Illegal Immigration & Employers - Essay Example

Illegal Immigration & Employers Introduction: Illegal immigration in US means entering the country by a non citizen without the permission of the government as well as in violation of the Nationality law prevailing in the country. Moreover staying beyond the termination date of the Visa is also illegal immigration. Use of undocumented workers in the US: It is estimated that there are nearly 12 million undocumented workers in US. Many of them are unskilled and sole wage earners. Use of undocumented workers at business places and factories has landed many firms in trouble.

One of the best examples is the case of ‘Chuy’s Mesquite Broiler chain’ a popular chain restaurant. Raids were conducted by federal officials’ detaining records and other evidences like payroll books. The restaurant chain was employing undocumented workers from Mexico. Cases were registered against 42 illegal workers as well as their employers (A Crackdown on Employing Illegal Workers 2011). The rule of law: The legal landscape related to undocumented workers in US is complex. An employer should be diligent with these laws or he will land in trouble.

The various laws for controlling undocumented workers include ‘the immigration and control act’ which makes it unlawful to hire any person who is not legally authorized to work in the country. Moreover there are civil and criminal penalties where the employers are liable for civil fines and criminal prosecutions in violation of immigration laws. Then there is the ‘employment eligibility verification’ where the employers are required to verify the eligibility of all individuals hired after November, 6 1986 (Feltman 2008).

Harm to the economy: Most of the illegal workers are either unskilled or semi skilled. Most of them lack high school education. Employing them costs ‘Big’ for the tax payers because they don’t earn much money and pay little taxes and use lots of government services. Moreover employing these workers will drastically reduce the wages of low skilled Americans. Recent research has shown that illegal immigration has cut short nearly 7% of Native Americans wage earnings. Use of low cost illegal workers also slows down innovation and competitiveness because it takes away the incentive in investing in labor saving technologies that make workers more productive (Krikorian 2012).

The main problem with illegal immigrants is that they are using the countries resources without contributing anything. Illegal immigrants use hospitals and schools without paying taxes (Clark 2012). Using illegal labor for gaining more profit by businesses is not viable in the long term perspective. The best example is cited in the case of San Diego’s French gourmet bakery which hired illegal immigrants for cheap labor. The federal agents raided the bakery and the risk of hiring illegal immigrants became too costly for the employers.

Laws related to illegal immigrants are becoming tougher in the US. A minimum jail term of six months and fines amounting to millions of dollars are the possible outcomes. In the case of French bakery, it was estimated that the bakery would have to pay a fine of around $350000 to $650000. Such fines would erode the revenue of the business. Therefore it is not advisable to employ illegal immigrants for saving revenue and land into trouble (Raids on Businesses Hiring Illegal Immigrants an Indispensable Enforcement Tool 2012).

Conclusion: Illegal immigration has become a social menace in US. Illegal immigrants should not be granted automatic citizenship rather they should be made to use ways according to US laws. Moreover the government should deal this problem with a humanitarian approach. Reference: A Crackdown on Employing Illegal Workers (2011) [Online] Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/us/politics/30raid.html?pagewanted=all[Accessed [June 12, 2012] Clark D (2008) 2 Ways to Solve the Illegal Immigration Problem [Online] Available from:http://geekpolitics.

com/illegal-immigrants-problems-and-solutions/ [Accessed June 12, 2012] Feltman R(2008) UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES: LEGAL, POLITICAL,AND SOCIAL EFFECTS [Online] Available from: http://rjglb.richmond.edu/archives/7.1/Feltman.pdf [Accessed June 12, 2012] Krikorian M (2012) Are Illegal Immigrants Good for the U.S. Economy? [Online] Availablefrom:http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/upfront/debate/index. asp?article=d090108 [Accessed June 12, 2012] Raids on Businesses Hiring Illegal Immigrants an Indispensable Enforcement Tool (2012) [Online] Available from:http://lorenborenstein.

com/raids-on-businesses-hiring-illegal-immigrants-an-indispensable-enforcement-tool [Accessed June 12, 2012]