Jefflog

Our country has a problem.

We have 11 million people in this country who have entered illegally. That’s about 3% of the population. In states like California, the proportion is much higher.

Congress has tried to tackle the issue by making it a felony to be in this country without going through the official channels, and provide a means for those who have been here for a long time a means to gain citizenship. But, considering the “success” U.S. Customs officials have had in deporting illegal aliens so far, how will it change things to suddenly declare it a felony?

In the book The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, Hernando de Soto explains that in many third-world countries, residents conduct business through less-than-legal (he calls them “extralegal”) means. They don’t have the proper licenses for their business, they don’t pay taxes, they don’t have title to their property.

Do they do it because they want to avoid paying taxes? Actually, no. They do it because there is no practical means of going through legal channels. In many countries, the notion of “property rights” that you and I take for granted is unknown. If someone tries to come into my house and claim that my property is theirs, I have the legal documents and the force of the law to prove otherwise. In other countries, this is not the case; even if you wanted title to the land, you can’t get it. There’s no legal system in place for it.

In addition, obtaining the necessary permits in these countries can take years and years, not to mention multiple bribes. It’s simply not worth the extraordinary effort of “going legal”.

However, once you open up those channels (and the author gives Peru as an example), people flock towards the legal approach. They don’t mind applying for permits and paying taxes, because it means that the legal system will be there to protect them.

We are seeing the exact thing happen with immigration in this country. Poor Mexicans and Latin Americans have no legal means to enter this country; the number of available applications is small, and in any event they are given to people who have money and education. Yet, the opportunity in America remains much greater than what is available in their home country, even when working for less than minimum wage through covert channels. They do what any other rational person would do: when it can’t be done legally, it must be done illegally.

I think the solution is to start accepting applications in droves. Embrace the concept of Hispanamerica (it’s going to happen eventually anyway). Make it possible to go through legal channels, and no one will attempt to do so illegally.

There is a parallel in history. In the 19th and early 20th century, America accepted millions of immigrants, mostly from European nations. These immigrants were largely poor, uneducated, and despised by the Americans who were already here. That mass influx of people may have been difficult at first, but without them America would not be where it is today.