From the Politics of Personal Destruction to Reasonable Compromise:
#1 Undocumented Immigration
Update to Article
Published here on July 29, 2016
It is
unfortunate that candidates for president concentrate their statements on
character attacks of their opponents and polarized and intransigent policy
positions. I believe that candidates
themselves would better serve the public by presenting proposals for viable
compromises on the issues that have lingered in the limbo of inaction and
gridlock. Surrogates and the media will
take care of the personal destruction part.
May I humbly propose here in my blog, and probably simply repackage the
thinking of many others, a series of what I consider reasonable compromises.
Modern-day undocumented
immigration has been a divisive issue for as long as I can remember; I have
been around for a while. In the 50s and
60s, the exploitation and mistreatment of "braceros," cheap manual
laborers imported across the Mexican border by American farmers, became a
national scandal. Cesar Chavez, a
Mexican American labor leader, founded the United Farm Workers Union in 1962. His struggle gained national attention and
the active support of political figures the likes of Robert F. Kennedy. Over the years, the illegal employment of undocumented aliens by American industry, as well as households, has created a magnet for border crossers in search of a better life. As the population of illegal immigrants
grew, Congress granted a series of seven amnesties as follows:
1.
Immigration and Reform Control Act (IRCA), 1986
1 2. Section 245(i) Amnesty, 1994
3.
Section 245(i) Extension Amnesty, 1997
4.
Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American
Relief Act (NACARA) Amnesty, 1997
5.
Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act
Amnesty (HRIFA), 1998
6.
Late Amnesty, 2000
7.
LIFE Act Amnesty, 2000
In total, these amnesties were accompanied by promises from congressional progressives of future border enforcement; after each amnesty, the commitment to border enforcement never materialized. These amnesties provided legal status to more than six million illegal
aliens. In the past 20 years, the
undocumented population has accumulated again, but this time estimated at more
than 20 million people. Calls for
amnesty number eight have divided the nation. Democrats want Hispanic immigrants to come and vote but not to take jobs from their union supporters, while Republicans want them to come and work cheaply but not to increase the democratic voting bloc. The hypocrisy goes on at the expense of those
who are forced to live in the shadows.
Today, an
argument on the "left" is that the millions of undocumented
immigrants already in the U.S. have
contributed to our economy and deserve some form of legalization and not the
cruel separation of individuals from their families, ergo amnesty number eight. The idea of a global society without
borders, as John Lennon sang, is something that we can indeed “Imagine.”
An argument
on the "right" is that immigrants from the same language and
cultural similarity are arriving in indigestible numbers and are overwhelming
our natural "social assimilation machine." That wave of Spanish-speaking border crossers has led to national Spanish-language television networks and a demand for a bi-lingual society. It is further
argued that what our country needs is a more language and culturally diversified
immigrant population, as well as more educated immigrants that are in short
supply for our economy, not more unskilled laborers to compete with the ones we
already have.
Without
taking sides let's consider a simple compromise as follows:
For the
"Right."
- Provide the Border Patrol and the Immigration Control and Enforcement Agency (ICE) with whatever resources are needed to secure the Mexican-American border verifiably.
- Provide ICE with whatever resources are needed to pursue and deport all those who overstay their "visa period."
- Create a mandatory national electronic verification for employment system and provide ICE with whatever resources are needed to detect and substantially fine employers of undocumented immigrants
- Prioritize future immigration to favor those with the skills needed by our economy and who can support themselves after they arrive.
For the "Left."
- Suspend deportation of undocumented immigrants without a criminal record.
- Provide a grace period for undocumented immigrants in the country to register with the government for legal status and provide resources for a community-based registration system.
- Reform the process that keeps applicants for legal entry waiting for many months and even years so that it can be a quick and efficient experience for future Americans.
- Create government incentives for American businesses to shift their supply chain production from China to Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean nations. Thereby reducing unemployment in our regional neighborhood and the need for those populations to emigrate
The trick to
the compromise is that it all needs to be approved and funded simultaneously,
without new empty promises of future compliance. This compromise is simple and obvious; if both
sides act in good faith, it leads to gridlock when one side or the other tries
to cheat. The big losers are always the
undocumented immigrants now in the country and the country itself.
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