Today’s entry - Neither Mexico nor any other nation is to blame for our current immigration fiasco; we can only blame ourselves and our practices. It is 1) U.S./Global Commercial Interests, 2) the private-interests, corruption, absolutely unrepresentative nature and deceit of our Elected Officials and Institutions, and 3) the ignorance of our citizens and legal residents that are to blame. We have been, for many years now, a MISMANAGED Nation.
We have plenty of Immigration Laws in our books, a mass/mess of Executive Orders and a media and an educational system that keeps on broadcasting/misinforming on the edges, muddling the (most) SUBJECT MATTER(s) to an undecipherable mass/mess of emotional tugs and blames.
It is tough to face ourselves, but at this point, there is not much else to do. That is, provided we really want to construct LOGICAL WORKING solutions, otherwise, let's just shut up!
Bottom Line: No argument here on what you presented but there is more to the story in my view. On immigration alone, I count 41 federal laws that have been passed in our country's history. At some point, our immigration policy becomes like our tax code. Even if you have government officials review policy it’s possible to come up with different determinations. The age-old argument for lax enforcement has been the “jobs American’s won’t do”? That’s just nonsense. Mike Rowe proved with Dirty Jobs that Americans will do any job, just perhaps not as cheaply as someone who lacks status. To your point, we do have elements of our economy that are based in crony-capitalism. The two biggest are agriculture and healthcare. Where I do disagree with your thoughts is on what should happen.
Yes, enforcement of existing laws would go a long way towards solving many problems. But that’s also why I think it’s necessary to pass additional law(s)/reforms. It’s why I’m encouraged by what Florida recently passed regarding “Sanctuary Cities”. But there are two areas of need for reform that are obvious.
With open borders organizations discovering how to exploit our existing immigration laws, there’s a real need to have a policy that overhauls how we handle people who step foot on US soil. They’ve learned how to become part of the asylum process which has become a cornerstone of our broken system. There’s a steep cost to the all of it as well. The average daily cost to house an asylum seeker is $134. When processed 98.5% of asylum seekers are determined to be illegitimate and ordered for deportation which also comes with a cost. Something needs to change in our policy. This is an example of existing laws being enforced.
Last year illegal immigration cost taxpayers about $27 billion. That number is set to soar past $30 billion this year, to give you an idea, we'll spend more on illegal immigrants than on Science and Transportation in the US. We would be better off if all immigration laws were enforced equitably. The existing policy being enforced isn’t the answer. It’s at the root of our current problem. President Trump’s recent executive order regarding asylum has the potential to help but we need to end the policy of anyone who unlawfully comes to the US becoming someone who’s afforded due process under our laws as any lawful citizen receives at a minimum. It’s also the very point of President Trump to many voters. To cut through the crap and act in the interests of American’s first.
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