Home of Today's Common Sense

“Immigration trumps other issues” published Brownsville Herald 1/23/2005 Though the Herald demoted me to The New York Times News Service, I am not in their employ. I am an independant and am solely responsible for the content.Were I to pick an ideological News Agent I would pick “The Freedom News Service”.
I was recently asked, how I select a topic to write about in my column. My problem isn’t finding something to write about but to select which subject. I must admit that my passions play a big part and often I will scrap a column written several days in advance of a deadline in preference for one that an item in a paper or on the news stirs my juices the day of deadline.
In this case Sunday’s paper nearly everything stirred me from the fact of the personal attack on Ms. Zamora by Jeffery Millar; just on the surface the numbers of political names and the financial sums mentioned, would lead me to suspect that there is much more to benefit them personally than meets the eye. The political undertones and obvious conspiracy issues contained in the Beetle Baily cartoon even stirred me.
How the administration deals with the issue of fixing immigration is so important that it trumps all others and has such far reaching impact on everything from our basic concept of the rule of law to Social Security. Immigration is indeed broke and needs fixing and has the potential to damage the nation as no other issue.

As it stands now the laws are so unrealistic and confused that the purpose is even obscure. The laws are not being enforced as they should be and when they are, the public doesn’t support them. This is resulting in the belief that we only need to obey laws that we agree with. We are rapidly losing respect for the rule of law and this could lead to even worse things. I commented on this issue in the December 7, 2003 issue of the Herald and said then; “The current Immigration law is a jumble of special interest legislation aggravated by judicial activism that has been compounded for decades.
While a Customs Officer at a number of places in the U.S., I repeatedly heard from my colleagues in Immigration that frequently when officers took alleged violators / offenders before a magistrate new interpretations of the law left their understandings in confusion or a new law or administrative practice made the difficult nearly impossible. This was all made worse by a perennial lack of staff to do the job. Add to that political risks that motivate all but the brave or foolish to avoid dealing with the issue and you have an agency whose duties were nearly as unpopular as those of the IRS.”
The situation has not really changed except that the departments have changed.
There indeed is a serious need for an overall reform and that will allow the new border management agency do its job effectively.
Critical to this is a clear and easily understood set of requirements that must be followed by aspiring visitors and residents and the effective and consistent enforcement of those requirements. The idea that you can secure the border with more troops, that is being advanced in many quarters, in particular by Bill O’Reilly on Fox News, is in my mind a lot of bunk. The practicality is that you just cannot put enough people arm to arm along the entire border. Our past use of soldiers to do the impossible hasen’t been successful either. Soldiers win wars with decisive action, breaking things and people. That is why there is a “posse comitatus” law. It was reviewed for suspension in 2002 but the thinking pervailed that the training and military approach might lead to inappropriate actions being taken. Indeed we can point to such a case here in the Rio Grande.
I have spoken to Border Patrol officers who are really frustrated that the incessant day to day grind of dealing with folks just seeking a better life will prevent them from catching the terrorist who crawled by just feet away. I submit to you, that out in the brush at night, even when you know someone or something is there some of those some ones or some things are going to get by. Any hunters will be able to substantiate that.
My article entitled “Ideas for a new immigration system” that was published in December was very similar to the plan that President Bush recently announced. No, they did not consult me nor did I have advance knowledge, it just seemed that it was an orderly way to approach the issue. My plan differed in that, once employed an individual could retain a temporary resident status so long as he was employed. No 3 year limit! This is because many resident aliens I have known of intend to work for a period of time, save some money, then return home to start a business or retire.
However, as a carrot, after 3 years one should be able to apply for permanent residency and once approved must apply for citizenship or return to temporary residence status. There should also not be any new bureaucracy to find jobs for temporary workers, that would be very susceptible to corruption. Past experience has demonstrated clearly that foreign workers and employers find each other quite efficiently, even in stealthy circumstances. In the past several years the number of young people that dropped out of schools or did not proceed to higher education has gotten less and less. Those folks would traditionally have taken the lower paying jobs the the new immigrants are now happy to get as a start to a new life.
Further, as the sponsoring employer is responsible, no public benefits would be available to temporary residents.
After the expiration of earned unemployment insurance the temporary resident would be required to return home. Children born in the U.S. to temporary residents would not automatically be entitled to U.S. citizenship but could earn it through military service or naturalization.
The important thing is that the existing laws for employers must be vigorously enforced; If there is an availability of legal workers and an effective enforcement of clearly understood requirements is accomplished (severe financial costs and periods of operation stoppages), employers will be motivated to stay legal rather than risk the hassle.
Of substantial importance is that those already in violation of the law must not get a free ride or preference over those seeking opportunities legally and must pay a penalty for the illegal activity.
Again, I suggest that the only path to residency other than those given for reasons of humanity should be through a temporary residence system. Perhaps we could even use the left over cards from the last amnesty.
A very big byproduct will be that since the Baby Boom workers are now retiring and getting social security benefits and there is no new baby boom to take their place in the work force, these new workers could provide the needed contributions to pay the bills.
We need to return to being a nation of law followers not law breakers!