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Nanez: Business to blame for immigration problem


I'm going to tell you about a driving force behind illegal immigration. You probably already know that the only reason people risk their lives and leave their families to come to America is so they can find a job to provide for their loved ones. But most of you don't know that even if we adopt every strict border and anti-immigration policy out there, it still won't stop businesses from hiring a workforce tantamount to indentured slaves.

This is because businesses pay lobbyists big bucks to ensure their buddies in the legislature keep favored and corrupt employment procedures well within the law.

Here's how it works. Employers verify employment eligibility by filling out an I-9. You may not recognize the form by name but if you've ever had a job you've filled one out. It's the form for which you provide your license, social security card and a signature swearing you're a citizen.

Now if you're undocumented and looking for work, you're also familiar with the American hiring game. You provide a fake ID, which employers pretend to check before giving you a job. The loophole that lets businesses sidestep traditional employment standards lies in section two of the I-9 form, where employers must certify the documents they were presented are real, among other things.

Don't let big businesses fool you - they know counterfeit identification when the see it. Impoverished people don't have the kind of money necessary to purchase quality IDs.

For decades now businesses ensured that greed and bad policy would dictate immigration. As a result, millions of undocumented families have become our neighbors.

And by failing to adopt immigration reform that both secures our border and deals with the reality of those already living within our borders, we've allowed good people to become slaves.

We've replaced whips and chains with deadly conditions in the working environment. People are too afraid to complain about work in pesticide-filled orchards and buildings that lack air conditioning or heaters because they broke the law --they are illegal.

Meanwhile, millions of American children are born to hard-working undocumented families who entered our country when we chose to look the other way.

Well it's time to acknowledge and fix our mistakes.

First we must bring every last one of the 12 million undocumented people out of their slave status and then we must revamp employment verification procedures to prevent businesses from profiting from illegal immigration.

We must make sure immigrants are law-abiding, then we can give them legitimate documents to monitor their employment status and protect the safety and rights of every worker in America.

Next we need to establish a legal path to citizenship requiring sensible conventions such as paying taxes, purchasing health and automobile insurance, and education in American law.

At the same time we must put more humane security on our border to help us keep criminals out, prevent families from dying in the desert and maintain an economic balance of legal immigration that benefits America and its allies.

Then we should help Mexico -- the country from which a majority of immigrants entering America come -- deal with why millions of their citizens are forced to emigrate. As in most Third World countries, corruption has long maintained unimaginable poverty for many and wealth for few. But through partnership, and economic force when necessary, we must let our Latin American neighbor know Americans want all of North America to stand as a region that provides life, liberty and justice for all.

Dianna is a journalism graduate student. Reach her at dianna.nanez@asu.edu.


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