By Tom Tancredo, Denverpost.com
Guest Commentary
“I’ll build the wall!” was one of
the most often heard rallying cries of the Trump Campaign. It was a staple of
almost every speech candidate Trump made. Making Mexico pay for it was a
constant addendum. The degree to which President Trump can follow through on
the promise is now grist for the pundits and political junkies.
I hope he does both, and in short
order. However, unless he can get Congress to levy a tax on the $25 billion in
remittances annually sent to families in Mexico, I don’t know how to accomplish
the latter half of the border wall promise. My guess such a proposal won’t get
far.
I remember what happened
when, as a congressman, I suggested taxing remittances. It set off a firestorm
that was fanned by First Data Corporation, the largest employer in my district.
They immediately formed a PAC with the specific purpose of defeating me and
threatened to move their headquarters out of my district. Why? Because they
happened to own a very profitable subsidiary called Western Union, which made
millions from the fees charged to immigrants sending money home. The Douglas
County Commissioners went ballistic, as did the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The
Republican leadership told me my idea would not even get a committee hearing.
Now as for the wall itself, it
can be built because the legislation and funding bills that are needed to
complete it are already in place. However, to me, the wall is more symbolic
than a panacea for our illegal immigration problem. After all, 40% or
more of the people in the country illegally did not come across our southwest
border; they came legally with a visa and simply didn’t go home.
So, what can be done if you are
one of those troglodytes who agree with Ronald Reagan’s statement that, “A
country that can’t defend its borders is not a country at all.”
The answer is called E-Verify, an
internet-based system for verifying legal work status, the infrastructure for
which already exists. It’s is a program operated by the U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services bureau of the Department of Homeland Security. In less
than one minute, any employer can use it to verify the legal status of the
person seeking employment. Today it is a voluntary program used by over a
half-million private sector employers that do not rely on illegal labor.
We can halt probably 95 percent
of unlawful hiring of illegal labor if E-Verify is made mandatory for all
employers except those using a legal guest worker program to obtain temporary
employees. But here’s the really scary part to my former colleagues: once in
place, it is largely self-enforcing and does not depend on an army of immigration
agents doing on-site inspections of paper records. It works, and that’s why it
is so vigorously opposed.
Mandatory E-verify will reduce
illegal immigration dramatically. If we remove the magnet of jobs, far fewer
people try to enter illegally, and once fully implemented, most of those
already here will be forced to return home and start on a legal path of entry
into the United States.
What is blocking such a simple
and common sense approach to border integrity? Well, there are two huge
obstacles. One is called the Democratic Party and the other is called the
Republican Party. Thus, President Trump will have another major fight on his
hands if he advances the E-Verify program.
Finally, I want to thank The
Denver Post for letting me opine on this issue. I am sure that a sizable
portion of your readership will respond to this commentary with the hysterical
name-calling so often exhibited by progressives when their “safe space” is made
less so by competing ideas. All I can say to them is, “Suck it up, buttercup.”
Tom Tancredo is a former congressman from Colorado.
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