Posted on 02/09/2016 6:39:55 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Beware the bundler. I don't mean the political fundraiser (though those guys can be pretty shady, too) but the lawmaker, the guy who insists that every issue is related to every other issue and that the only solution is a grand "comprehensive" bipartisan compromise resulting in a generation-defining piece of legislation that's 8,000 pages long.
Consider the question of illegal immigration.
No, not the question of immigration -- illegal immigration. There's a temptation to bundle those together, because we have problems with our legal immigration regime, too, but the more tightly we tie them together, the more closely we bind ourselves to "solutions" that aren't. With illegal immigration, we won't get 100 percent of the way there with five reforms, but we might get 92 percent of the way there.
One: Enact a law that does one thing: prohibit people who have entered the United States illegally from applying for citizenship -- even if their current status is legal. If you ever have entered the United States illegally, you don't ever become a citizen.
Two: Enact a law that does one thing: prohibit people who have entered the United States illegally from applying for a work permit -- even if their current status is legal. If you ever have entered the United Sates illegally, you don't ever get a work permit.
That's your firewall against amnesty. Vote against those laws, and you're voting for amnesty; vote to repeal them down the line, you're voting for amnesty. This creates good political incentives in Washington and removes bad incentives among those who come here illegally expecting that their status eventually will be made legal.
Three: work-place enforcement. That means universal, mandatory E-Verify (or an equivalent system), with a database that actually works. At the same time, redefine the legal responsibilities of employers: Rather than facing civil and criminal penalties for knowingly hiring an illegal, they should face civil and criminal penalties for failing to verify the legal status of an employee. While immigration is inherently a federal issue, there is no reason there could not be state and local laws against hiring illegals, and no reason those laws should not include big fines and asset forfeiture, a legal penalty that is sometimes abused but which is appropriate in the case of what is largely an economic crime. If Bubba's Landscaping loses a truck every time it gets busted using illegal day labor, or you lose your restaurant for hiring illegal dishwashers, you're going to start being more scrupulous.
Four: Harassment. Put a C (citizen) or an N (noncitizen) on driver's licenses and state identification cards. We don't need a national identification card. But most states already require documentation of your legal status under the REAL ID Act, and among states that will issue IDs to illegals (California, for example), it is common for those licenses to have a distinguishing mark. (Republicans at the state level also should work to prohibit the issuing of state IDs to illegal immigrants categorically.) We should require certain regulated businesses -- especially banks, check-cashing companies, and those offering electronic fund transfers -- to require noncitizens to document their legal status when making certain transactions that routinely require a photo ID, such as cashing a check, sending a wire transfer, boarding a domestic flight, renting a hotel room, etc. This places no new burdens on citizens, minimal burdens on businesses, and very light burdens on legally present aliens. This won't prevent visa overstays entirely, but it will make overstaying a much less attractive proposition.
Five: Enact a law that does one thing: prohibit people who have entered the United States illegally from ever being legally permitted to enter the country.
And, do: nothing.
Not nothing, exactly. There's a great deal more to be done: border fencing, where appropriate (not everybody who crosses the border is looking for a job), and other measures where fencing doesn't make sense; developing a real entry-exit control system; developing a real entry-visa screening system for security threats, one that looks more like Palantir and less like Skippy the FBI Intern calling your high-school principal. And then there's the question of legal immigration. Those are big, long-term, complicated, expensive reforms -- reforms that we are going to have to make.
But that should not stop us from doing simple, sensible things right now.
Our debate over immigration proceeds as though there were some sudden urgency to do something about the illegals already present. Their presence is a problem -- we do, after all, purport to be a nation of laws -- but it isn't a new problem. Some of them have been here for decades. Some on the right talk as though it is an absolute national imperative to deport every one of them -- yesterday -- while some on the left insist that we have a pressing moral duty to normalize their status. I'm not convinced that we have a duty to do that at all, and I'm absolutely sure that we don't have to do it right this minute. Reverse those bad incentives, get a little bit mean on work-place enforcement, interrupt their economic lives, and let's see what happens next. We don't have to do everything at once.
-- Kevin D. Williamson is National Review's roving correspondent.
NO thanks. I’ll take the wall. Funny how Hadrian’s wall kept out the British barbarians, how the elites’ walls keep out the commoners.
We should build low rent apartments in the very same walled communities the ruling elites live in.
Maybe if they attach some dem goodies to it, like a one time granting of legal status to dreamers and maybe legal status to a very limited group of illegal aliens. I think this article is on the correct path, something has to be done to take away the incentive for illegals to come here. If not, every 20 years we will be doing immigration reform...
Democrats and the GOPe want the CHEAP LABOR EXPRESS to continue - that’s why the problem hasn’t been solve. Our ‘elites’ don’t want it solved.
The wall will also stop the heroin and islamo jihadis
National Review doing it’s Anti-Trump “we don’t need no stinking wall” part (again).
And their solution ? MORE LAWS! *facepalm*
We already have all the tools we need, except a complete wall.
Build the damn thing, and enforce the laws we have.
Exactly, the same reason ISIS still exists, our “leaders” want them to exist.
Mexican ex-President NO we won’t pay for Trump’s wall
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/how-does-mexico-feel-about-trump-wall-218946
The wall should be up first. The drug dealers, human smugglers, and other vermin don’t care if they aren’t citizens. And they will find ways in even with a “fence”. Sometimes I don’t think people who write these articles have the big picture. That or they don’t recognize the evil in the world.
Simple. Deny any benefits period, no food, no housing, no education, no welfare, nothing. Humanitarian relief: You’re sick? Here’s an aspirin. Injured? Here’s a band-aid. Goodbye and have a nice day. They’ll self deport.
How to Fix Illegal Immigration in** ONE** Step without Building a Wall.
Enforce existing laws.
Bingo! That is what Alabama did and the place nearly emptied out overnight.
There should be only two type of hand-outs permitted:
Fine ideas but not in any way mutually exclusive to building a wall.
What you said . . . and add a new bus route or subway stop so the new residents have easy access.
“Fine ideas but not in any way mutually exclusive to building a wall.”
Wall first.
These five actions do NOTHING to prevent the following:
1. Drug/weapons trafficking
2. Kidnapping
3. Entries by members of ISIS, Al Qeada, etc
4. Those looking to for work that will be paid under the table
5. Those carrying contagious diseases
6. Those who overstay their visas
7. Anchor babies
8. Those seeking American welfare and medical care
The author’s plans are quite useless.
Me want wall.
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