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Earned Legalization: A Points System for Essential Workersby Gary Endelman
How would an earned legalization program work? The earned legalization program should be open to any individual who has worked in an essential worker occupation as defined by Congress on a full-time basis over a 12-month period. Such an individual would be granted temporary residence during which time they would have to work in an essential worker occupation, although not necessarily the same one they were in at the time of application. There would be no requirement for any employer to demonstrate they have been unable to recruit US workers or have been paying the prevailing wage.Everyone knows this has not been happening. Indeed, this is precisely why most undocumented workers were hired in the first place. The best way to break this cycle of exploitation, and thereby remove the threat of cheap labor, is to give the undocumented true mobility to find better jobs by not linking their legal status to any particular employer. The marketplace, not another layer of DOL regulations that will neither be readily understood nor easily implemented, protects the legitimate interests of US workers. An essential worker who has the ability to walk is the US worker's best friend. There are some who want to require that earned legalization applicants pay all outstanding back taxes before seeking any benefit. This is a deal-killer. People who survive by getting paid under the table cannot do this, at least not right away. A more realistic alternative, which still requires that the undocumented pay their outstanding debts, is to demand that each new temporary resident enter into an agreement with our friendly IRS to repay back taxes, with interest but no penalties, and give them three years to do it or risk automatic loss of status. The earned legalization program would represent a paradigm shift in US immigration policy. First, the needs of the economy would replace those of a petitioning employer as the driving factor. Give the essential worker ownership of his visa and free him from wage bondage to an unscrupulous employer. Second, administer this program in the spirit of new federalism that allows each state to mold it to its own needs. This would work in two ways. Each state would be able to identify what occupations are in shortage and ask the DOL to list them on a regional Schedule A list so that workers in these trades can benefit. We do not have one national economy in America but a series of regional economies whose needs are as diverse as the states themselves. Second, use earned legalization to encourage essential workers to live in places that normally would be unable to attract them. Grant occupational credits to each state, much in the manner of energy conservation credits that are now available, and allow them to be used, swapped or sold as the specific needs of a state dictate. This means, for example, that if North Dakota needs hotel workers or meat packers but cannot get them, while Florida or California has more than enough, but needs agricultural labor, then these states can either sell the desired credits to each other or simply exchange them. How they distribute such occupational credits to earned legalization applicants is up to each state to figure out. The adoption of an earned legalization program should be coupled with the elimination of the cap on the immigration of unskilled workers in general. It should be lifted in order for America to take full advantage of these workers and the contribution they can and do make to growing the economy and shrinking the deficit. This is especially critical now when state governments throughout the nation confront enormous budget deficits made worse by the additional security obligations imposed on them by Washington. One example of this was the recent announcement by the Republican Governor of Ohio with the eminently respectable name of Robert Taft that his state now has a $530 million Medicaid shortfall. The Federal Reserve can stimulate growth by lowering interest rates but they are now so low that little more can be done. Congress can prime the pump by massive deficit spending but there is little likelihood of this happening anytime soon. Unleasing the economic potential of millions of undocumented workers in a way that expands tax flows can do more than any policy initiative now under discussion to inject new hope and money into the nation's economic bloodstream. Some modest proposals. Let the debate begin.
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