By Frank Spotorno
We don’t need to buy votes in order to shut down illegal migration into the United States.
We don’t need to make promises that we can’t keep.
These past few election cycles a new form of campaign has emerged on both major party platforms. Democrats and Republicans both make immigration promises they know they cannot deliver. Build a wall and it stops tomorrow. Pass amnesty and it stops tomorrow. Neither is true, and the American worker knows it.
Making America great is not about making promises you can’t keep. It’s about enforcing the law we already have.
We have a law on the books since Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. It granted amnesty to 3 million people and in return required one simple thing: every employer must verify every worker using Form I-9.
That is the one law that practically every Congress and every President since has left to gather dust in their drawer.
For 40 years, labor leaders have asked the same two questions: How do we organize with open borders, and how do we protect American jobs? The answer hasn’t changed: Border status is irrelevant if you don’t enforce hiring laws.
We kept the amnesty and buried the enforcement. Across seven presidencies, we have seen the result. The incentive to ignore the law is simple:
1. Cheaper Labor: Bypassing I-9 verification lets bad actors skip taxes, workers’ comp, and overtime and underbid honest contractors by 40 percent.
2. Forced Silence: A worker fearful of deportation will not report unsafe scaffolds or stolen wages.
3. Legal Loopholes: Calling an employee an “independent contractor” shifts all liability onto the worker.
4. Political Fear: Leaders avoid workplace enforcement because they are afraid of the backlash.
Now look at the rest of the world. There are nearly 190 countries on this planet, on every continent, and not one of them gives a free pass to work without verification.
In the European Union, from Germany to Italy to France, no employer can hire without verified work authorization, and even asylum seekers must go through the process before they can work legally.
In Asia, from Japan to South Korea to Singapore, strict employment passes and work permits are mandatory. No document, no job.
South of the Rio Grande, the same. In Mexico, Panama, Brazil, and yes, even in Venezuela, no one can get a formal job unless proper documentation as a citizen or as a legal foreign worker is provided.
In Africa, one of the poorest continents on earth, from Nigeria to South Africa to Kenya, no one can get a work visa or permit without proper documentation. Even there, there is no free pass.
In Australia and in Canada, employers face heavy fines and prison time for hiring without verification. Their asylum systems also require work authorization first.
No free pass in any of the 190 countries.
Only in America do we pretend we need new laws, new promises, and new vote-buying schemes while we ignore the one law that already solves the hiring incentive.
This failure rewards law-breaking employers with low bids and politicians with donations, while punishing honest American workers.
We don’t need to buy votes. We need to enforce the I-9.
It eliminates the illegal hiring incentive, stops exploitation, and secures American jobs. No new legislation required.
• Retired UBC Member – Local 2790
• Former Republican and Conservative candidate for Congress NY-14 in 2016
• Member – IACRL
• Co-Publisher – The Yonkers Times