Alienation

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the illegal immigration issue that is so hot in the political scene right now. The major pieces of legislation to “reform” immigration seem to be full of holes so I’ve been thinking about what the ultimate reform should be.

Here are some of the issues, as I see them. First, we can’t grant amnesty because that rewards people for illegal behavior. The temporary worker permit idea floated by the president and others has some merit, but in the end, it’s mostly amnesty because it still rewards people for illegal behavior.

Before dealing with the current illegal aliens in the U.S., the government needs to start enforcing the border effectively. Until we effectively stop the flow of illegal aliens through our southern border, it makes no sense talking about how we’re doing to deal with the those already here.

After all, that’s how we got to where we are now. In 1986, congress passed the Immigration Reform & Control Act. President Reagan signed this bill into law and thereby granted amnesty to nearly three million illegal aliens in the United States.

What message did this send to those who were still in Mexico, Venezuela, etc.? “Come to the United States! We’ll give you jobs and, eventually, you’ll be legal!” It sounds great!

Now that there are an estimately 7-20 million illegal aliens living here, amnesty — or amnesty in disguise — is not really an option. In the twenty years since President Reagan signed that legislation, the number of illegals crossing the southern border has skyrocketed. If amnesty (in any form) is granted again, we’ll be in an unbelievable state of disaster twenty years from now.

In thinking about this issue, I simply can not ignore the economic, social, and political ramifications of trying to send millions of people back to their homeland. Mass deportation is not an option.

If we can’t send them back, we’re letting them stay, which sounds suspiciously like amnesty. If they’re going to stay, we need to treat them differently than U.S. citizens because they do not deserve to be treated as citizens. On top of that, they’re criminals! As such, they should be treated as criminals!

Once we do something about the border, we need to identify the illegal aliens in the country. Some of the proposed legislation I’ve read about puts the burden of identification on the illegals themselves, which is just plain idiotic. Under this proposed legislation, there’s really no incentive for any illegal alien to come out from underground and voluntarily sign up with the U.S. government.

To identify illegal aliens we must either forcefully identify them or give them sufficient incentive to enroll themselves in an identification program. Forcefully identifying illegals would be a costly affair and would appear like a witchhunt, so that's probably not a good idea.

First of all, laws currently on the books which prohibit the employment of illegal aliens need to be enforced aggressively. Then, programs should be put in place to give illegal aliens a type of probationary worker status which also requires them to identify themselves (and their family members also in the states.)

It’s very important this “probationary worker status” is not confused with amnesty. It’s not. It’s really just enrollment in a government program for monitoring criminals. The aliens would not be getting off the hook at all.

As a probationary worker, illegal aliens should be allowed to work in the U.S. if they choose to, but there should be several conditions as part of their retribution for committing the crime of being in the country illegally.

Probationary workers should be subject to a higher income tax rate than citizens. Restrictions could also be put in place on how much money probationary workers are allowed to send out of the country, thereby keeping more money in the country.

These conditions give illegal aliens plenty of incentive to work toward becoming legal citizens while making some progress toward alleviating the burden illegal aliens have traditionally had on society.

Illegal aliens should not be allowed to cross borders freely. If they’re in the country when the “wall” (literal or figurative) goes up, they may choose to leave or stay. If they choose to leave, however, they’re stuck outside the country unless special arrangements have been made.

Also, illegal aliens caught breaking the law should be tried in a court of law akin to a military tribunal. Minor crimes should simply result in deportation. Other crimes such as rape, murder, assault, etc. should be punished severely. Illegal aliens should be treated more severely for their crimes than citizens are.

One of the more substantial arguments against amnesty is that it is a complete slap in the face to those who have worked for or are trying to work for legal entry into the United States. Any program which lets illegal aliens legally have a life in the U.S. needs to prove to be more difficult than going through proper channels for legal citizenship.

For example, if someone from Mexico were to apply to come into the United States legally and it takes, say, five years to be granted the necessary legal passage, an illegal alien should be required to wait (and work under higher taxation, restricted rights, etc.) longer to get the same legal status.

Of course, under a system like this, legal status becomes a cherished and valuable thing because once an illegal alien has endured the necessary years of higher tax rates, restricted rights, careful and diligent government monitoring, as well as going through the required processes of learning English and U.S. culture, they will truly appreciate the end result.

Anyway, that’s what I think.