Weak GOP overlooks simple solutions to immigration crisis: Navarrette

In going after the immigration crisis at its roots, Congress should consider a three-strike rule to hold employers accountable. — Image credit: Getty Images

With less than 30 days until the presidential election, immigration remains a key issue for many voters, especially Republicans. Since 2021, there have been over 8.5 million encounters with immigrants at the southern border.

In the video above, Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette suggests that Republicans are overlooking key solutions to the immigration issue. He outlines his three-strike plan to hold employers accountable for hiring illegal immigrants.

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The following is an excerpt from the above video:

They [Republicans] don’t have the stomach to fight the battle where it needs to be fought if you really want to address the problem and make progress. Granted, maybe that’s not your thing. Maybe when Senator JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice presidential nominee, admitted that he created, out of thin air, the story that Haitian immigrants in the Buckeye State were dining on people’s household pets, maybe getting the attention of the media, well, that was the whole game.

But for those Republicans who believe too much immigration is bad for the country, whether it’s legal or illegal, and that we have to somehow find a way of turning people away, well the answer is clear as day. And yet politicians won’t go anywhere near the solution because it terrifies them. It’s an idea that they consider so radical and so extreme that it’s not worth trying. Instead of bouncing immigrants out of the country, it might just cause them to get bounced out of office, and that makes it dangerous.

And you see, there’s nothing scarier to a politician than the prospect of losing reelection and having to go find a real job in the private sector with a limited skill set. The solution to our immigration woes is to go after the problem at its roots.

It for all their tough talk and chest thumping over border security, Republicans are such wimps when it comes to immigration, they really are. They don’t have the stomach to fight the battle where it needs to be fought if you really want to address the problem and make progress. Granted, maybe that’s not your thing. Maybe when Senator JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice presidential nominee, admitted that he created, out of thin air, the story that Haitian immigrants in the Buckeye State were dining on people’s household pets, maybe getting the attention of the media. Well, that was the whole game. But for those Republicans who believe too much immigration is bad for the country, whether it’s legal or illegal, and that we have to somehow find a way of turning people away while the answer is clear as day, and yet, politicians won’t go anywhere near the solution, because it terrifies them. It’s an idea that they consider so radical and so extreme that’s not worth trying. Instead of bouncing immigrants out of the country, it might just cause them to get bounced out of office, and that makes it dangerous. And you see, there’s nothing scarier to a politician than the prospect of losing re election and having to go find a real job in the private sector with a limited skill set. The solution to our immigration woes is to go after the problem at its roots. Immigrants don’t come to the United States to do harm to Americans. They come here to do chores for Americans. They come here to do the hard and crappy, hot and cold, dangerous and dirty and disgusting jobs that Americans won’t do not at any price. Want to get rid of immigrants. Simple get rid of the jobs. No jobs, no immigrants. Son. This ain’t long division. That means doing one of two things. One, we could raise better kids with a stronger work ethic, so that they step up and do these bottom of the barrel jobs, picking peaches in California, tarring roofs in Texas, shelling crabs in Maryland, milking cows in Wisconsin, so that immigrants never get the chance to do this work. Because what do you know the teenagers got there first. Okay, back in the real world, that’s not going to happen. What else you got? Okay, there’s option two, and this is the option that elected officials really hate and fear, the one where politicians could stop cracking down on immigrants and pick on someone their own size. The key to the whole immigration debate is the E word employers. If you want to get rid of the job, start punishing the people who offer them. And here, I’m not talking about the corporate folks, the farms, ranches, hotels, restaurants and construction firms that survive on illegal immigrant labor. No, I’m talking about the number one employer of that labor, the American household. You see, mom and dad are overworked and overwhelmed, and they need help keeping their home afloat. They get that help from the undocumented immigrants they scoop up and hire to be gardeners, nannies, housekeepers and elderly care providers. My own proposal is simple enough. Congress needs to create a federal three strikes law for those who employ undocumented immigrants on the first offense, employers get a warning on the second offense, they get what the law currently allows a $10,000 fine per infraction, and on the third offense, well, they get 10 days in jail. If you do that, all the jobs will dry up, and the immigrants will move north to Canada to search for employment. In fact, the workers might even have some company on their trip, in the form of a batch of newly unemployed former federal lawmakers who suffer the retribution of angry employers who, unlike those lowly migrants, respond to getting hit by hitting back twice as hard. Hey, I said it was a good solution. I never said it was a realistic one. I.