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I am glad the felony clause stayed in Dubya. I have refined my own plan for addressing illegal immigration and am forwarding it on to my reps:

1) Enforce the current laws.

2) Come down on any company hiring illegals aliens immdiately and dry up the draw. Fine them, make them pay for the deportation of any illegals they have hired, and put the woners or managers who knowingly do this on some sort of probation, where a repeat offense causes the crime to be permanently on ther record and the only way tokeep it off is to not repeat for 5-10 years.

3) Begin rounding up, arresting and incarcerating for a short period in work camps near the border (working the able bodied hard at helping build the fence), any illegals we can find, then expel them.

4) Build a serious two layer fence across the southern border, allowing for normal crossings for legal immigration and valid green card holders. If we seriously did these four things, we wouldn't need to worry about catching them all, most would leave on their own.

5) After executing the above program for 90 days, offer the remaining illegals the following:
a) If you voluntarily report at a border station or any INS office, you will be immediately deported, but, after we take a DNA sample, if you pass a background check while we do so, we will consider your immigration requst favorably if you get in line with everyone else and apply through the standard methods.

b) If you fail to report voluntarily and we have to catch you, or if you enter illegally again, then we will use your DNA to enusre that you are NEVER considered for immigration to the United States, then you will be incarcerated for 90 days abd expelled. If you are ever caught again, you will spend 20 years incarcerated, on work gangs before being expelled.

This plan offers no form of reward or amnesty and clearly sets forth both a positive and a negative incentive for these people to leave and begin obeying our laws. Something like this MUST be done soon.

I would like someone to answer this question.

As our immigration law stands TODAY, is it a felony to cross the border into the USA?

If it is NOT a felony today -- why make it a felony?

This doesn't make sense. Our government doesn't enforce the law as it is -- and then passes a more STRICT law -- which it won't enforce anyway? This is like waving a red cape in the face of a mad bull. It is not necessary.

Simply put -- take out the "felony" penalty and leave it a misdemeanor or whatever it is now.

Just ENFORCE the law.

Okay, can anybody tell me if it is a felony NOW?

Plan sounds pretty good.

I would add a sponsorship program (maybe there is one in existence already) that would allow employers to sponsor foreign workers. Their numbers would be regulated, the employer would have to register the workers, pay payroll taxes, pay them minimum wage ... indemnify the government, state and federal, against social services costs incurred by the worker or his family (employer has to pay the hospital bill for the guy if he doesn't provide health insurance).

I would also add that we need to eliminate this nonsense about any baby being born within US borders automatically becoming a US citizen. Citizenship in this country could be obtained after proving oneself a productive member of our society for several years. It need not be granted to foreign nationals at birth.

Employers in labor intensive businesses are competing against each other by using under-the-table workers. They are effectively subsidized by illegal tax avoidance and by government assistance programs that make it viable for the illegal to survive on below market wages. US citizens could be used for the same thing but these are things that "Americans won't do"! Once your competitor down the street starts undercutting you on contracts you have two choices a)go out of business or b)start hiring under-the-table workers just like your competition. It's a viscous cycle and it's a direct threat to our sovereignty. I would let them import workers so long as they keep US citizens on an equal footing. If we eliminate the cost advantage of illegals then the employers won't want to hire them and maybe my kids could actually get a job in the trades that sustained my family when they immigrated to this country 100+ years ago.

And the anchor-baby thing ... The children of illegal immigrants are costing us a fortune and they're going to vote our borders wide open. How many of those people marching in the streets do you suppose are US citizen children of illegal aliens who are marching to decriminalize their parents?

That is very good Jeff. Some great ideas there. I hope the politicians pick up on them.

Begin rounding up, arresting and incarcerating for a short period in work camps near the border (working the able bodied hard at helping build the fence), any illegals we can find, then expel them.

You know, this would be a great use for the military bases we've closed up. They have the housing and other facilities you'd need.

Build a serious two layer fence across the southern border

The whole border, with gates at appropriate crossings, heavily manned. The inner fence, perhaps, electrified with barbed wire on top.

Maybe a moat?