Destructive Problem Solving

The issue of illegal immigration has never been a simple one, nor has the problem been particularly well served by heavy-handed policy. But this is precisely the type of action that the Obama administration has espoused by forcing model employer American Apparel to dismiss 1,800 unauthorized workers. Such a move is tremendously shortsighted and does not represent a refined and intelligent policy, but rather a Band-Aid fix to a problem that needed a suture a long time ago.

In a time when the unemployment rate is flirting with double digits and policy regarding unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. is nebulous at best, this move by the administration seems particularly out of place. Firing these 1,800 workers does not address the issue: There are 11.9 million workers whose deportment would simply be a waste of government resources and whose residency in the United States is impossible to ignore. Coercing companies into firing workers can only lead to a state of paralysis for unauthorized workers in the U.S., a state of residency in which they are neither acknowledged by the government nor given the chance to obtain meaningful employment in order to sustain their families, many of which include natural-born U.S. children who are harmed by poor immigration policy.

This policy cannot even be passed off as a benefit to lawful citizens of the United States. In fact, all evidence points to the contrary. Unemployment has been linked strongly to crime, and perpetual unemployment in the immigrant community does nothing to solve this problem, but rather aggravates it to the detriment of all society.

There is, of course, a systemic problem with illegal immigration to the United States. However, policies like firing workers who are trying to make an honest living in America puts the cart before the horse and politics before people. There are fundamental weaknesses in our immigration policy that need to be dealt with in advance of heavy-handed initiatives to punish violators of federal laws. Immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border has experienced a slight dip but still occurs at a considerable level. We still have not decided as a nation how we are going to solve the issue of assimilating immigrants into the U.S. in a matter that is equitable and ensures that every beneficiary and resident of the United States is accounted for and documented properly.

Firing unauthorized workers is therefore premature and not part of a holistic approach to comprehensive immigration reform, but rather an exclusionary targeting of a demographic and a hollow indictment of employing unauthorized workers. If the Obama administration sincerely wants to solve the immigration issue once and for all, it must dispense with bad policy, not decent people.