“For example he has talked about granting citizenship to people who have been in the country for 25 years...but he’s going to leave the final decision to local authorities.”
First of all, he wasn’t talking about citizenship. He’s talking about residency, that is, whether they are allowed to stay in the country or get the hell out. Now, you’re not going to have a bureaucracy based in DC that can go after all these people. It has to be local.
Here’s what he wrote:
Congress must charge the Department of Justice to establish a “citizens’ review” process for those here outside the law. It would establish committees to process these cases in individual communities and determine who will continue on this path to legality, and who will be sent home. Congress must define understandable, clear, objective legal standards that will be applied equally during this process. While this process is ongoing, those here outside the law will be granted Temporary Legal Status for a certain, limited period of time until all have had the opportunity to apply and appear in front of committees.
Applicants must first pass a criminal background check, and then the local committees will assess applications based on family and community ties, and ability to support oneself via employment without the assistance of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other entitlement programs.
The government will rigorously enforce a requirement that all individuals seeking this path to legality must be able to prove that they can independently pay for private health insurance. If an individual cannot prove this, they will lose the ability to stay in the United States.
Furthermore, proficiency in English within a certain number of years, similar to the requirement for naturalization, will be required for anyone who seeks continued legal status in the United States.
Once an applicant has been granted the right to obtain legal status, he or she will have to pay a penalty of at least $5,000.
Moving forward, those who receive this status will have to prove on a regular basis that they can support themselves without entitlement programs and pay for health insurance or else risk the ability to stay in the United States.
Congress must charge the Department of Justice to establish a “citizens’ review” process for those here outside the law. It would establish committees to process these cases in individual communities and determine who will continue on this path to legality, and who will be sent home. Congress must define understandable, clear, objective legal standards that will be applied equally during this process.
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This is the key language where the USA would get screwed. The problem here is not that Congress would set out clear guidelines—rather the problem is that local would have the ultimate AUTHORITY to determine “who will continue on this path to legality”.
It absolutely does NOT matter what guideline the Congress lays down. It will be obeyed to the letter in American counties. But in counties that have heavy illegal populations —distant congressional directives will be totally IGNORED.
If you don’t get this then study what happened to the Reagan law that was passed in 1986. The border enforcement part of the law was totally ignored and the Mexicans saw the law as a surrender and began to pour over the border.