Thread: Immigration reform must start with border enforcement

Clinton’s amnesty plan encourages illegals to surge swiftly to the north

By Brandon Judd - - Wednesday, August 24, 2016

As a veteran border patrol officer, I can say without any reservations that our immigration system is completely dysfunctional. Immigrants permitted to come to the United States have a cumbersome and expensive time doing so. Those who aren’t permitted to enter waltz across the border by the tens of thousands, and those not allowed to remain here elude deportations, even after committing serious crimes against our citizens.

Hillary Clinton has put forth a multipronged immigration plan that contains the worthwhile suggestion of creating a Center for Immigration Affairs, designed to provide tools, services and resources for newly arrived immigrants. It would help them adjust to their new home and expedite their assimilation. Unfortunately, the plan also contains many suggestions that will exacerbate illegal immigration and stretch immigration enforcement resources to the breaking point.

While America is a nation with a legacy of welcoming immigrants, it is also a nation of laws. The Clinton plan would excuse illegal immigration by citing our immigration history, an idea that is not only reckless and irresponsible, but also dangerous. We live in a dangerous world, as recent events here and in Europe have shown, and now more than ever, public safety depends on immigration security. The Clinton immigration plan would offer not only amnesty for illegal immigrants already here, but seemingly for any who might want to come in the future.

The plan would also allow illegal immigrants currently in the United States to enroll into the Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare. By offering benefits to those who come here illegally, the plan puts in place even greater incentives to violate the nation’s immigration laws.

The Clinton plan proposes to close private detention facilities and prohibit the detainment of anyone with family ties in the U.S. Taken together, these two initiatives would not only push current immigration enforcement staffing levels beyond the breaking point but also send a signal abroad that our borders are open once again to anyone and everyone who wants to enter. Those suggestions, without substantial investment in new agents, training and equipment, including vehicles, communications and technology, are not only irresponsible but dangerous.

Any discussion of illegal immigration and how to handle the large number of illegal immigrants currently in the country must first begin with effective border enforcement, since the safety of our families, security of our communities, and strength of our economy are all contingent on effective border security.

We failed to recognize this dynamic relationship with the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986. This law granted a blanket amnesty to several million illegal aliens and made it illegal to hire an illegal immigrant. But the mere discussion of an illegal alien amnesty in the United States had a dire impact on border enforcement.

The year after the passage of IRCA, the Tucson sector deported more illegal immigrants than the entire population of the city of Tucson. Our southern border was pressed from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico with a new wave of illegal immigrants determined to get into the country in time to benefit from the recently granted amnesty. Lesson learned: The mere mention of an amnesty caused increased illegal immigration.

President Obama’s administration, which has floated the idea of an amnesty for years, has been dogged by surges in illegal immigration as well. This was a crisis of his own creation. The administration repeatedly failed to recognize that the lack of consequences for those who crossed illegally only exacerbated the problem. Through social media and word of mouth, the message spread to villages and major cities across Mexico and Central America that if you got to America, you could stay.

This perception motivated hundreds of thousands of our neighbors to the south to take the dangerous journey to America. And many of these journeys are still being made, oftentimes by minors who are now attempting to join their illegal alien relatives in the United States. The border surge this year might soon eclipse the surge in 2014, the year the Obama administration referred to the issue as a humanitarian crisis. This unlawful influx is driven by poverty and corruption in Latin America and high expectations of an amnesty in the U.S.

The Obama administration tripped over the same mistakes made in 1986 by failing to address border security as a necessary precursor to comprehensive immigration reform. Mrs. Clinton’s immigration plan replicates this mistake once again and this is cause for great concern. Until her immigration plan addresses meaningful border security, it can’t be taken as a serious proposal.

• Brandon Judd is a border patrol agent with 17 years of experience and president of the National Border Patrol Council, representing more than 17,000 border patrol agents.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...rder-enforcem/

Yes, border security is very very important, but no more important than removing the illegal aliens already in the US. There is no difference between the danger of those coming in and those already here. Both actions are of equal importance. In fact, the existing illegal population is in my mind the biggest lure to more to come because this population provides a base of operation for the new illegals entering the country every day. The ones here have homes, jobs, contacts, networks, drug routes and protection. When more join them, they just mix in and are immediately part of the "ones already here". They're just more of them, but since no one counts them, it's doesn't matter to government because government fudges all figures including the number of illegal aliens in the United States.

There are at least 30 million counting their offspring. Maybe more.

And they all have to go.

DEPORT! DEPORT! DEPORT!

Trump says he will "Build the Wall and Enforce the Law". Existing laws already require deportations.

STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION!

VOTE FOR DONALD J TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!

Because he will Get R Done.

The veteran Border Patrol agent mentions the mere discussion of an amnesty encourages more illegal immigration. We don't need to be having words associated with amnesty being used. Unfortunately, Secretary Clinton has flung the door wide open, y'all come, and coming they are by the thousands.

Mr. Trump should continue to be strong and avoid any amnesty language.

What Trump should do if he wants to soften the language and not be accused of "mass deportations" and being called Hitler, is just use the language he was using all week long of "enforce existing laws" which already require deportation. How or when he goes about that is a process that he really shouldn't even discuss in full view and hearing range of 30 million illegal aliens. He needs to stop talking about "working with them", we don't need to "work" with lawbreakers. The law is clear, if you're here illegally, your outcome is deportation, and Trump says over and over and over that he's going to enforce the law.

So stay away from the details of how and when, stay away from "work with them", and also clarify that when talking about their leaving and coming back legally, that he's NOT talking about the touch-back deal, he's talking about coming back however or whenever they're allowed to enter legally under existing law which means as he says over and over getting in line with everyone else.

He needs to stay "firm" on the policy but perhaps "soften" the language he uses to discuss it, all the while of doing the job of enforcing our laws.

He made it very clear in his speech today in Iowa that his obligation as President will be to protect the "civil rights" of US citizens, our equal protection under the law to a job and a safe community free of illegal aliens.

Donald Trump is truly the first REAL REPUBLICAN to be our nominee since Nixon/Ford. They were the last two Presidents to fight for the civil rights of all Americans, especially black Americans. Most people don't know their roles, significant crucial roles in the fight for equal and civil rights for black Americans, media never covered it and they neither one sought recognition or favor because of it.

Richard Nixon ended segregation in the South and Gerald Ford as minority whip in US House of Representatives along with Eisenhower and Nixon as VP was responsible for passage of the 1957 and 1964 US Civil Rights Acts. As a political science student in college, we actually studied the role of Gerald Ford in the passage of these two US Civil Rights Acts. It was amazing how he did it, and what Nixon did with desegragation, took such a commitment and risk to himself, but he got it done.

God Bless You, Donald Trump, for picking up the ball and carrying this mission forward, the mission of the Republican Party, the reason our party exists, which was to help black Americans being enslaved and horribly mistreated by the Democratic Party, mistreatment and abuse that we still see to this day,, especially in our high population centers, i. e. inner cities.

END RACISM IN THE UNITED STATES!

VOTE FOR DONALD J TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!