Legal immigrants have benefited America since its founding. Our Founders' genius was to create a system of government rewarding immigrants with freedom and prosperity if they put forth the effort and played by the rules. Today, unfortunately, we are at a tipping point. Our current laws (as well as disregard for the existing laws) have allowed too many to come here.
Democrats preferring open borders want all to come. To them, illegal immigration is about one thing: more votes for their candidates. Despite the carnage of cartels or women being sexually assaulted, they do not seem to care. They only care about power. It seems they apparently would object only if it was their child who was raped or it was their wife who died of an overdose of a cartel-supplied drug.
Democrats and their constituents are weak. They prefer to take the easy way. Rather than work, many prefer to be on welfare. Or prefer to be a government worker where they cannot easily be fired. Or prefer to be a union worker using that leverage to increase their pay rather than competing for it. Illegal immigrants share their makeup. They too take the easy way by entering illegally, and then vote illegally for the Democrats who make it possible. Immigrants who properly wait in line to become citizens are more disciplined and later are more likely to vote Republican. So to continue to allow easy illegal 'immigrationDemocrits' (No that is not a typo), even though they have walls around their homes, do not support building a wall on our Southern border.
A Few Ideas
First of all, a wall should be built and the border controlled. Simultaneously those 22,000,000 illegal immigrants who are here should be required to register within one year and be given a work permit - not legalization or citizenship. Those not registered within the year should be deported. Those registered should be required to pay taxes and meet a much tougher standard on welfare than those who are American citizens. Employers should be required to first present jobs to citizens and pay the minimum wage. And employers hiring an unregistered individual after one year should be fined.
Furthermore, so that American employers can have an adequate supply of workers they should be allowed to contract with new entrants for set periods of time. These illegal immigrants should be allowed to put up a bond working through the Mexican government who then would have skin in the game. 'Coyotes' (people smugglers) would be out of business. Contract workers failing to exit America at the end of the contract period would forfeit their bond to the Department of Homeland Security with the proceeds used to better secure the border.
Noncitizens on visas who have been disappearing into the country for years should also be required to put up a bond or provide other collateral by those they know here to guarantee their return to their home country.
Those entering the country illegally should not be given automatic citizenship. The laws should be changed. No more 'wet foot, dry foot.' No more 'anchor babies.' No more baby tourism where pregnant mothers come here through lenient Hawaii and then mix in with other tourists on the final leg to have their babies here, who then automatically become citizens. President Trump has addressed this latter scam already.
And asylum laws must be strengthened. As America cannot accommodate all the world’s dysfunctional political systems asylum laws must the made stricter. Yet perhaps a generous but certain ceiling on the number allowed each year should be set.
Still, America does need legal immigrants. Sixty-five thousand regular H1B visas are issued each year, plus twenty thousand visas are given to those having a Masters degree or better. A substantial increase in these could contribute much to increase the productivity of America’s workforces. And immigrants with technical degrees who bring substantial capital to start a business should be given preference as they will create new jobs for all.
Additionally, it is imperative that all immigrants here assimilate. Today, if you have been a permanent resident (green card holder) for twenty years you are exempt from taking the English required portion of the citizenship test. What? This and other laws should be changed and English should be our official language, all encouraging immigrants to assimilate.
My immigrant ancestors from Germany were not allowed to own property and were told by the German government where and how to worship their God. So my ancestors in 1845 immigrated to Texas and Australia, both of which had governments with little desire to tell residents how to live their lives. I still possess the tax receipts which they kept as evidence to keep the government out of their lives. And one hundred and seventy-three years later I like many other Americans still share their attitude about keeping the government out of our lives.
