When it comes to allowing low-skilled immigrants into the United States, Americans basically divide into two groups. The first wants to hire them at low wages and doesn't especially care whether they're here legally or illegally. The second group is anxious about too many of them coming here -- worried they're taking away jobs of American citizens and use up too many public services.
So once again, as it has so many times in the past, Congress is battling over immigration -- knowing full well that any legislation that emerges will have to satisfy both groups.
This time the likely outcome will say to employers: Don't worry. You'll have access to lots of what we'll call “guest” workers. And it will say to Americans who are anxious about too many immigrants: Don't worry. These guest workers will only be here temporarily, and we'll penalize employers who hire any foreigner who's not an official guest worker.
It's a compromise that will satisfy everybody but as a practical matter have absolutely no effect. The biggest lesson we should have learned about immigration is this: As long as there are lots of unskilled jobs in the United States that pay much better than jobs in Latin America or Southeast Asia, and as long as immigrants can fill them, immigrants will get here, somehow -- legally or illegally. Some will risk their lives getting here. And as long as they can buy fake documents saying they're here legally, their employers will be able to say “Don't blame me!"
So what's the answer? There's no simple solution but one major step is to enforce basic labor laws that require employers to pay all their employees the minimum wage and protect their health and safety.
You see, one of the main reasons employers hire undocumented immigrants is that people who are here illegally don't complain when they're paid below the minimum wage or forced to work in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. So employers who hire them can cut corners and save money without much risk they'll be caught.
But if America's basic labor laws were truly enforced -- if there are enough state and federal inspectors to increase the probability that an employer who breaks them will get caught, and if the fines and penalties are big enough -- employers won't run the risk. And that would mean fewer jobs here for undocumented immigrants. And if there were fewer jobs for them, fewer of them would cross our borders illegally.
But of course, my solution would never get the support of employers, who will prefer -- with a wink and a nod -- to accept the legislative fiction of “guest workers” and know they'll never be prosecuted for hiring workers who appear to be documented. And my solution would never satisfy other Americans who think our basic labor laws are already being enforced, and don't see the connection between really enforcing them and reducing the numbers of people crossing our borders illegally.
So instead we're going to have another big fight in Congress over immigration, resulting in another set of laws that seem to satisfy both those who want lots of low-wage immigrants and those who don't want them. But as has been the case in the past, the legislation will accomplish little except take politicians off the hook for another few years until the immigration issue blows up in their faces again.
Robert B. Reich is co-founder of The American Prospect. A version of this column originally appeared on Marketplace.
