Immigration

I oppose talk about rounding up 11 million persons now in the United States and deporting them. I encourage people who engage in such talk to consider the cost of such an effort – in financial, and in human terms - we must conserve these resources and not be wasteful.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed into law a bill that granted citizenship to three million immigrants who had been in the U.S. for a minimum of four years.

I believe that a person lawfully in the United States, except without documents, who has contributed to society and been lawful here for a reasonable period of time, and who did not flee criminal prosecution in their country of origin, should be given a prompt, reasonable opportunity to achieve citizenship. A sensible roadmap to citizenship must exist.

The most effective and cost conscious solution of all to solving issues and worries about immigration and the one change to the immigration laws that can almost single-handedly solve the “crises” is to remove the 10-year ban on re-entry for undocumented people.

Millions of people do qualify naturally for family or employment-based permanent residency but cannot depart the United States and apply because of the 10-year ban. If the ban is removed, you would see a mass, orderly exodus of people and petitions for permanent residency based on current laws. Immigration law experts have been promoting this for years but the idea never gets traction in Congress. Together we will change this!

I also believe a serious crackdown on U.S. employers who use contracts, or other arrangements to try to avoid responsibility and taxes while taking advantage of undocumented persons as their personnel in their businesses, is essential to police, and disincentivize illegal immigration these businesses engage in.

We must secure our borders – all borders of the U.S. – but we do not need to needlessly tax and spend to build a mega-billion dollar wall around the United States – we can be smarter than this.

For my perspective on the children refugee border issue click here.