From The Middle

Immigration

I am a 58 year old white male living in Phoenix, AZ. I was born and raised on Long Island and raised my family in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. I work for a Police Department (civilian). I am very saddened by the polarization on the issue of illegal immigration and would like to offer a view from the middle.

This great country was founded by immigrants. With the exception of our Native Americans, ALL THE REST OF US are descended from immigrants. Three generations ago my family was immigrants. I am 1/2 German-American and 1/2 Irish-American. That adds up to One Whole American (not German American or Irish American, just American!).

However, one important difference between most of our ancestors and today’s ILLEGAL immigrants, is that once our country set up laws, the majority of our immigrants were LEGAL immigrants. They followed the laws and regulations and entered our country legally. It is way past high time to call a “spade a spade”, to cut out this abject stupidity of denying reality by miss-naming something it is not, or trying to hide reality under a different name – ILLEGAL immigrants are called ILLEGAL immigrants because they entered our country ILLEGALLY, period, end of story! Calling them “undocumented workers”, or any other term, is just an effort to hide the facts (can you say “lawyer” or “politician”?).

That being said, the other reality is that both Republican and Democratic administrations and Congresses of our country for generations have failed the American public by failing to protect our borders. And why is this? Because we Americans wanted it to happen because we wanted the least expensive produce, landscaping, construction, fast food, etc., etc., etc. we could buy and we were willing to look the other way to get it. How else could we end up with 11 or 12 million ILLEGAL immigrants, some of whom have been here 15 years or more?

So here we are, the land where our most famous landmark proclaims “Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses…”, all up in arms about our Latin American neighbors doing just that. So what can be done about it that makes sense?

1. Recognize The Realities

- The reality is we let it happen, we even made it happen.

- The reality is we can not deport 11 or 12 million people for less than $1,000 per person. (Can our government do anything for less than $1,000?) That is $11 or $12 BILLION more that we do not have! Plus, how would we look to the rest of the world?

- The reality is that building a wall around our country (and if we built it on the south, we would have to do it on the north also) is too expensive and would make us look like communist Germany before the fall of the Wall.

2. PROTECT OUR BORDERS

- Utilize a combination of people and technology to make our borders less porous.

- Establish and enforce reasonable foreign worker visa programs that can be accomplished in reasonable amounts of time so our companies can get the help they need to succeed when they need it.

- Make the penalties for hiring those ILLEGAL immigrants not in the Program to Earn Legal Status (PELS – see #3 below) SERIOUS for those businesses involved.

- Provide the authority and resources for our local, county and state police to enforce immigration laws. ICE would focus on the borders and provide support to the other law enforcement agencies (which I think is why they exist anyway).

- Prohibit the practice of “catch and release” starting today. If caught entering our country illegally, you go to jail and then are deported from there.

3. Provide a means for productive ILLEGAL immigrants to EARN legal status (PELS, Program to Earn Legal Status)).

- Do background checks. If you are convicted of any crime, out you go. If you commit a crime during your effort to Earn Legal Status, out you go.

- Require they learn English (they can still speak Spanish when they want, just like our ancestors did, they just need to be able to speak our language too).

- Fine them $1,000 each for having come in illegally, payable in installments over 2 years. This would mean we would take in about $9-10 BILLION (assuming 10% get deported).

- Require payment of back taxes as much as is possible. Any Social Security benefits allowed would be based on the wages that were taxed ONLY. Approximate take, $1 BILLION.

- Require that they have sufficient jobs to provide for their families. We do not let people into this country just so we can support them.

- Provide documentation for those ILLEGAL immigrants who are actively participating in the Program to Earn Legal Status.

- Those who can not meet the above criteria within a reasonable time (2-3 years) get deported.

- Apply the Dream Act only to children of families enrolled in the PELS program.

- Those who serve in the U.S. military and are discharged Honorably move to the head of the line.

I believe this program will recognize the efforts and contributions of those hard working immigrants who are trying to become good American citizens like out forefathers and mothers while working to eliminate the ILLEGAL immigrant problem. Isn’t that what we all want?

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