INCENTIVES, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, AND HUMAN NATURE

7/16/14

While some Republicans are pushing to expedite the return of these latest waves of young illegal immigrants to their home countries in Central America, most Democrats object.  Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland, a state a safe distance from our southern border, opined yesterday

“They shouldn’t be brought to our borders to start with, and that’s not going to change just because we expedite their return to their host country or protective services.”

It’s interesting how Senator Cardin uses the passive case “be brought,” as if this new group of immigrants was somehow whisked to our borders against their will, but I digress.  The major point is that yes, Senator, things will change if illegal aliens are quickly returned to their home countries.

The reason that this newest waves of immigrants are coming here is because word is out in Central America that if they make it here they stay here.  The Obama Administration, and congresspersons in both parties, says that we have to eradicate that mistaken impression.  But there is nothing mistaken about that impression.   When (and if) these young entrants are apprehended, they get a preliminary hearing and then are released to a sponsor somewhere in the United States, or to a holding facility pending finding a sponsor, and told to return for a follow-up hearing.   Those follow-up hearings, however, may take years to commence and are often ignored by the offender in any case.   So while the law says that an illegal immigrant who makes it here may ultimately be sent back, in practice s/he indeed can stay here if s/he makes it here; s/he simply disappears after the preliminary hearing and if further proceedings are ever scheduled s/he just doesn’t show up.   As much as we would like to disabuse people of the notion that making it here is the same as staying here, that notion is indeed true in practice.

So, despite what Senator Cardin says, if we do quickly get people back to Guatemala, Honduras, or El Salvador, they, and those who aspire to replicate their actions, will quickly get the idea that making it to the United States does not equate to staying in the United States.  All they will get for their dangerous and expensive efforts is a quick trip back to where they started.  This will have a dampening impact on their enthusiasm for trekking across Mexico, at great risk to themselves, to the southern border of the United States.

The key point here is that, as difficult as it is for virtually all Democrats and most Republicans to understand, people do respond to incentives.  When the incentives to come here are eliminated through quick repatriation, people will stop coming to our borders.

Speaking of incentives, it would be nice if not only the incentive to come here were eliminated but also that the incentive to leave Central America would at least be decreased.  Unfortunately, though, improving the living conditions in Central America is a task for the governments and people of those countries.  As much as we’d like to think that we can have a dramatic impact on conditions to our south through vast applications of aid, and as much as we do have a moral obligation to help where we can, only the governments and the people in the affected areas can improve things down there and thus reduce the incentive to leave.  You can’t help when certain parties have incentives to keep the people of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador in near wretched living conditions.