The Current Illegal Immigration Population – what to do?

We are told that twelve to twenty million illegal immigrants are in this country today. Should we arrest, detain and deport these law breakers as a means of cleaning up this problem? Let’s be practical about this. Our country has no capability to locate and deport this many people without seriously diminishing normal police work. We certainly do not want the National Guard, untrained for police work, running around cities with weapons to apprehend illegal immigrants. Clearly we have little choice but to legitimize to some extent a size-able portion of this populace and then deal with the rest. Once we have culled out those who are of no real threat to our society either criminally, medically, or financially and we have dramatically reduced this benign illegal immigrant population, we will be able to utilize law enforcement from all levels to address the larger problem of undesirables. How do we do this?

We can legitimize benign illegal residents by giving them six months to apply for a special limited work visa, or if qualified, for a standard resident work or student visa. After one year, if the illegal immigrant has not applied for and received a visa, we go after them as they are no longer benign. We should make it a high misdemeanor to be in this country and either not hold a valid visa or be a citizen. These visa scofflaws should lose the right to ever apply for entry into this country in the future. It should be a felony for a returning illegal with jail time.

The special limited visa would be valid for no more than three years and only if the holder is, and remains employed (we are told that they are all here to work and do jobs no self-respecting citizen will do) – it would cover the spouse & child(ren) of the holder. To additionally qualify for the limited visa, each member of the family and the holder would need to submit to a background check, with fingerprints, and be issued a tamper proof ID card with picture and fingerprint. We should use the social security number system, but code the card with an alpha numeric number sequence. These legitimized temporary residents would not be entitled to any federal, state, or local monetary or health benefits. Permanent or standard resident visa holders could also be issued a similar tamper proof ID card.

Of course, we would need to deport anyone who failed the visa background check, due to a felony or violent crime (here or in their native country). If the limited visa holder applicant is not gainfully employed, has a serious communicable disease, or in the future stops working at the qualifying employment – this can be determined from withholding reporting and the identifying alpha numeric social security number, we deport the temporary visa holder and everyone covered under that visa.

In return we get a mandatory dollar contribution via payroll withholding to a special limited visa permit fee. This is their fine – use this revenue for immigration administration costs. They pay for a work license, which is deducted from their pay. They also pay income taxes, FICA etc. At least we will know who and where they are.
The upside for these people and their families is huge. They will now be here legally. They cannot be deported unless they fail to meet the qualifying rules above, they can report crimes against themselves, they can ask for police protection, they can get non-citizen drivers licenses, coded for their visa program, and mostly they can come out of the shadows and stop living in fear. Failure to return to their country, when their time is up becomes a felony.

We need to give motivation to employers to follow these new rules by making it a felony in every state for employers to knowingly employ or compensate any non-citizen who does not hold the new identification card. During this three year visa period, the worker and immediate family should have applied for a standard resident work visa. Upon receiving this visa, they will continue to remain in this country and work; only now they can be free to change jobs and be unemployed for a defined time without fear of deportation. No citizen track starts with the special limited visa. It can start with the standard resident work visa.

This plan improves the life of current illegal immigrants. However, it mostly allows law enforcement and Homeland Security to focus on those illegals, who are here for crime, and terrorism. If we stop enabling illegal entrants with benefits, the huge illegal population in this country will begin to dwindle and those who can will apply for the legitimization provisions will do so. We can fix our illegal resident problem now, and then next we can focus on closing the unauthorized border crossings and removing the enticements for illegal border crossing.