A Snitch in Time Can Help Deport Nine: Proposing a Private Enforcement Scheme to Spur Self-Deportations

Any forcible deportation drive that the incoming Trump administration may undertake to remove some of the many millions of aliens illegally present in the country would be limited in scope, underscoring the importance of goading self-deportations for perceptibly reducing these aliens’ numbers by curtailing their employment opportunities. Based in part on Britain’s experience with eradicating child labor in the nineteenth century, the article proposes a scheme of private enforcement for rendering unemployable a large proportion of unauthorized aliens in the United States labor market today. The proposal comprises enacting a punitive tax on all compensation paid for the personal services or labor of such unauthorized aliens and enabling private enforcement of this tax. Implementing that proposal would require only minor amendments to the Internal Revenue Code and the False Claims Act. But together, those amendments would constitute a low-cost way of compelling employers to comply with E-Verify, which, in turn, would prod unauthorized aliens to self-deport. The article spells out and discusses the text for making those legislative changes, which could be adopted in a budget reconciliation bill. Noting that the proposal presented can be developed further to protect domestic wages from legally imported cheaper labor, the article urges deferring any such extensions until there is greater political consensus on curbing legal immigration.