Comments on: Owner gets 10 years in prison for hiring illegals

By: Andrew Baker

Andrew Baker — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:03:19 +0000

As a matter of fact, I’ve raised five children, a few of whom are now in the late teen age group most susceptible to exposure to drugs, so I think about this issue every day and struggle with the best ways to nurture productive young adults who will contribute positively to a free society. I also have painful personal experience with the impacts of substance abuse on families. However, the major tragedies that have occurred in my family have resulted from abuse of substances that are legal — alcohol and prescription medication. This has reinforced my belief that criminalizing drugs does not solve the problem, and in many cases only adds another set of problems that then need solving — cost of imprisonment, how to employ people with criminal records etc. That said, I recognize that drugs are a very hot button issue because the issues are not just societal — they touch all of us personally. I don’t pretend that there are simple solutions. Decriminalization brings a new set of problems. I just happen to believe that solving these problems will be cheaper and produce better outcomes than criminalizing our national drug problem.

By: TJeans

TJeans — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:34:21 +0000

Mr. Andrew Baker,

You probably don’t have a child of your own to say that illegal drugs should be decriminalized.

By: Ted Bean

Ted Bean — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:22:36 +0000

We won’t stop illegal immigration until the countries that they’re coming from are able to provide living-wage jobs. But, I applaud the enforcement of the law, especially because it seems the sentence was more for tax evasion than hiring undocumented workers. I am tired of paying my share of taxes and covering for the fat cats who don’t. By the way, Mr. Baker is wrong when he says that decriminalizing illegal drugs will change much. In Europe, one of the biggest rackets is smuggling alcohol and cigarettes to avoid taxes. In this country, everyone from the Mafia to Middle East terrorist groups has smuggled cigarettes from low tax states to high tax states. Don’t look for easy answers, just support the efforts of those who have to enforce the laws we have.

By: Andrew Baker

Andrew Baker — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:51:32 +0000

We need more strong sanctions like this against employers who hire illegals. The only way to return to the pro-immigration policy we need to keep the United States economy vibrant is to have strong workplace protections for U.S. workers. Hiring illegal immigrants to reduce business costs is a race to the bottom. We need citizens if we want to have a society worth living in, not just cheap labor. “In-sourcing” illegal labor will turn the U.S. into a banana republic. Fences don’t work. Hadrian’s Wall in Roman Britain and the Great Wall of China were obsolete before they were finished.

What about keeping out the drug trade, you ask? Decriminalize it — all of it. And tax it. And require much stiffer penalites for DUI. Cost savings from having far fewer than the current 3 million people in jail, along with drug tax revenues, will produce major savings, and will help reduce the cost of government for businesses. Health care costs will be reduced if we start treating substance abuse as a public health problem, not a crime. The result will be more functioning people out on the streets seeking productive work and creating legal businesses.

The American business community has been highly hypocritical and unpatriotic when it comes to regulating illegal immigration at the workplace — particularly businesses that seek to profit from low wage labor, including agribusiness, food processing, restaurant and hospitality businesses and some manufacturing. There are good business reasons for supporting a functioning democracy. It’s time business people started speaking out and doing their part to create these changes.