Issue Position: Immigration

Issue Position

A proper immigration policy would include five things. First; it would provide a way of keeping the supply of laborers in harmony with the demand for laborers. Second ; we must have a means of keeping track of legal immigrants once they are here. Third; we must be able to find and prosecute illegal immigrants. Fourth: we must have a means of screening all immigrants for reasons of security and criminal activity. Fifth: we must have a way of getting illegal immigrants to make themselves known and to enable them to become legal.

It is estimated there are 12 million illegal immigrants in this country. Such a figure should tell anyone that the system itself is broken. It doesn't matter how much we push to find and deport illegals, if we don't get the system fixed they will continue to come. The fact that there are so many illegals is a symptom of a broken system. If we persist in attacking the symptoms (illegal immigrants) rather than the problem (a broken immigration system) we never will solve the problem. If we get the root problems fixed we will staunch the flow of illegals, get rid of human trafficking, and give illegals an incentive to become legal.

The United States immigration problem is a classic example of supply and demand versus government control. The federal government wishes to limit the number of people coming into our country while the demand for low-wage workers has increased significantly. Because the government has tried to limit the number of people trying to get into the country the supply of labor has moved underground and come into the country in spite of the government.

If our nations desire is to regain control of immigration and do away with the underground supply of labor it must allow enough people to enter the country legally to meet the demand. By allowing laborers to come legally we know who they are and where they are and they usually pay taxes and act respectably.

If we wish to control immigration so that we know who is coming and going from our country and ensure that they are responsible while they're here, we must provide the means for the equalization of supply and demand and set in place a program that will recognize and be able to identify all those who are already here illegally.

In this country we have people who migrate from one state to another all the time. They do so in search of work, schooling, to be with family and many other reasons. All they need to move is a drivers license and a social security number. Within the EU countries there is an open immigration policy for workers. Many Poles moved to Ireland before the financial crisis because there was lots of work there. Since the financial crisis and the hard times in Ireland most of the Poles have moved back to Poland. In this age of computers and databases there should be no reason why a person showing up at the border couldn't present a drivers license which could be looked up in a matter of minutes. You could pull a report on any criminal activity, if any, at the same time. This would require some obvious coordination between governments but should not be an impossible task. They could also be assigned a US identification number that would be associated with their drivers license. This number could be used for tax and employment purposes. Once people start using their number we know where they are and to a degree what they are doing. Such a system would take care of registration, tracking, security and criminal issues.

It is reported that we have more than 12 million illegal immigrants in our country. The great majority of them come not with criminal intent but with a desire to work and better their lives for themselves and their families. They are here illegally not because their intents are illegal but rather because sneaking into the country is the only way to a better life. The easiest and most efficient way to bring them into the mainstream and make them legal would be to offer some kind of amnesty. Amnesty would allow them to become legal allowing us to know who they are and where they are and allow them to pay taxes and act as responsible guests within our country. Amnesty has nothing to do with citizenship. Citizenship must be obtained by adherence to a prescribed program such as the one that we already have.

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