| | Surely others have had the idea that I am proposing, but somehow it just didn't get into the stream of debate. Some activists suggest identifying, apprehending and deporting all of the 12 million illegals who came across the US-Mexico border and, presumably, document them and let them back in in an orderly fashion. Does billions and billions of dollars seems to be a reasonable amount to allocate to that proposal? How about if we have a way of letting themselves voluntarily go back across the border document them and then let them back in?
My alternative proposal is as follows:
- establish a series of, say, 10 INS processing points on the Mexico border where most of the illegals originally crossed. There would be one gate to let the returning immigrants be documented that they had already been in the US. They then would proceed across the border to Mexico where they could immediately turn around and be processed with provisionary documentation and let back into the US;
- enact a policy that any immigrant who doesn't comply with the above procedure in the next two years will never, ever gain legal status;
- because any immigrant who knows anything about the history of amnesty for illegals in the US will not believe that there will not be amnesty in the future would thus tend to ignore the new policy. It would be necessary to amend the constitution to make amnesty illegal — just for the purpose of credibility;
- anyone entering the US illegally for the first time during the two year period could try to falsify his employment history to show otherwise but I propose that substantial rewards be made to those who report them. This would be done mostly by the newly documented workers who would value their new status and resent those who would try to get that same status by unfair means;
- the provisional documentation would not be a guarantee that that the (now legal) immigrant would eventually be able to attain permanent status but it would put him in the line for consideration for eventual citizenship;
- after the two year period nationalizing the 12 million aliens could take place in an orderly manner, together with immigrants of all racial and ethnic groups.
The advantages of this proposal are manifest:
- a saving of multi-billions of dollars;
- voluntary actions of the illegals for them to comply with the law. Only in this way can they have respect for US laws;
- the requirement for them to go back and retrace their path is a way for them to expiate their transgressions;
- that the process may inconvenience them should be of no particular concern. If they had the determination to make their way from the Mexico border to Idaho, for instance, they should also have the determination to make the reverse trip;
- with 10 INS processing points, 12 million immigrants could be processed in two years at the rate of about 1,600 per day, 365 days a year for each station — a feasible rate. It would be very expensive, but trivial compared to other proposals.
Sam
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