What I am about to present to you is a pretty reasonable approach to solving the great immigration debate. Most of you know that I’m a pretty conservative guy (a little to the right of Atilla the Hun, to borrow from Rush L.). However, the polarization of our political process precludes that this solution or any like it will ever happen. Professional politicians used to believe that politics is the art of compromise. I see no evidence to support that they believe that now. Not from either side. Notice I characterized myself as a conservative, not a Republican. It just so happens that the Republican Party has been more closely aligned with my values than any other. Do not think, however, that I am a fan of the Republican Party. It squandered a golden opportunity to do well for this country by instead choosing to look out for their own personal needs instead of those of the country. So, with all that said, I present this from a utopian perspective to demonstrate that reason and compassion are not the hallmarks of either party; if they were, my solution would just about appease everyone. So, assuming that I were dictator for a day and didn’t have to fight through the politics of Congress, this is what I would do. [You will see the words reasonable, and unreasonable used quite a lot. These words are the very cornerstone of our justice system. Justice is partially defined as fairness. You’ll see that word, too.] Before we can begin, we must reach some common ground. I need you to: 1. Recognize that illegal immigration is indeed a problem in this country. That may seem elementary to you, but you’d be amazed at the number of people who feel the US has no right to control its borders. 2. Recognize that the mass deportation of 12 million illegals is simply not do-able for two reasons: mere logistics, for one. And more importantly, the hypocrisy of that entire train of thought. For over 20 years, we have been complicit at the very least in allowing this problem to grow exponentially with no regard whatsoever. To all of a sudden say, "We were wrong and now you have to leave," is unreasonable. 3. Recognize that granting amnesty to 12 million illegals is equally unreasonable. It is a slap in the face to all of those who went through the long, arduous process of obeying the law. It is also waiving the ability to write and enforce laws, a privilege and responsibility of a sovereign nation. Breaking those laws must have a penalty. 4. Recognize that the process we expect immigrants to endure to be here legally is unreasonable. Laws that are virtually impossible to obey are destined to be broken. We are the greatest nation in the world at building bureaucracies. Problem is, we stink at building functional bureaucracies. [See Department of Homeland Security, IRS or your local DMV office if you have any doubt]. The current system of naturalization must be scrapped and re-written from start to finish, period. It must become something with which average immigrants can comply without the volumes of legalese and bureaucratic BS to decipher. [By the way, I would open the re-writing of the process to bids from private industry with expertise in systems management (with Congressional oversight). Waiting for professional politicians to do it has gotten exactly where we are right now. Let somebody do it with a profit motive for excellence. Where government fails, let private sector prevail.] Recognition of these truths will form the foundation of solving the problem. Therein lies the problem in reality; we can’t get our legislators to even agree on these four simple things. But, in my utopia scenario, we all do agree on these things, so let’s solve the problem. Let’s take a first aid approach,. It works saving lives in an emergency. I believe that the life of our sovereign nation is in danger, so we’ll use this analogy. It’s as easy as ABC. STEP 1: OPEN THE AIRWAY, RESTORE BREATHING We are being drowned in illegal immigration. When saving a drowning person, you must first stop more water from getting into the lungs. Our system is paralyzed by the question, “How do we deal with the existing 12 million?” to the point that it won’t deal with the fact that it’s not 12 million any more. It’s thousands more every day! So, let’s get the victim out of the water. SEAL THE BORDERS. Period. Trying to fix this problem without sealing the borders is like giving mouth-to-mouth underwater. Stop the offending substance from re-entering the organs and you can begin rescue breathing. STEP 2: STOP THE BLEEDING The fractious nature of this debate literally rips at the very flesh of our nation. This is greatly influenced by the criminal element associated with illegal immigration and the perceived cost to Joe Taxpayer to support them. This solution will really tick off my left- wing friends out there, but fear not, I have something for you, too. The reality is that there are millions of illegals here for all the right reasons. They are good, honest, hard- working people in search of the American dream. They simply didn’t play by the rules to find it. Did we really expect them to? They are not a priority at this stage. They are the least of our worries right now, in fact. When you’re working next to a Hispanic person, what difference does it make to you right then, personally, if they are here illegally? Not much, does it? What does matter to you personally are the ones that are not good, honest, hard-working people. The ones who are populating violent street gangs and running the underworld of our prison system. They are the ones with whom the vastly ignorant American populace associates all immigrants. It’s not fair that we do that, but it’s more unfair that we have to worry about our safety from an element that shouldn’t be here to begin with in addition to our own homegrown criminals. Put these immigrants FIRST on the enforcement list.
should be the very last on the enforcement priority list. The wife of a US Navy sailor preparing to deploy to Iraq is set to be deported. She has been in the US illegally for 18 years. She has given birth to a son, who is a legal US citizen as per US Constitution. In the wake of her husband deploying to Iraq, she is facing being sent to a foreign (yes) country to begin a new life because she made the mistake of becoming comfortable in a country she has called home for 18 years. I have seen no reports of her committing a single crime (other than arriving). By all accounts, she has been a non-threat all this time. Why is she a priority now? How is it that her name came to the top of the list before any of the thousands of criminals out there? I find it hard to believe that any reasonable person would want to see her deported right now. And what of her husband? The very country he is serving in a combat zone is literally destroying his family. The heartless out there will say, “He should have thought of that before he married an illegal.” I reject that on the grounds of common sense and common decency. If our government were not guilty of complicity, I would agree. But we invited this problem. This family should not be high on the list of paying the price for our gross mismanagement for 20 years. Those veterans or families of vets reading this will agree the entire family serves, not just the service member. Our service personnel should not have to fear losing their families back home while risking their lives abroad. There is a thing called the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act that prohibits divorce while a soldier is deployed for that very reason. Why then, is it okay for the government to cleave families under the same circumstances? Seek out and destroy the criminal element of illegal immigration through capturing and deporting or killing the offending people. Street gangs are a form of domestic terrorism and a blight in our nation. The next war we declare should be within our own borders on those who daily threaten and deprive us of the security we deserve. If you don’t believe me, take a walk through one of “those” neighborhoods tonight. I’ll read about you tomorrow in the obit section. Clear out our prisons of illegals. Some will point to the fact that dangerous criminals have returned after deportation and no justice was provided to the victims. For the return problem, see STEP 1. As a matter of justice, tell me where justice lies in a system that allows these people to run criminal organizations from within prison walls. Where is the justice in a system that takes our tax dollars to feed, house and treat criminals who should not have been in our system to begin with? It may sound Draconian, but I would execute any previously convicted felon who returned to the US. This would be the capstone of my disincentivization program (and yes, that’s a Daytonism). More on disincentives in a bit. Establish this standing policy for all the “good illegals.” If you are convicted of a felony, you will be immediately deported. Return and you will be executed. What part of executed do you not understand? You may think I have drifted from the reasonable realm. I disagree. I think it is patently unreasonable to expect a nation to be continually burdened with criminals from outside its own borders. We’ve proven that we have plenty of difficulty dealing with our own criminals (hello, OJ!). Why must we adopt someone else’s criminals into our system? I refuse to believe the framers of the Constitution intended for us to tolerate this. From whence do you suppose the phrase “enemies foreign and domestic” came? Domestic enemies should be treated as such. Once an individual has established that they mean our citizens harm and refuses to respect our borders, how many more opportunities do we owe that person to achieve his nefarious goals? I say NONE. STEP 3: CONTROL SHOCK Very apropos term for this section, I think, as most of you are probably in shock from that last section. Imagine where our country would be. But shock, when controlled is actually a good thing. Shock is the body’s response to a major trauma or change. It is, in fact, a self-preservation response intended to protect vital systems. When untreated, it can spiral out of control and result in death. When controlled however, it allows for systems to recover at a rate more manageable by the brain. I speak of this with the personal knowledge of having both been in shock multiple times and treated patients in shock even more times. There are times that I have been in so much pain that I wished I could go into shock just for some relief. I think that's how it applies to our problem. At first, it’s going to seem like a war on immigrants. It’s not, however. We are going to make some major concessions now. We can freely admit that we declared war on criminal illegal immigrants. We also declared war on criminal American citizens too, so what’s the problem? Here’s the concession package that will tick off my right-wing friends. We established that mass deportations are unreasonable, if not impossible. We also established that blanket amnesty is an affront to our sovereignty. So, where is the middle? On the day that these policies go into effect, we declare this: Those of you already here must come forward. Do this through your employer or your nearest INS office. You will be assigned a case number and case worker. You will immediately be issued a card with an INS number that will also serve as your Taxpayer ID Number. Yep, you gotta have one of those. And you will be assessed a fine for violating the immigration laws of a sovereign nation based on the number of years you have been here as an adult. You are not going to jail. You are not being detained. In fact, we need you to get back to work so we can get your fine and your back taxes for the last 3 years. If you’ve been here for 20 years and you haven’t paid taxes, we are waiving that entire period except for the last three years. AND we are going to let you pay this off over time. We will attach to your wages and take a percentage every payday until your burden is relieved. The percentage we take will not be excessive so as to force evasion or encourage criminality, but you will notice it. It will not be painless. After all, you did break the law. Oh by the way, when you report, we also begin your naturalization process (that process that we re-wrote with the help of the private sector). After an extensive background check and at least 50% of your debt is paid, you may very well become a naturalized citizen. You are not in fear of deportation unless you are convicted of a felony or already a convicted felon. If you have not complied with this directive within 6 months, you are subject to immediate deportation. Employers who do not enforce this policy will be severely penalized. (More disincentivization). The hiring of undocumented workers will be both a criminal and civil offense that could result in jail time and very expensive fines. It will simply not be worth the risk of getting caught. What possible excuse could someone have for being undocumented at this point? Hardly any business owner will risk losing his livelihood for the sake of an illegal alien. That would be unreasonable. Once the illegal populace sees the great steps being made to bring them into the American fold and not to alienate them further, the shock should be replaced with joyful compliance. Why do I think that somehow, this wouldn't be enough? STEP 4: MONITOR and TREAT AS NEEDED We take a lot on the chin in this method. We overlook a lot, too. But we have been overlooking, so we can’t have an eagle’s eye now. I say we can go even a little further. For those who are service members or service dependents, let’s use the existing military bureaucracy to expedite their naturalization. Reward dedication and service to the country. This is a compassionate, responsible approach. It emphasizes justice while maintaining a reasonable expectation of those seeking the American Dream. And it would never happen. There are some obvious Constitutional problems in here (don’t think I’m not aware of that), but none that a committed legislature couldn't hammer out. Nothing in here would require a dictatorial fiat. It would absolutely require the suspension of political motives. It would require reason on everyone’s part. It would require unanimity toward solving the problem. But, like I said, we can’t even agree the first four things I listed are the legitimate problems, much less begin solving the problems. Our process is not the only reason this won’t happen. A larger reason is that this is not what many illegal aliens want. Those who march in the streets waving the Mexican flag, those who fly the Mexican flag over high schools in this country do not want to become Americans. They have an entitlement mentality that would dissolve the US as a sovereign nation. It is with those very people in mind that I believe this strong of an approach is required. They want all that Americanism has purchased with none of the sacrifice and dedication that it took to purchase it. Strikingly similar to the street gang mentality of urban America, “Why work for what I want when I can much easier break the law and have it faster and more of it?” The answer lies in our society. We must quit being complicit in crimes by allowing them. We must wrest control of our nation from criminal justice system that has been legislating from the bench in the name of freedom when in fact it has made us prisoners of our own values. When our society returns to standing on its founding values, immigrants will be proud to join with us in its success, not leech off of it. I remind you of JFK’s immortal words, “… ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for you country,” and I add my own twist on those words from my radio days in the 1980s (another Daytonism), “The greatness of a society is not derived by its contributions to its members, but by the contributions of its members to its greatness.” When writing this column, I tried keep that philosophy in mind. I am asking more of society than I am of its members? The answer should always be a resounding “NO!” I think my plan has the burden in the right place. |
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