Op-Ed: The Illegal Immigrant Debate: A Potential Framework

Editor's note: A few weeks back contributor Pat DeCourcy discussed some of the potential political implications of the oft-discussed idea to provide amnesty to the illegal immigrants currently living and working in the United States. Pat noted, correctly in my mind, the fact that citizenship, and therefore voting rights, for illegals would be likely to favor the Democratic Party. Though Democrats are undoubtedly motivated by other factors in this debate, it is also probably true that the potential to gain votes is a factor that is not lost on them or their pollsters. 

In my introduction to that piece, I almost offhandedly noted that, though his analysis was interesting, Pat had not attempted to provide any solutions. I am happy to say that in today's post, he has. Immigration reform is a very difficult topic politically. The demographics of the nation are changing rapidly, with many estimates suggesting that the population of whites with European bloodlines will be in the minority sometime in this or the next generation. This has led to interesting and often heated debates regarding the best policies for reform. Not everyone will agree with all of Pat's solutions, but they are a starting point, and have a little more meat on their bones than many polticians have had the nerve to chew on thus far. As always, comments and feedback are appreciated.

In my last guest post, though I discussed the electoral implications of immigration reform, I did not suggest any solutions to the illegal immigration problem. Today I aim to remedy this.

The last time amnesty was given was in 1986 by Ronald Reagan (which should put to rest the progressive talking point that Republicans oppose reform because of inherent racism and intolerance). Here is a listing of the general provisions of the bill that was passed. Most notably according to Wikipedia, 'The Act made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit illegal immigrants (immigrants who do not possess lawful work authorization), required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status, and granted amnesty to certain illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982 and had resided there continuously. The Act also granted a path towards legalization to certain agricultural seasonal workers and immigrants who had been continuously and illegally present in the United States since January 1, 1982.'

Those provisions are all good and great, but there is a huge one that was missing from this bill; BORDER SECURITY. Why lawmakers didn’t tackle this issue at the time is beyond my scope of knowledge, but they critically didn’t, making the law a quick fix rather than a long-term solution. This is why the GOP is digging in this time. A lot of the same provisions above were actually part of the failed McCain/Kennedy immigration bill, and similarly, that bill made no attempt at improving border security. Therein lies the outrage from conservatives; they are not opposed to immigration reform, per se, but they want border security before they debate over what to do with the illegals already here. It is not realistic to deport 10+million people, so compromise will have to be sought, but conservatives will not compromise unless some of the “magnets” causing illegal immigrants to break the law and gravitate toward the USA in unsustainable numbers are addressed.

That being said, the following would be a framework I would endorse. Though it’s similar to the 1986 framework, it also includes some added provisions which are aimed at solving the problem for good, not just for the next 10 years:

Magnet #1: Lax Border Security, North and South

Every other country in the world except for the USA polices their border. A nation without a border isn’t really a nation at all.

Solution #1: Serious border security, north and south. This would potentially include military personnel, tanks, electrified fences and watch towers, along the entire border. This is the responsibility of the federal government and the Pentagon. If it is necessary, this might mean bringing the US Border Control under the auspices of the Pentagon.

Magnet #2: Progressive student visa policy

Most people see the value in recruiting some of the best and brightest students from the world and educating them with the goal of seeing them employed and contributing to the economy of the USA. However, many students seem to just overstay their visas and fail to apply for legal citizenship. Currently there are no real efforts being made to rein this in. Given that this policy partially lead to the tragedy on 9/11 (many of the hijackers were here on expired student visas), and given that this remains a problem, this policy needs to be tightened up.

Solution #2: Biometric ID cards for tracking recipients of student visas. The cards will be equipped with a GPS microchip that will be able to be activated and only used in the case of students overstaying their visas or when students with visas are travelling outside the USA (i.e. to countries who are state sponsors of terrorism like Pakistan or Yemen). If you get caught trying to disable or discard the ID, the penalty is revocation of student visa status and deportation. Once the student is done with their education, they can return the card to INS and return home or return the card and then start the legal immigration process.

Magnet #3: No willingness to deal with the illegal immigrants who are already here

Due to the sensitive political nature of the topic, very few politicians on either side of the aisle have put forward solutions for dealing with the illegal aliens currently within the United States.

Solution #3: Take steps to address the estimated 10+ million illegals already in the States. Here are the steps:

-All illegal immigrants will need to register with INS. Any found to be felons or criminals will immediately be deported or jailed, no questions asked, no exceptions given. Any who do not register within a given period of time will be deported upon discovery that they did not register.

-Those who are law abiding and who are employed here or between jobs will receive temporary worker permits and semi-legal residency and be mandated to pay a fine for breaking the law of $10,000 which will be taken directly out of their paycheck over the course of 5 years. After this five years they can apply for legal citizenship, but will not be allowed to cut anyone in line who legally applied in the first place. The only exception to this would be enrolling in the military and completing a tour of duty overseas and being honorably discharged. Also a satisfactory score on the TOEFL (English) test is another condition. Voting rights are conferred only upon the granting of legal citizenship.

-Corporations and small businesses who have knowingly defied federal law and tax law by hiring illegal immigrants and paying them “under the table” will also have to pay a $10,000 fine for each illegal worker they hired. They will not be allowed to fire the new temporary workers to justify this fine – this will be strictly monitored by the Justice Dept. Any future attempts to hire illegal immigrants and pay them “under the table” could result in jail time for involved parties, if there was conspiracy to not verify employment status.

Magnet #4 – Keeping the politicians honest

It is a progressive and pro-open-borders talking point that most illegal immigrants just come to America to work. Perhaps this is true, but articles like this certainly point in another direction and indicate that there are other parts of our legal system which need to change to solve this problem.

Solution #4: Change the laws to address some of reasons illegals cross the borders. These would include:

-A Federal Constitutional Amendment banning the automatic citizenship of babies born to illegal parents. The amendment would state that to be considered a natural born citizen of the USA, at least one of your parents has to be a legal citizen. No exceptions unless you are the child of two illegal immigrants and one is serving in the military and is trying to obtain legal citizenship.

-A Federal law making the death penalty mandatory for any foreign citizen found guilty of trafficking humans or kidnapping American citizens or legal residents. This aims to deal with prison overcrowding and offers a deterrent to those who engage in this activity

I think this framework is a good place to start. Though there are many more fine details which would have to be worked on, there are provisions in this framework which all willing parties should be able to build a consensus around.