So, what are any of you willing to compromise on to get some things done on this issue?
I am not willing to compromise national security. Why are secure borders, including monitoring, tracking, and repatriating visa overstays being held hostage to comprehensive immigration reform? We need to shut off the supply of illegals and gather reliable data on those who are here before we can make good public policy.
So, without all the usual histrionics, can some explain to me what you all want? Cause basically you are demanding action and refusing any action less then perfection which you don’t have the votes in DC to get.
First, I would secure our border to reduce the flow of illegals. This would include a better system of monitoring, tracking, identifying, and deporting visa overstays. Similar to what is done in many European countries, we would have a system of registering and reporting in on a periodic basis those here on long term visas, i.e., student visas, H1B visas, etc. This could be done at local government offices or police stations. More of a burden would also be placed on employers and universities to confirm to the USG the whereabouts of these visa holders on a regular basis. We would also have a system to reconcile debarkation and embarkation cards to track people who come and go.
Second, I would require/enlist all law enforcement agencies, federal, state, and local to verify the citizenship of those who are arrested. There would be a mechanism to deport them immediately once it is ascertained that they are in the country illegally. Some laws would have to be changed to enable USG immigration authorities to make deportation rulings without appeal. There would be no sanctuary cities.
Third, I would enforce the laws currently on the books against employers who hire illegals. The federal government will establish a system to assist employers in making these determinations, including checking the validity of SS numbers, driver's licenses, outstanding warrants, etc.
Fourth, I would establish a data collection system using schools, hospitals, and welfare agencies to gather information on numbers, personal data, etc. of illegals so that we can have a better basis on which to make public policy on how to deal with the illegals here. We could legalize the status of some based on some criteria developed from the data. There would be no path to citizenship for any illegal alien who entered this country as an adult. It may be possible for minor children to acquire citizenship if their parents meet the criteria developed to grant legalized status. The other alternative is benign neglect and let the current crop of illegals die out presuming we can reduce the flow of illegals to a trickle. I see no real sense of urgency is dealing with those already here.
Fifth, I would revise the existing legal immigration laws to eliminate chain migration [except for the nuclear family], anchor babies, and other policies that are not merit based, e.g., the visa lottery program that brings in 50,000 immigrants a year. There is a connection between legal and illegal immigration.
We need a flexible policy to bring in people with the talents, skills, and numbers we need. Half of those acquiring advance degrees in the hard sciences are foreign students. One quarter of all medical residencies are filled by foreign doctors. We can have our pick of the world's best and brightest. There is no reason for us to be importing large numbers of high school dropouts. If we could develop a tightly controlled guest worker program, I would consider it, but such programs usually result in the worker staying.
That is my first crack at the problem.
I have spent countless hours reading, researching, and writing on the Illegal Alien issue. While I have found many proposed "bills" by people like Inhoffe and others to be better than the one currently being steamrolled down the throats of the American people; they seem to fall a tad short of forcing Washington to truly get serious about the issue or truly solving the problems we face.
I have consistently maintained the stand that we do NOT need ANY new bills. All we truly need is ENFORCEMENT of our present laws. It has takem me a while, but I admit it, I was wrong. We DO need another bill to solve the problems we face. In the border security section of this bill, the measures laid out all seem to hinge on pending the availability of funds. This leaves a HUGE loophole for those in Washington to play yet more political games with our security. Not GOOD ENOUGH! Hence, here is my proposal:
No Bill shall be passed through the US House, the US Senate, or signed by the President that includes ANY earmarks (aka: pork or “legislative directives”) until the following is completed:
*The backlog of 600,000-plus fugitive deportee cases.
*The backlog of 4 million immigration applications of all kinds.
*The backlog of an estimated 100,000 FBI background checks for legal immigrant applicants.
*The disappearance of 111,000 citizenship applications.
Very simple! This will solve several problems; such as lack of enforcement, dissolving any interest or advantage for businesses to employ illegals, stop the SPP without the American people's permission, and a DEAD STOP TO Washington, DC's addiction to pork! (Below is a snip - and a link to- a must read article on the "pork" issue)
So the majority of the public appears to agree with Walker that the deficit is a serious problem, but only when they're made to think about it. Walker's challenge is to get people not just to think about it, but to pressure politicians to make the hard choices that are needed to keep the situation from spiraling out of control.
To show that the looming fiscal crisis is not a partisan issue, he brings along economists and budget analysts from across the political spectrum. In Austin, he's accompanied by Diane Lim Rogers, a liberal economist from the Brookings Institution, and Alison Acosta Fraser, director of the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
"We all agree on what the choices are and what the numbers are," Fraser says.
Their basic message is this: If the United States government conducts business as usual over the next few decades, a national debt that is already $8.5 trillion could reach $46 trillion or more, adjusted for inflation. That's almost as much as the total net worth of every person in America - Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and those Google guys included.
A hole that big could paralyze the U.S. economy; according to some projections, just the interest payments on a debt that big would be as much as all the taxes the government collects today.
And every year that nothing is done about it, Walker says, the problem grows by $2 trillion to $3 trillion.