Immigration Follow-up

A recent news article stated that ICE had conducted raids in the Midwest and arrested 348 people who were (a) in the United States illegally and (b) had outstanding warrants or had been convicted of, and not yet picked up for, crimes committed in the United States. Note the double qualification..were in the US illegally, AND had committed crimes. GOOD! This is the type of law enforcement that needs to be taking place, and in my opinion, a proper use of the ICE officers. Now, I think they should take it one step, a major step, forward, and fine the daylights, and profits, out of those companies who had hired the undocumented workers. I believe if we make it highly unprofitable for employers to higher undocumented individuals who are here, we may in fact start to turn the tide, and allow those who are here legally to obtain a higher standard of living. The American Dream is still very worth pursuing, (even as I sit here underemployed, I still believe in it); as has been pointed out here by several before, any one of us who is not Native American has immigrant blood in them. Given that the immigration standards have changed many times over the years, and are likely to change again, still that is the law of the land at this time, and it should be followed. But this costs money, and our country is strapped financially; which I why I believe in very heavy fines on those employers who hire undocumented workers. I have heard that this will cause hikes in food prices; I agree, but feel these hikes will be only temporary, for this reason: Americans are a very inventive people, and if the cost of picking tomatoes, for example, goes high, then some bright individual will invent a better, mechanized method of harvesting that crop. It has happened before; look at cotton, potatoes, and corn; all were harvested by hand for years, until it became profitable to create machinery that does the same job, at lower cost. There is the “free market” and “American ingenuity” at work. It has worked in the past, and I believe it will work in this example.
Comments on my posts are greatly valued!