Imaginary Speech, and the Right to Work
Jan. 30th, 2018 11:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenI did not watch Dishonest Donald give the State of the Union address, but I did read Shikha Dalmia's piece on what he might have said about immigration if he had suddenly become a wise and decent human being. A citizen can dream.
I would like to add another point: Leaving aside what one may think about how many people we should let into the United States, and how we should select which people, I am opposed to forcing E-Verify on everyone. The law has been that you can get a job, and feed yourself, and if you are suspected of being an illegal alien, then you can be arrested, given a hearing, and perhaps deported. E-Verify would make it impossible for you to get a job if the system doesn't find you to be a citizen, or perhaps an alien with permission to work.
The problem -- a problem that ought to concern even the immigration restrictionists -- is that records are fallible. American citizens who can't prove that they are citizens would become unemployable; so would other people who had reason to lie low. A runaway teenager who had been given good reason to run could find it impossible to work at an honest, aboveboard job. He or she could then starve, turn whore, or find a criminal gang that was hiring. If a would-be fascist caudillo came to power (not that this could ever happen here, but humor me), he might abuse the system to blackball his opponents.
One evil of Communism is that when the State is the only employer, dissent becomes starvation. The same can happen with Fascism, when nominally private employers cannot hire anyone without the State's permission. Don't let it happen here.
I would like to add another point: Leaving aside what one may think about how many people we should let into the United States, and how we should select which people, I am opposed to forcing E-Verify on everyone. The law has been that you can get a job, and feed yourself, and if you are suspected of being an illegal alien, then you can be arrested, given a hearing, and perhaps deported. E-Verify would make it impossible for you to get a job if the system doesn't find you to be a citizen, or perhaps an alien with permission to work.
The problem -- a problem that ought to concern even the immigration restrictionists -- is that records are fallible. American citizens who can't prove that they are citizens would become unemployable; so would other people who had reason to lie low. A runaway teenager who had been given good reason to run could find it impossible to work at an honest, aboveboard job. He or she could then starve, turn whore, or find a criminal gang that was hiring. If a would-be fascist caudillo came to power (not that this could ever happen here, but humor me), he might abuse the system to blackball his opponents.
One evil of Communism is that when the State is the only employer, dissent becomes starvation. The same can happen with Fascism, when nominally private employers cannot hire anyone without the State's permission. Don't let it happen here.
