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What good will it do to secure our borders if we don’t get a handle on the visa overstays?

We need to get a handled on visa overstays, but FedEx is not the answer. This is not just a matter of tracking these people, but deporting them. We already have a program--the US VISIT program--that was passed in 1996 and never fully implemented.

That 40% is already part of the problem that all the proposed legislation purports to solve. What do you propose?

Here is the plan I propose to address immigration, legal and illegal.

 Formulate a merit based immigration system that brings in the skills and talents to keep us competitive in the global economy;

 Reduce immigration levels based on need more closely approximating 300,000 a year;

 Eliminate extended chain migration, i.e., family reunification, limiting it to the nuclear family,

 Secure the border;

 Enforce existing immigration laws to reduce the current illegal alien population and limit future illegal immigration, i.e., attrition thru enforcement. Enforcement would include: (1) ending the job magnet; (2) increasing coordination at the federal level by eliminating barriers to information sharing among agencies; (3) leveraging state and local enforcement resources; (4) fully implementing the US-VISIT Program to track and deport visa overstays; and (5) make mandatory and improve such programs as E-Verify and 287 [g] authority to assist employers and law enforcement in identifying illegal aliens;

 Eliminate birthright citizenship and the visa lottery program;

 Ensure that anyone who enters this nation illegally is not rewarded by being permitted to stay and work here; i.e., no amnesty;

 Streamline the processing and adjudication of immigration cases;

 Promote pro-immigrant measures that help newcomers assimilate and embrace the values and principles of our Founders and the Constitution.

That we do nothing going forward so the problem will continue to grow?

In 1986 we passed an amnesty. It was passed on the condition that it was a one-time event, never to happen again. The USG estimated that 1 million would apply, but the true number was 2.7 million. Fraud was rife in the process with phony document mills being set up blocks from the processing centers. There was also an infusion of more illegals even though you had to be in the US for five years. Ed Meese called it one of the biggest mistakes the Reagan administration made.

When you reward something, you get more of it. We now have 12 to 20 million illegal aliens in this country. No one truly knows the real number, yet we have legislators willing to grant amnesty without even knowing the true number. And the fact is that even with just 12 million, Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation estimated that another 66 million would be sponsored by those granted amnesty thru chain migration, i.e., family reunification.

The 12 million granted amnesty will be eligible for various benefits ranging from food stamps to Obamacare subsidizes. More than half of the adult illegal aliens lack even a high school degree. We are importing poverty and they will now be able to hold jobs legally hurting Americans and others here legally. It is a sheer disaster.