A Modest Proposal

In the debate about illegal immigration which is currently raging in Washington and across the internet we hear that the logistical hurdles of deporting as many as 11 million illegals are simply insurmountable. George Will tells us:

Of the nation's illegal immigrants — estimated to be at least 11 million, a cohort larger than the combined populations of 12 states — 60 percent have been here at least five years. Most have roots in their communities. Their children born here are U.S. citizens. We are not going to take the draconian police measures necessary to deport 11 million people. They would fill 200,000 buses in a caravan stretching bumper-to-bumper from San Diego to Alaska — where, by the way, 26,000 Latinos live. And there are no plausible incentives to get the 11 million to board the buses.

I will forbear from reminding Mr. Will that Germany moved about that many people in just a few years while simultaneously fighting a war on two fronts. It will not be necessary to stage massive sweeps throughout the American heartland and round up all the illegals in one fell swoop. All we need to do is get control of the border and create disincentives to attempt to come here illegally and incentives to leave if you are already here.

Controlling the border is not terribly difficult. A combination of physical barriers (a fence) and patrols augmented with technology can effectively seal the border. I know that creating an impenetrable border is not possible; however changing the hundreds of thousands coming across into hundreds coming across is good enough.

Once the borders are taken care of it is only necessary to slowly-but-surely draw down the number of illegals who are already here. Several steps will be necessary to accomplish this.

One, the Fourteenth Amendment to the constitution must be modified. Ratified on July 9, 1868 this amendment was created for one purpose only. To grant citizenship to freed slaves. What it wound up doing was make citizens of anyone who happened to be born in the USA. This allows illegal aliens to have a baby in the US which serves as an anchor, if fact they are called “anchor babies”, for the family. Because junior is an American citizen his parents and dependant siblings cannot be deported until he is eighteen. It must be made clear, either through a favorable Supreme Court ruling or another constitutional amendment, that the children of those who are in this nation illegally are not citizens.

Two, the reason that some foreigners come here is to take advantage of our social services safety net. Courts have ruled that illegal aliens must be eligible for all types of benefits as long as they are subject to taxation by the American government. Since the courts have dug in their heels on this a constitutional amendment would be necessary.

Three, most illegals come here to work and most of them send money home to Mexico. This must be stopped. Money transfers from illegals in the US to other nations must be intercepted and confiscated. Funds seized in this way can be used to defray the costs to American taxpayers associated with illegal immigration.

Four, businesses which knowingly hire illegal aliens must be harshly penalized. Fines will not do the job, at least not fines alone. For a first offense a fine equal to one year’s gross receipts. For a second offense 10 years in federal prison and confiscation of all business assets followed by their sale at auction. Funds raised in this manor will be used to defray the costs of illegal immigration to the US taxpayer.

Five, being in the US illegally must be made a felony with lengthy prison terms. Imprisoned illegals can be housed in facilities located near the border and be put to hard manual labor maintaining and improving the physical barriers placed along the border. Illegals that turn themselves in for deportation will not be prosecuted. Before being deported illegals that have turned themselves in will be investigated to be sure that they are not using deportation to flee justice for some other
crime(s).

By taking away their jobs and their welfare there will be little reason to come to or remain in the US. Will some slip through the cracks? Yes. There are some people who have committed murder and gotten away with it. The nation does not crumble because of this and it will not crumble because a few hundred or even a few thousand sneak through with false papers.

What will destroy the nation is to allow the rule of law to be mocked whenever enforcement becomes inconvenient. What will destroy us is to allow ourselves to be colonized by a hostile aliens who regard their presence here as a type of bloodless conquest. Aliens who despise us, our language and our culture; who retain loyalty to a filthy corrupt cesspool of a nation which, despite abundant natural resources and fertile land finds itself incapable of providing any opportunity to the vast majority of its citizens. A nation whose incompetent and corrupt government sucks billions of dollars out of the US economy using illegal aliens as a straw.

We have the chance to do something about this problem now. The population is awake to the issue and it is an election year. Right now Republicans in congress seem mesmerized by the prospect of millions of Hispanic votes. The hope that enough Hispanics will flock to the ranks of the Republican Party is a hope that will never be realized. It is a pipe dream in the original sense of the term, a drug induced hallucination with no basis in reality.

Will the Republican “leadership” emerge from its figurative opium fog in time to prevent disaster? I wouldn’t bet on it, but I’ve been wrong before.