Illegal Immigration. What is YOUR solution?

Question

I think the Immigration Bill is a step in the right direction.
This huge 'problem' has to be solved before the '08 election, otherwise it will just stay another polarising issue, and there are enough of these already. Mass deportation is not a viable solution, so a way of integrating illegals must be the logical way.
A clean criminal record, having a job and learning English should be the criterion.
What is your solution?

Answer 1

I do think this is a fairly good, bi-partisan approach to bringing the current illegals into the taxpaying roles. I don't think 5 grand is too much to pay -- many illegals have been in the U.S. for years. I totally agree that a clean criminal record, job and English must be mandatory.

But I question how, exactly, this will be enforced, or whether it's just more bureaucratic foo-foo to appease "real" Americans.

Answer 2

What we need to do is not deport them, at least not at first. We need to build labor camps. When an illegal is caught, they are taken to this camp and put to work, making something that can be sold to the American public at large. While they are working at this camp, their hourly earnings are kept track of and the illegal immigrant would only receive a small amount of this. None would be allowed to be sent back to families in other countries. They could only keep enough to pay for paper, pencils envelopes, stamps, food, etc. The money that they don't receive should be put in an account and held until they have accumulated enough to pay for any and all cost associated with their stay at the camp and any and all cost incurred by deporting them. Each successive time that an illegal is caught, their pay in the camp would be cut in half or a quarter, so it would mean that they have to work longer and longer each time. If an illegal immigrant knew that they could possibly lose 3 - 4 years of their life working for nothing, I don't think they would be so quick to want to come here. If they knew that when they tried to come back, they would be facing twice as long in the camp, it might deter them from returning. At the same time, these camps would eliminate most cost associated with rounding up and deporting illegals. Problem solved.

Answer 3

Solving the immigration problem is the same as dealing with terrorism .
There is no easy answer .
We have established a revolving door policy with illegal Immigrants that is a catch and release program .
The problem is what can you do to prevent millions of people from seeking a better way of life .
Mexico does not have an economy as strong as ours and when we want cheap labor it is convenient to exploit them and when we no longer want them we say ok go away .
How is it ,that so many illegals can find work , in the first place , when we have laws that require people to present documents that show you are eligible to work .
Maybe we can just accept that this nation is big enough that those who get here will in most cases work hard and contribute to society in a positive manner and that a few may not ,but to blame those few as being what the majority of immigrants are like is wrong .
It is plane short sighted and ignorant for people to say that an illegal who robs a bank ,rapes a woman , kills someone in a drunk driving accident is the reason to build a border wall along our southern most border and not one to the north . Canadians have been coming south and committing these very same crimes .
Human beings tend to transgress the laws of man and God from time to time and This is no reason to become a protectionist nation that builds walls at its borders as well as walls around its wealthier communities with private security .
As time moves on I see us becoming more divided and less willing to share in the great wealth that is possible for all .

Mexico as desperate as it was to attract jobs should never of allowed American companies to locate plants in mexico that provided jobs at wages no american would accept .
Scab labor has always been looked down at when the strike is settled and they are forced to give back the jobs .

Answer 4

This issue will not be solved by 2008 for one. Secondly, did you know that this bill they are talking about is over 700 pages long? Before you agree or disagree you should really know what all is contained in it.

My solution would be this. First we have to elliminate the reasons for illegals coming here. Employers have to quit hiring them or be severely punished if they do. We have to quit feeding them, housing them, and giving them free health care. When they are caught comitting crimes they have to be deported, not just given a slap on the wrist and let go. The ones already in the country should not be able to work, or get any welfare benefits anymore until they have become a legal immigrant through the proper channels. This would hopefully at least slow the flow down, then we could work on sealing the borders and stiffening up immigration laws.

Answer 5

In my opinion:

1- Close the border immediately. How? Build the fence. Send "armed" National Guards to patrol the border. Open up rules of engagement to the guards and border patrol.

2- Go after "ALL" companies that hire illegals aggressively. Create a database of valid SSN so employers can easily check for fake and invalid SSN.

3- Roughly 30% of prisoners in CA and 15-20% nation wide are illegal aliens. Deport them immediately. Also deport all illegal aliens with criminal records.

4- All illegal aliens who are currently in the country 5 years or longer will be able to apply for legal resident after background check, pay back taxes, a fine of $10,000 each. Issue each of them an "temper proof" ID. Deport all aliens on any government support programs. Cancel all "hand outs" social programs.

5- Cut all welfare programs, that way all the lazy butts that are on welfare will work instead of the illegals.

For the shortage of farm workers, send out the prisoners and make them work.

This is a long shot but worth a try: REPEAL THE 14th AMENDMENT SECTION 1 (All who are born in the U.S. are US Citizens). That way they can't come in and give birth to an "anchor baby".

"Legal immigration" is what we want. It's not fair for immigrants who waited years to come here legally. Why punish the law abiding immigrants and reward the law breaking immigrants? It just doesn't make sense.

Answer 6

Some really good answers up there!
The latest version of the immigration bill is better, but I still don't wholly approve of amnesty, even with a fine since enforcement is really a major issue there.
Totally agree about having no criminal record and learning English (though that will be a tough one since congress hasn't been willing to declare that our national language yet).
In addition, I want to see all of our current immigration laws strictly enforced.
A really big and well-guarded fence running the entire length of the border.
Letting border enforcement agents do their job (rather than penalizing them for it).
Any criminal act should immediately result in deportation without option to return--family or not.
And definitely major penalties for ALL employers (including farms and individuals with maids, nannies, etc.) who hire illegal immigrants. (I particularly like the suggestion about making the fine the same as it costs to process and deport!)
Of course to do that they'll probably have to create a new government agency whose job it is to verify the legality of immigrants... Oh wait, don't we already have one? They need do do their job!
Now the real trouble comes down to paying for it all... eliminating all of the welfare systems is a start--we could offer to return them home as a last gift from the American taxpayer.
Hopefully the reduced costs in healthcare and education would be a start, but this is going to cost major bucks, folks. We have the war on poverty, the war on terror, how about the war on illegal immigration?

Answer 7

A: Fine the companies that hire them, the exact average amount it takes to do so. No more of our tax dollars for their problems.

You can't go around asking people in America for "papers" however, everyone has to supply information when getting a job. Anyone that supplies false info should be able to be found pretty easily. This would seperate out ILLEGAL from LEGAL.

My best friend was married to a Columbian for 2 years before I even knew about it. He lost his ring at my house but was evasive about what he actually lost. I liked her, still do, but she was using a dead persons information before, and divorced him right after she was done using him. She seemed genuine, so I had looked the other way.

PS: If they have kids here, counsel them, and get them to report 3-5 other people they know that are illegal, and they and their families can have amnesty. If not, get out. At least that would cut down the "amnesty" to maybe 5 million people?

Answer 8

Ross Perot had it right...we should have NEVER allowed NAFTA to be passed,...now big companies are getting rich in Mexico at the expense of the people down there, that is why the people are sneaking up here...they still have no benifits and get paid about two dollars a day in our factories down there while corporate America gets richer...and when Bill Clinton 'loaned' Mexico 53 Billions dollars, he should have stipulated that Mexico bring their minumum wage up to OUR level, which would have enabled the People to stay there and work...but instead, Old slick Willy forgave the loan...raise the mininum wage in Mexico, and they will stay home.

Answer 9

I like Ron Paul's ideas to physically secure our borders and coastlines. We need to be enforcing visa rules. Immigration officials need to start doing their jobs and track visa holders and deport anyone who overstays their visa or violates the law. I don't believe in any amnesty. Definitely no welfare or benefits should be given to illegal aliens. This is a huge burden to taxpayers. We need to eliminate all incentives they have by coming here illegally.

Answer 10

One thing I think should be added to the bill is any illegal person caught that did not take the deal should be deported after 2 years in jail.