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WaPo Robert Samuelson - Build the Wall
Topic Started: Sep 14 2016, 04:54 AM (164 Views)
George K
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Finally
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/build-the-wall/2016/09/11/e94051e2-76b6-11e6-8149-b8d05321db62_story.html?postshare=4741473820782960&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.b8c1bb2b7838

Quote:
 
Just because Donald Trump isn’t qualified to be president — and just because much of his agenda is hateful and undesirable — doesn’t mean that everything he says is automatically wrong. Some of his ideas deserve consideration and enactment. One of these is building a wall across our southern border with Mexico.

It has been ridiculed as a monstrosity and a colossal waste of money. The theory of the wall is that it keeps out low-wage workers and, thereby, raises the wages of U.S. workers, including earlier Hispanic arrivals. They are most vulnerable to additional Hispanic workers, because their skills generally overlap.

Just what a wall would cost is unknown. Guesses vary. Trump has said $8 billion. A detailed report by AllianceBernstein, a research firm, estimated between $15 billion and $25 billion. These sums seem (and are) large, but within a $4 trillion federal budget, they’re modest.

The crucial question is: If we had a wall, what would we get for it? The answer: A wall probably represents our best chance of reaching broad agreement on immigration policy, a subject that has frustrated Congress and the two most recent presidents.
...
Still, in the hands of someone serious, a wall could be a catalyst for a comprehensive overhaul of U.S. immigration policy. “It’s hard to understand opposition [to a wall],” as my colleague Charles Krauthammer recently noted. “It’s the most venerable and reliable way to keep people out.” He argued correctly that the outlines of a deal have long been apparent. It would:

● Change legal immigration criteria to favor employability (a.k.a. skills) over family connections. The emphasis would be on stimulating the nation’s economic growth.

● Require most businesses to belong to E-Verify, the government system that allows employers to check on the immigrant status of potential workers.

● Create a path to legality — and ultimately to citizenship — for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

● Embrace policies — including a wall — that would credibly and dramatically reduce illegal immigration.
...
There are two standard objections to a wall — both true but politically irrelevant. The first is that it might have once been justified but isn’t now because the inflow of undocumented Mexican immigrants is slowing and maybe reversing. Mexico’s birthrate — which affects its labor force — has declined, and its economy has improved. It can more easily absorb new workers. A 2015 Pew study found that the number of undocumented Mexicans in the United States had dropped by 140,000 between 2009 and 2014.

But this is a net figure: people entering minus people leaving. There are still hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and Latinos trying to cross the southern border illegally every year. A wall would make this harder and reinforce the natural trend. Some people wouldn’t try to enter; of those who did, fewer would make it. Tragedies — dying in the desert, being exploited by “coyotes” — would decline.

The second objection is that the southern border isn’t the only way people become illegal immigrants. Many arrive legally and overstay their visas. Indeed, according to a study in the Journal on Migration and Human Security, these immigrants now outnumber those breaching the southern border. But if E-Verify were widely adopted, these immigrants would have a harder time getting work.

If we could buy an immigration bargain for $25 billion, or even a bit more, it would be a fabulous deal. That’s the opportunity facing the next president. But we won’t make it any easier by stigmatizing the one change — a wall — that could be the foundation for compromise.
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Catseye
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Pisa-Carp

"Create a path to legality -- and ultimately to citizenship -- for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country."
Here's an amazing thought. What if they don't want to? What if jukin and jivin across the border every night and back again is the only way they can survive or support their families, but if they could they would remain in their homes?

What about the alleged $24 billion that undoc immigrants send back to Mexico each year? Is Mexico so well off now that it can do without that money? And what becomes of the people who attempt to penetrate the wall? You know, create a false identity, glue on a moustache, and get caught? Are they arrested? Escorted back over? The wall would make the crossing more challenging, but other than that, how is that different from what happens now? And who pays to support all that, and how?

Here's what I don't know, or even if it is known: How many illegals are there overall the whole US? Is it mainly a Southwest problem, or is it everywhere? If it's mostly in the lower western quadrant, why not give them a bigger voice? It's their problem, isn't it? Maybe they would find ways to solve the problem that the feds can't or won't consider? And speaking of which, maybe the feds have had enough fail time; maybe it's time for the states to take hold of it.

Require most businesses to belong to E-Verify, the government system that allows employers to check on the immigrant status of potential workers.

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Hate this.


"How awful a knowledge of the truth can be." -- Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
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Copper
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Shortstop
George K
Sep 14 2016, 04:54 AM

Quote:
 
If we could buy an immigration bargain for $25 billion, or even a bit more, it would be a fabulous deal.

They all come to Mr. Trump eventually.
The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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John Galt
Fulla-Carp
Another view of the impact of immigrants, both legal and illegal.

Quote:
 
Overall, people who have moved to the US contribute nearly $650 billion to California's economy - about 31 percent of the state's gross domestic product. Undocumented immigrants alone supply $130 billion of that total. That amount is "greater than the entire GDP of the neighboring state of Nevada," the authors noted.

"Every one of California's immigrants helps shape our state's economic and civic vitality," Reshma Shamasunder, CIPC's executive director, said in a statement. "but the daily threat of deportation casts a shadow over California's undocumented residents - and their loved ones and communities."

https://www.rt.com/usa/185188-immigration-statistics-california-us/

I wonder how much support the wall concept gets in California among those who hire the illegal immigrants.
Let us begin anew, remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness.
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Copper
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Shortstop
Lock 'em up.
The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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Catseye
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Pisa-Carp
We could call it the "Amaginot Line".
"How awful a knowledge of the truth can be." -- Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
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John Galt
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:sombrero:

We already know there are extensive tunnels. And that some come in by sea.

If there's money to be made moving drugs or people, someone will figure out a way to get them in. And I still think there will be opposition from those who take advantage of the low wages paid to the illegals. Just one example; I'm sure there are tons more in the agriculture industry:

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/138236/ky-immigration-proposal-worries-industry

Let us begin anew, remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness.
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Steve Miller
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Bull-Carp
Quote:
 
● Require most businesses to belong to E-Verify, the government system that allows employers to check on the immigrant status of potential workers.


If we're going to rely on E-Verify, they are going to have to make it work a lot better than it does now.
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
E-Verify works for that just about as well as HIPAA works for privacy. Which is to say not at all at great cost and administrative burden.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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John Galt
Fulla-Carp
A more comprehensive analysis of the impact of immigration:

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/trump-clinton-immigration-economy-unemployment-jobs-214216
Let us begin anew, remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness.
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