Change the Federal Minimum Wage law. Make a separate minimum wage for workers in the US who are not American citizens. Make the non-American minimum wage be statutorily 50% higher than whatever federal minimum wage (even if it becomes $0) that applies to American citizens.
In this way, the Department of Labor becomes involved in confirming citizenship. In this way, American businesses are incentivized to hire American rather than non-American.
In this way, illegal immigrants have less of a financial incentive to risk their lives sneaking into America, as there is less probability they will get a job when they get here.
I’m thinking a tax more than a mandated wage. It should be collected at the business level so it gets paid. Non-US workers get a paycheck that’s theirs to keep - any and all taxes have already been deducted before they get it.
I don’t think it should be 50% higher though. I like equal, but I accept a small penalty. Competition is a good thing, so if US workers really are lazy they should suffer. We should not engage in protectionism to our demise.
The money can then be used for border security and immigrant welfare initiatives.
Provided that people enter at designated sites and pass some reasonable vetting I would open the boarders. This way the only way to be illegal is to avoid that process and/or avoid the tax. People seeking to come here for asylum or to better their lives would have no reason to avoid it. Criminals would avoid it so a much larger percentage of “illegal” people would be criminals in more than just immigration.
Also, no benefits other than maybe something from the tax collected. It should be well known that the more people drawing, the less everyone gets, so it becomes self limiting.
I would also say we need support for small business so they can easily participate and proof of trying should be a defense if you get it wrong. We don’t want to kill small business because they can’t follow complex and convoluted regulations. There are currently traps where if you don’t get it 100% right you get nuked by government. That’s fine for a 500 seat business but the 2 person mom and pop doesn’t have the resources.
A tax on non-citizen employees in addition to a differentiated minimum wage is an interesting idea. Taxing the business makes sense. And hey, congress always loves a tax.