Immigration Reality

Our border should be a line in the dirt that we manage fully.

Nobody else should get to decide who is ok to cross the American border, but America itself.

We can at our choosing let in everyone, or no-one... or some people.

My principle.  What crosses our border should be our choice.

I don't care if America decides Amnesty is the best policy.
Or, mass deportation... or somewhere in between.

That is a nuanced matter for careful debate.

There is politics on every side.

What should be clear is this.

There are mass benefits to having immigrants here - illegal and otherwise.
There are also costs.  Many born more heavily by border states.

We should determine what costs we will share to take the burden off the states...
And we should determine a process of:

#1:  Securing our borders.  I would seal the borders today.  Deploy the military.  Put drones in the air.  End of story.  If you are caught crossing... we can't say what will happen to you.  The rules of engagement for the military should be such that there is mass deterrence from even trying to cross illegally.  Our presence should be such that there is no use trying.

#2: Bringing people out of the shadows.  We must create a process whereby all persons illegally in the country are brought out of the shadows.  If they do not comply and register and continue to hide... and are found - the consequences should be rather severe.  Again.  Severe enough to deter people from remaining hidden.

#3: America should make some values judgments.  We do need people to pick our vegetables.  Buildings and homes would be as much as 33% more expensive without immigrant workers.  Many are raising families here.  Many have started businesses.  At the same time - there are those involved in crimes - and using our health care system without paying.  So - we should look at the complete list of issues and decide one at a time on what we believe should happen.  The key - it should be our choice rather than the illegal immigrants and we should stop putting our head in the sand and we should decide what we believe and behave accordingly.

These are our borders.

#4: Western Union.  It is about dollars.  Illegal immigrants are often here - sending money back to their families in Mexico, or other places.  This is not subtle.  A massive portion of Western Union's business is the processing of these cross border wires.  We could even consider getting their database and running against our information to see who is not registered.  That would be controversial... but, look - we are dealing with our borders here.  We should figure out what the rules should be... not somebody else - business, country, our otherwise.  Those are our borders!

#5:  We should create a list of all possible methods of stopping the problem of illegal immigration and all methods for handling illegals already here.  We should look at what can feasibly be accomplished and we should move forwards.

This is a problem important enough that I believe it should be resolved.
I believe that having all people registered and not feeling like they are hiding in the shadows would be of benefit to us.
And I believe that they should then be here on our terms... not theirs.  (Regardless of what our terms are.)