We see it on the news night after night. The country is being overrun with illegal immigrants. There are over ten million illegal immigrants living in the US. Eleven percent of all Mexican Citizens are living in the US, half of them illegally.
This situation is insane. I am not exactly sure how the country got itself into this situation, but you can guess that it is a problem that has been slowly growing for years. Now many admit that our borders are broken. Many are resigned that there is nothing that we can do. There are too many to stop. This is a defeatist attitude and wrong. We all can see that there is a serious problem, and it is a problem that needs to be fixed. Are our borders broken? I want to think that they are more leaky and that a couple changes in policy and tactics will do a good deal to stem much of the leaking, and allow the US to control the problem, as it should be doing.
Changes to the system:
First, we will need more immigration agents.
This is the most obvious needed resource and steps have been in the works to address this need. Now there are experts who claim that added reinforcements at the border will not stop the flood of illegal aliens flowing over the border. I agree it probably won’t so this is not the goal of these changes. The goal of these changes is to create a border secure enough to discourage enough people from even trying to cross into the US illegally. Right now there is no deterrent. The following changes in policy would change that.
End 'catch and release' both at the border and anywhere inside the US.
As I just mentioned, there is no deterrent against trying to cross the border. If you get caught the worst that will happen is that you get a free ride home to your home in Mexico. Many who are caught are simply given an appearance ticket to appear in court and are quickly let loose onto the streets of the US. We all know what happens next, they disappear. This needs to stop. These people have committed immigration crimes and need to be put in front of a judge. Every single one of them is a flight risk and should not be let out on bail. Worse yet, none of those who are caught are asked to put up any bail, they are simply let go. They should all be held until a judge decides what to do with them. If we as a nation are not willing to do this, then we need to be ready to deport every illegal alien we catch. This will probably take as big an effort as detaining them until their trial.
Right now at our airports people arriving by plane are put in chains and deported for overstaying their visa limits during a previous visit. In some cases the overstay was only one day. From where are these people coming from? Countries with Visa-waiver status. Countries like Finland, and the United Kingdom. This is overkill. How many immigration agents does it take to deport these isolated cases? The manpower requirements far outweigh the results. Shouldn’t some of these assets be reassigned where they can stop hundreds and even thousands trying to enter the country illegally.
Utilize Local Law Enforcement
Just because you manage to get past the border guards does not give you a free pass to stay in the country. Every day illegal aliens are caught by local police, only to be let go because the police are not in the business of enforcing immigration law. Police in California were being harassed by pro-immigration forces to stop setting up drivers license and DUI checkpoints. In addition to catching drunk drivers they had the added bonus of catching illegal aliens since they are unable to obtain drivers licenses and insurance. The pro-immigration forces defend these people who “otherwise obey the law.” Yes, other than immigration and motorist law. Better yet, the pro-immigration forces attack the check points because they “discriminate against those without licenses.” If that is the case, we will have to disband the police since they discriminate against those who break the law. At least in this case sanity prevailed and the checkpoints were resumed and now unlicensed drivers cars are towed away. The only thing missing now is the need to take the illegal alien who was driving the car away too.
So where do we put all of the illegal aliens that we catch? Well the US has experience in handling hundreds of thousands of prisoners. During WWII many prisoners of war were shipped from Europe back to the US for internment. This mass detaining has been done successfully before and it can be done again. Some of these new border agents the government has been promising can be used for this purpose.
At first, a huge number will be caught, but then it should slow down. Perhaps even suddenly. Some decrease can be expected, simply because those who are caught cannot try again immediately like they do now. Secondly, many others would be deterred from even trying to cross into the US because they are not interested in sitting in an internment camp for six months.
Prosecute all who are caught
Now we would not just intern them, they would be interned awaiting trial. Of course they would have the option of pleading guilty and then being deported with a warning. Penalties for those caught a second time should be harsher. Perhaps they would be incarcerated for a year. Perhaps just another six months to work their way through the system would be enough. The second time you would not be able to simply plead guilty to get out. How many Mexicans would cross the border if they knew there was a reasonable chance that they would be caught and denied income for a half-year? Truly something to think about before deciding to go north.
Families of mixed immigration status should not be exempt
Illegal alien parents of American born should not be exempt from immigration law. Many illegals living here have American-born children. It is not fair to punish the baby and I doubt that it is possible to deport and American-born child. Nor would I want to. But the parents do need to be punished. There are two ways I can think of doing this. One way would be to deport the parents when the child reaches 18 years of age. The other is to give the parents a suspended sentence to be served when the child is no longer a minor.
End the 'We cannot get by without them' Myth
One defense against going against all the illegal aliens is that we cannot get by without them. This is a load of bull. There is room here for a formal guest worker program and one should be instituted. Notice the word ‘formal.’ What we have now is a free for all and all of these workers are outside of our legal economy. How many illegal aliens are unemployed? How many are underemployed? How many pay taxes? All of their employers are contributing nothing to the Social Security and Medicare programs. We are all being cheated by this activity as our contributions (tax and otherwise) then get used to support them.
A guest worker program will do not only the US good but it will also benefit Mexico. It will enable Mexicans in the US to travel back and forth between the US and home and permit the spending of more money in Mexico, helping the economy there. This will also help American firms that do not utilize the illegal workforce compete because heir competitors will lose the cheap labor that they had been utilizing to beat their competition.
Proclamations that the US cannot function with this shadow workforce are insulting. At best, this low-cost workforce is preventing the implementation of more efficient machinery and more productive methods.
Conclusion
I know that much of what I have written will be seen as drastic and I will be dismissed as the work of an extremist. I can assure you that I am not an extremist. As a matter of fact I have lived outside the US and my wife is a foreign national. I am familiar with being an immigrant through living and working overseas. I have been detained in another country and deported. (Long story.) My wife has been detained in the US also.
For three years we have been dealing with immigration on a number of matters. Mis-spelling her name on her green card. Losing her green card when it was returned for correction. Being forced to pay for a replacement card which was then never issued. Being told conflicting information concerning the application process and very simply, being lied too.
The process to come to the US sucks. However, this is not a reason to skip the line and the process. Many others are waiting to come here legally. Some will wait for years and it makes sense to have limits, and ours are very generous. An orderly and planned immigration policy allows immigrants to integrate into society.
I know very well that you get punished for doing things legally. It is expensive to go through the green card process. My wife is prohibited from collecting any government assistance. This includes welfare and unemployment. If she attempts to apply for this aid, I can be prosecuted, even if we get divorced. So I am furious to see all of the federal money go to aiding illegal aliens here. Hundreds of millions of dollars are provided by the Federal Government to treat them in hospitals alone. Dollars that can be better spent policing the border and catching (and holding) those who manage to cross it illegally. The question is when do we seriously start to enforce our immigration laws?
This situation is insane. I am not exactly sure how the country got itself into this situation, but you can guess that it is a problem that has been slowly growing for years. Now many admit that our borders are broken. Many are resigned that there is nothing that we can do. There are too many to stop. This is a defeatist attitude and wrong. We all can see that there is a serious problem, and it is a problem that needs to be fixed. Are our borders broken? I want to think that they are more leaky and that a couple changes in policy and tactics will do a good deal to stem much of the leaking, and allow the US to control the problem, as it should be doing.
Changes to the system:
First, we will need more immigration agents.
This is the most obvious needed resource and steps have been in the works to address this need. Now there are experts who claim that added reinforcements at the border will not stop the flood of illegal aliens flowing over the border. I agree it probably won’t so this is not the goal of these changes. The goal of these changes is to create a border secure enough to discourage enough people from even trying to cross into the US illegally. Right now there is no deterrent. The following changes in policy would change that.
End 'catch and release' both at the border and anywhere inside the US.
As I just mentioned, there is no deterrent against trying to cross the border. If you get caught the worst that will happen is that you get a free ride home to your home in Mexico. Many who are caught are simply given an appearance ticket to appear in court and are quickly let loose onto the streets of the US. We all know what happens next, they disappear. This needs to stop. These people have committed immigration crimes and need to be put in front of a judge. Every single one of them is a flight risk and should not be let out on bail. Worse yet, none of those who are caught are asked to put up any bail, they are simply let go. They should all be held until a judge decides what to do with them. If we as a nation are not willing to do this, then we need to be ready to deport every illegal alien we catch. This will probably take as big an effort as detaining them until their trial.
Right now at our airports people arriving by plane are put in chains and deported for overstaying their visa limits during a previous visit. In some cases the overstay was only one day. From where are these people coming from? Countries with Visa-waiver status. Countries like Finland, and the United Kingdom. This is overkill. How many immigration agents does it take to deport these isolated cases? The manpower requirements far outweigh the results. Shouldn’t some of these assets be reassigned where they can stop hundreds and even thousands trying to enter the country illegally.
Utilize Local Law Enforcement
Just because you manage to get past the border guards does not give you a free pass to stay in the country. Every day illegal aliens are caught by local police, only to be let go because the police are not in the business of enforcing immigration law. Police in California were being harassed by pro-immigration forces to stop setting up drivers license and DUI checkpoints. In addition to catching drunk drivers they had the added bonus of catching illegal aliens since they are unable to obtain drivers licenses and insurance. The pro-immigration forces defend these people who “otherwise obey the law.” Yes, other than immigration and motorist law. Better yet, the pro-immigration forces attack the check points because they “discriminate against those without licenses.” If that is the case, we will have to disband the police since they discriminate against those who break the law. At least in this case sanity prevailed and the checkpoints were resumed and now unlicensed drivers cars are towed away. The only thing missing now is the need to take the illegal alien who was driving the car away too.
So where do we put all of the illegal aliens that we catch? Well the US has experience in handling hundreds of thousands of prisoners. During WWII many prisoners of war were shipped from Europe back to the US for internment. This mass detaining has been done successfully before and it can be done again. Some of these new border agents the government has been promising can be used for this purpose.
At first, a huge number will be caught, but then it should slow down. Perhaps even suddenly. Some decrease can be expected, simply because those who are caught cannot try again immediately like they do now. Secondly, many others would be deterred from even trying to cross into the US because they are not interested in sitting in an internment camp for six months.
Prosecute all who are caught
Now we would not just intern them, they would be interned awaiting trial. Of course they would have the option of pleading guilty and then being deported with a warning. Penalties for those caught a second time should be harsher. Perhaps they would be incarcerated for a year. Perhaps just another six months to work their way through the system would be enough. The second time you would not be able to simply plead guilty to get out. How many Mexicans would cross the border if they knew there was a reasonable chance that they would be caught and denied income for a half-year? Truly something to think about before deciding to go north.
Families of mixed immigration status should not be exempt
Illegal alien parents of American born should not be exempt from immigration law. Many illegals living here have American-born children. It is not fair to punish the baby and I doubt that it is possible to deport and American-born child. Nor would I want to. But the parents do need to be punished. There are two ways I can think of doing this. One way would be to deport the parents when the child reaches 18 years of age. The other is to give the parents a suspended sentence to be served when the child is no longer a minor.
End the 'We cannot get by without them' Myth
One defense against going against all the illegal aliens is that we cannot get by without them. This is a load of bull. There is room here for a formal guest worker program and one should be instituted. Notice the word ‘formal.’ What we have now is a free for all and all of these workers are outside of our legal economy. How many illegal aliens are unemployed? How many are underemployed? How many pay taxes? All of their employers are contributing nothing to the Social Security and Medicare programs. We are all being cheated by this activity as our contributions (tax and otherwise) then get used to support them.
A guest worker program will do not only the US good but it will also benefit Mexico. It will enable Mexicans in the US to travel back and forth between the US and home and permit the spending of more money in Mexico, helping the economy there. This will also help American firms that do not utilize the illegal workforce compete because heir competitors will lose the cheap labor that they had been utilizing to beat their competition.
Proclamations that the US cannot function with this shadow workforce are insulting. At best, this low-cost workforce is preventing the implementation of more efficient machinery and more productive methods.
Conclusion
I know that much of what I have written will be seen as drastic and I will be dismissed as the work of an extremist. I can assure you that I am not an extremist. As a matter of fact I have lived outside the US and my wife is a foreign national. I am familiar with being an immigrant through living and working overseas. I have been detained in another country and deported. (Long story.) My wife has been detained in the US also.
For three years we have been dealing with immigration on a number of matters. Mis-spelling her name on her green card. Losing her green card when it was returned for correction. Being forced to pay for a replacement card which was then never issued. Being told conflicting information concerning the application process and very simply, being lied too.
The process to come to the US sucks. However, this is not a reason to skip the line and the process. Many others are waiting to come here legally. Some will wait for years and it makes sense to have limits, and ours are very generous. An orderly and planned immigration policy allows immigrants to integrate into society.
I know very well that you get punished for doing things legally. It is expensive to go through the green card process. My wife is prohibited from collecting any government assistance. This includes welfare and unemployment. If she attempts to apply for this aid, I can be prosecuted, even if we get divorced. So I am furious to see all of the federal money go to aiding illegal aliens here. Hundreds of millions of dollars are provided by the Federal Government to treat them in hospitals alone. Dollars that can be better spent policing the border and catching (and holding) those who manage to cross it illegally. The question is when do we seriously start to enforce our immigration laws?
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