At a favorite restaurant recently, the orders were unusually backed up. When I inquired why this was happening, the manager replied, “There is only one cook back there instead of three.”
Upon inquiring why, she explained that the other cooks (even though they were verified as legal) were afraid to come in for fear of ICE.
“What about other prospects who are not concerned about ICE?”
“Nobody else seems to want to work.” She quickly replied.
Similar conversations have taken place with business owners in multiple service sectors.
When people are afraid to come to work:
- Businesses suffer
- Consumers wait longer
- Less money is going into the economy
Recently, a migrant disaster played out in a small Spanish African territory. In one day, 70,000 migrants flooded into it, and the end result was over 100 dead, primarily young people.
This was a direct result of the Spanish Prime Minister making a public declaration that “migrants are welcome in Spain.” Sound familiar?
His reasoning was that “because of the continued low birth rate, it was urgent to attract more people to work who, when taxed, could then continue to support their social system for health care and other government programs.”
What gives?
In each case, well-intentioned laws and directives created havoc. Here, we successfully sealed the border but then failed to come up with a commonsense approach to overhauling our immigration laws.
I am not suggesting blanket amnesty but do support creating clear policy toward work visas and a way to dramatically shorten the wait for someone wanting to become a citizen. When they do, they can establish proof of contributing rather than feeding off the system – and truly wish to assimilate into a common culture, then more jobs can be filled, and more money can flow into our depleting treasury.