Immigration Reform Solution

[onpatrol98]

1) Deport all illegal immigrants who have criminal records.
2) Arrest and convict illegal employers for causing this problem in the first place.
3) Clean up the ugly bureaucracy that is the current immigration system so that people currently in the paperwork pipeline can become citizens more quickly. A regular process should NOT take 10 years, 5 years. This process shouldn't take more than 2 years. Anything else is cruel and unusual.
4) Setup a point system that rewards people who obey our laws when it does come to immigration.

a) deduct points if you're currently in the country illegally, however add points if you return to your own country at your own expense AND remain their for a set period of time.

b) remove all hope for citizenship, benefits, etc. for people who are currently living in the country AND who refuse to self-deport.

c) add points if you can prove that you have spent the last 5 - 20 years in your own country UNLESS you're on a work visa.

d) for adults who immigrate legally, automatically include children and willing spouses (as long as no criminal background is evident).

e) for children who have grown up (establish a cutoff time period) in America, but who were brought here by their parents, they lose no points on a legal application...AND they gain points if their parents choose to return and take them with them...which is simply what many parents chose to do anyway.

Perhaps Mexico should consider adding (SSL) classes for their affected schools. For parents who chose to leave their children with relatives in America, the children still lose no points toward their application process. They simply also do not gain any points. They can remain in the country and continue with the application process. Citizenship is granted, but not as quickly as if they had returned to their homeland with their parents. These children are provided student visas and do not have to fear being deported against their wishes.

Obviously, we couldn't treat a 15 year who migrated last year like one who migrated to America 10 years ago with parents.

Stop using immigration as a way to get cheap labor and votes. Fix the trade laws that have crippled our nations. Legalize and tax the drugs that are currently illegal.

[obxhead]

1. I think you solve the entire 'problem' with #2

Severe criminal/civil penalties for every illegal employee. By severe I mean seizure and liquidation of the company and property, life time prison sentences, and all money/accts seized and applied to immigration enforcement.

A few large co's go down and the problem will magically disappear I do believe.

[Lance_Boyle]

3. Lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth here when that happens.

Lots of people here just want a blanket amnesty for all illegals and anything else is "racist." Targeting the employer gets lip service, but when it happens the usual suspects will chime in to say that it hurts the illegal aliens, not just the illegal employer, and therefor shouldn't happen. I support punishing illegal employers. I propose that the fines collected from them should be used at least in part to deport the illegal aliens they hired.

[EFerrari]

4. Targeting employers is not racism. Racism is racism. But, targeting employers

will not work while our regional policy continues to drive people north. It's like putting a paper towel on your head to keep out the rain.

This is the deal. Our government helps their corporate cronies do horrible things in Latin America -- like when Chiquita used death squads to keep their workers in line. Remember that? Or when we help coups like we just did in Honduras. The coup government is brutal and I can hear people fleeing them right now.

While the Feds keep doing this sh!t that forces people to flee their homes, it won't help for you to turn my flower shop in because i have two guys working there. Maybe busting really big operations like Tysons would be more efficient but still not effective if we're all the time making more refugees south of the border.

[Greyhound]

10. Our regional policies are a crime and must be addressed, but they are a seperate issue.

They provide the desperate conditions, but it is the available jobs that bring them here.

The "brilliance" of current system is two-fold, an endless supply of disposable labor and pushing the very people that the local parasites don't want to deal with out of the country. The people that will brave the trek are those that, if there was no reason to come here, would be in the forefront demanding equitable divisions of wealth, honest elections, fair pay and working conditions, etc.

These motivated people coming to America is the safety valve that allows our fascists to retain power there.

[EFerrari]

11. It's not a separate issue in any way. These people have to go somewhere.

There is no other place for them to go from Mexico or Central America.

[Greyhound]

12. Did you read the reply?

That's the whole point. If there is no place to go, you stay and fight, just like I'm doing here. Do you imagine for a moment that if I could simply walk into France and get a job and start a life, I would still be in this stucco work camp beating my head against brick brains every day?

The people that are leaving those countries are the people those counties need to fight for needed improvements.

[EFerrari]

13. I did, Greyhound. I guess I just disagree with you.

After the stolen presidential election in Mexico in 2006, the people flooded the streets for nearly six months. Much better show than we made after 2000. There was no shortage of activists or even just warm bodies there to fight. They were just outgunned by our government's support for the oligarchic thief.

Imho, you are discounting the power of the US government in those countries -- a power that even the domestic public, right here, can't counter effectively or at a minimum, hasn't found a way to counter effectively.

[Greyhound]

16. Not discounting it at all and until it is changed, nothing will help ours or their situations.

Mexico may not be quite as bad as Saudi Arabia, but the situation is similar, without our support the ruling parasites won't last a month.

But, while it is related, that is not the issue here, now.

Face it, the only solutions to this travesty are not ever going to be even discussed by anyone that matters, and the solutions lie in a fundamental shift of the existing power structure. That's the main reason I look to South America for what little hope I have for avoiding a new dark age.

[EFerrari]

17. Well, I agree with you that south is the right direction.

Everyone I have interviewed lately who has touched on that topic has agreed with that.

[obxhead]

9. It would have to go hand in hand with a fair

immigration program, but if you really want to solve the problem, you have to start at the source. Immigrants come here for jobs. Make it so only the legal ones can get those jobs and pay them a fair wage. The problem would begin to naturally balance itself out anyway.

[onpatrol98]

6. seizure and liquidation of the company and property, life time prison sentences, and all money/accts

Agreed!

[EFerrari]

2. No matter what the nativists claim, there is no problem with undocumented workers voting.

That was a republican scam to suppress the legitimate Latino vote.

[onpatrol98]

5. Undocumented workers voting

I don't believe undocumented workers are voting. I mean using immigration as an issue to score points and votes with the American public.

[EFerrari]

7. Gotcha. Of course. n/t

[Oregone]

8. Not a fan of your final solution

Basically force people to leave and abandon their homes/communities/professions for a pipe dream of immigrating legally (if you will let them immigrate honestly, I'm not sure why pushing them South first has any value whatsoever).

Not sure how you will fill the labor gap in the meantime.

[Jkid]

14. You got to consider about other countries as well plus cultural naturalization

e) for children who have grown up (establish a cutoff time period) in America, but who were brought here by their parents, they lose no points on a legal application...AND they gain points if their parents choose to return and take them with them...which is simply what many parents chose to do anyway.

Perhaps Mexico should consider adding (SSL) classes for their affected schools. For parents who chose to leave their children with relatives in America, the children still lose no points toward their application process. They simply also do not gain any points. They can remain in the country and continue with the application process. Citizenship is granted, but not as quickly as if they had returned to their homeland with their parents. These children are provided student visas and do not have to fear being deported against their wishes.

Other countries would have to do the same for their own nation's children who are brought back along with their parents (Brazil: Portuguese as a second language, France: French as a Second Language, Taiwan: Chinese as a Second Language). Not all countries are able to implement the Second Language programs (like some third world countries), and in some countries (Japan, Korea)even if they implement the Second Language programs they have to overcome to foreigner aspect, even if they know the language, they may not fit in because they still know little about their own country because they have not been socialized in that country and their educational credentials may not be accepted in their foreign countries. As a result it may be difficult for them to get back to the country they know because they can't get a job and their educational credentials may be useless in the country of their immigrant parents were born.

A better idea is to let them stay if they can prove that at least the child is culturally naturalized America. If the parent or at least the child or the majority of the family, is culturally naturalized and can prove to be cultural naturalized via the English language and culture they should stay.

As for 1) The US ought to deport illegal immigrants who have committed felony crimes and has not committed itself to reforming itself. The instant they commit a indictable only felony, then they should be deported after serving their sentence.

[SargeUNN]

15. I stand by my earlier topic nobody seems to want to read

This is suggestion is only of a small use and not all points are practical. Again another example of too much knee jerk and unawareness of the real problems but got the solutions without the facts. Check out my earlier topic and maybe you will see why this proposal has inherit failures in it.