© 2014 Rick Adamson
By Rick Adamson 7.5.14
For those of you who are tired of hearing about the gridlock in Washington over immigration reform and the fact that the Republicans said they will not vote on a bill before the November elections, let me explain. The are many reasons for the gridlock but the two most significant underlying reasons are that the Republicans insist that the borders be controller before they agree to more comprehensive reforms and that there be no amnesty. The reason for this is that they do not trust the executive branch to secure the border so they want a mechanism put in place that would provide for periodic independent verification of border security. The Democrats do not want such a mechanism but want to leave it in the hands of the President. Further, Democrats tend to want amnesty because that would result in many more Democratic voters.The reason for the dispute is that in 1986 Ronald Reagan signed The Immigration Reform and Control Act (the Act) which reformed United States immigration law. The Act:
• required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status;
• made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit illegal immigrants;
• legalized certain seasonal agricultural illegal immigrants, and;
• legalized illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982 and had resided there continuously with the penalty of a fine, back taxes due, and admission of guilt; candidates were required to prove that they were not guilty of crimes, that they were in the country before January 1, 1982, and that they possessed minimal knowledge about U.S. history, government, and the English language.
The Act also intended that the border would be secured and it had once and for all solved the problem.
About three million illegal immigrants were granted legal status (amnesty) under this Act and in all about 15,000,000 were made voting citizens after considering the effect of those legalized under family reunification policies.(1 ) Most of these voters vote for Democrats.
These laws were not enforced by any President since and now we have 12,000,000 new illegal aliens to be dealt with. The Republicans do not want that mistake repeated in the future. They do not trust that the current or future Presidents will enforce the border laws without an independent body put in place to periodically opine as to the effectiveness of border security.
Because it is not practical to think that we will ever deport 12,000,000 people (although some Republicans want to) lets think about a reasonable solution. Putting all disagreements aside, a sensible immigration reform might look something like this:
• Change the law that confers Citizenship upon any child born in the U.S. Citizenship should only be bestowed upon children born to Citizens or persons who are legally in the this Country
• The border must be controlled and a verification process set up that would provide for an independent body to periodically attest to whether it is secure
• Anyone caught illegally immigrating after immigration reform is passed would be charged with a felony and that includes those who overstay visas
• Change the law so that immigrants from South America are subject to the same rules as those from Mexico and Canada (currently illegal immigrants from South America have certain advantages over those from Mexico which should be eliminated)
• Demand that Mexico police its own borders. It's time our federal government acted to hold Mexico accountable
• Post the national guard/military at the border checkpoints
• Require that all undocumented aliens register with the government by providing their name, age, family members, country of origin and address in the USA. If they don't, within three months, it's a felony (not deportation). Once the foreign national registers in the USA, he or she is sent an I.D. card allowing them to apply for papers allowing them to work and their children bore here, thereafter, would be Citizens (not because the parents are Citizens but because they are in the U.S. legally)
• Registered undocumented workers can, eventually, apply to be citizens here. And their applications will be placed behind those applying legally (there should be no advantage given just because they entered illegally)
• There is no amnesty, amnesty is not fair. There is a vetting process. But there is also hope that a hard-working, honest, foreign national might build a life here
• The feds would have the power to immediately deport anyone who is a criminal or is otherwise undesirable
• Non Citizens may not receive entitlements (that is reserved for Citizens) and could not vote
• If an immigrant cannot find work in America, he or she is deportable
• Aliens who commit crimes must be tried and, if convicted, jailed and deported after their sentences are completed
This is a sensible plan. It would result in significant progress toward solving a problem that has been plaguing America for decades. The rules for full citizenship would be very tough. And it would take a long time. But, in the end, this approach would strengthen the country and show the world we are humane but that we are serious about our immigration policies.
For more background information see the following articles:
http://adamrick.blogspot.com/
https://docs.google.com/
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(1) http://www.politifact.com/
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