So the topic of immigration has once again hit the news. Obviously, the bulk of it is about illegal immigration. This is not an easy subject to deal with, because many illegal immigrants are here working. Hard. In crappy jobs. However, it does cause problems, because many of these aren't getting paid even minimum wage. I'm not anti-amnesty, but I'm not entirely pro-amnesty either. My problem with a general amnesty is that it doesn't take many things into account. If we are to give amnesty, it needs to strictly be to those who can verify they have been gainfully employed. And the threshold of acceptable proof needs to be fairly high. It can't just be "find any two witnesses who say you've been working at this job", it needs to be US citizens who can speak to who does what. That's to prevent those who are here for criminal enterprise from abusing the situation. Also, there are many who have above board jobs that pay taxes. They obviously entered legally at some point, but they kept coming back or stayed and couldn't or haven't renewed their visas. Make them legal. Give them documentation. If the job they do is above board anyway, why deport them, make them legal.
On the other side, we need to look at employers who employ illegal aliens. We need to be very careful about who we target, but we need to find those people who are employing illegal aliens, and don't even abide by current labor law. There are agribusinesses that employ thousands of people. Expecting them to verify every employee individually is unreasonable. For an agribusiness, by the time they finished the process, it would be too late, and the season for which they hired would be over. So we don't want to fine them, when everything else they do is above board. We want to cooperate with them to find the otherwise honest illegals and get them a green card.
We need to target those who underpay and overwork, with no regard for human life, and we need to fine them to the point they have nothing left. And we need to actively search for them. There are plenty of legal ways to find out who is running illegal labor in a lot of places.
I'm also in favor of tightening up border security. We need to apprehend and turn these people around. We also need to have the military on the border. Make no mistake, those that are running drugs, weapons, and sometimes human cargo are heavily armed, and a few civilians with beanbag shotguns aren't sufficient. And we treat those who cross our borders under such circumstances as terrorists, which is what they are. It is unacceptable that we have such a huge breach of national security, when we have forces that are more than capable of remediating the situation. I would gladly do a two year tour on the border, with reasonable rotations of patrol duty, training, and low density. As this is in regards to an international border, there is no reason we couldn't have soldiers and marines in humvees dealing with the open deserts, while border patrol deals with the lawful crossings.
Border security needs to be a much higher concern, or the next 9/11 will be in one of our southernmost cities.
On the other side, we need to look at employers who employ illegal aliens. We need to be very careful about who we target, but we need to find those people who are employing illegal aliens, and don't even abide by current labor law. There are agribusinesses that employ thousands of people. Expecting them to verify every employee individually is unreasonable. For an agribusiness, by the time they finished the process, it would be too late, and the season for which they hired would be over. So we don't want to fine them, when everything else they do is above board. We want to cooperate with them to find the otherwise honest illegals and get them a green card.
We need to target those who underpay and overwork, with no regard for human life, and we need to fine them to the point they have nothing left. And we need to actively search for them. There are plenty of legal ways to find out who is running illegal labor in a lot of places.
I'm also in favor of tightening up border security. We need to apprehend and turn these people around. We also need to have the military on the border. Make no mistake, those that are running drugs, weapons, and sometimes human cargo are heavily armed, and a few civilians with beanbag shotguns aren't sufficient. And we treat those who cross our borders under such circumstances as terrorists, which is what they are. It is unacceptable that we have such a huge breach of national security, when we have forces that are more than capable of remediating the situation. I would gladly do a two year tour on the border, with reasonable rotations of patrol duty, training, and low density. As this is in regards to an international border, there is no reason we couldn't have soldiers and marines in humvees dealing with the open deserts, while border patrol deals with the lawful crossings.
Border security needs to be a much higher concern, or the next 9/11 will be in one of our southernmost cities.
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