What should Immigration “Reform” look like?

In a recent post, I talked about what South Carolina could do (as a state and individual communities) to fight illegal immigration from non-federal levels (in the absence of any solid federal leadership on the issue through the last six administrations…)

But that begs the question: If there is to be immigration reform, which virtually everyone agrees needs to happen in some form or fashion, what should those “reforms” look like? I’ve tackled this issue in a post for SCHotline about 4 years ago, but that blog is gone now, so let’s revisit with four more years to ponder it.

PRE-REFORM STEPS:

• ENFORCE THE BORDER

I’m not saying put tanks and fighter planes on the border, or issue shoot on sight orders. I am saying build a double fence the length of the southern border with enforceable points of entry. Then staff it properly. Border enforcement is a valid use of taxpayer dollars, but one that has been badly neglected by every administration since Carter. I’d much rather spend resources protecting the country from an invasion than on stimulus packages for bureaucrats and special interests. This is an act of will that simply requires a government willing to enforce the law and a Congress willing to pay for it. This should be a no brainer, but it never gets done.

• REFORM THE BUREAUCRACY

We need to take a hard look at the bureaucracies that have failed to date. I’ve heard horror stories from plenty of legitimate immigrant applications that take far too long to get approved. We need to make it harder to get here illegally, yes, but we also need to make it easier to get here legally or understand why an application has been denied. This is the carrot in the carrot and stick approach. Mandate that applications have to be dealt with in a certain amount of time, and then lets have Congressional oversight to ensure that those metrics are met.

• ENFORCE CURRENT LAW MORE EFFECTIVELY

Why have deportations gone down since Eisenhower was President? Has every President since simply not cared enough about the issue? No one is saying you can deport 20 million illegal immigrants all at once. Start by enforcing the law. The current Arizona situation proves yet again that when the laws are enforced a large number of people will self-deport. That’s a good starting point for this process.

REFORM COMPONENTS

• END AUTOMATIC BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

I know this will come as a surprise to some (since I’ve been a pretty vociferous critic of our Senior Senator over the years) but Senator Graham is absolutely right on the need to tweak the definition of the automatic birthright citizenship of the 14th Amendment. You can do very little to fix to current mess without handling the Anchor Baby/Birth Tourism issue. Bob McAlister has done a great piece on this issue; The Heritage Foundation says it can be done with clarifying legislation (as opposed to another Constitutional Amendment) – and George Will agrees. What needs to be clarified is that only the children of citizens or permanent legal residents gain automatic citizenship; anyone else needs to go through the naturalization process – complete with application.

• GUEST WORKER PROGRAM

Short an overhaul of welfare reform that would stop subsidizing laziness in the general populace, we’re going to still need someone to do the jobs that are currently being done by illegals (in South Carolina, this is predominantly peach picking, chicken plucking, and construction). What we need is to be able to have these be done by people who are here legally, who will pay their fair share of taxes while they’re here, and who will go back home when they’re done. Such a program would involve employers being able to bring in workers to do specific jobs for specific time periods before returning to their home countries. Reforming the bureaucracy is a must before you do this because otherwise, no one will get to work on time. Ending automatic birthright citizenship is a must before you do this, as you want the guest workers to bring their families for maximum societal stability and economic gain without creating permanent anchors.

• NO AMNESTY – NO NEW PATH TO CITIZENSHIP FOR THOSE HERE ILLEGALLY NOW

There are plenty of paths to citizenship now. We don’t need to create more, and more importantly, we don’t need to reward those who have come here illegally by letting them stay. If they want to work here, they’ll need to apply under the guest worker program. If they want to immigrate here, they’ll have to go back to their home country and apply from there like everyone else, going through the background checks and fulfilling the application process along the way.

As an aside, let’s define amnesty. Amnesty is defined as allowing the criminal to keep what they’ve stolen. In this case, the illegal alien has stolen a place in the country. “Amnesty” is anything that lets them keep it – even with “fines, back taxes” or whatever other artifices are attached to the process. Put me down for no amnesty; it’s a perversion of the rule of law, and it should be unacceptable to a modern society based on law.

• INDEFINITE MORATORIUM ON IMMIGRATION FROM MUSLIM COUNTRIES

Let’s face it, the current system invites more attacks. Until we can be certain that the jihadist threat is behind us (and it certainly isn’t yet), it behooves us to protect ourselves. This means no more student visas (like the ones used by 9/11 attackers) or permanent resident visas for those who are coming from high risk countries, unless they can certify a status worthy of asylum. This isn’t racial profiling – it’s religious profiling; it’s important to remember that our rights as a nation to survive outweigh the religious rights of non-citizens who seek our demise but want to live here in the meantime. The Constitution, after all, wasn’t a suicide pact.

OTHER POTENTIAL FACTORS TO CONSIDER:

Other things that I suppose could be included in an acceptable form of a “comprehensive immigration reform” might include changing the current system to more of a points based system (more points for a college degree or needed work skill, for instance). We also need to emphasize English only in our immigration system – if you want to live here, you agree to become part of our culture and that means communicating in our shared language. English proficiency (using forms printed only in English, giving tests using only English) should be mandatory for immigrating to the US and for citizenship.


Agree? Disagree? Want to discuss? Comments are open below…

Random Thoughts from Around the Blogosphere

First, I'd like to welcome those of you who have been invited by the Huckster to vote for his VP consideration in our poll (upper right).

Congratulations - you're the new Paul-bots.

Next time you run into your "Christian Leader", try asking him why he left the ministry to go into politics? Isn't that leaving the higher calling for a lower calling?

Was it that he needed the money, so he could go on trips to the Caymans in the middle of a campaign to make paid speeches? Was it that he knew his son would become the foreshadowing of Michael Vick? Or was it that his wife wasn't getting enough Hooters time? And that's not even getting to the whole "wrong side of the Southern Baptist split" thing.

Any way you cut it, Huckster's done politically. Not quite Eliot Spitzer done, but finished nonetheless.

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Speaking of Spitzer, Brad Warthen is complaining that too many people are laughing ("sniggering") at the soon to be demise of the New York Democrat Governor. Me, I'm laughing hard, and so are the late-night comics apparently. ("Just goes to show you how ridiculously high the standard of living is in New York City" - Heh.)

I mean, the guy allegedly felt the need to put a hooker (oops, sorry, "High Priced Call Girl") on a train in New York and bring her to Washington (hence the rumored interstate trafficking and money laundering charges). If he really needed to find a whore in Washington, all he needed to do was show up on Capitol Hill and look for the lobbyists... (*rim shot*)

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I see FITS has exposed the secret of the week (the true identity of "Harden Gervais" over at Sunny/Shady.) I had seriously suspected Wes and Corey, but hadn't had the proof until this morning. (Corey was the chief writer of seemingly every crazy conspiracy story in print about my employment over the last two years. While I'm flattered at the attention, if you're covering me, you're probably missing the point. This goes for Ross Shealy as well, though Ross has better photoshop skills than Shady Gervais does.)

Now, Corey tried denying this in comments in FITS (OK, well, sort of denying, while admitting he had done some of the "guest writing"), but within hours, Shady was posting an apology that included the nugget that they were done blogging. That's not just a coincidence, kids...

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Speaking of FITS, Hades may be in freezing danger. FITS, notverybright and I agreeing on the same issue? (that the Kentucky proposal to ban anonymous internet speech would be blatantly unconstitutional) Break out the ski gear...

Seriously, why is it always Republicans that come up with the Soviet style speech stuff? Aren't we supposed to be the Party that protects the Constitution? Oh, I guess that whole "Party Platform" thing doesn't actually apply to elected officials, my bad...

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Speaking of Shady People and Hugh Leatherman, what's this we read about a "Reform Caucus" made up of a bunch of old-line legislators who wouldn't know reform if it bit them and left a mark? If Sandifer and Leatherman think they can get fool people with this stunt, they're in for a pretty large surprise.

Though I certainly like and respect Senators Cromer, Cleary, and Thomas, I do hope their rumored involvement in a sham reform group like this turns out to be false. This won't help them with Republican voters or folks who actually care about achieving real reform in our state.

UPDATE: FITS claims to have documentation that points to Rod Shealy's organization of the "Reform Caucus". That would be an interesting development.