WE REFUSE TO USE A STICK, BUT WE CAN SURELY TAKE AWAY THE CARROTS!

Our illegal immigration problem needs to be fixed if we are to ever return to a leadership position on the world stage.  There are many, many ideas being put forth from both sides of the political arena and because both sides either cannot or will not come to some mutual solutions, they do nothing.  And the problem grows.

My thoughts are not new and original – simply ones that I don’t see how we can EVER solve the problem without implementing.

First of all, anyone who thinks we can STOP illegal immigration without securing the borders has their head up a very dark place.  And by securing, I mean – a FENCE.  A long, tall, edifice similar to the sound attenuation barricades that line many of Raleigh’s major thoroughfares.  Here they are brick, because brick a huge North Carolina industry and often they are cheaper than the same linear foot of concrete block.  Along the border, the fences don’t have to be pretty, they have to be substantial, and they must be monitored remotely and electronically.  Anyone caught breaching the fence should be punished severely.

The other imperative is that Congress must get rid of Ted Kennedy’s ‘Anchor Baby’ law – and the sooner the better.  It is wrong that a woman can come here during her third trimester, have a child (who automatically becomes an American citizen) and the entire extended family can waltz in and set up housekeeping in perpetuity.  The mother and child should be returned to their home country, the child should be given conditional citizenship, which he/she can exercise, like a stock option, when he/she reaches the age of 18.

Next, we have to remove the carrot that attracts people, while at the same time, making LEGAL immigration easier.  The carrot I’m speaking of is American jobs.  There has to be consequences for hiring illegals, and it needs to be punitive.  For example, if a home builder hires crews of illegals to cut his overhead, other builders have to follow suit or go under.  Builders should have to pay a fine and have their licenses suspended for a given time, and after the third offense, their license should be revoked.  Conversely, financial penalties need to be used to make an Instant-Check system any employer can access from any device to verify the creds of an applicant.  [Apparently e-verify is supposed to do this but it doesn’t seem to work]

Do NOT tell me that illegals are here doing jobs that Americans won’t do.  Put the WORK requirement back in Welfare and those jobs can either be FILLED by people on welfare, or they lose their monthly check.  Period.

Illegals that are currently here should never be granted citizenship, nor the benefits that go with that designation such as being allowed to vote.  We need a classification current illegals can fall into, that will permit them to work openly like a citizen.  Children of these people who were born here ARE citizens according to the laws today.  Illegals should NEVER be eligible for government assistance.  Assistance should be a one-way ticket home.

We need one official language – ENGLISH.  Learn it if you want to live here.  Road signs and official documents should be in ENGLISH.

Children of illegals should be educated without preference, but educated in ENGLISH.  Total immersion language instruction WORKS and should be mandatory for non-English speaking students.  Economically, it’s better to teach a child English than it is to run bi-lingual secondary education systems and a bi-lingual nation.

Finally, immigrants who come here legally should ALWAYS be moved to the front of the line for citizenship.  Always!

May not fix every problem but it would be a huge start.