A comprehensive border security plan
December 16, 2005| By Nathaniel Ward
Helen Krieble, Greg Walcher and Heritage's Tim Kane discuss a comprehensive border security proposal.
America should look to the private sector as it seeks to reform its border security and immigration systems, Helen Krieble and Greg Walcher said Tuesday during a presentation at The Heritage Foundation.
Right now, Krieble said, there are large incentives for illegal migration. First, there is a high demand for cheap labor, and it is far easier for businesses to pay illegal workers than it is for them to waste time and money dealing with cumbersome bureaucracies to find legal workers. Second, illegal crossing is far cheaper for would-be workers than navigating through the legal processes. All this, in turn, means our borders are overwhelmed by tens of thousands of illegal border crossings each month.
The only solution, she said, is to change the incentive structure for workers and employers alike. And by ensuring that all or most people crossing the border are doing so legally, enforcement along the border will be far easier.
Krieble said America should adopt a market-based approach to solve the problem. Private job agencies, licensed by the government, could operate overseas to issue worker visas—much as travel companies now issue tourist visas. Employers would work with these job agencies to fill open positions, and a worker’s visa would only apply to that one employer. A worker would have to re-apply in order to change employers.
In addition, there would be no artificial cap on the number of worker visas issued each year. But since the visa is matched to the job each worker has, there would be no excesses; a worker would have to leave when his visa expired or his job ended. What's more, eliminating the cap eliminates incentives to cross illegally, Krieble said, by reflecting the basic economic principle of supply and demand.
To deal with the problem of the tens of millions of illegal workers now in America, Krieble proposed that America allow them to return to their countries and apply for the new worker visas. No worker without a visa could be employed—and stiff fines for employers combined with deportation for offending workers would ensure compliance.
This system, Krieble concluded, would be cheaper for businesses, remove incentives for workers to cross the borders illegally, and so take the strain off the border patrol as it seeks to enforce America’s borders.
Other solutions, like an amnesty, will do nothing to solve the problem, she said. What’s more, current proposals involve increases in government bureaucracy and spending that violate core conservative principles.
Heritage's Bradley Fellow in Labor Policy Tim Kane praised the program, saying it properly "distinguishes between immigration and guest workers." Under the Krieble plan, those seeking to become US citizens would be on a different "track" than those seeking only employment.
Helen Krieble is president of the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation.
About this event
Relevant Heritage research
- Kirk Johnson and Tim Kane, “'Recapturing' Visas: A Sensible Temporary Fix for America's Foreign Worker Problem,” October 19, 2005
- James Carafano, Janice Kephart and Paul Rosenzweig, The McCain-Kennedy Immigration Reform Bill Falls Short, July 26, 2005
- Edwin Meese, James Carafano, Matthew Spalding, and Paul Rosenzweig, "Alternatives to Amnesty: Proposals for Fair and Effective Immigration Reform," June 2, 2005
- Edwin Meese and Matthew Spalding , “The Principles of Immigration,” October 19, 2004
