we should advance parallel options:
I think the easiest and best option is to pass a law denying illegal immigrant ever getting green card or citizenship, in any circumstance. In other words, if you ever entered the country illegally, you can’t get green card or citizenship, e.g. via (fake) marriage or anchorbaby sponsoring you.
This would make illegal immigration less desirable and it would apply immediately.
The current immigration laws denies citizenship to anyone that enters this country illegally. The law is never enforced, as most immigration laws.
Every anchor baby is immediately eligible for all manner of welfare and public assistance and while their illegal parents are not, they do collect the anchor baby's benefits for them. So let's pass a law that no public benefit will be paid to anybody who is not legal, even on behalf of their anchor baby.
I think this is a great idea...it would clearly define the consequences of being here illegally. I would also add to it by making it a felony to apply for any type of public assistance, to voting in any election, etc. while here illegally.
Common sense in an immigration thread. Amazing.
Punish those who break the law, not the innocent.
“I think the easiest and best option is to pass a law denying illegal immigrant ever getting green card or citizenship, in any circumstance. In other words, if you ever entered the country illegally, you can’t get green card or citizenship, e.g. via (fake) marriage or anchorbaby sponsoring you.
This would make illegal immigration less desirable and it would apply immediately.”
I agree with you insofar as such a law should be passed — that is to say, those who enter illegally must forever be denied American citizenship.
But although it’s a good suggestion (and an idea I myself have embraced for some time), it WILL NOT solve “the illegal immigration problem” by itself unless the CHILDREN of illegals can be denied citizenship as well.
We must realize that it really makes little difference if 20 million illegals become citizens or remain illegal for the rest of their lives. The reason is that illegals will “auto-legalize” within 20 years — not “of themselves”, but through their progeny.
And this legacy will produce an ever-increasing cohort of “ersatz citizens” who may be “Americans by birth” but who have no real connection to the traditional America of Euro heritage.
It will change the “cultural color of America” regardless of whether or not their parents ever attain citizenship. Illegal or not, citizens or not, it really isn’t going to make any difference. The offspring will still be here.
Some interesting statistics from California:
There are now nearly twice as many Hispanics as whites in California public schools: 3.1 million [Hispanic] vs. 1.7 million [white]. And there are more Asians (527,000) than there are blacks (425,000) (info from article in the San Francisco Chronicle of 11/13/10.)
What do these numbers portend for the future?