Dear Readers:  

Here in Tennessee , my home state, we are in the middle of a Senate campaign that has been heated, to say the least. The Democratic and Republican candidates have jockeyed back and forth for the lead and each side has attacked the other through nasty television advertisements. Some of you in the US may have seen news coverage of the "Call me, Harold" advertisement that has roundly been condemned even by the candidate intended to benefit from the ad (the ad was placed by a national group).  

Another ad that has gotten less national attention but has nonetheless been the focal point of the campaign here. The ad concerns the Republican candidate’s having had his construction company’s work site raided by the INS some 18 years ago. I’m not going to comment on what I think of negative ads, nor will I say which candidate I support, but I will say that I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I believe employers SHOULD be complying with immigration laws – go through the visa application process and make sure I-9s are properly completed for all workers. On the other hand, that’s an easy thing to say, but our immigration system is totally inadequate in terms of providing the number of visas needed by the country’s employers.  

I also understand that in an election year, candidates need to be careful how they discuss the immigration issue. But I am greatly bothered by candidates of both parties running campaigns calling on the government to get tough on illegal immigration, but then doing nothing to address why employers hire illegal orkers in the first place. If you buy into the argument that if employers only paid a decent wage, there would be plenty of US workers. That simply is incorrect. If you buy into the anti-immigrant rhetoric, there are about 20,000,000 undocumented workers in the US . Our unemployment rate is at historic lows – hovering around 5%. Economists speak of "full employment" as being near this number. That means, in short, that there are millions more undocumented workers than unemployed people.  

Even if you could magically deport every undocumented worker and even if every unemployed person looking for work (and capable of holding a job) were able to move into the positions that opened (a big "if" – try getting an unemployed engineer to take a job picking tomatoes), you would still need foreign workers. The argument that there are plenty of Americans willing to take jobs done by immigrants if only employers paid a better wage – by the way, I’m in favor of raising the minimum wage – is a nice sentiment. But it only makes sense if it were the case that we have available workers. We don’t. The US economy has generated more jobs than we have people legally able to fill them. Paying better salaries is a good idea for many reasons, but causing employers to hire American workers over foreign workers is not one of them.  

I personally think that unless candidates are prepared to lay out a realistic immigration plan that won’t destroy the US economy, they shouldn’t rail against illegal immigration. Have the guts to acknowledge reality. Railing against illegal immigration is like telling voters you will lower taxes. Sounds nice, but unless you tell voters how you pay for those tax cuts (will you slash their favorite social programs, gut the military budget or just run massive deficits?), you’re just another irresponsible politician trolling for votes by telling people what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear.  

Politicians with guts in both parties get my hat tip for at least trying this year. Senators McCain (Republican – Arizona ), Lindsay Graham (Republican – South Carolina ), Lieberman (Democrat – Connecticut ), Kennedy (Democrat – Massachusetts ), Brownback (Republican – Kansas ) are all worthy of being singled out for commendation. They were responsible for passing a major comprehensive immigration reform bill that attempts to address much of what is wrong in the current system. The deplorable House of Representatives lacked the leadership to follow the Senate’s lead. Perhaps the Democrats can do a better job with immigration if they are successful in flipping the House next week.  

This week our ABCs of Immigration article relates to this subject. We discuss I-9 Forms and employer compliance with the 1986 Immigration Act. This is the first time we’ve had an article on this subject in our extensive ABCs series and we hope you find it useful.  

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In firm news, Yvette Sebelist in our Nashville office continues to increase her profile in that community, now hosting a weekly radio show. You can find the link to that show on our site at www.visalaw.com/news/ . Yvette was also quoted this week in Nashville City Paper on an immigration-related story.  

Sergio Karas, our lawyer in Toronto , is quoted in the papers so often that you can just assume he’s been in the news even if I forget to mention it hear. He’s a regular on Canadian television and Canada ’s major newspapers regularly quote him. Sergio’s profile will rise further this year as he assumes the chairmanship of the International Bar Association’s Immigration Committee. Well done Sergio and Yvette!  

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As always, we remind readers that if they are interested in Siskind Susser handling their immigration matters, you can call our office at 901-682-6455 to set up an appointment. Have a great weekend!  

Regards,  

Greg Siskind