good for it.

But despite the attention Arizona has brought to the overall debate concerning illegal immigration in recent days, this article has nothing to do with Arizona. Instead, it has to do with establishing that clearly-defined, consistent federal policy we're all waiting on.

I believe Congress should take another serious look at the idea of granting an amnesty to those currently here illegally, on the conditions that those wishing to become U.S. citizens pay a fine and that the U.S. work to secure its borders to prevent this situation in the future. I'm convinced that such a policy can help the U.S. economy in many ways.

Following are both the economic cons and pros to enacting such a policy. In my analysis, the pros seem to far outweigh the cons.

Cons:

1) Employers will now have to pay these workers, at the very least, the minimum wage, as well as dish out more in matching employee payroll taxes. This deals a big blow to the bottom line for businesses (but then again, they shouldn't be hiring illegal workers in the first place).

2) With these employees now earning at least minimum wage, prices on an array of goods may climb as a natural consequence. This can hurt consumers (but then again, we should have been paying the higher prices already because businesses shouldn't be hiring illegal workers in the first place).

3) These employees will now qualify down the road for benefits in currently over-burdened social safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Pros:

1) The fines collected by these illegal immigrants in exchange for their citizenship could be used for any number of purposes: improving infrastructure across the country, used toward paying down the national debt, pumped into an ailing Social Security system, education, etc.

2) These employees, now that they will be guaranteed at least the minimum wage, will now have more money to spend as consumers, which benefits the economy as a whole.

3) These employees, in addition to now having more financial clout as consumers of goods and services, can now come out of hiding to open savings and investment accounts, apply for loans and lines of credit, etc. Again, this benefits the economy as a whole.

4) Even though these employees will now qualify down the road for benefits in already-strapped social safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare, they will now be paying into the system, which can help ease some of the system's current burden.

5) For both states and the federal government, more tax revenue collected through income taxes.

6) We Americans supposedly have a not-so-good reputation when it comes to work ethic, while supposedly, illegal immigrants, particularly those of Hispanic descent, have a great reputation for work ethic. Legalizing them will create some healthy competition in the workplace, a competition that will bring out the best in all workers. This is good for individual businesses and the economy as a whole.

Revisiting this idea and giving it a full and serious debate may be worth it...