Originally Posted by
CenterField
Pathway to citizenship = amnesty. The only thing it accomplishes, is a big incentive to cross the board illegally, with the hope that eventually there will be another amnesty.
I realize that deporting 11 million is hard to accomplish and probably won't be accomplished, as much as I'd love to see it done, if possible. The economic burden of doing that is disputable, given that we also lose money on illegals being here, but even if we got an economic hit by getting rid of these people, that would be a hit I'd be glad to take, if it eliminated the problem for good. By the way, that hit might be avoided with a robust guest worker program with no path to citizenship.
While deporting 11 million might be too much to hope for in pragmatic terms, I'd like to see at least a good chunk of them deported, and absolutely no path to citizenship. I'd like to see the very opposite: that having violated our immigration laws even only once, would make of the violator, someone ineligible for life for re-entry and for citizenship.
I'm not against citizenship for dreamers. Those are not guilty of anything as they've been brought here for no fault of their own, don't know any other country, are usually very assimilated, speaking good English and having good education, and to be eligible for the program, they need to have done well (education; avoiding gangs and criminal acts); so they are likely to become law-abiding and productive citizens. But that's as far as I'd go. Just them. Hopefully with some sort of provision that someone acquiring citizenship that way, would not be eligible to transmit citizenship to others later in life, so that they'd not be a chain-migration source, maybe with the exception of their own children once they have their own offspring.
I'd favor a one-and-done deal for the dreamers. We'd forgive the ones already here, for a fault that wasn't theirs. But we'd make clear that no future cases would be allowed, to avoid the temptation of someone illegally bringing more children here in the hope of a better future for them.
I think American citizens should only be the children of American parents (jus sanguinis) and not merely someone born here (jus soli). Most developed countries on Earth do not practice jus soli. I abhor the phenomenon of anchor babies. We need to get rid of the parts of the 14th amendment that allow for this to happen.
For example, a child born of on Italian anywhere in the world is Italian, but a child born in Italy of an illegal alien is not Italian. That's how it should be.
I do favor a comprehensive immigration reform, and I do favor the idea that those dreamers already here, and those children of illegal aliens born here, should still be granted citizenship in the case of the dreamers and retain citizenship in the case of the anchor babies (who also are here for no fault of their own) but from that point on, no more. The reform would include the revocation of the parts of the 14th that allow jus soli from this point on (I know that changing an existing amendment is hard to accomplish; I'm not talking about what I think is feasible but rather what I'd ideally like to see).
What I'd like to see done:
1. ALL illegal aliens who crossed the border illegally as adults should be declared ineligible for life for citizenship, and banned for re-entry for life if caught and deported. They wouldn't be eligible for any visa including work permits or tourism.
2. All efforts should be made to catch and deport as many of the above as possible, continuously.
3. All dreamers already here and all anchor babies already here would be granted/retain citizenship but all future cases not here or not born here by the date of the reform going into effect would not be included.
4. Simultaneously, a robust and relatively easy to qualify for guest worker program (a lawful work permit without a path to citizenship) would be expanded, so that specific industries who lack American workers would be able to obtain the temporary help of foreign workers, who would have to leave once the need no longer existed (each industry/company/enterprise would have to be re-certified yearly by the Department of Labor to remain eligible to hire guest workers). This makes sense in two ways: to minimize the economic blow in not counting on the foreign illegal workforce if huge chunks of it get deported, and to make of the legal entry under this program, something more attractive than entering illegally. The only aliens eligible for this program would be the ones who did not fall into #1 above.
5. Do away with the Diversity Lottery. Stupidest program ever. So, you're eligible to be an American just because you drew a winning number in a lottery??? Being American is a privilege that should come with a much higher bar.
6. Severely restrict family-based immigration to only allow the immigration of minor children and spouses of lawful immigrants. Verify very tightly that the marriage is legitimate and not a sham. Have a provision that would make it a one-time deal, too: an alien benefiting from family-based immigration will have a path to citizenship, but once naturalized, will not be eligible to bring in other aliens. I am aware that legally this might not be possible under clauses of equal treatment under the law; once naturalized, someone is American and should have the same rights of other Americans for the most part (wouldn't be eligible to run for president, haha, so it's not like there is absolute equality), but again, I'm talking about what I think is ideal, not what I think is feasible.
7. ABSOLUTELY NO BENEFITS for illegal aliens. Especially, no healthcare benefits like that moron Bernie Sanders has in his (fortunately) losing platform. I understand that existing laws already say so, but they get circumvented by fraud, and by the anchor baby phenomenon. I would go as far as saying that to enroll in public school of any type, the prospective student should have to prove either citizenship, or parental lawful permanent residency (green card), or parental lawful temporary work permit; excluded from this the existing dreamers as per #3 above, by the date of the reform going into effect (but not beyond). This is harsh on children but I think it is necessary to discourage the parents from coming.
8. From the moment the reform goes into effect, make of crossing the border illegally a felony with mandatory minimum prison sentence with no parole for a sufficient amount of time to be a deterrent, followed by immediate deportation once the sentence is served (and with the provisions in #1 applied). I realize taxpayers would be paying for that prison time (prisoners need to be fed, prisons need to be built and personnel hired, etc), so I wouldn't make the sentence too long, but again, I'd take the economic hit if it significantly contributed to stop the problem for good. I'm ambivalent about this one because simply deporting them immediately would be cheaper, but I do think that some deterrent might be efficient.
9. Accepting political refugees should be allowed in a few compelling cases but with very tight verification of the veracity of the claim and thorough vetting. When thorough vetting against ties to terrorism or drug dealing is not possible, then deny the claim. We aren't the only country that can accept refugees but we are a huge target for terrorism, so it's justified to be more careful than other countries. The unvettable person should feel free to try elsewhere. No free-for-all like that moron Bernie Sanders proposes, that simply showing up at the border and *claiming* domestic violence with not an ounce of proof is enough under his plan to be admitted. That's not what political refugees are. Domestic violence is despicable and criminals who engage in it need to be arrested and prosecuted, but we aren't in the business of solving the world's domestic violence problem. We should take care of our own but we are under no obligation to solve the issue in other countries. Oh, and we shouldn't accept political refugees in any higher proportion than what other developed countries are willing to accept. We can do our share, but no more than that. Maybe we should also balance the books. I don't know what the numbers are, but if we've historically accepted more refugees than other countries in proportion to population, then we should stop accepting new ones until all the other developed countries catch up.
10. Dramatically increase border patrols by in-person and electronic means, and barriers.
11. Dramatically increase penalties and fines to American individuals and businesses that willingly and knowingly hire illegal aliens up to and including harsh consequences for business owners and CEOs, not only for some lowish hiring manager. I'd like to see an employer who willingly and knowingly hires illegal aliens serving hard prison sentences and getting business-disabling fines and revocation of business permits. The first few cases of a CEO being thrown in prison and the business having to close down would make those job offers come to a screeching halt, and consequently the main driver of illegal immigration would be off the books. I think it would be more efficient than building walls at the border (but if money is left to build a wall after sufficient enhancements of auditing and enforcement of labor laws, then by all means, let's build the wall, too - I'm not against a wall; it's just that I think the priority should be on extinguishing the job offers since a wall can be defeated in various ways, but if there are no jobs, there's no incentive to cross the border illegally).
12. Part of the reform would be that to legally immigrate to the United States, the prospective alien would have to demonstrate superior skills in one of various well-defined fields, like science, entrepreneurial (investor visas for people who will start businesses here who will employ Americans), information technology and engineering, medicine and nursing, the arts, sports, etc. That is, immigration should be merit-based and only aliens who would decisively contribute to American wealth and employment, innovation, technology, sports and culture, healthcare, and society at large should be admitted. If a field got saturated, then qualifying as skillful in it would no longer be considered as a valid reason to obtain a lawful immigrant visa (e.g., we currently have a deficit of doctors and nurses for our needs, but if our medical schools and nursing schools at some point get fully able to fulfill the needs of the market, then being a doctor or a nurse would no longer count as a plus).
13. A path to citizenship should remain open for foreigners who served honorably in our Armed Forces or collaborated with American war efforts abroad (example, translators who have helped the American military in Iraq and Afghanistan who then became pariahs in their countries and targeted for execution should be brought here if they so desired and if they could be verified to have no ties to terrorism).
14. We should have unlimited budget for border patrol, ICE, and for deportation courts.
I could go on but my post is long enough as it is.
In summary, just the opposite of what Joe Biden wants, and even more the opposite of what that nincompoop Bernie Sanders wanted.
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