The scarlet letter is a large, red “A.” In Hawthorne‘s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is forced to wear a large, red letter “A” on her bosom because she had an illegitimate child as the result of committing adultery. But it takes two to commit adultery and her partner escaped public condemnation.

In 2013, opponents of immigration reform would pin a big letter “A” for amnesty on undocumented aliens and the supporters of immigration reform. But again, it takes two; in this case, the two are the illegal and his/her employer. We don’t need any more enforcement efforts on our southern border with Mexico; we have enough. A better way to slow or halt the influx of the undocumented is to eliminate the employment opportunities that draw them here. If we made mandatory prison sentences for employers the penalty for the hiring of the undocumented rather than small fines, employing the undocumented would quickly stop. Issue guilty employers pink underwear and place them in open-air prisons like Sheriff Joe’s during Phoenix, Arizona summers rather than punish workers seeking the American dream.