I wanted to share a unique solution that would stop all future illegal immigration. It is a policy that people who are for illegal immigration and people who are against illegal immigration can support. In exchange for enacting some extremely tough immigration enforcement laws that mainly affect future illegal immigrants, we will allow the majority of the current illegal immigrants to have "legal resident" status, but not citizenship. This law needs to be a constitutional amendment to ensure future congresses cannot repeal the enforcement laws. If this type of bill ever becomes law, the United States will never have an illegal immigration problem again. Below is the framework that I believe both democrats and republicans will reluctantly vote for.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REFORM ACT
===============[ PROS ] ===============
An illegal immigrant is defined as any person in the United States who is not a United States citizen, legal resident, or temporary visitor who legally entered into the United States and their visa has not expired. An illegal immigrant includes anyone in the United States who: 1) enters into the United States without lawful permission, or 2) neither biological parents are citizens at birth and the person has not been lawfully given citizenship, or 3) who overstay their visa or lawful permission.
* 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 or penalize states and local governments for enforcing immigration law. States are not allowed to prevent or penalize local governments for enforcing immigration law.
* The state, county, 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 who can be given refugee status will be 10,000 a year. All new residences will have their fingerprints and DNA added into a federal database.
* Implement an entry-exit system using bio-metrics, 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 200,000 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. Congress can change the percent of people allowed in each type of visa through normal legislative law, but the maximum number of people is fixed at 200,000. 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 in order for the child to automatically be consider a citizen of the United States. Citizenship is not determined by the geographical location of ones birth.
* Proof of citizenship or legal residency must be given in order to obtain a driver's licenses or ID cards.
* No more dual citizenship. In order for citizens of other countries to be recognized as American citizens, they must officially reject the citizenship of all other countries by officially notify their home country.
* No federal, state, or local 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.
* Any legal resident of the United States has legal standing to sue any government agency or official to compel the full enforcement of immigration laws and ensure that they make a reasonable attempt to verify that they are not giving services or financial aid to people in the United States illegally. If the legal resident wins, he or she will be reimbursed a reasonable amount for court costs and attorneys fees.
* Every government agency has the right to refuse their services to anyone who cannot prove that they are legal residents.
* 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.
* The United States will refuse to issue visas to the residents of other countries that refuse to accept their citizens who are being deported.
* No one who is illegally in the United States can be given permission to remain. They must leave the United States for a minimum of 10 years before they can be eligible for lawful re-entry, with the limited exception of those given refugee status.
* No one who is illegally in the United States can be given permission to work.
* No government agency or organization that is partly supported by federal, state, county, or local money can withhold information in their possession from any immigration enforcement government agency that can be used to identify or 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. The judge cannot lower the penalty to a lesser sentence.
* Every person booked into jail by law enforcement will have their fingerprints run against federal immigration and criminal databases whenever possible. (Similar to "Secure Communities" programs)
* If a person is in the United States illegally and is convicted of committing 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.
* No one in the United States illegally has the right to sue for civil crimes committed against them during the time they were in the United States illegally.
* If anyone proves that a business is knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, that person will receive 5% of any monetary judgment that the business must pay for committing the illegal hirings. Businesses will not hire illegal immigrants if they know the illegal immigrants they hire will squeal on them.
* A person under this program can never sponsor anyone to be a legal resident or American citizen unless the sponsee is their biological child of 15 years or younger. The parent-child relationship must be verified through DNA analysis and if the child is over 10 years, his age must be verified through supporting legal or governmental documents from his home country or the United States.
* Immigration judges should take only 2 issues into account when deciding if a defendant should be deported. 1) Is the defendant in the United States illegally based upon the United States immigration law? 2) Is the defendant eligible for refugee status? No other factors matter. This should greatly speed up the trials.
* 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 properly enforcing our immigration laws. Since this only requires a signed petition, it does not have to go through the tougher process that laws go through. The person will never be eligible to hold any federal government or federal contract job.
<**** THESE ARE THE ONLY ENFORCEMENT LAWS THAT I COULD THINK OF, BUT IF ANYONE CAN THINK OF ADDITIONAL WAYS TO ENFORCE OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM, PLEASE LET ME KNOW SO I CAN APPEND YOUR IDEAS TO MY LIST. I WANT TO MAKE THIS THE TOUGHEST IMMIGRATION LAW IN THE WORLD. ****>
===============[ 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 will last for only one year after the amendment becomes law. After that, no one else can register.
===========[ 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.”
* People under this program cannot use their "Legal Resident Status" to become U.S. citizens. The person must go back to their home country and follow the normal procedures that every other citizen of their country needs to follow to get U.S. citizenship. They cannot live in the United States during this process.
* People under this program cannot get federal assistance or Social Security, unless they become United States citizens.
* People under this program will lose their “legal resident status” if they have committed any felonies in the past, present, or future.
* People under this program will lose their “legal resident status” if they commit 2 future misdemeanors.
* People under this program will lose their “legal resident status” if they committed 2 future drunken driving violations.
* People under this program will lose their “legal resident status” if they vote in a federal or state election while they are only legal residences.
* People under this program will lose their “legal resident status” if they commit tax fraud in the future.
* People under this program will lose their “legal resident status” if they use fictitious or stolen identification information for illegal purposes in the future.
========[ QUESTIONS and ANSWERS ] ========
WHY SHOULD PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT AMNESTY APPROVE OF THIS BILL?
This bill give them the ability to live in the United States without fear of deportation long as they do not break any major criminal laws. This is something that they have been fighting for years to obtain. 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 pass this constitutional amendment.
WHY SHOULD PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE AMNESTY APPROVE OF THIS BILL?
The Senate has voted three times to legalize illegal immigrants and we were BARLEY able to stop them in the House of Representatives. If we continue down this path, we may be able to block them for 2, 5 or even 10 years, but eventually the democrats will get control of both Houses of Congress and the White House. If we do not pass a bill with lots of enforcements in exchange for legal residence NOW, a democrat controlled Congress and White House will pass a bill which has no enforcements and offers them citizenship LATER.
WILL DEMOCRATS OPPOSE THIS BILL?
No. The democrat will demand that illegal immigrants be given “citizenship” rather than just “legal residency,” but most of their 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 if they oppose this bill.
WILL REPUBLICANS OPPOSE THIS BILL?
No. Republicans will be getting the very strong immigration enforcement measures. Even though giving current illegal immigrants legal residency is extremely regrettable, the enforcements in the law will prevent any major future illegal immigration problems and we can still cancel the legal residency status of anyone who commits a serious crime.
WHAT IF REPUBLICANS JUST CREATE A LAW THAT GIVES ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS LEGAL RESIDENCY?
Even if Republicans creates a simple law 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.
WHY PASS MORE LAWS IF THE CURRENT ONES ARE BEING IGNORED?
In the current system, ALL OF THE POWER to deport illegal immigrants rest with the president and ICE. Which means that if they decide to do nothing about immigration, then nothing will be done about immigration. My law will expand the number of governmental agencies that can deport illegal immigrants. There are only 5000 ICE agents and there are 900,000 law enforcements officers nationwide. It is really hard for 5000 ICE agents to round up 11 million illegal immigrants. Even if the federal government refuses to deport them, the states, counties, and local cities can deport them on their own.
A number of the sections do not even require immigration officials to do anything, but only requires the laws to exist and others to enforce them. These laws turn off ALL THE ENTICING MAGNETS that tempt foreigners to break into United States so that they will stop on their own.
SHOULDN'T CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS BE BRIEF?
Instead of making this a large constitutional amendment, I would make it a normal legislative bill called, "The Illegal Immigration Reform Act," and then create a constitutional amendment saying that "The Illegal Immigration Reform Act" of 2015 is now constitutional law.
IS THIS THE COMPLETE BILL?
No. This bill is far from perfect. I created this bill as more of a "starting point" of ideas and hope that other people would improve upon it. I am completely in favor of adding more 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 sneak to the United States in the first place.
Philip Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMOYkuab6vo
