The issue with this problem is there is not a lot of hard, accurate data. Most estimates of the number of illegal immigrants in this country varies widely, not surprisingly since they are illegal. But most estimates are over 10,000,000 people in the country who should not be from a legal perspective. Some people insist that illegal immigrants play an important part on our economy and our heritage of diversity and should be allowed to stay. Other people insist that illegal immigrants deprive Americans of jobs, increase our crime rates, need to be sent back to their countries, and they absorb taxpayer wealth and resources, resources that would be better spent on citizens.
A very emotional issue and one that seems like it will never get resolved. Integrated into this issue is the lost war on drugs and the role our porous border plays in that debacle. Neither issue can be resolved totally without resolving the other.
However, today we will focus on the illegal immigration component. Let's assume that any solution must involve the following principles:
- These people are here illegally, they broke our laws, and need to have that illegal behavior taken into account.
- Other people that tried to get into this country legally need to be recognized for their integrity of playing by the rules and the laws.
- It is not compassionate or right to break up families, sending some family members back to Mexico or wherever, while their kids who may have been born here and thus, are American citizens, could stay here legally.
- The previous point mentions immediate family, it means immediate family: mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, sons and daughters. It does not involve uncles, cousins, aunts, sisters, brothers, etc.
- There will no mass roundup of illegal immigrants and mass deportations for several reasons. First, it is not congruent with our democracy to have hordes of Federal agents combing the country and breaking down doors looking for over 10 million illegal immigrants. Second, the cost to do so would be astronomical. Third, the effort would probably not be successful anyway, much like government brute force rarely works in any issue. Criminal elements excepted to this principle.
-The issue would not be addressed until the border with Mexico is sealed and substantially less porous than it is today. You cannot have an adult discussion about illegal immigrants if your borders remain this leaky. We have mentioned several times in previous posts that Congress ordered the Defense Department to seal the border within 45 days over two decades ago. That has not happened and as a result, we have the situation we have today: over 10 million people illegally in this country, a divisive issue of citizen against citizen, and an open conduit for illegal drugs to flood into this country. The past approach has obviously not worked.
Let's try this approach. We have unnecessarily deployed about 140,000 U.S. troops in Europe, South Korea, and Japan for no good reason. We should bring them home and put them on the border with Mexico in order to seal it from illegal entrants and illegal drugs, much larger national security risks than stationing troops in Germany, England, et al.
Note: It is also a good idea to seal it so that it is no longer a conduit for terrorism candidates to come into this country. We have seen a recent uptick in reports of how Iran and other terrorist organizations have deployed resources into South and Central America.
If my memory is correct, the U.S./Mexican border runs about 2,000 miles. Thus, if you broke those 140,000 troops into two twelve hour shifts, you could place one highly trained U.S. soldier every fifty yards along that border 24/7/365/ Once the border was sealed, you could then put a plan together and in place to address the current problem without it getting any larger.
These are the principles. No mass deportations, no discompassionate breaking up of immediate family units, a sealed border creating a stable negotiation and implementation environment, and the recognition that some people did it the illegal way and some did it the legal way.
Once principles are in place, the solution looks like the following:
- If someone is already here illegally, they can register with the Federal government to become a specially designated citizen in waiting.
- The Federal government would not deport the newly registered illegal immigrant unless there was past or future criminal activity.
- The illegal immigrant would be treated as if they were a legal immigrant and would be subject to all of the rules, laws, and demands of legal immigrants and citizens: their income would be taxed, they would contribute to unemployment insurance, Social Security and Medicare, they must file Federal and state income tax returns. If pulled over for a legitimate traffic violation or other potential law violation, an illegal but newly registered person would have to produce identification, just like an natural born American citizen has to do.
- Failure to file state or Federal income tax returns or to pay income taxes is grounds for immediate deportation of the transgressor and their immediate family.
- The registration and identification process includes fingerprint information and any other type of information that is required under the proposed Federal national identification guidelines.
- In fact, that Orwellain process will not be implemented on existing American citizens until it was proven to be workable on the illegal immigrant population.
- However, an illegal immigrant would not be able to become an official U.S. citizen for a very long time, say twenty years. The illegal immigrant broke our laws, citizenship should not come as easily as for someone who did everything by the book.
- To bypass this requirement, an illegal immigrant could go back to their home country and apply for legal entry into the country, which if granted, would lead to U.S. citizenship much sooner than twenty years, say ten years.
- Those that have never been here illegally and get in through legal channels, could become citizens much sooner than ten or twenty years to recognize their observance of our laws.
- After a predetermined and fair time period for registering, any illegal immigrant who does not register and is apprehended by law enforcement would be returned to their native country immediately along with their immediate family, never to be granted legal entry ever.
But having both sides unhappy might be a thing, a workable compromise because both sides also gain a lot. The left gets recognition of the fact that these folks, while here illegally, are already here and we begin to treat them with a little respect and compassion, criminal elements excepted. The right gets the border sealed and increased tax revenue to offset whatever government resources currently being used to support illegal immigrants. The right also gets satisfaction that there is a penalty, delayed citizenship, for breaking the laws.
Employers get their lives simplified since they can now ask for standardized, official government documentation when hiring, assuming that the national identification process is workable. Citizens will be able to see what happens when major drug supply routes are cut with a sealed border, possibly providing some insights into what a replacement policy for our lost war on drugs might look like.
And best of all, the issue can no longer be used by the various sects within the political class to divide us to the politicians' benefits. Politicians need issues like this to energize their base and collect campaign donations, even if it pits one set of Americans against another. We have seen how many major issues of our times like this one have been solved when we allow the political class to keep an issue a alive for their own personal good along with the divisiveness it spawns: none.
This is why the planning of this solution cannot be left up to the political class in Washington. Step 29 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Govenrment" establishes a process to be used, comprised and driven by smart Americans with expertise in various disciplines, to come up with a detailed execution plan of the above approach, solution, and its related principles.
The political class cannot be trusted to actually formulate such a plan even if they have to eventually approve it. Their failure to do so already is proof of this mistrust, they should not be given any more time, resolution is needed now. It is the fair and compassionate thing to do.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein
We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at
http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/
The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.
The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/
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