[quote=KSMountain][quote=ocrenter]I think it would be good to at least look at what most people agree with, because the issues people disagree with are always magnified, and that doesn’t serve anyone any good. I think the following is a good list that most people will agree on:
–illegals are illegals, they are not “undocumented.”
–dream act is a good policy, it is a goof filter of the good vs bad apples.
–any illegals that served in the military can get legalized.
–any illegals with any criminal record, automatic deportation.
–continue with the amped up enforcement at the border first started under George W and continued under Obama.
–given demographic changes south of border, an expensive border wall is not necessary.
–guest worker program needs to be implemented.
The only thing that’s really causing disagreement is on what happens with the 10 million illegals already here. Honestly, trying to deport the 10 million would be too costly. So the only practical solution is a guest worker program with option for eventual legalization of status. A carrot and stick approach can be used to make sure the great majority of the illegals come forward. Up enforcement at the workplace as the stick and eventual path to legalization as the carrot.[/quote]
This seems like a good start.
You left off us being smarter about allowing qualified educated folks from other countries to stay/work here.
I’m not as convinced of a direct correlation between birthrates and immigration pressure – I think other factors may have more influence – but we shall see.
Other controversial topics that weren’t in your list (which I understand you intended to be uncontroversial):
* Should children of illegals automatically become citizens?
* Should illegals be able to have drivers licenses?
* Should free healthcare and other services be doled out equally to all regardless of citizenship?
* Should we do another amnesty? And then another every 10 years? Should we just open the border and allow unlimited anonymous entry and indefinite stay?
It seems strange to me that we have per-country immigration quotas and a lengthy path to citizenship process, but we also have policies that look the other way if you can just get in here. It seems there’s an ambiguity and an inconsistency there that we should resolve.[/quote]
My 2 cents on this list:
1. Though it’s consitutional, I think people who are born here should not become citizens unless one or both of their parents are citizens. It was one thing to do this when we were trying to build a country, but we don’t need the same type of population growth now.
2. Yes, they should be allowed to have special driver’s licenses that have a symbol or something to show that they did not have to prove citizenship in order to get it. Perhaps a “non-resident/citizen’s” driver’s license that could be used by people who are staying for an extended time, like H1B visa holders. We need to be able to keep track of all drivers for liability purposes. Also not sure if unlicensed drivers can get insurance, so would do this just for that, alone.
3. As an advocate for “socialized” healthcare, I think all U.S. citizens should have access to public healthcare, but non-citizens (even legal residents) would have to buy into the system. It would be priced in a similar way to private insurance WRT risk-based premiums, etc. Hopefully, it would be a bit less expensive, though, since we would have less fraud and no profits to worry about.
4. No more amnesty, period. We are done with that.
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The easiest way to fix our illegal immigration problem is to make all employers use the E-Verify system. Regular raids should be done to ensure compliance. If an employer wants to hire illegal immigrants, that could be permissible, but they would have to pay a fixed cost for each employee and all of their dependents in order to get “benefit cards” that could be used to enroll children in school and access any and all public services.
I think that once the cost of illegal immigration is borne by those responsible for it (employers), then we’ll see that most of those jobs WOULD be done by Americans for the same amount of money…or less!
