The Obama administration and Congress will probably try its hand at immigration reform some time soon. As typical, instead of adopting a clear and well thought out policy, we will probably have some vitiated, watered down Rube Goldberg approach to the matter. Here are some ideas which might just go a long way to solve the problem. First, of paramount importance is to stop future illegal immigration. The most powerful nation on earth, it seems, has been powerless to stop the illegal entry of goods and human beings. This doesn't bode well for stopping terrorists with whatever materiel they deem necessary from crossing the border and wreaking havoc and destruction on the American people to say nothing of the millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs, the millions of dollars in cash going south into Mexico and the cross border gun trade which is allowing drug cartels to build up a veritable military which puts the ragtag Taliban to shame. The greatest military in the world is fighting a primitive group in Afghanistan that has to rely on homemade bombs. Not so for the drug cartels in Mexico which have the most sophisticated weaponry including submarines and helicopters. The US thinks nothing of entering a country half way around the world with a full scale military invasion, dropping bombs on civilians along the way. Yet it does nothing to fight a major foe in another country right on its border.
The Boeing company recently was given a paltry sum of money to come up with a virtual fence which turned out to be a joke. This is not to denigrate the idea of a virtual fence which is a good one. However, the execution by Boeing was abysmal. This idea should be pursued with satellite and drone technology. If we can read a license plate in Iraq, we surely can detect warm bodies crossing the border. Helicopters should be used to parachute in intercept teams once incursions have been detected. The Border Patrol and Coast Guard are terribly underfunded. They should be given resources equivalent to the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Those resources should be diverted from the current Defense budget which should be correspondingly reduced. Or better redefine the roles of the military so that border protection becomes the main mission. Secondly US military bases should be built along the border instead of on prime real estate. Camp Pendleton which is located about 50 miles from the border should be relocated right on the border thus freeing up thousands of square miles of prime California real estate for future development which would give a boost to the economy. Locating military bases on relatively undesirable real estate could free up thousands of acres of prime real estate on which they are now located.
A major portion of the military budget including research and development should be redirected to border and port protection as well as strengthening internal infrastructure to withstand a terrorist attack not to mention the far more likely events of natural disasters. The Department of Homeland Security should be beefed up and the traditional military industrial complex which has become more or less of a massive boondoggle should be beefed down. The resources both in terms of manpower, procurement, and research and development should go into actual defense and not phony defense and fighting wars of aggression against ragtag groups that are illiterate and don't even have driver's licenses. This reorientation of priorities would not only strengthen US defenses, but would also solve the drug problem and put the drug cartels in Mexico, which are a much greater threat to US security, out of business. The idea that criminal operations can cross the US borders (both ways) with impunity is totally repugnant, and we just shouldn't be lulled into accepting it as business as usual. The goal is to improve legal immigration and legal border crossings and to elimiate illegal ones. In fact legal border crossing for humans and materials should be expedited to improve the flow of commerce and to expedite the flow of legal seasonal labor if needed. The pedestrian crossing from San Diego to Tijuana is a total disgrace and needs to be redesigned and rebuilt.
As far as illegal drugs are concerned, legalizing marijuana (but not the other drugs) makes a lot of sense. First, it takes a whole branch of illegal drug smuggling off the table. Second it provides a tax base for marijuana currently grown and sold illegally in the US. It would not only create jobs but provide a revenue source for state and federal government. Then resources can be concentrated on hard drug smuggling and apprension.
But the real question is what to do with illegal aliens that are already in the US, many of whom have integrated themselves into the work force and have established families here. First the law that says that anyone born on American soil is automatically a US citizen should be repealed. Anyone born on US soil to parents that have entered the country illegally should not automatically become a US citizen. The fact that they do complicates the whole problem of deportation. First, illegals already here should be divided into different categories. All prisoners in the US penal system should be deported as well as all single people. For those who have children born in the US who are legal US citizens, there has to be a different approach. To dive into this nasty thicket I would say that some arbitrary dividing line has to be put in place. My recommendation is that all those who have been here less than five years should be deported with the choice being given to leave their children who are US citizens here with relatives or to take them with them. All those who have been longer term residents of the US and who are well established here in terms of jobs, property ownership and business ownership should be given a path to becoming legal citizens. This is a somewhat arbitrary and simplified solution, and probably many situations need to be decided on a case by case basis.
As for the necesity of importing seasonal labor from Mexico because of the jobs that Americans supposedly don't want to do, isn't it laughable in a recession in which many people are out of work that there are any jobs Americans don't want to do? The government should facilitate the hiring of American unemployed and unemployable citizens for these jobs. WPA style programs could set up a work force to pick fruit or whatever the braceros usually do. Programs for unemployable ex-felons and homeless people as well as the chronically unemployed, inner city black youth for example, could be set up to deliver labor to industries that have previously employed illegals. Jobs are needed and workers should be employed right here at home. It's ridiculous to have a huge army of unemployed citizens on the government dole while at the same time American industry is employing huge numbers of illegals. It should be a government policy to transition these industries away from employing illegals and towards employing American citizens who are chronically unemployed. Employers who employ illegals should be sanctioned and fined if not imprisoned while incentives should be given to employ marginally employable US citizens.
So my solution to the illegal immigration problem is five fold:
1) Divert military resources from wars of aggression and military bases abroad (currently upwards of 1000) to extensive programs of border and port protection here at home. This includes research and development and basing military assets along the border. Intelligence operations like the CIA should concentrate on border protection as well as hunting down bad guys overseas. In addition to preventing terrorists from crossing the border, illegal drugs and other illegal imports should be stopped completely and whole illegal industries shut down. This will help not only the US, but it will help Mexico too in that the drug cartels will be eliminated. At the same time legal border crossing and immigration should be expedited.
2) Eliminate illegal jobs in the US by establishing a jobs program that employs chronically unemployed American citizens such as ex-felons, the homeless and inner city black youth and that facilitates the hiring of these people to replace the need for illegal labor. Give incentives to business to hire the marginally employable while fining them for hiring illegals. The government needs to be the facilitator because, left to their own devices, US industry that employs illegals will simply take the easy way out and continue to employ illegals.
3) Change the law regarding anyone born on American soil automatically becoming a US citizen. Babies born to illegals should not automatically become US citizens. This law should be retroactive for some period of time so that families whose parents are here illegally can be deported.
4) Make a judgment call as to who needs to be deported and who will be given a path to US citizenship based on how long a family has been here and how well established they are.
5) Legalize marijuana.
