Today there were quite a few marches and rallies across the country, including in Salt Lake City. For the most part, the demonstrators want fewer restrictions on immigration and citizenship for those already here illegally.
Me personally, I can't say that I agree. We live in a country that is only as great as it is because it runs based on the rule of law, in the form of a Republic. If we have a law on the books, we need to enforce it, or we need to get it off the books. Just because enough people are committing a certain crime doesn't mean we shouldn't prosecute them.
I saw today the story on TV of a man who was counter-protesting across the street from one such rally. He could see signs that people were holding saying things like, "I'm illegal, I work hard." He called up his local authorities and told them there were people openly admitting to being here illegally in front of city hall. They told him they were aware of the situation, but weren't going to do anything about it. How much more of a failure of our government can we have than that? If we had a bunch of pot smokers out there rallying to legalize marijuana, and one had a sign saying, "Look, I've got some marijuana right here, and I'm smoking it," then we'd have cops busting him on the spot. The law is the law. We cannot choose what we want to enforce and when. We must enforce all laws equally, and without bias.
I also feel that people who are here illegally are naturally predisposed to break the law more than those who come here legally. They break the law just to be here, and justify it saying they want a better life. Well, that's not very far from also saying that stealing from someone or from your employer is ok because that will help them get a better life. How about free medical care? That way they can have a better life, right? It is all about them having a better life, and they don't care about what that does to other people, or who pays for it. As long as they are going to get a better life, then they can say it is all ok.
We need to decide, as a country, on a simple, and easy to enforce set of immigration laws, then we need to put them in place. Once that is done, we need to put in place a STIFF penalty for an employer who has hired someone who is illegal. If an employer was forced to pay $50,000 for every illegal worker every time they hiring them, they would very soon lose the financial incentive to hire illegals. With that drastic drop in the hiring of illegals, they would soon realize that there is virtually no work here for them. Also, the ones who do manage to find work could be paid much less, and they would have much less incentive to try to stay here illegally. Don't try to stop the supply side of the equation, cut off the demand for illegal workers, and the supply will dwindle on its own.
