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If you take the principle "No taxation without representation" seriously, then it seems like you have 3 choices: A. Give illegal immigrants the right to vote B.

If you take the principle "No taxation without representation" seriously, then it seems like you have 3 choices: A. Give illegal immigrants the right to vote B. Give them huge tax breaks or C. Deport them. A allows you to stuff the ballots by importing people from regions that tend to vote for your ideas. There's, what, 20-30 million illegal immigrants? So not a trivial concern. And since they have shared cultural backgrounds, there are correlations in how they vote. B is unfair to the existing citizens, who pay taxes that the immigrants benefit would benefit from. 73% of Central America & Mexican immigrants use some kind of welfare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u1J6EEhkyM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u1J6EEhkyM C could lead to a situation where everybody wants an existing population of immigrants to stay, and yet they have to be deported to conform to some abstract principle. If e.g. the state of California wanted unlimited immigration, agreed to pay for sufficient tracking(to the satisfaction of the other 49 states) to guarantee that they stay in the state and didn't vote in federal elections, should they be allowed to keep a underclass of foreigners that consent to it? Also on C, is it inhumane to allow illegal immigrants to work without benefits, below minimum wages, and without any say in their community, even though it's with the consent of everyone directly involved? It sounds unintuitive to me, but I suppose you already have that problem with existing employment law(Why is it illegal for certain employers to offer jobs without healthcare coverage, even though all involved consent?) For the farms mentioned in the article, probably stepping up enforcement on existing illegal farm workers but making it easier to get an H2-A would be uncontroversial. The workers would probably leave after the harvest season anyways, if they could be assured to easily return next year? And the employer could be taxed rather than the worker.

felipeerias 9y ago
The political representation of immigrants will be one main civil rights issues in the future. It does not only affect those that are in a country illegally: three million EU citizens in the UK now face being stripped of their rights after Brexit, without their having any say in the matter.
- jlg23 9y ago
  Of course they don't have a say unless they have a legal residency according to the new laws. But, afaik, those have not been drawn up, there is no consensus of how the situation will be handled and I would expect the status of foreign EU citizens in the UK to be one of the major points in the upcoming negotiations between UK and EU. Unless, of course, you know something the rest of the EU does not yet know?
geomark 9y ago
Your question re point C is a good one. Some might call it inhumane, but the reason everyone directly involved consents is that the workers have it much better doing this work than their alternatives back home. So is it more humane to take away the better job? Also along this line of questioning, is it reasonable to call them slaves because they choose a job that others find inhumane but is much better than what they had before?
- DarkKomunalec 9y ago
  The argument that they should come to the US, because farming jobs are there, is a bit circular. If the US suddenly loses a lot of cheap labour, that means some other country gains it, and can run farms using it, exporting the produce to the US. I.e., the jobs can move.
cr1895 9y ago
>There's, what, 20-30 million illegal immigrants No, there are not. Much fewer, around 11 million: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/sep/01/donald-trump/donald-trump-repeats-pants-fire-claim-about-30-mil/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/sep/...
yellow_postit 9y ago
An additional option is D) make iimmmigration easier. How many undocumented people would be willing to become citizens? My guess is the % is quite high.
- MichaelBurge 9y ago
  That's the same as A.

felipeerias 9y ago

The political representation of immigrants will be one main civil rights issues in the future. It does not only affect those that are in a country illegally: three million EU citizens in the UK now face being stripped of their rights after Brexit, without their having any say in the matter.

jlg23 9y ago
Of course they don't have a say unless they have a legal residency according to the new laws. But, afaik, those have not been drawn up, there is no consensus of how the situation will be handled and I would expect the status of foreign EU citizens in the UK to be one of the major points in the upcoming negotiations between UK and EU. Unless, of course, you know something the rest of the EU does not yet know?

geomark 9y ago

Your question re point C is a good one. Some might call it inhumane, but the reason everyone directly involved consents is that the workers have it much better doing this work than their alternatives back home. So is it more humane to take away the better job? Also along this line of questioning, is it reasonable to call them slaves because they choose a job that others find inhumane but is much better than what they had before?

DarkKomunalec 9y ago
The argument that they should come to the US, because farming jobs are there, is a bit circular. If the US suddenly loses a lot of cheap labour, that means some other country gains it, and can run farms using it, exporting the produce to the US. I.e., the jobs can move.

cr1895 9y ago

>There's, what, 20-30 million illegal immigrants No, there are not. Much fewer, around 11 million: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/sep/01/donald-trump/donald-trump-repeats-pants-fire-claim-about-30-mil/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/sep/...

yellow_postit 9y ago

An additional option is D) make iimmmigration easier. How many undocumented people would be willing to become citizens? My guess is the % is quite high.

MichaelBurge 9y ago
That's the same as A.