Immigration Recommendations: A Treatise
Truth: Unless these "unauthorized immigrants" (UIs) commit crimes or become a problem, they will most likely not be deported. An exception to this truth is if a legitimate United States business gets raided by ICE, the undocumented employees will probably be shifted into the "problem" category.
Further Truth: All of these UIs who are working are providing a legitimate service for their employers. We think that many of them are just fruit and vegetable pickers or working in a processing plant chopping chickens but there are a lot of UIs in the construction industry and also in the hospitality and maintenance sectors. These are not glamorous jobs but someone has to do them.
Unassailable Fact: Citizenship is the elephant in the room. Democrats want all UIs to be made citizens on the supposition that they would all naturally align with the Democrat party. Republicans resist citizenship for the same reasons. The desire to become a citizen by UIs is not necessarily a given, in spite of what one might assume. Because of this, lack of an agreed upon citizenship policy can scuttle any immigration deal. For some negotiators, it is the perfect foil.
Discussion: The reasons people come to the United States are as varied as the numbers of UIs in existence. There are some categories which are common such as the need to find an income source, escape from a "shithole" country situation, raise one's status, escape from hopelessness, gain a good education or get a new start. Also, don't discount the fact that some would rather be poor in the US than be poor in their home country. Whatever the reason, UIs generally end up on one of two statuses: employed or unemployed.
If the UI is employed (illegally, of course), that person is likely to be self-supporting even to the point of sending money back home to his family. This person truly is not a burden to the United States except to the extent that he/she may not be paying taxes to contribute to the societal support any human in our nation receives. It is not their fault that they are not contributing.
If the UI is unemployed, then that person truly is a burden on the United States. If this person has a family, then the burden increases dramatically since it is almost impossible for a family to receive NO services from the local, state or federal government. Why is this UI not employed? Lack of work or lack of opportunity to work due to increased enforcement of labor laws? Laziness? Few unskilled jobs available?
Given all of these facts, I believe that UIs should be given status. Some, such as the vaunted DREAMers should be allowed a path to citizenship. Others, should have that pathway permanently rescinded much the same way that felons have many of their rights removed, only to be reinstated upon petitioning the state and being approved. My homies on the right (Ann Coulter, Breitbart, House Freedom Caucus, etc.) vehemently disagree, I get that, but unless there is compromise, there will never be a solution.
The problem with compromise is that it is usually Republicans who do the compromising and Democrats do the promising and the promising never comes to fruition, so Republicans end up, rightfully so, looking like patsies and chumps. It is Lucy and the football, time after time. I believe with Trump, he will compromise, but he will get what we really need set in stone. If he can preside for eight years, all of the laws passed will be fulfilled. There has just never been the Presidential backbone to enforce the laws which Congress has passed on many occasions.
So, what do we need? My suggestions are similar to the President's recent one-pager. First, all DREAMers will gain legal status and be granted a pathway to citizenship. This pathway is there for them to follow but by no means will citizenship be "given" to them. They will need to apply and be accepted. If they truly are a product of our school system and have been here most of their lives, then passing the citizenship test and speaking English should be no problem at all.
Immediately end chain migration (innocuously called "family reunification"). This is especially important for the DREAMers' parents. They are the ones who got them into this mess and allowing the DREAMers to stay should absolutely NOT inure the same status to their parents. That would be an insult to our citizenry and to our sense of fairness. In fact, their parents should be in a status where they CANNOT gain citizenship without leaving the country and beginning the process from their native home.
Many legal immigrants have applied for status for their extended families. It would only be fair for these applications to continue to be processed, but there should be a hard cutoff, based upon the date of the DACA fix, where chain migration for extended families is no longer an option.
I am reminded of how, as a military member living overseas, we could only bring in our spouses and dependent children. In very rare situations, dependent parents were allowed. Spouses couldn't work off base and had limited employment opportunities on base. When the military member rotated out, the family went with them. They could not stay. We need to treat families of legal immigrants the same way. There is absolutely no reason for parents, siblings and extended family members to be granted access to the US. If these immigrants choose to leave their foreign homes, that is their decision and they must live with it. I know many folks from India and other nations who regularly fly home to visit family. We Americans do the same when we move from Oregon to Virginia. Want to see Mom and Dad? Skype them or fly home to visit. Simple. This is not something to make part of immigration policy. It is a purpose-built landmine put there to make negotiations difficult. For Democrats, they are better off with status quo because if no one enforces existing law, why pass any more of them?
Eight years ago I put up a blog post about my Totally Awesome Comprehensive Immigration Reform Plan. I reviewed it today and I have to admit, my ideas have changed very little. I still think it is Totally Awesome. Take a look at it.
Bottom Line: Trump has upped the ante by including 1.8 Million DACA participants instead of the original 800,000. Democrats opposing this look petty and stupid (see Nancy Pelosi's "Make America White Again" declaration.) If Trump had not included the unregistered DACA people, it would have become a bargaining chip. Now, he as taken it off of the table. Smooth move. If he plays his cards right (hopefully he is not dealing from Chuck and Nancy's race card deck) he can become the DACA Daddy and these potential citizens will at least give the Republican Party a closer look. He can take chain migration out of the equation and get his wall in the process. Don't mention the 14th Amendment. That is a separate issue which will need to be handled through the constitutional process.
Another salient issue is taking a look at the reason there are so many people who want to leave home and come to the US. If the obvious reason is that they want to leave their s---hole country, we need to work to help that nation turn itself around. Building factories in third world nations can provide our manufacturers with cheap labor but it also can be seen as an outreach program to help lift these nations and their people out of abject poverty and corruption. It has been proven time after time that having a broad-based middle class who makes enough money to afford some of the finer things raises all boats. The State Department can also help by providing pressure, both politically and economically, for these nations' leaders to start acting more like good global citizens and less like tin horn despots.
We truly need to take a holistic approach to ridding the world of s---hole nations and removing the impetus for their citizens to evacuate.
If Trump can get his wall (including enhanced security), end chain migration, end the visa lottery and remove any possiblilty for citizenship for UIs in exchange for making 1.8 Million DREAMers legal and eligible for citizenship, then I would chalk this up as a winner.
So, if this passes, who will be the loser besides Democrat politicians who are trying to prime the pump with a never ending stream of constituents?
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