What should we do about the illegal immigration problem?

On the one hand, the borders need to be secured. Currenly, thousands of people cross the borders illegally without being checked by customs or homeland security. This is the perfect way for terrorists to come in and smuggle nuclear and biological weapons.

On the other hand, history has shown that when there is supply on one side, and demand on the other side, the market always finds a way. Whenever governments attempt to stop an economic activity through legislation a black market emerges. That is exactly what we have today, a black market for immigrant smuggling. If we ignore economic reality and attempt to close the borders to all willing labor, the black market will continue. Alcohol prohibition didn’t work, the drug war was a total failure, making prostitution illegal has never worked, and trying to control the labor market is not going to work either. As long as there is demand for labor, and people willing to supply it, the workers will find a way to come, and the employers will find a way to hire them.

So I think the best way to solve the problem is to dismantle the black market by giving people who want to work here a legal avenue to do so. We currently have about 800,000 people crossing illegally every year. If 1,000 terrorists wanted to hide themselves among those crossing it would be relatively easy since these 800,000 are never interviewed by a border agent when they enter the country. However, if we allow those 800,000 people to come in through the front door we would be able to check their backgrounds, and we would effectively slam shut that potential revolving door for terrorists.

The same is true for the 12 million illegal immigrants currently here. If 10,000 terrorists wanted to hide among the illegal population they would find it relatively easy. However, if we were to offer work permits to illegal immigrants, the great majority would step forward and register, leaving only terrorists and criminals operating in the shadows.

Would we still have a black market for people who didn’t meet the standards? Not likely. The current black market is driven by a legitimate and powerful market force, the need of employers to find labor, and the need of workers to find jobs. If we legalize that, the engine that drives the black market will get redirected to legal activities. Since there is no market need for terrorist activity in the US, there is no economic engine to power a black market for smuggling terrorists or for keeping them here.

Would we be flooded by people becoming citizens and taking over the country? Not likely. A proposal to legalize labor does not necessarily entail an easy path to citizenship. Also, not everybody who comes here to work wants to stay here. A large percentage of illegal workers come here with the intention of making a few extra dollars so they can go back and start a business, buy a house, buy a car, etc. A lot of them stay here because if they go back it will be hard to get back in. We could (and should) still have stringent requirements for citizenship, but not for work permits.