The Search for a Comprehensive Immigration Plan
by John Lawrence, August 12, 2019
A reasonable comprehensive immigration plan would consist of 3 parts: 1) who and how many to let into the country legally; 2) what to do with illegals who are already residing in the US and 3) border security. It might be a good idea to look at the immigration policies of other countries to see how they do it since some other countries seem to be more rational than the US when it comes to immigration and a whole lot else. Switzerland, for example, only lets in people they need in the labor force. Canada has 4 classes of people: 1) close members of families already living in Canada; 2) skilled workers and businessmen (i.e. those with money); 3) refugees and 4) people accepted for humanitarian reasons.
Elizabeth Warren's immigration package is largely a reaction to Trump's policies. She would just be more humane about treating illegals. Her policy says nothing about border protection. Cory Booker has a similar plan eliminating criminal prosecution for illegal immigrants. Again his plan says nothing about border security. It's all about a reaction to Trump's inhumane treatment of illegals. While these ideas offer more humane treatment for illegal border crossers, they say nothing about border security or preventing illegal border crossings in the first place. They would also be more lenient on persons who had put down roots here even though they crossed illegally. This is probably a good idea. If a person or family has established itself here, has a job or jobs and especially have had children born here, then they should be given some kind of legal status if not full citizenship. A green card, a work permit, a visa or some temporary legal status makes sense.
The most important question to ask, however, is why is the border like a sieve? Why is it that so many can cross illegally in the first place? If they couldn't cross illegally in the first place, then all the arguments about detention centers go away. Here's my take on this phenomenon of a sieve like border. The border could be made absolutely secure if the resources were devoted to securing it. Why aren't they? Because the military budget (which doesn't contain border security) is sucking all the economic air out of the room. You would think that the primary responsibility of the military would be to protect our borders, but the military has no responsibility at all to protect our borders. In fact they are forbidden supposedly by the Posse Comitatus Act from protecting our borders. How ridiculous! I'm not saying they should be shooting illegal border crossers. I'm saying that a good percentage of the military and military-industrial complex budget should be devoted to protecting out borders.
What would gold plated border protection look like? The military has the most advanced electronic surveillance systems in the world. So use those satellites, computers, cameras and radars to electronically surveil the border. Assign beefed up manpower as necessary to protect the border. US Customs and Border Protection should be powered up both in terms of budget and manpower while the military should be proportionately scaled down. The Department of Homeland Security budget of approximately $50 billion is pathetically small compared to the military budget which approaches $1 trillion. So who are the leaders of our country trying to fool? The truth is that a gold plated border protection system which would reduce illegal entries to zero could be had for probably one tenth of the military budget. So what is more important - protecting our borders or engaging in wars of choice around the world which so far have produced negative results in every war since WW II. We hear about 5G and Artificial Intelligence. Why not apply those technologies to border protection.
I'm for letting the Dreamers stay and not forcing family separation. I'm also for gold plated border security and a system of legal immigration similar to the Canadians. The Democrats better get on board with border protection because, if they leave this subject to the Republicans, they'll lose. If they appear to be for open borders, they lose. So don't be just a reaction to Trump. Innovate with your own ideas and make it clear you want both a humane and a rational immigration policy. Their ideas of devoting more economic support to Central American countries to alleviate the suffering of people there, which has largely been created by American policies of the past, is also a necessary step and a good one.
