While I disagree with almost everything Navarette says, as usual, he almost makes some sense on this one. But before the flames start, read on…
1. Before anything else is done, we must have secure borders. As Navarette says until we can stop them coming back before they are fully out-processed, we are wasting time and money for nothing. Enforcement of the law can only start being effective if our borders are secured from them returning illegally and from new illegals coming in.
2. Illegals should be punished for breaking the law, but deportation is not the only kind of punishment. A stiff fine is also punishment, and my reasoning is explained below.
3. Kicking out all illegal aliens may be impossible, because by definition (illegal, undocumented) we do not know how many there are, where they are or who they are. Estimates are mere statistics, and statistics lie.
4. Good intentions can backfire. Trying to kick them out in some reasonable time frame will require more bureaucracy and bigger government, which can be used for other and almost certainly bad purposes. Note that almost every piece of legislation has a suffix …”and for other purposes”.
5. Making a blanket law to bounce every illegal is cutting off our nose to spite our face as the saying goes. We should want to keep the brightest and the best, those who have assimilated and are wealth creators and otherwise productive. We want to get rid of those who do not assimilate, are not productive, and are not wealth creators. We want to get rid of the criminals. As I said above, amnesty is not forgiveness when there is a suitable punishment. A very large, but affordable fine, payable in increments over a long enough period where missing payments or committing a crime results in deportation. Paying the whole fine over, say 5 years results in eligibility for citizenship. This is punishment for the crime of illegal entry. Productive people who have contributed positively to our country over a long period of time should not have to to go home and wait for bureaucracy. It is silly and counter productive.
6. The fines should not be paid to the federal government. They should be paid to legitimate, non-political charities in the local area, who have the most to gain from seeing that the payments are made.
Let the flames fly.
