European countries paying immigrants to leave

From Mark Krikorian at the Corner:

The Czech Republic has joined France and Spain in implementing the Sailer approach to immigrant attrition—pay immigrants to leave. It’s something we should consider ourselves: Illegal immigrants would turn themselves in, plead guilty to the many federal and state crimes they’ve committed (entry without inspection, acquisition and use of fraudulent documents, etc.) and agree to a jail sentence, which would be waived in its entirety when they leave, with a hefty payment sent to them when they’ve returned to their home countries. The deal would be that if they are ever found in the United States again for any reason, they would be jailed immediately to serve out their sentences and also be prosecuted for the felony of re-entry after deportation.

It’s not a silver bullet, but combined with the stick of enforcement, it could be a carrot that could get a significant number of illegals to leave, out of a total that may well be below 11 million already. And it would thus move us a little further toward the goal set out by American patriot Barbara Jordan:

Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave.

04/30 03:14 PMShare

I wrote to Krikorian:

But Mark, you still don’t get it. Don’t you understand that NOTHING we do can slow or reverse immigration? That immigration is a phenomenon outside of human control? That the higher we build a fence, the higher a ladder the illegals will put up? That the immigrants’ desire to come is an irresistible force, but that our desire to stop them has no force at all? You’ve got to get with the program, Mark.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 02, 2009 03:40 PM | Send