Trump's Wall Should Be a Bargaining Chip on Immigration

Townhall.com ^ | January 24, 2018 | Jonah Goldberg

[Kaslin]

The Democrats' crusade to force a government shutdown in order to win permanent protections for "Dreamers" went down in flames Monday. The price extracted by Democrats was meager compared to what they wanted. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) merely agreed to allow a floor debate on immigration (which McConnell said he'd have done anyway). But this compromise does guarantee that we will now get a "clean" immigration debate, and therein lies an opportunity for a big win -- though President Trump may not like it.

Last week, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly reportedly angered the president in an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier. Among Kelly's transgressions, he said that the president had been "uninformed" in his thinking about the wall during the campaign and that Trump's views had "evolved" beyond some mammoth monument on the southern border.

The president repudiated his chief of staff, saying on Twitter, "The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it."

It's true that the president's thinking on immigration has changed many times. He once favored a "deportation force" and a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."

But Trump has said many times that the wall needn't be one contiguous barrier spanning the entire border. On the general idea, he's been implacable. And that's a problem.

There's a reason Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats are willing to trade initial funding or authorization for a wall in exchange for help on the Dreamer question. They understand that even under the best circumstances it will take years to build a wall, and many of them are already on the record for supporting beefed-up border security. And, if Democrats take back the House in 2018, they can turn the thing into a white elephant.

The problem with the wall is not necessarily that it's a bad idea. It's that it has become a symbol detached from policy considerations. An old friend of mine once had a painting company in college. Their unofficial motto was, "We may be slow, but we're expensive." That could be the motto of the wall, too.

Meanwhile, there are faster and more effective ways to deal with the problem of illegal immigration and the drugs "pouring" into our country, which mostly come through legal ports anyway.

Most serious immigration restrictionists favor enhanced border security and want some more physical barriers, but ultimately their support for the Trump wall is a political priority, not a policy one. They'd much rather see the president trade a Dreamer fix for cheaper and more effective solutions to the problem of illegal immigration, as well as reform of the legal immigration system. Top of the list: mandatory E-Verify, a program by which employers can check on the immigration status of job-seekers.

That's because the biggest driver of illegal immigration isn't on the supply side; it's on the demand side. Immigrants, legal and illegal, come to America primarily to work. They stay because their employers, many of them Republicans, don't care or don't ask about immigration status. Democratic politicians, particularly in sanctuary cities, want to keep it that way.

The wall, in theory, would stop illegal border crossings from Mexico, but it wouldn't do anything about people who come here legally and then simply overstay their visas -- about 42 percent of immigrants in the country illegally.

"Though there are parts of the border where better barriers are needed, universal E-Verify would probably do more to cut illegal immigration," Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, tells me. "It would weaken the jobs magnet, which is what attracts both border infiltrators and visa over-stayers -- the wall is irrelevant to over-stayers."

Unlike the wall, Krikorian notes, "E-Verify wouldn't cost much, if anything, since the IT infrastructure is already in place to handle all new hires."

If Trump wanted a clear -- and immediate -- win on illegal immigration, he'd evolve and recognize that the wall's greatest utility might be as a bargaining chip.

[vette6387]

What part is not true? Please enlighten me.

When you get a TOURIST VISA, one that is time limited, there isn’t usually all the investigative work done prior to giving the visa. If the foreigner has a current passport from their native country, that is usually sufficient. Living in CA as I do, I have first-hand knowledge of this because a few years ago, a relative of mine had a hauling business and on occasion, he hired a couple of Guatemalan day laborers. They told him that they had come to the US on TOURIST VISAS, but had overstayed them to stay here an work. And that is where almost half of our illegal alien population comes to be here. Only the real bottom of the barrel people walk or swim into the country. Only people who don’t have a passport and don’t have the price of an airline ticket.
Now, if you are coming here to work, (like an H1B visa), the process is more complicated and more information is requested. Usually these visas come by way of a company hiring foreign nationals ( I used to work in the Silicon Valley so I am familiar with this process, having hired a few myself). In a couple of instances we actually had to hire an immigration lawyer, and at the time the big hangup wasn’t the State Department, it was the Department of Labor. Personally, I doubt that WORK VISAS are the problem, because they involve professional people, who are not criminals, who make a lot of money, so they are not here to become wards of the state.

[Tammy8]

Applying for a Visitor Visa
Applicants for visitor visas should
generally apply at the nearest U.S.
Embassy or Consulate in the country
where they live. It is important to apply
for a visa well in advance of the travel
departure date.
Completing Form
DS-160, Online
Nonimmigrant Visa Application,
(ceac.state.gov/genniv/), is the first step in the visa application process. After you have submitted Form DS-160, print the confirmation page and
bring it to your interview. Next, pay the
non-refundable visa application fee, if
you are required to pay it before your
interview. Then, make an appointment
for an interview at the U.S. Embassy or
Consulate where you pay to apply for
your visa.

You should have the following documents available while you complete your DS-160:

Passport
Travel itinerary, if you have already made travel arrangements.
Dates of your last five visits or trips to the United States, if you have previously travelled to the United States. You may also be asked for your international travel history for the past five years.
Résumé or Curriculum Vitae - You may be required to provide information about your current and previous education and work history.
Other Information - Some applicants, depending on the intended purpose of travel, will be asked to provide additional information when completing the DS-160.

Not to mention biometrics requirements:

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/biometrics

There are waivers, but the requirements for that are very similar and usually only benefit frequent travelers or travelers from certain countries.

Even the least requirements will answer the question of who you are, where you are coming from, and what your purpose (stated purpose) of coming here.

There is a criminal background check done in the US and the country you are coming from whether people know that or not it is done.

Remember we know NOTHING WHATSOEVER about those that cross the desert at the border. NOTHING.

[vette6387]

Here is another problem, The Visa Waiver Program! We allow citizens of these 38 countries to come here for up to 90 contiguous days without a visa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Waiver_Program

Notice though Mexico AND Canada, and most if not all of Central American countries are not on the list.

[Tammy8]

They still have to meet the requirements, they don’t just automatically hand out waivers to everyone from those countries. I know at the port near me when people enter from Mexico they have to show their documents at the border, and do the biometrics, and criminal check here and in Mexico or their country of citizenship is done. The exceptions are if they have a border crossing card, student visa, work permit, similar or they will have to prove their ties to their country- proof of home, job, business, things like that in order to cross. The major difference with the waiver is they don’t have to go to the embassy for an interview, or apply far ahead. Many are turned back for not having what they need or for other reasons.

Again we know NOTHING about those that cross the desert. Border Patrol here detains murderers, rapists,molesters, MS 13, people who were deported already, people from nearly every country in the world, including those that sponser terrorism- and much, much more. We really have to secure the border to secure our country.