Immigration Policy Ignorance in Congress

Same as last year, we're seeing a congressional effort to punish Central America for immigration. Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) is reintroducing a bill to cut aid. He seems to believe that if you try to make a poor country even poorer, then people will magically decide not to emigrate. But this is the real gem of his argument:

"Countries in South America are using our current laws against us," he said in a statement. 

Laws create incentives. If you have a particular policy goal, then you have to craft laws in a way that achieves those goals. If your goals are not being reached, then the laws need revision. The idea of impoverished Central Americans "using our laws against us" is ludicrous. What's happening is that our laws are creating incentives we don't like. That means we need to rewrite them.

And did you happen to notice the other problem with his statement? He does not seem to have a good grasp of geography.