April 1, 2010 11:42AM # Ending the Black Market in Low-skilled Labor By [Daniel Griswold](https://www.cato.org/people/daniel-griswold) --- SHARE Alex Nowrasteh and Ryan Young of the Competitive Enterprise Institute make the case for immigration reform in an especially appealing way in a fresh op-ed this week in the *Detroit News*. In a commentary article titled, [“Fix immigration rules to crush black market,”](http://detroitnews.com/article/20100331/OPINION01/3310301/1008/opinion01/Fix-immigration-rules-to-crush-black-market) they dissect a well-meaning but flawed Obama administration effort to fix the dysfunctional H‑2A visa program for temporary farm workers. Instead of fine tuning an unworkable law, Nowrasteh and Young advocate liberalization: > That means making H‑2A visas inexpensive, easy to obtain, and keeping the related paperwork and regulations to a minimum. That means no minimum wage hike. No costly background check requirements. People rarely break laws that are reasonable and easy to obey. > > > **When legal channels cost too much in time and money, people will turn to illegal channels every time. That’s how the world works.** Getting rid of immigration’s black market begins with admitting that fact. Hear, hear. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).