Conservatives Need to Fix the Broken U.S. Immigration System | Commentary

Roll Call ^ | May 14, 2014, 5 a.m. | Sal Russo

[SoConPubbie]

Though our higher education system is the best in the world, our colleges and universities are serving competing nations with the talented foreign-born graduates who study here and then get sent back home to drive their economies instead of ours. According to the Partnership for a New American Economy, only 7 percent of green cards are granted based on economic grounds. In other countries, it’s as high as 50 percent — and they will win in the long term if we do not adapt our policies to the global marketplace.

Finally, we need to make the 11 million people who are here illegally obey the law, pay taxes and come out of the shadows. We have to get them right by the law in exchange for legal status, but not unbridled amnesty. This should include penalties, background checks to root out criminals, and the requirement that they learn English, understand the Constitution and be committed to our basic freedoms. We must ensure there is no special pathway to citizenship that puts them in front of people who waited in line.

It is time to make the changes that our citizens and our economy demand. Our current policies date back to the 1960s, when TVs were black and white and computers were bigger than cars. Our nation competes in a global economy, and our immigration policies should reflect our needs for the 21st century. Conservative-led immigration reform is an important step to a brighter American future.

Sal Russo is the co-founder of the Tea Party Express.

[SoConPubbie]

	"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[Mouton]

This article should have begun: Once upon a time....

[C. Edmund Wright]

Conservative solution:
A: secure the border
B: secure the border
C: secure the border

Once A,B,C are done:
D: stop government assistance to illegals
E: deport criminals as they are arrested and illegal status discovered.
F: Stop giving 99 weeks unemployement bennies to citizens.

THEN WATCH:
G: This situation largely unravels by itself in 2,3,4 years. Not completely, but hey, no problem is ever completely handled. The magic of this is that it puts human nature and what we want in alignment…..

[Timber Rattler]

I put the question to FR's TPX self-appointed rep here on this post and the following thread ensued...

Exposing Tea Party Express Co-Founder's Amnesty Ties

[txrefugee]

Take a good look at Mexifornia. That’s what the USA will look like with another amnesty on the books. Kiss America goodbye.

[9YearLurker]

This guy has been a GOPe operative/hack in CA for decades.

[Paine in the Neck]

Here's the fix:

1. secure the border in a transparently verifiable way;
2. end the anchor-baby interpretation of the 14th Amendment;
3. enforce eVerify without exception and with severe penalties;
4. no government benefits beyond critical emergency care (and that ought to be billed back to the home government); and
5. NO "Path to Citizenship" - EVER - for anyone who has entered the US illegally.

[BitWielder1]

What's broken is that's existing laws are not upheld.
Legal paths to citizenship exist. If someone want them work smoother and faster, fine, but that's a different problem than pretending illegals are legal.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Regardless of what the retarded, commie libs say, foreigners do not have a “right” to U.S. citizenship, handouts and freebies just as they do not have a “right” to those things in any other country on the planet.

[PhiloBedo]

G. Eliminate the anchor baby rule.

[kristinn]

Almost half of illegals are visa-overstayers. That needs to be fixed along with the border.

[skeeter]

Though our higher education system is the best in the world, our colleges and universities are serving competing nations with the talented foreign-born graduates who study here and then get sent back home to drive their economies instead of ours.

With a population of 320 million people a reasonable solution would be to cut back on the number of foreign admissions and cultivate our own home grown talent.

Seems like a common sense solution and avoids a lot of the social problems attendant to the massive influx of foreign born peoples.

Common sense to anyone who really is concerned about educating our workforce and not just driving down wages, that is.

[LucianOfSamasota]

Finally, we need to make the 11 million people who are here illegally obey the law

Think about the logic implied in this sentence...

People BROKE THE LAW when they willfully and knowingly entered the country illegally.

So we change the law, and the same people will obey the new law?

These are people who have PROVEN BY ACTION that they will obey the law only when it is in their perceived best interest.

'Make' them obey the law by enforcing it! Not by changing it to what you think they want, and then changing it again and again ad infinitum each time it no longer suits them.

Bend the illegal - not the law!

[Roman_War_Criminal]

“Conservatives Need to Fix the Broken U.S. Immigration System”

If that means we’re shutting down the border and kicking out every illegal and anchor baby then I’ll talk. Otherwise, it’s whistling past the graveyard.

[Graewoulf]

“Fix” is a Federal Politician’s term for refusal to enforce existing federal Laws.

Thus, just force the Federal Politicians to enforce EXISTING Federal Border Laws!

[DTogo]

Finally, we need to make the 11 million people who are here illegally obey the law, pay taxes and come out of the shadows.

So what laws do 11 million American citizens get to break and get a pass on?

[mountainlion]

I think the demoRats do not want the problem with illegals fixed. They can blame the republicans and get votes form the illegals. If someone has broken several laws here what would stop the form voting several times for a promise for citizenship and welfare. The democrats look like they are pushing this for decades so they can string the hopeful illegals for decades.

[shibumi]

Ping

[Tennessee Nana]

We have to get them right by the law in exchange for legal status,
__________________________________

They already have a legal status...

theyre legally Mexican citizens...or other...

We have to deport them to “get them right by the law”

[C. Edmund Wright]

but “needs to be fixed” doesn’t mean it’s fixable. There’s a man power reality here, and a national will reality - and neither are consistent with what a lot of Freepers think can/will/should happen. Understand, can and will are ultimately more important than should.

Again, there is a non complex way to make this problem shrink dramatically, and dramatic shrinking is the best we can ever get out of government.