If you pay them, they will come.
Via Des Moines Register:
Iowans place more blame on employers who hire undocumented immigrants than on the workers, according to a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll.
The poll shows 63 percent of Iowans blame employers who hire people in the United States illegally. Sixteen percent blame the workers, and 21 percent are not sure.
The poll was conducted just weeks after a man identified by authorities as an undocumented immigrant was charged with murdering Mollie Tibbetts, a 20-year-old University of Iowa student whose disappearance gained nationwide attention. The arrest added fuel to the ongoing national debate over illegal immigration, and several politicians highlighted the suspect’s immigration status when commenting on her death.
The Iowa Poll asked state residents the same question more than a decade ago: “Who do you blame more when illegal immigrants are found working in Iowa — the workers or the employers who hire them?”
The latest poll shows a jump of 7 percentage points in Iowans blaming immigrants, up from 9 percent in January 2007. Those blaming employers decreased 20 percentage points, down from 83 percent in 2007, while those without an opinion increased 13 percentage points, up from 8 percent.
Jacob Vigdor, a professor of public policy and governance at the University of Washington, said the jump in Iowans unsure about the question complicates any straightforward argument of rising anti-immigrant sentiment.
“The fact that the majority of this movement is from the category of ‘blame the employer’ to ‘not sure who to blame’ — that doesn’t make it quite so simple a story,” he said.
Emily Williams, a 34-year-old nurse in Lytton who is a registered Republican, is among those who place blame on the workers. She said employers have a responsibility to vet potential workers and should be penalized if they’re negligent. But employers also need more help to do proper background checks, she said.
Williams said the focus should be on immigrants who knowingly choose to lie in order to work in the United States.
“Personal responsibility is something that we have to place on ourselves,” she said. “If you misrepresent yourself or take a job knowing that you’re not who you say you are, or that you lied about your history or your background or any of your information, I think that’s on you.”
Williams added that she would support legislation that makes it easier for immigrants to come legally to the United States.
Floyd Dickerson, a 75-year-old retiree in Oskaloosa and a registered Democrat, places blame on employers. He said those who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants should go to prison.
“It’s really simple: Don’t hire them,” he said. “If they don’t have a job, they’re not going to stay.”