I am an alien. Not the kind with pointy ears and a green complexion, but an alien in the legal sense. That means I'm a foreigner who is living and working in the United States with permission from the government. There are many foreign workers in the U.S. who don't have permission, however, and that's an issue politicians are currently having a great deal of arguments about.

One of the concerns raised in these discussions is that if U.S. authorities start enforcing the law, many immigrants will be deported and lose their income; and their families abroad, to whom they often transfer much of their earnings, will suffer as well.
Others are concerned that society has a moral obligation to enforce the law, since "all are equal before the law." If the law is unenforceable, clearly there is something wrong with the law, and it must be changed.

Personally, I think that the current situation is extremely unfair to everyone involved. It is unfair because employers, who are unwilling to break the law, are punished by having to deal with the expense, bureaucracy, and extensive delays involved in hiring legal immigrants. It is also unfair because this pressure on employers to hire illegal immigrants effectively rob workers of the social safety net they're otherwise entitled to.

From my perspective, it's unfair to legal immigrants as well, since they also have to contend with expenses, bureaucracy and lengthy processing delays. Each year, I must travel to my home country to renew my work visa; an airline trip costing between one and two thousand dollars. Then I must pay several hundred dollars in fees to the U.S. embassy for them to process the paperwork. I must also book and attend a personal interview at the embassy to answer questions about my affiliations and intentions for my stay in the United States. Upon returning to the United States, I have to submit more paperwork, have my photo taken, and my fingerprints scanned.
All these things makes it easy to feel that you're treated like a criminal, which is quite ironic, considering that I wouldn't face these obstacles if I were willing to become an illegal immigrant. It also seems like an act of immense stupidity to implement all these safety measures and only apply them to legal immigrants, while there is a gaping security hole elsewhere, allowing thousands of illegal immigrants, with a lot less to lose, to stream into the country.

The fact of the matter is that no one knows who the illegal immigrants are. No one interviewed them about their intentions before they entered the United States. Not even a rudimentary criminal background check was performed. If America is really in such a grave danger from us foreigners, this ought to cause quite a few sleepless nights for the Department of Homeland Security. After all, what's to keep a potential terrorist from flying into Mexico and pay someone to smuggle him across the border?

Let's assume that the level of security against foreign nationals entering the country legally cannot be relaxed. How can we stem the flow of illegal immigrants and ensure a minimum of knowledge about who enters the country? How do we reach a sustainable solution instead of simply making the lives of needed workers miserable, as has been standard policy in the past?

The most effective way of eliminating illegal trade, which is really what we're facing, is to eliminate demand. Legislation must make it unprofitable for employers to hire illegal workers and make it a surmountable task for workers to obtain a work permit. That's the solution in a nutshell.

If an employer would have to pay a fine of, say, $100.000 if he was caught knowingly or against better judgment employing an illegal immigrant, he would undoubtedly screen prospective employees more carefully. Of course, if the penalty is increased, it should also become easier for an employer to verify the authenticity of immigration visas with authorities. Finally, to provide further incentive, repeat offenders might have their businesses shut down completely.
A new group of special labor visas could be devised, which would cut most of the red tape and concentrate on verifying the identity and criminal records of applicants. These new visas might imply restrictions on what kind of work can be performed and for how long. They could also offer a road to a more permanent work permit, such as a green card.

Such new legislation should of course be pre-announced, so employers and workers will have time to legalize their relationship, preferably with an offer of extra assistance from immigration authorities. After a grace period of, say, 90 days, the law should be enforced vigorously.

After all that, the question remains of who will pay for all the needed programs and bureaucratic capacity. Although there will undoubtedly be an increase in tax revenue as a result of the legalization process, there may still be a budget imbalance. This extra expense could logically be divided and sucked up by existing budgets of the departments of Homeland Security and Citizenship And Immigration Services. After all, this is within both their spheres of responsibility.

Of course, such a plan may seem too simple for most lawmakers who have to take important things, such as what all their campaign fund contributing business organization lobbyist friends will say about the matter, into consideration.