Saturday, October 01, 2011
Illegal Immigrants--Send them Home?
We have a border problem that is costing us a lot.
What are the viable solutions to controlling our border with Mexico? So far, there have been a number proposed and partially implemented: 1. the border fence, which is imperfect and incomplete, and is thwarted by the drug dealers and everyone else; 2. Border Patrols augmented somewhat, but insufficiently; 3. All manner of technical surveillance systems coupled with pursuit teams, which has had some limited successes; 4. statewide patrols that catch some truckloads of aliens but not all; 5. a significant set of laws on the books that are not enforced; 6. and National Guard units deployed essentially unarmed. No one suggests that we shoot to kill any crossers, unless, of course, they shoot first, which has happened.
I suppose the final idea is to simply leave the border open and unattended with “y’all come! signs posted around. This idea is a non-starter in my book. We do not have an EU kind of relationship with Mexico with no intra-border control at all.
If we really want to shut the border as a first act, I am reasonably certain that we could reach a 95% to 98% seal, using the above closing methods far more thoroughly, including employing our armed forces, with a dispensation for posse comitatus along the border belt. The idea that the fence allows a reduction in patrols is simply wrong. The fence is meant to make it difficult for groups to cross quickly and to detect the crossings when they do occur, but we need constant surveillance and very frequent overlapping patrols and backups. This takes money; lots of money, and a fully completed and instrumented fence and border strip. A solution must be found for the instances where the fence disrupts our own citizens’ property. How dumb can you get? This problem must have a reasonable solution.
The second act here is to create a realistic and effective large scale migrant worker program using new ID technologies, police-type supervision and really heavy fines for sponsors if they can’t supervise their workers properly. Perhaps the employers should deposit a heafty sum for each migrant worker they hire as a guarantee of their keeping control, or else.
The third act is to use very heavy fines for employers that use illegal workers, and to supervise them very often. If the jobs dry up or are under the MWP fewer will come across illegally.
The fourth act is very simple, but evidently hard to do. Have all US police organizations charged with the responsibility to identify and apprehend illegal aliens, along with the INS and Border Patrols. The police should enforce the current laws on the books, which would allow them to question suspected lawbreakers and ask them for ID wherever they are found on US territory. The police do not want this job, and they have allowed laws to be broken in their presence because they do not want to get involved. The concept of our law enforcement people refusing to enforce a law is repugnant to me. There are some legal problems involved, but they can be handled, I believe, if we want to solve the illegal alien problem at all. The INS and legal screening process would have to be streamlined and their personnel motivated to reach a deportation decision, or not, more rapidly then earlier.
Such acts would materially increase the flow of illegal aliens from the US to their homeland. Provisions would have to be made to house and feed this crowd until they are shipped home en masse, possibly by using a combination of near border housing in camps, busses, and perhaps a string of leased cruise ships from our ports eventually to theirs.
Over a five or even a ten year program, this approach could reduce the number of illegal aliens in the US substantially if it were to be fully implemented in all respects.
Of course, there are those who wish to ignore the illegality of these people and would provide them amnesty and US citizenship sooner or later. Personally, I am against amnesty. Perhaps there are ways to grant some of them immediate migrant worker status or deferrals for humanitarian reasons, so long as they are gainfully employed and pay US taxes. Sooner or later, however, they would have to return home and apply for the normal and legal immigration route. There is nothing to prevent us from increasing the number of Mexican citizens that we would allow to immigrate per year either, through the standard channels.
The “standard channels” themselves need a major overhaul as well, but that is another story.
What needs development is the fairness of our system of permissions in the INS. What is the rationale for allowing, say, a large quota from Mexico to immigrate, but to block or reduce quantities from other nations? Should there be an upper limit per year, and on and on…?
What are the viable solutions to controlling our border with Mexico? So far, there have been a number proposed and partially implemented: 1. the border fence, which is imperfect and incomplete, and is thwarted by the drug dealers and everyone else; 2. Border Patrols augmented somewhat, but insufficiently; 3. All manner of technical surveillance systems coupled with pursuit teams, which has had some limited successes; 4. statewide patrols that catch some truckloads of aliens but not all; 5. a significant set of laws on the books that are not enforced; 6. and National Guard units deployed essentially unarmed. No one suggests that we shoot to kill any crossers, unless, of course, they shoot first, which has happened.
I suppose the final idea is to simply leave the border open and unattended with “y’all come! signs posted around. This idea is a non-starter in my book. We do not have an EU kind of relationship with Mexico with no intra-border control at all.
If we really want to shut the border as a first act, I am reasonably certain that we could reach a 95% to 98% seal, using the above closing methods far more thoroughly, including employing our armed forces, with a dispensation for posse comitatus along the border belt. The idea that the fence allows a reduction in patrols is simply wrong. The fence is meant to make it difficult for groups to cross quickly and to detect the crossings when they do occur, but we need constant surveillance and very frequent overlapping patrols and backups. This takes money; lots of money, and a fully completed and instrumented fence and border strip. A solution must be found for the instances where the fence disrupts our own citizens’ property. How dumb can you get? This problem must have a reasonable solution.
The second act here is to create a realistic and effective large scale migrant worker program using new ID technologies, police-type supervision and really heavy fines for sponsors if they can’t supervise their workers properly. Perhaps the employers should deposit a heafty sum for each migrant worker they hire as a guarantee of their keeping control, or else.
The third act is to use very heavy fines for employers that use illegal workers, and to supervise them very often. If the jobs dry up or are under the MWP fewer will come across illegally.
The fourth act is very simple, but evidently hard to do. Have all US police organizations charged with the responsibility to identify and apprehend illegal aliens, along with the INS and Border Patrols. The police should enforce the current laws on the books, which would allow them to question suspected lawbreakers and ask them for ID wherever they are found on US territory. The police do not want this job, and they have allowed laws to be broken in their presence because they do not want to get involved. The concept of our law enforcement people refusing to enforce a law is repugnant to me. There are some legal problems involved, but they can be handled, I believe, if we want to solve the illegal alien problem at all. The INS and legal screening process would have to be streamlined and their personnel motivated to reach a deportation decision, or not, more rapidly then earlier.
Such acts would materially increase the flow of illegal aliens from the US to their homeland. Provisions would have to be made to house and feed this crowd until they are shipped home en masse, possibly by using a combination of near border housing in camps, busses, and perhaps a string of leased cruise ships from our ports eventually to theirs.
Over a five or even a ten year program, this approach could reduce the number of illegal aliens in the US substantially if it were to be fully implemented in all respects.
Of course, there are those who wish to ignore the illegality of these people and would provide them amnesty and US citizenship sooner or later. Personally, I am against amnesty. Perhaps there are ways to grant some of them immediate migrant worker status or deferrals for humanitarian reasons, so long as they are gainfully employed and pay US taxes. Sooner or later, however, they would have to return home and apply for the normal and legal immigration route. There is nothing to prevent us from increasing the number of Mexican citizens that we would allow to immigrate per year either, through the standard channels.
The “standard channels” themselves need a major overhaul as well, but that is another story.
What needs development is the fairness of our system of permissions in the INS. What is the rationale for allowing, say, a large quota from Mexico to immigrate, but to block or reduce quantities from other nations? Should there be an upper limit per year, and on and on…?
Labels: Border Patrols, Illegal Immigrants
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