Issue Position: Immigration Reform

Issue Position

Summary:

Jim Evans knows that America is a nation of immigrants forged by waves of newcomers from whom most citizens are descended. He believes that the Biblical call to "welcome the stranger" as a practice of hospitality has served us well in the past. Jim believes that immigrants can enhance our communities and that diversity is good. He believes that public policy in this area must also entail respect for law and acknowledge the complications that unregulated immigration poses for our economy and society.

Analysis:

No country can truly claim sovereignty if it cannot effectively control its own borders. Given contemporary challenges to domestic security this truth is additionally imperative. However, when trade policy, i.e. NAFTA and CAFTA, creates massive dislocations in the indigenous economies of neighboring states, there is an attendant and reciprocal responsibility to address the consequences of such policy-induced emigration and immigration.

The first step is to simply acknowledge this causal link and change the policy by restoring tailored trade arrangements that are mutually beneficial to the people of each country.

Second, acknowledge the role played by domestic corporations in systematically recruiting, transporting and exploiting many of these immigrants and holding them fully accountable for their actions by criminal prosecutions and substantial civil penalties.

Third, acknowledge the real job displacement that has occurred by such massive unregulated immigration by fully compensating the workers who lost their domestic employment due to such dislocation. This is a matter of simple social justice.

Fourth, as economic conditions in the countries of origin improve, provide incentives for the voluntary repatriation of immigrants.

Fifth, continue to aggressively deport and incarcerate immigrants without legal status who are convicted of criminal offenses or are conclusively high-risk security threats.

Sixth, provide a flexible means of procuring legal status for those immigrants engaged in specific and traditional agricultural employment or pursuing specific educational opportunities.

Seventh, provide a long-term means for procuring legal status for immigrants with immediate citizen family members and other law-abiding long-term immigrant residents.

Eighth, continue to enhance extant border security by both technological and personnel means.

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