SYSTEMATIC IMMIGRATION REFORM (SIR) – STEP ONE

**This blog entry was written previously and is being reposted here in an effort to consolidate all articles in one location**

This is an open letter to Conservatives. Please stop
engaging in debates on the subject of comprehensive
immigration reform. Conservatives and anyone with common sense should oppose, not only comprehensive immigration reform, but ANY legislation where comprehensive is part of the title. This includes comprehensive banking reform, comprehensive health reform (too late for that one), comprehensive election reform, and comprehensive energy policy.

I use the example of having an old 68 mustang in your garage. You can not and will never be able to comprehensively fix that car. It is impossible. Even if you had a garage full of ASE certified mechanics and restorers, and you told them all to begin it would be impossible.

Why? Because even then they would all  be eager to get started they would only get in each others way. One group would want to jack the car up. Someone would be taking out the dash, while still others would be trying to take out the interior. It would be chaos. Yet that is what the government did with healthcare, and now wants to do with the banking industry and immigration policy.

The real answer is systematic reform. In our example, the most logical thing to do is to check the frame and ensure that it can sustain and accommodate all the rest of the subsequent repairs and/or modifications. A rebuilt engine that runs great means nothing if installed on a bent or rusting frame. It is not until after the first step that you can move on to the engine and rebuild it, install fresh gaskets, and rings and anything necessary to get running well. Once that is done you pull the transmission, etc… Usually, you go through the restoration systematically to ensure each change progresses toward the ultimate goal. Occasionally, it is to be expected that some part doesn’t quite fit or needs to be rebuilt in order for the previous repair or change to work properly within the context of the restoration.

All these concepts apply to immigration reform. The reformation/restoration of immigration policy must be done systematically. The first step is to find the area in dire need of fixing and attack that isolated problem. It will do no good to try and fix everything at once. In the case of immigration reform, the number one most pressing problem is the actual border. That is what must be fixed before any other problem can be addressed, much like the frame in our example, it does absolutely no good to write policy without first addressing the issue that makes the policy necessary in the first place.

We must build a wall! Not a virtual wall, a real 20-40 foot wall that will serve as real deterrent to illegal aliens attempting to enter into the country illegally. I would even go as far as suggesting a double wall where the first wall and second wall create a “dry moat” along the border so that those that cross over the border are

trapped between the two walls which would give border patrol agents time to intercept and detain illegal border crossers. This wall, contrary to popular belief, would not stop ALL illegal border crossers, but it would deter a great majority of them. Obviously without a wall we will never know exactly how much the deterrent effect might be, but I would speculate that it could cut illegal border crossers by 65-75 percent. Many will argue that the fence will do no good. But in a Congressional Research Service report to Congress it was reported that “After the IIRIRA’s mandate for increased enforcement along the Southwest border
in 1996, including construction of the triple-fence, apprehensions dropped rapidly in the San Diego sector in the late 1990s — from 480,000 in FY1996 to 100,000 in FY2002. The reduction in apprehensions was even more marked in the areas where fencing was constructed within San Diego sector. The USBP’s Imperial Beach and Chula Vista stations saw their apprehensions decline from 321,560 in FY1993 to 19,035 in FY2004 — a reduction of 94% over the 12 year period.” Whenever someone makes this argument they should be immediately asked why they have doors and locks on their houses and fences around their property. Physical barriers work and are very effective, period.

In order to get this done, Congress must allow for the construction of the wall in National Parks and refuges along the border. For those that argue that this would destroy habitat and the natural beauty of the environment must only be shown pictures of the devastation of garbage left by illegal border crossers to understand what really causes the destruction of the natural beauty of the desert. Congress should allow for the construction of the fence, all other laws notwithstanding. Once Congress makes the necessary exceptions to allow the construction, it should immediately introduce legislation to appropriate funds for construction of the wall. This would have some very positive effects for the nation and the economy. First, companies would have to bid and hire workers to supply the materiel, rent or buy the equipment, and install the fence. Second, the mere action of building the wall and will project a perception that the United States is shifting from tacit approval of illegal immigration to a concerted effort to enforce immigration law; this will itself create an environment whereby illegal immigrants will sense a turning of the tides and many will ultimately make a decision to self deport. Third, this will allow the border patrol to use its resources more efficiently and concentrate on the remaining illegal border crossers which are more likely to be gun traffickers, drug runners, and human smugglers.

Along with the building of the border fence Congress should simultaneously increase the budget for the Coast Guard for additional personnel and equipment to include a drastic increase of boats. What is the reason for that? Because as soon as you complete the border fence, the easiest way for illegal aliens to cross into the United States will be by boat; off the coast of San Diego and in the Gulf of Mexico in Texas.

Once the American public is assured that the borders are secure with a genuine physical deterrent, they will be more receptive to the idea of regularizing the status of those that are left in the country; but not until then! The American public has learned its lesson and will no longer accept empty promises that the border fence will be addressed and that funding will be appropriated at a future date the way they did in 1986. Americans are tired of waiting on Congress to comply with and appropriate the funds for legislation which has been signed into law such as the Secure Fence Act of 2006. Through their actions, first by the State of Arizona as stated in the new AZ1070 law, and then through their will, as reflected in poll after poll, the American people want Systematic Immigration Reform, and they will accept nothing less.

So please… Stop allowing progressives and liberals set the conditions for the argument. The only way to fix a problem, any problem, is to do so thoughtfully, deliberately, and systematically. Building the border fences is STEP I. Nothing can proceed without accomplishing that first critical step. A thousand mile journey begins with a single step… Let’s get started.