Both of President Trump’s electoral victories were driven in large part by promising to put an end to illegal immigration.
Just to accentuate his first term, The Donald won the second term overwhelmingly against a disciple of laisse faire immigration enforcement policy.
Assuming we are finally ready to resolve existing immigration policy’s failures, trying to reuse the thinking of the past – including identity politics - will result in repeating those failures. In particular, I believe that comprehensive immigration reform will never succeed.
There are too many things to trade during the negotiations so that, at the end of the day, everyone claims victory while nothing much changes.
We will be told that comprehensive reform is necessary to ensure a consistent approach to all the parts that make up immigration policy, and is the only way to get any movement towards lasting solutions.
But, trying to resolve all the parts of immigration policy in one fell swoop has been about like trying to hug a cloud.
Undeniably, there is a holistic view of the subject that is necessary to keep sight of.
An overarching values position is necessary to anchor the policy. However, each component should be resolved on its own, with each piece fitting into the whole, like a jigsaw puzzle.
As I see it, there are six topics which make up the entire subject of immigration policy: border security, unskilled – including seasonal – workers, skilled and/or educated workers, asylum applications, what to do about those already here, and the naturalization process.
Each one of these topics has its own complexities.
Immigration policy fails if border security is not the first topic to be resolved. It is the portal through which all other topics’ solutions must pass.
It requires that anyone who comes into this country does so with Our expressed permission. Border security policy should validate our sovereign right to decide who enters our country and how long they stay.
Our nation’s economy cannot be sustained without a significant injection of labor beyond what our population can provide, especially with as many able-bodied as we allow to not earn their own keep. How many immigrant workers, and who, must be determined from the demand side of our borders, not the supply side.
Every temporary worker should have a government-registered sponsor, who is legally responsible for any immigrant that works for them.
As much as anything, because of the number of students our schools are graduating who are not as capable as those from some foreign countries, we will need to, and should, import skilled and well-educated workers from elsewhere, if we expect to be able to beat back all the offshore challenges to our way of life.
The criteria for bringing in these workers are the same as for other temporary workers, but with the added requirement that they not come from a country which is adversarial towards the US; especially if the work they are doing could be used against us when the immigrant returns to their home country.
There are asylum seekers that America has a legitimate obligation to admit. One such group is those who directly aided American war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Those people should not now have to face the consequences of having helped us by being given over to their enemies.
We should honor our promises to those who, based on our promises - took risks for us, but even this consideration should be managed judiciously.
Every immigrant who legitimately enters this country should know what a path to citizenship entails. The first thing should be that the immigrant’s sponsor is willing to recommend the immigrant.
Of course, the policy should include how, and which, family members are legitimized by the citizenship of one family member.
For the undocumented aliens already here, they have to become documented.
Once we know who they are and what they are currently contributing to or detracting from our wellbeing, we can decide what their legal status will be. But under no circumstances should they be allowed to remain in the shadows.
President Trump’s immigrant sweeps have picked up a significant number of known criminal aliens, even members of known foreign gangs. Americans should never again have to face that paradigm where immigration policy aids and abets alien criminals.
And if undocumented immigrants are afraid to point criminal activity to the police because of their own immigration status, perhaps that problem is best solved by making sure no immigrant enters our country who is not doing so legally.