Baby Step To Better Immigration Policy

A Coyote Crossing the Line, by emdot in flickr.com/creativecommonsAt present, substantial improvement on the dismal status quo of immigration in the United States is effectively impossible.  There is too much vitriol to allow comprehensive reform legislative action. Absent real overhaul, we should look for changes at the margin that might improve the welfare of that vulnerable population, especially if targeted policies can also disadvantage the organized criminal organizations that profit from illegal immigration.  A small policy tweak that could have big advantages is offering temporary amnesty to illegal immigrants that contact law enforcement about abusive coyotes.

Human trafficking of illegal immigrants into the United States is estimated to be a $2 billion a year industry.  Increasingly it has become dominated by drug cartels that use immigrants as drug mules.  Immigrants often become hostages for family ransom, are subject to robbery and sexual assault while in transit and threatened with murder if they report their victimization.  The cost of immigration for aspirant Americans is brutally high and the reward for informing the authorities about coyote mistreatment is deportation.  Changing that calculus will encourage more immigrants to come forward; no matter how you feel about illegal immigrants, obviously they deserve more leniency than violent, organized Mexican drug cartels.

I imagine that many people will balk at offering permanent amnesty to fresh batches of illegal immigrants who report themselves to the police.  Simply offering temporary amnesty along with transportation away from the immediate area of their revenge minded coyote (I'm envisioning a Greyhound ticket, not the witness protection program), however, would be enough to encourage some abused immigrants to come forward.  If they break the law or are caught later then deportation remains on the table, but they won't be punished immediately for the crime of being in country illegally.  There is a clear precedent for temporary amnesty in current drug policy: drug users overdosing can contact emergency authorities without fear of punitive reaction because we would rather they call 911 than die.  That policy prioritizes human safety over small-fry illegal behavior.  The parallel is obvious: how much do we care about punishing illegal immigrants compared to preventing deplorable violence and gaining information about organized crime?

Finally, even if this policy does not substantially increase immigrant cooperation with law enforcement, publicizing it might be sufficient to improve the welfare of "pollos" and cut down on the availability of coyote services accross the border.  Coyotes currently enjoy a huge amount of leverage with their charges.  People are desperate to get into the country, leave themselves defenseless in the hands of human smugglers and have no legal recourse once they arrive.  If that last part changes, and pollos who rooster are granted amnesty for cooperation, coyotes will have an incentive to treat them with enough at least enough dignity that don't have want to go to the police.  Any increase in the possibility of pollos speaking with law enforcement is an increase in the price of being a coyote.  Drug cartels do not particularly care about the pollos or the coyotes, so it's naive to suggest that it would fundamentally alter the situation but it can only help.

Increased safety for vulnerable illegal immigrants and more risk for dangerous criminal enterprise is a lot to like, no matter where you stand on the larger question of illegal immigration.  It's a common sense policy; aggressively publicizing the change would let illegal immigrants know they do have recourse if they are being abused and put coyotes on notice about what our true priorities are.

Comments

[Christopher Carr]

I think it's a brilliant idea, but I have some concerns: (1) It may take more than a Greyhound ticket to avoid retributive tire-necklaces engulfed in flames; (2) This is probably more politically palatable than just having a sensible procedure for legal immigration, but all these problems go away if we make legal immigration just SLIGHTLY easier than illegal immigration. The fact that illegal immigrants are willing to go through this ordeal should spell out that the procedure for procuring legal immigration status is worse or more difficult for these poor people than being a drug mule or having their family members kidnapped; (3) There seems to be an underlying anti-humanism/xenophobia/nativism/nationalism/call it whatever you want guiding this whole thing and much of American policy in general. If anyone thinks this is an extreme take, I defy you to find any Iraq War death total figures in any mainstream media outlet which list anything other that American troop death totals and "civilian contractor" a.k.a. mercenary death totals.

[Peniel Cox]

I heartedly agree with this. The immigration problem we have is not from good people coming here for a better life, but from the violent, drug smuggling, criminals who bring these people over. I believe this would be a step in the right direction.

There are two things that would scare me about enforcing this though:

I've heard that the reason we don't have the violent drug wars that Mexico has is that we don't really deal with the problem. Drug cartels can quietly and peacefully distribute drugs here without having to be violent. Just this morning I heard a news report that a Mexican official who was looking into the abduction of an American tourist was decapitated and stuffed into a suitcase as a warning to Mexican Authorities that they were overstepping their boundaries. By "kicking the hornet's nest", we might end up with a catastrophe on our hands.

Secondly, if someone did report the heinous actions of a smuggler to the authorities, what would be done about it? Send the offending party back to Mexico with a slap on the wrist, where they can continue conducting their business? Put them through our justice system, which would drain our tax dollars, give them far more human decency than they deserve, only to have them go back to the same operation as soon as they get out?

Chris is absolutely right, if immigrants willingly choose to take such a drastic risk to get here illegally, the process for getting here the right way must be even harder. If we could just simplify it enough that it is easier to come here legally than to be smuggled in, maybe eventually coyotes would be put out of business.