Illegal Aliens

Okay, so there have been a couple of articles about illegal aliens in my local newspaper. As is TYPICAL of this area, most of the posters responded with incredibly hate filled and childish comments. I commented to that fact, and I think that I have been labeled an illegal aliens sympathizer by the locals. While I normally don't care what small minded people think, it did get me to thinking about the problems we DO have with illegal immigrants. And yes, I believe it is a very big problem that needs addressing!

So, what do we do? Most of the morons in NWF think we just round them up and ship them out. Little do they seem to realize THAT is precisely what we have been doing for years! It doesn't work, and to think that doing the same thing over and over again, and hope that it will work THIS time... well, that's a different blog I'm sure. The way I see it (and I'll try to outline it with bullet points):

- We need to obviously enforce existing laws. Over legislation does nothing if you aren't enforcing it.
- We need to make sure there is no incentive to come here (there's a REASON we're getting invaded after all!).
-- I think one of the main attractors is the over arching welfare system here, combined with an American attitude that many jobs are beneath us, but I'll also leave that to another blog).
- We need to (at the same time) make sure employers can with certainty verify the status of workers, and punish those that knowingly still violate the law.
- It would be great if we could help Mexico, Central America, and South America to actually entice their citizens to stay where they are (unless they wish to legally immigrate to the US).

So how do we do this? Yeah, that's where policy makers and pretty much the whole system has let us down... I wish I had ideas that were easy and popular, but sadly I doubt that you can really do something like that. Here are some suggestions though:

- Secure the border of course. Although a fence is probably not the best idea. There is also technology like the Active Denial System that could help. These aren't all the solutions, and of course foreign will dictate what we CAN do and what we are even able to do, but we gotta start somewhere.
- As for not giving folks incentives to come here, we need to really take a hard look at our Welfare system. While the illegals themselves should not qualify for anything, they can get around it by assuming someone's identity, and of course have a child here. We need to close the loophole of automatically conferring citizenship to those born on our soil. Sure, the law should still be there, but with the caveat that if you are here illegal, you forfeit that benefit, and get deported.
- As unpopular as it may be, we really need to have a national ID card for all and any services. The military uses the Common Access Card (CAC). Combine a CAC with some sort of biometric (fingerprint, retinal scan, etc.) to allow employers and all government services to truly and verifiably identify individuals attempting to use the system.
- We need to focus foreign aid to the countries that affect our borders. Help them with schools, infrastructure, industry, etc. Don't ship our jobs there of course, but get them to create their own industry (that can hopefully help us!).

So, what do we do about the approximately 20 Million illegal immigrants here already? That's not an easy one to address at all. The "amnesty" program has shown itself to be wildely unpopular (rightly so in my opinion). Although just "rounding them up and shipping them home" is even further from realistic.

- SOME of them need to be rounded up. Get the ones breaking the law (beyond being here illegally).
- How much do we spend on useless programs that don't work? Take that sum, and divided it amongst the remaining illegals and pay/bribe them to leave voluntarily (AFTER all the other measures are in place obviosly, we don't want them coming back illegally again).
- The remaining illegals will either eventually get caught up by standard law sweeps, or they will hear how things are better at home now and want to go home (okay, so I am being the eternal optimist).

Anyway, I just wanted to clear up the air a bit and post my ideas. I also feel that illegal immigrants are a PROBLEM, but that's no excuse to act like some Grand Dragon from the Klan or behave like a racist idiot. You can instead do things like work with local businesses that abide by legal hiring practices, help law enforcement out, get involved with Non-Governmental Agencies that help Central and South America, and so forth. That's just my opinion of course.