From: "Cheree"
Date: 2006/05/22 Mon AM 10:22:35 EDT
To: "IFIRE List -Cheree Calabro AAA"
Subject: Rep. Norwood's plan


Hi, Everyone!


Let me know what you think of this.


This might be a carrot and stick aproach that we could go for. It does not provide a pathway to citizenship. Illegals would have to go home and be identified by their true identities and then get in line and apply to return legally to the US. It's probably way too rational to ever make it into law. If you like this, spread it around.



On Meet the Press today, Rep. Norwood described an idea for dealing with the 12 million illegals already living in the USA that I think has some merit. Make them Temporary Workers. Many are here working already. They can continue working here for a specific period of time, like 3 years, only if they register with the US government; have a health screening like at Ellis Island; and get a work permit card with a definite date that they must go home.



Meanwhile, we secure the border and start fining employers caught with illegal aliens working for them. Deport illegals caught working without a card. It will get harder to find work. Employers increasingly will not want to risk employing illegals. They?ll start going home. Those who sign up and get the new ID card can stay and work legally for a while, make plans, save money, sell their house here, buy land or a house in their native land so they'll have a place to go when they leave here in 3 years. This might be good for both economies.



I tend to agree with Newt Gingrich that the Feds aren?t capable of administering this system. Rather than dumping this job on an existing federal agency or creating a whole new bureacuracy, we may want to contract this out to a successful credit card company who will have to hire American workers to run the program in each state. I think we should offer this to only the first 5 million to apply, to give them some incentive to come forward. If we have to, we could follow Sheriff Joe Arpaijo's lead and deputize a bunch of people to help the ICE and Border Patrol do their jobs. This would create even more jobs for Americans and speed up the attrition or compliance with the new temporary worker program. It would be better if local law enforcement got federal funds to assist with immigration enforcement and all sanctuary laws were eliminated. (Well, as long as I'm dreaming up solutions, I'm gonna dream big!)





Links to the pertinent part of the show transcript and video are below.



Cheree Calabro

www.ifire.org

Valparaiso, IN



Transcript page 3: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12851815/page/3/



Video of entire show: http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?f=00&t= ... =angietest



Tim RUSSERT May 21, 2006 interview of SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC) and

REP. CHARLIE NORWOOD (R-GA) Partial transcript follows:



MR. RUSSERT: But what do you do with the farming industry, the food industry, the restaurant industry, the construction industry, if you suddenly say to those people, ?I?m sorry, go home??

REP. NORWOOD: I didn?t say that. Who?s saying that? I didn?t say that here. He says mass deportation, the president says mass deportation. None of the rest of us are saying mass deportation.

MR. RUSSERT: So they stay?

REP. NORWOOD: There?s a way to do this. They stay by checking in with the federal government. They go to an Ellis Island Center. Call it what you want. Put 200 of them up. If you?re here just to work, come in and let?s have a, a fingerprint, an eye scan, check your public health and give you a work card that has a chip in it that says, ?OK, pal, you can stay for another two years, three years,? whatever Lindsey wants. ?And then you have to go home. The date of your return home is in this card.? You go home in three years, you get back in line, and you come back into America again.

MR. RUSSERT: Would that disrupt the American economy?

REP. NORWOOD: Those, no.

MR. RUSSERT: Not at all?

REP. NORWOOD: No. The 11 million people?ll still be here. The ones who don?t come check in are the ones that?re terrorists, gang dealers, drug dealers, the people we?criminals?the people we want out of this country. And they?re the ones who would be felons for not checking in with the federal government.

MR. RUSSERT: But...

REP. NORWOOD: Now, you asked why would they do that. I?ll tell you why they would do that. Because if they don?t, they going to get fired.

MR. RUSSERT: I...

REP. NORWOOD: Because their employer?s going to pay a price for harboring people that don?t have a work card.

MR. RUSSERT: How many illegal immigrants do you think live in your district?

REP. NORWOOD: I don?t know. I truly don?t know. I know that there is a lot in our state. I have a lot of poultry, I have a lot of landscape, so I do have a lot of illegal immigrants that are working there. I am not saying run them all out of the country at one time. That?s silly. First of all, you can pass all the laws you want to for that and you can?t get it done. What you have to do, incentivize the worker, incentivize the employer to get this done.

MR. RUSSERT: What?s wrong with that plan?

SEN. GRAHAM: I am glad I came on this show. If we had another 30 minutes, we might solve this. So we?re finding some common ground here.

REP. NORWOOD: Lindsey and I could solve this.

SEN. GRAHAM: Well, well, the bottom line is, politically, is how do you bring the Senate, the House and the president together to do something the American people would appreciate? I think the American people?d appreciate strong border security; they think it?s overdue, and we need to deliver. I think the American public would appreciate legal reform where employers would actually go to jail themselves if they hired illegal people. And a system that would work when it comes to how you employ people.

What to do with the 11 million. Charlie understands they?re part of our economy. That?s a absolute fact. Charlie understands you can?t mass deport people because it?s impractical and it would hurt the economy.

REP. NORWOOD: Right.

SEN. GRAHAM: He also understands that if you make 11 million people felons they?re never going to raise their hand and get that card. People are not going to come out of the shadows if the consequence of coming out of the shadows is that you break the family up or that you become a felon. So some middle ground between mass deportation and making everybody a felon, give people a chance to be part of the American dream. Under our conditions, not theirs.

Transcript continues?