Punishment Should Fit the Crime

In the debate over immigration we hear over and over about the costs to society of illegal immigrants. Completely ignoring the benefits of cheaper products let's accept that for arguments sake. 

What I keep wondering is why I never hear about the real reason they are here? We all know that most of them come here to "take away the jobs of Americans" but what about those Americans who are offering them jobs? Isn't their conduct the prime reason they are here? 

If there were no employers willing to hire illegal immigrants, there wouldn't be any reason for people to come here. So why are there so many Americans willing to hire illegal immigrants? Because it is profitable. Yes, it's really as simple as that. As long as it is profitable to hire illegal immigrants the best any solution such as the recent Arizona law can do is put a dent in the problem. It can never solve it.

Now while you may hear people talking about enforcement of laws against these employers, yes there are laws on the books on this, the fines almost never include jail time and the fines pathetically small. Especially when you consider the claimed costs to society.

For example, a Subway sandwich store owner in Phoenix was fined $431 for knowingly hiring an illegal worker. Now it's great to hear that they are in fact enforcing the laws on the books but, $431? Really? That's it? Oh yeah, he had to close his store for two days. All that did was inconvenience his customers and penalize his legal workers.

Such a fine is easily compensated for by hiring illegal immigrants so there is no incentive to only hire legal workers. We need to strengthen the punishments to include jail time and large enough fines that can put some of these people out of business and make it a real consequence instead of merely a short term inconvenience. 

If we take into consideration the harm to society that these employers cause, shouldn't the fines be commensurate with that harm? I bet if the fine was $431,000, there would be very few employers willing to take on that kind of risk. So let the punishment fit the crime. Fine these illegal employers are rates that are commensurate with the costs to society for their actions. 

http://blogs.chron.com/immigration/archives/2010/03/az_employers_ad.html