Todd's Views: Illegal Immigration
George Bush rushed off to spend every penny this country has, emptying
its pockets into the corporate friends of George Bush and the Bush
family, to wage a war, any war, on whatever country and for whatever
reason without regard to the needs of this nation, and those needs can
be summed up in a word: security. And to secure this nation, the very
first thing that needs to be done is to seal up our borders and carefully
screen those coming in.
This is not, as so many have opined, a slap to immigrants to this country.
It will, though, cause a lot of difficulty for those coming into the
country illegally. And it should. Because the people that we want most
to stop are counting on being able to slip in undetected, and if that's
as easy as learning Spanish and cross the southern border in the dead of
night, then our first front against invasion by terrorists is seriously
deficient.
At the same time we have to recognize that we have a tacit welfare program
set up for the citizens in Mexico and their failed economy. The Mexican
government's best solution for their crappy economic policies is to print
and pass out leaflets explaining how to get across the border and find
jobs here. Stupid, but true.
So here's what I would do:
Seal the borders. Build a wall on the southern and northern
borders, multiply the number of border patrol by some very large
number and put them on that wall. Shut it down hard.
Pass legislation that penalizes anyone aiding or abetting an illegal
immigrant with specific fines and jail time. I think an employer
should have to pay a fine equal to the amount they would have paid
that individual at 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year.
Ramp up, as quickly as possible, a screening system that uses all
the latest technology to identify an individual and bring up their
records in real time.
Put a guest worker program in place immediately to allow people
who come here for work but do not wish to become citizens to obtain
access to our country and the jobs they can find here.
Build really large, ugly prisons for housing people that come into
the country illegally. Hold them long enough to make them wish
they hadn't bothered. Then dump them back across the border.
Once the wall and guest worker program are in place, give everyone
in this country illegally 72 hours to report to a specially built
and staffed processing center to get them signed up for the guest
worker program right away.
After that 72 hour period, round up everyone who is in the country
illegally and put them in prison.
I have nothing against immigrants -- we're a nation of them, after all -- but
let's not be stupid about this. This isn't a racist issue, it's a security
issue, a legal issue, and a citizen's rights issue. We need to secure our
borders for now and all time against those that would infiltrate us and
attack from within. This is a necessary step, and part of the world we
now live in thanks to the terrorists.
But don't come into this country illegally and then dare to protest in the
streets of American waving the flag of another nation and demanding rights,
jobs, healthcare, and education. First off, if you come into this country
illegally, you're not a citizen, you're an invader. You don't have
rights here. You waving a foreign flag is just making it easier for me to aim.
You got a problem with it? Write Bin Laden. According to most reports,
he's busy dying of old age in Pakistan somewhere.