Immigration-law enforcement can be Kerry's winning ticket
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Here's a sure-fire, guaranteed way for John Kerry to win the election: Say that as president, he will enforce the nation's immigration laws. No fancy programs required. No draconian new laws. No need for more border guards. Kerry should just say he will enforce the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. That means his administration will seriously go after employers who hire people not legally permitted to work in this country.
Do this, John Kerry, and you will become the 44th president of the United States.
Republicans once upon a time could be relied on to at least honor the nation's immigration laws. But President Bush has ended all that. He regards illegal immigration as just another source of labor — a nice cheap one. So he's proposing something he calls a solution, but that amounts to a new amnesty program.
It's pointless. As long as the government winks at employers who hire illegal workers, the workers and the employers will find one another. There are now an estimated 8 million to 10 million illegal workers in this country.
Bush's brother, Gov. Jeb in Florida, wants his state to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. When Florida's lawmakers balked at the idea, Jeb accused them of engaging in "a policy of denial" concerning what he euphemistically calls "non-citizens."
Most illegal immigrants are good people who work hard, which is what makes the issue so painful. But while the choices are hard, they are also clear: Either control illegal immigration, or watch your most vulnerable low-skilled workers sink into economic collapse. From 1979 to 2001, the real earnings of men without high-school diplomas fell an astounding 28 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And the flood of illegal competition deserves much of the blame.
Americans overwhelmingly back enforcement of our immigration laws. Polls show that 87 percent of the American public wants illegal immigration curbed. Allowing an illegal work force also amounts to a subsidy for unscrupulous employers. They get cheap labor, and the taxpayers get the bill for the immigrants' schooling and medical costs. And, contrary to frequent claims, illegal immigrants pay few or no taxes.
George Bush's utter passivity toward the nation's immigration laws leaves John Kerry with an easy opening. Kerry doesn't have to say much. All he has to do is make a micro-movement and offer to enforce the laws already in place.
Kerry would thus win back blue-collar Republicans — many former Democrats who think the party has abandoned them. He would pick up votes from bona-fide Republicans enraged at the Bush administration's tolerance of lawbreaking.
And if Kerry states his position carefully, he won't lose Latino and Asian votes. Some ethnic "leaders" will accuse him of all sorts of nasty things, but legal immigrants understand better than most people how underground labor drives down their wages and benefits.
Some 30 percent of all immigrants lack a high-school education and so are already at the bottom of the labor market. Legal immigrants, especially Latinos, are far more likely to lack health insurance than the native born. When low-skilled workers get uppity and demand medical coverage, employers replace them with others afraid to ask for anything.
A poll of Hispanics in New York City found that less than a third wanted even legal immigration increased. Among Puerto Ricans, only 19 percent supported more immigration, while 36 percent wanted today's numbers lowered.
Right now, the forces of immigration control pounce on the poor people coming across the borders. The Bush administration lets the employers largely off the hook, even sympathizing with their alleged need for more workers. (If there really is a labor shortage, why doesn't he call for more legal immigration?)
The 1986 law puts the onus for illegal immigration on the fat cats. But one problem of the law is that it doesn't ask employers to verify the identification documents presented by would-be workers. Almost any piece of paper will do. Kerry can improve matters by demanding a secure national identity card for everyone, native or immigrant. It could double as ID for national-security purposes.
Kerry should say that today's immigrants are every bit as good as the ones who came before. But they must come here legally. If he does that, he wins the election.
Providence Journal columnist Froma Harrop's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is fharrop@projo.com