The borders and immigration

We have borders to establish clearly where our property lies and our laws are in effect. We also maintain these borders to assure that the property is protected and the laws are obeyed.

I support controlling our national borders, to keep out those who would kill us, take our property, or undermine our civil order. I support reallocating Federal mony from less-important projects to border management and control, and customs and immigration enforcement.

I support the controlled admission of a known number of persons from other countries, to work in the United States, without granting them citizenship. Such a guest-worker program will have to assure that the identity and criminal record of these persons is known, that their whereabouts will be reported by their employers, that they pay taxes in proportion to the services and protection they receive from the law, and that their stays will not be permanent. I would even support a stipulation that these workers return to their home countries regularly during the effective period of their guest-worker visas. I would also asks that the countries from which the guest workers originate help with some of the expenses entailed in admitting them to the United States.

They will be allowed to apply for citizenship, but only if they meet the requirements for citizenship, which I will cover in another post. As guest-workers, they will enjoy the rights of any person before the law, but they must not be allowed to wield the powers of citizens. They may not vote, nor shall they draw welfare.

Such a program must consider the large number of foreigners illegally working in the United States today. The simple, irrefutable political reality is that they cannot remain in defiance of US law, and a guest-worker program cannot be used to legitimize them, or render the appearance of legitimizing them. Even if for only a week or two, the illegal workers here today must leave the US and apply to return under the new program. We cannot grant guest-worker visas to illegals in place.

With guarantees as properly documented guest workers, these people will be able to go to their homes, and return to work, as frequently as they wish and can afford, thus reducing the desire to bring to or raise families in the United States.

As equals before the law, they will open bank accounts, obtain motor vehicle licenses, insure their vehicles, and do the thousands of other things that Americans do every day. They will suffer less at the hands of criminals, because they will no longer fear the police. With this dignity, they will have more of a stake in the American way of life even if they are not fully empowered citizens here.

Terrorists will then find less aid and comfort among the streams of people illegally crossing our borders, and we will reduce their threat to us.