For clarity: yes, criminal law would take precedence for domestic crimes. I'm saying that if one presupposes a justly and reasonably administered Immigrant Work Visa program, that it's reasonable to arrest and deport people who sneak in without having such a visa.

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cogman10 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

But now you are talking about upending people's lives over misdemeanors. Should we deport someone for speeding?

I just don't see a work visa program as having any benefit. Anyone working in the US should be protected by workers laws the same as if they have a visa or not. Why should we put limits on who can work for who and be employed by who. Who actually benefits from such limits?

	▲	ajross 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Who actually benefits from such limits? People who work. It's just an economic argument. The US (and any other targets of net immigration, really) has a higher wage level than the regions from which the labor is arriving, more or less by definition. That's why the labor force is moving. So if you allow completely unlimited population motion at zero cost, the system will seek to a state where all wages for a given job are the same, everywhere. And that means that we highly-paid Americans end up poorer. Now, is such a world more just? More fair? Maybe! But it's worse for us, and that makes it a politically infeasible solution to argue for. You'll never convince people to live poorer for the benefit of others. A feasible/reasonable/moderate/boring immigration policy would simply ask the question "How much immigration is needed to fill existing jobs (good for growth) without depressing wages (bad for workers)?", and allow that much.

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vkou 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If being undocumented is a crime, people accused of it are entitled to trial by a jury of their peers.

	▲	ajross 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		FWIW, that's not strictly true. We deport non-criminal foreigners for diplomatic reasons all the time. I think it's very reasonable to imagine an enforcement regime (not the one we have) where legitimate workers (and their families, yada yada) have easily-available and auditable visa and citizenship documentation. And so if you find someone who doesn't, there's no failure of due process to simply deport them. Done right, there won't be many cheaters anyway as employers will have easy access to documented labor instead.