The Current Illegal Immigrant Flap

I must admit I'm somewhat bewildered by this whole flap over illegal immigration. What part of illegal are people having such a problem with? These people have come here in defiance of our laws, and employers are hiring them in defiance of those same laws.

The main argument I hear is that they do jobs Americans are unwilling to do. The last time I heard that has nothing to do with being here illegally. It's a matter of economics. Legal immigrants with low skills are also willing to work at lower wages than other Americans as well. I want to see a number of changes made and have made this wishes known to my congress people and Senators.

First off the entire body of Immigration law needs to be reviewed and streamlined. Preferably automated as much as possible to cut down on the unconscionable waiting times now associated with legally immigrating to this country. The lottery system needs to be abandoned in favor of realistic quotas from various countries, and needs to include a favorable weighting toward those who are educated, have necessary skills or ways to earn their own living once they are here, and who speak and read English. It's also critical that we remove once and for all the provision in our law that makes a person born in this country to illegal parents a citizen. Unless one of the parents is a U.S. citizen, then a child should not be one either.

Next, our borders need to be beefed up so that it's unlikely that so many can simply walk across with such impunity. This should include more officers to patrol, and include the Army and the National Guard if necessary. We need more holding areas for those rounded up. Let these be camps on the desert similar to those now used for felons in Arizona. Simple, humane, but with absolutely no amenities. They need to be clean, provide food, water, and a tent to sleep in, and have adequate sanitary facilities. Beyond that absolutely nothing. No electricity, no televisions, cell phones, or video games. These are prisons, not daycare facilities.

We need new laws to come down heavily on anyone who hires an illegal for any reason whatever, and this should include a sliding scale of fines (more hirings, more and steeper fines), and jail time, starting with a week for hiring one illegal, and going up for each successive law violation. Coupled with this needs to be a way of identifying legal people. A simple electronic fingerprint, retinal scan, or other means of positive identification needs to be put into effect. This database needs to be fast and accurate. If the person is not in the database, then you cannot hire them. Period. Employers would also be required to prove, if asked, that they advertised in English language newspapers, and other English language employment areas and received no American applications for this type of work.

If we get a guest worker program, it needs several features to work successfully. First of all, each worker must be able to apply to it only from their home country. Next, there needs to be some means of identifying how many workers are needed in which parts of the country, and guest worker permits issued only for that number and for the individual worker. From there, the worker is fingerprinted, a criminal background check performed (can be done in advance), a DNA sample taken, and the person photographed. This would result in them being issued a legal entry document so they could legally cross the border and their entry would be part of a database when they come and when they leave.

Each guest worker would be required by law to register their current address and other contact information monthly. Preference in all jobs would be given to those who speak English over those who do not. Any violation of American law more serious than a traffic offense would result in permanent revocation of the work permit and deportation. They would pay all taxes and other deductions required of all workers in the U.S. and would be eligible for Social Security benefits based on their earnings if they qualified otherwise.

They would not be eligible for food stamps, public education, welfare, medicaid, or any other social benefit that is authorized by the voters for citizens and legal immigrants. Medical attention of any sort would be restricted to true, life-threatening emergencies. Those in need of more extensive care would be given a ticket home where they could get the attention they need.

To be entirely fair, after 8-10 years working here and no criminal activity, the worker would be eligible to return to their own country and apply for permanent residence, with a preference being assigned because of their service in the guest program.