Posted by
David C. Innes on Saturday, September 08, 2007 9:51:15 PM
The debate on immigration reform has cooled somewhat since the most recent immigration bill failed. But the problem is still there, and it will re-emerge in public debate in 2008 when the presidential campaign heats up between the parties instead of within them. Consider these common sense steps to solving the illegal immigration
problem.
1. Secure the border
We are being invaded -- not by a hostile
army -- but nonetheless invaded. Put up a fence and regulate traffic
through the open bits. If we can drop Shock and Awe on Iraq, surely we
can face down Mexico with a fence. Get it done, and fast.
2. Enforce the immigration laws
Start identifying who is here illegally and start putting them gently
on the other side of the fence. Twelve million people are a lot of
people. No problem. Take twenty years to do it, if necessary. In the
end you may be repatriating someone who has been here for thirty years.
He can thank the Lord that he has had thirty years in America. I hope
that he is saving. What if these people have children born here? Those
children are American citizens. Fine. They are repatriated with their
parents and when they turn 18 they can come back to the land of their
birth, America. If you let parents stay because of their American-born
babies, guess what? (Follow the logic of predictable human behavior.)
People sneaking into the country will secure their permanent residency
by having babies here. What if an illegal marries an American? Will we
split up families? If you marry someone who is illegally in the
country, you have implicitly agreed to follow your beloved to his or
her country of origin if need be or live potentially very separate
lives. Otherwise, people will sneak into the country and secure their
permanent residency by marrying the first gullible Americans they can
dupe into wedlock. Can't have that. (Remember AFDC?) It's tough love.
3. Open the immigration spigot
Raise the caps on immigration much higher than they are now and employ enough
people at DHS to process them in a timely manner. That's growing the
government. That's something we do well. There is surely a majority in
Congress for that.
4. Change the laws to at least discourage abortion (Rudy, can you do
that?), and then to
encourage families to have children and stay together. David Brooks broached this subject in his May 15th 2007
New York Times
column, "A Human Capital Agenda," saying, "It means increasing child
tax credits to reduce economic stress on young families. It means
encouraging marriage, the best educational institution we have." John Mueller of the
Ethics and Public Policy Center
, in his bold and illuminating book,
Redeeming Economics,
notes a relationship between the legalization of abortion in 1973 and
our current labor shortage. He writes, "Most immigrants are in their
twenties, and the annual number of legal and illegal immigrants to the
United States is now almost exactly equal to the number of abortions 20
to 25 years earlier: about 1.5 million."
Recognizing
the need for these measures and rallying the country and our
legislators to support them is the work of a statesman and the measure
of a successful presidential candidate in 2008.