4 ms·
In the interests of optimization: maybe we could just not? Seems like the Occam solution here would just be to (1) rigorously enforce employment eligibility fo
by ajross 2y ago
In the interests of optimization: maybe we could just not? Seems like the Occam solution here would just be to (1) rigorously enforce employment eligibility for all employers (not employees!), something that is done routinely at the salaried level already and has an existing bureaucracy in place and (2) hand out green cards like candy for people working positions for which there are openings. Problem solved, QED. No border towers needed, and "illegal" migration stops at exactly the level where it's required, because migrants obviously won't come in excess of the jobs available.
Obviously that's not the actual problem you're trying to solve, because the actual problem is political and ethnographic (c.f. Musk's thread that this will be the "last election" because of something to do with demographic change). But this is HN, and it seems like it's worth discussing actual solutions.
- autoexec 2y agoThe illegal immigration problem can't be solved purely by making sure that anyone coming into the country illegally cannot be employed. Too many jobs are paid under the table and while almost all of the people entering illegally today are economic migrants looking for higher paying jobs, in the very near future we'll be looking at floods of climate refugees who literally won't have homes to go back to. Having otherwise open borders or just handing out green cards to anyone who asks also fails to address security concerns. No matter what, we need to be able to monitor and regulate who is coming in to the country and what they are bringing in with them (drugs, weapons, human trafficking victims, etc). I agree that we should be strongly enforcing employment eligibility as well and that it would do a lot of good, but doing that won't mean that we can just leave our borders open and unmonitored.
- ajross 2y ago> The immigration problem can't be solved Seems, again, like you need to first define what "the immigration problem" really is. I mean, if you mean it like I think you mean it, the truth is a lot of us don't think that's a problem worth solving at all. This isn't the forum, obviously, but maybe step back and have some discussions across the aisle before planning out policy.
- autoexec 2y agoIt seems like the people who don't think illegal immigration is a problem in the first place are living very far from the border and don't see the impacts, or are unaware of the impending crisis of billions of extremely desperate climate refugees, or don't consider the risks or criminals and terrorists entering and leaving the country without any record to be a legitimate concern.
- ajross 2y agoWith all respect, that sounds like a campaign speech, so I'm almost guaranteed to tune it out. Do you have links that quantify all that stuff to demonstrate why it's a problem?
- autoexec 2y agoMassive numbers of people suddenly showing up in your town is a real problem: https://www.npr.org/2023/11/08/1211632902/major-cities-are-struggling-to-house-large-numbers-of-migrant-refugees https://www.npr.org/2023/11/08/1211632902/major-cities-are-s... https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/08/09/nyc-mayor-says-migrants-could-cost-city-12-billion-by-2025-without-federal-and-state-help/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/08/09/nyc-ma... https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/denver-struggles-cope-40000-migrants-rcna135555 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/denver-struggles-cope-4... Climate refugees are coming and it's a problem: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/10/world/climate-global-displacement-report-intl-hnk-scli-scn/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/10/world/climate-global-displace... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/23/magazine/climate-migration.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/23/magazine/clim... https://www.wired.com/story/migration-climate-environment-refugees/ https://www.wired.com/story/migration-climate-environment-re...
- ericjmorey 2y agoIt doesn't seem like this is a problem solved by trying to put up walls and pay for more law enforcement officers and military equipment.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]