Just as the House of Representatives seems incapable of understanding human incentives with respect to competition, the Senate does little to address incentives in illegal immigration.

There are several facets I’d like to address.

The sheltering of illegal immigrants by churches, be they Roman Catholic, Methodist, or otherwise, flies in the face of the authority given to the state by God in Romans 13:1-7. Deportation is not unjust or unfair; these people risked coming to the United States illegally. They come ahead of all the people who take years to come in legally. If the state were to engage in extermination, that’s another issue.

Illegal immigrants have sufficient incentive for risking life and limb coming to the United States but not enough incentive to do it legally.

The incentives for becoming legal have decreased: we now mandate free emergency room care for illegal aliens. We teach them in the public schools. Banks are opening accounts for them. Border towns are considering using illegal aliens as law enforcement. Some states are considering the granting of drivers’ licenses upon proof of a “matricula consular” card.

The cost of illegal immigration would not be felt so much if we did not extend our entitlements to them, but we should realize that our entitlements come as a cost to us, too. Those in government have incentive to buy votes with the availability of government services.

The barriers to legal entry are insanely long; it should not take years to become a citizen.

Some don’t want to become citizens. They want to come here, gain money over several years, and take it back home with them. These people would be better served if we weren’t so nervous about building industry in Mexico. Our own worries about job protectionism keeps some of our companies from hiring Mexicans in Mexico. With a more conservative president, socialist Mexico would do well to reduce the government take and allow more investment by U.S. private companies. The demand for labor would mean higher wages and more people staying in Mexico.

Congress is once again trying to raise the minimum wage in the next appropriations bill for Iraq. Raising the minimum wage prices citizens out of the market. Their payrolls or contract labor are reported to the IRS. Illegal aliens have no such disincentive. They assume the risk of deportation to allow the employer not to pay Social Security and incur other governmental costs. There is an effort to make employers more accountable for whom they hire; this just makes hiring people more expensive for an employer and requires significant information gathering. We need to reduce (or eliminate) the minimum wage so that those who want to work for less, can.

Currently it seems that the only reasons one should become a citizen in the United States are to vote, to avoid deportation, and to pay income tax. Given some of the things that we vote for, like big government vs. even bigger government, that’s not a real incentive for people to get legal. We cannot muster the manpower to break down everyone’s door and check for identifying documents. Finally, who wants to pay income tax? :)