Thread: An Awesome Solution to the Immigration Debate

I believe that there is a golden opportunity to redirect the immigration reform debate so that we have tons of enforcements protections. Democrats want to legalize the illegal immigrants while republicans want iron-clad proof that immigration laws will be enforced. Both can be guaranteed through a Constitutional Amendment rather than by passing a simple law. A Constitutional Amendment is needed to ensure that the protections put in place to prevent more illegal immigration are not eroded by future congresses. Below is the framework that I believe both democrats and republicans will support.


===============[ PROS ] ===============


* The state, county, and local governments can ENFORCE immigration law along with the federal government if they want, but they would be required to use the United States Congress’ definition for citizens, legal immigrants, and illegal immigrants. The enforcement can be handled like any other unlawful trespassing law within their borders. They can decide to give jail time, fines, and even deport anyone trespassing in the United States. The federal government is not allowed to prevent states and local governments from enforcing immigration law. States are not allowed to prevent local governments from enforcing immigration law. The state or local governments can deport anyone found in the United States illegally, and the federal government must pay 70% of the cost of the deportation.

* The federal, state, and local governments can seize the property (house, car, etc.) of anyone caught in the United States illegally and sell it for a profit. (This will be a very strong incentive for state and local governments to enforce immigration laws.)

* The military will be responsible for assisting the Border Patrol in protecting and securing the United States borders.

* Public schools, colleges, and universities will require students to be citizens or legal residents of the United States to attend. This will stop many future illegal immigrants from bring their families to the United States. They know that their children will not get an education.

* Mandatory E-Verify for all businesses. Fines for non-compliance can be levied by the federal, state, and local governments.

* The maximum number of people who can get citizenship or permanent residence is 200,000 a year. This is a dramatic drop from the current 1,000,000 a year. This will give the United States time to assimilate new comers into our culture before adding more. The maximum number of people given refugee status will be 10,000 a year. New residences will have their fingerprints and DNA added into a federal database.

* Implement an entry-exit system using biometrics, which allows a maximum of 2 million short-term (6 months or less) foreign visitors into the United States at any given time and a maximum of 250,000 long-term (2 years or less) foreign visitors into the United States at any given time. The short-term visitors can include temporary or seasonal workers. Foreign visitors who have not been registered as leaving the United States will still be considered to be in the United States, and no new visitors cannot take their position in the queue until they leave or 10 years expire.

* No birthright citizenship. One of the parents has to be an American citizen.

* No driver's licenses or ID cards for anyone illegally in the United States.

* End to dual citizenship for new citizens. In order for citizens of other countries to become American citizens, they must officially reject the citizenship of their current native country.

* No federal programs or state programs that use federal money can give social or financial aid to anyone who is in the United States illegally other than emergency medical care.

* A specific double-layered fence must protect 95 percent of our southern border or the legal status for people under this program will be suspended after 6 years, until this metric is met.

* English is the official language of the United States.

* Refuse to issue visas to the residents of other countries that do not accept their citizens who are being deported.

* No one illegally in the United States can be exempted from deportation for a minimum of 3 years outside of the United States with the limited exception of those given refugee status.

* No one is allowed to work while they are in the United States illegally.

* Law enforcement cannot withhold information from immigration officials that can be used to identify and deport illegal immigrants.

* Whatever the penalty is for a legal resident who breaks a particular law, the penalty will AUTOMATICALLY be triple for anyone who is here illegally. In other words, if a fine is normally $100 for the average citizen, it will be $300 for anyone in the United States illegally. If the jail time for a particular crime is normally 1 year in jail, an illegal immigrant will receive a sentence of 3 years.

* Any illegal immigrant who is convicted of committing a murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, rape, or attempted rape while being in the United States, will AUTOMATICALLY receive a death sentence. The judge cannot lower the penalty to a lesser sentence.

* Congress has the power to fire anyone responsible for immigration enforcement if seventy percent of the congressmen in EITHER the House or the Senate sign a partition saying the person responsible is not upholding our immigration laws. Since this only requires a partition, it does not have to go through the tougher process that laws go through. The person will not be eligible to hold any federal government job for 10 years.

<**** ADD 1000 MORE IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT LAWS HERE ****>


===============[ CONS ] ===============


* We will give the 11 million illegal immigrants who REGISTER “legal resident status” and "work visas," but not direct citizenship. Most of the people who are in the United States illegally are more concerned about being able to work in the U.S. without fear of deportation than they are about citizenship. Most cherish the citizenship of their home country more. The registration period last for only one year after the amendment becomes law.


===========[ RESTRICTIONS ] ===========


The following are restrictions that can cancel an individual’s “legal resident status” and "work visa."

* Illegal immigrants cannot apply for “legal resident status” after they have been arrested by law enforcement and will potential be undergoing deportation proceedings. In other words, they do not get to apply after they get into trouble.

* Only people who can prove that they lived in the United States before January 1, 2013 qualify for legal residency under this program, else people will sneak across the border just to get “residency.”

* Former illegal immigrants cannot use "Legal Resident Status" to gain actual U.S. citizenship unless they go back to their home country and follow the normal procedures that every other citizen of their country needs to perform to get citizenship. They cannot live in you United States during this process.

* Former illegal immigrants cannot get federal assistance or Social Security, unless they become United States citizens.

* They will lose their “legal resident status” if they have committed any felonies in the past, present, or future.

* They will lose their “legal resident status” if they commit 2 future misdemeanors.

* They will lose their “legal resident status” if they committed 2 future drunken driving violations.

* They will lose their “legal resident status” if they vote in a federal or state election while they are only legal residences.

* They will lose their “legal resident status” if they commit tax fraud in the future.

* They will lose their “legal resident status” if they commit identity theft in the future.


===============[ SUMMARY ] ===============


Well, that is my idea of how immigration reform should be handled. I would use a constitutional amendment to resolve the immigration reform issue. It is only three pages long. Nowhere near as large or as bulky as the Senate bill. The democrats can give permanent residence for the people who are here illegally long as they do not break any criminal laws, and the republican will have enforcements that will strongly deter any prevent future violations, even if the states and local governments enforce it themselves. The new restrictions mainly affect future people breaking into the United States.

I believe that within a few years, the people who want to legalize illegal immigrants will eventually win. Most republican congressmen do not have strong spines on this issue. Rather than wait for that to happen, I thought it might be a good idea to: 1) create a situation where illegal immigrants will not become voting citizens, and 2) produce conditions where we will have lots of ways to deter future illegal immigration.

I am concerned that unless we do something in the near future, the pro-amnesty voice will grow louder and louder until America becomes an open-borders community. Most of the people in the pro-illegal immigration rallies that I have seen appear to be young people. They are getting louder and louder; and I doubt that they are going away any time soon.

The Senate has voted three times to legalize the illegal immigrants, and in each time, we were BARLEY able to stop them in the House of Representatives. If we continue in this direction, we may hold them off for 2, 5 or even 10 years, but eventually the pro-amnesty group will get its way and we will have no positive enforcement laws in return. I do not want us to be paralyzed on this issue like England. I believe that a Constitutional Amendment like I am proposing is the best way to minimize the damage of illegal immigration in the long run.

Creating a constitutional amendment is a long shot, but I have to wonder who would be likely to oppose it. The republicans will be getting the very strong enforcement measures that they want. Besides, they are on the verge passing the Senate bill anyway. This amendment also gives them political cover, so I do not believe most republicans will oppose it.

The democrat will demand that we give the illegal immigrants “citizenship” rather than just “legal residency.” But the problem for the democrats is that many pro-amnesty supporters would be completely satisfied with “legal residency” and would be angry at the democrats if they rejected a deal that would do this. The democrats may fracture their support base. I believe that enough republicans and democrats can be brought aboard to pass this amendment.

Even if the amendment does not become law, I would prefer congress waste time working on an amendment that will never pass, than for them to work on a bill similar to the one from the Senate. Even if the House creates its own bill that just gives legal residency to illegal immigrants this year, democrats will simply push for a bill that will convert the legal residency into citizenship next year. This amendment will prevent that from happening. Since this bill mostly stops future illegal immigrants, I can see a situation where both the pro-amnesty and anti-amnesty groups join together to pressure congress and the states to pass the amendment.

This idea is far from perfect. I created this list as more of a "starting point" of ideas and hope that other people would improve upon it. I am completely in favor of adding tons of additional immigration enforcements. This bill will enshrine tough enforcement principles into a solid Constitutional Amendment. It prevents future Congresses from being able to legalize the next wave of illegal immigrants and it removes many of the magnets that cause them to break to the United States in the first place. If you think this solution is worth considering, please share this concept with others.

Philip Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMOYkuab6vo

I like the idea of keeping amendments brief, and following up with legislation, to flesh out its meaning.

IMO is we would implement Universal E-Verify, that would eliminate the jobs lure and most illegal aliens along with it.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Vistalad,

I feel the same way about keeping constitutional amendments brief. I would prefer to write the immigration list as a "bill," and have the actual constitutional amendment just simply say that the bill is now constitutional law. For Example:

28th Amendment: The "Immigration Reform Act" submitted by Ted Cruz to the United States Senate on June 1, 2014 is now constitutional law.

The reason why I do not like the idea of making the majority of the legislation just a "simple" law, is because future democrat-led congresses will repeal it when they are in the majority. Had the First Amendment been a "simple" law, congress would have taken away the right to free speech a long time ago. Had the Second Amendment been a "simple" law, congress would have take away the right for the average citizen to arm himself/herself a long time ago.

I agree that the mandatory nationwide use of E-Verify by employers by itself would be a large improvement over the current system, but if we are going to be pushed into legalizing the illegal immigrants, I want to get as much common-sense enforcement laws on the books to ensure that we never have to argue about this issue when the next wave of illegal immigrants demand to be legalized in 10 or 20 years from now. We need to tackle this before the "establishment republicans" sells us down the river and America become an open-borders nation.

I would really like to hear what others have to say about solving the illegal immigration debate by using a constitutional amendment. Is it a good idea or a bad idea, and why? Also, does anyone have any suggestions for additional laws that I should include in my list? Please let me know what you think.

Philip Brown

Originally Posted by philipbrown

I agree that the mandatory nationwide use of E-Verify by employers by itself would be a large improvement over the current system, but if we are going to be pushed into legalizing the illegal immigrants, I want to get as much common-sense enforcement laws on the books to ensure that we never have to argue about this issue when the next wave of illegal immigrants demand to be legalized in 10 or 20 years from now.

IMO the biggest reason why illegals sneak into our country is that they can make more money here. If we eliminate the jobs lure, we will have eliminated the principal reason why we have an illegal aliens problem.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

* We will give the 11 million illegal immigrants who REGISTER “legal resident status” and "work visas," but not direct citizenship.

No way! If the existing laws are changed in any way to accomodate millions of illegals that will only bring more illegal immigration and no amount of border security will stop that.

Also, the Republican sellouts trying to trick conservatives into going along with such a plan to make them "legal but not citizens" know the courts will quickly strike down any attempt by Congress to legislate a second class citizenship tier.

While illegal aliens remain in violation of US law they cannot be give the right to vote by courts.

If they are legalized by legislation as the amnesty supporting Republicans and Democrats want, then the courts will take the illegals all the way to full voting rights if Congress does not.

American backs are already against the wall and the situation is way far to gone, we cannot give an inch on our current borders and laws or both are gone for good.

Anyone that thinks you can comprimise your way out of this situation does not realize you have already been compromised by others and giving another inch will put you in a place you can never get out of.

W