In the spirit of bringing people together, former comedienne Amy Schumer posted an Instagram picture that stated "Dear Ivanka, I see you're following me on Instagram. This Thanksgiving I would be grateful if you use the influence you have to advocate for a CLEAN Dream Act by December. Every day that passes without a clean Dream Act means anxiety and deportation for immigrant youth. 7,901 youth have already already lost DACA and 122 more will lose it each day. Thank you and happy holidays."
In light of this bit of comedic genius, it's time to write the article I was planning on writing right up until the Alt-Right Democrats in Charlottesville decided to start a battle with the Antifa Democrats and we fell into a faster-than-light paced news cycle that just started to slow down this past week. While the Dream Act was expiring, I gave the entire situation some thought, and I found the solution I feel would be the fairest for everyone involved, and will stay within our laws.
One thing to keep in mind about the Dream Act is that it is largely considered to be illegal. Boiled down to it's most basic elements, all that Act means is that Former President Barack Obama chose not to enforce a Congressional law. The fact that he put paperwork and forms on it doesn't change the fact that it was a large executive overstep. Regardless of that fact, the kids are here right now, and we have to figure out the best move going forward.
Although it may not be the most popular opinion, I hold to the opinion that I've always held. All undocumented immigrants, including the "Dreamers" have to go. Currently, those who were designated as Dreamers were dependent children who came over the border with their illegal alien parents. I think that currently includes people up to age 35. The parents of the dreamers are also welcome to stay under their own Act, but it's ambiguous as to whether the Act protects them once their children are no longer dependent. For all intents and purposes, the Dreamers are Illegal Aliens, or undocumented immigrants as our politically correct friends on the left like to say. I feel right now that the most fair way to figure out the DACA situation is to just start over.
The first step in my plan is that all Illegal Aliens have to leave the United States, whether through deportation or willful exit. For most of the adult Dreamers out there, they really shouldn't have any sort of excuse, either. With the Dream Act in place, there is nothing on the books that's preventing a person from applying for a resident alien visa, a work visa, or even citizenship. Once the exodus has begun, though, and before we move down into a case by case basis, we can expedite the process of making illegals into citizens by first breaking them into three groups.
The first group is Illegals who have committed major crimes. Everyone gets speeding tickets or popped for driving without insurance or a license. However in the case of crimes like theft, murder, rape, or even DUI, we need to make a stand. If you are an Illegal alien and you're guilty of a high crime, you get deported and you're not welcome back. End of story. There are tens of thousands of people who want to go through the process and come in legally and abide by our laws. I definitely think that we should be catering to those people.
The second group will be the people who are here illegally, who have committed no other crime beyond immigration law, and have turned themselves over and left willingly. If the plan goes through, it would be beneficial for these people to actually report to an ICE agent, as a show of good faith. There would be a burden of good measure to fall on the ICE agents as well to be honest with the federal government as well. Anyone in this group goes out of the country without prejudice, and are welcome back with open arms as long as they go through the legal process this time. Since many of them are trying to contribute to the advancement of the American Society, I would put a provision in to help expedite the process to get these people resident alien visas and work visas quickly. The only requirement would be starting outside the country, the way that millions of people have done legally for 200 years.
I've laid out what to do for the worst illegals among us, and I've made a proposal for the best of the best. But there is that group in the middle, and I really hope that if our immigration officials adopt these ideas and keep their words, this group will be incredibly small. If you are an illegal alien who's committed no crimes aside from immigration law, and we have to come find you, you will fall into this category. I feel that I'm being fair. My proposal is essentially amnesty for all, as long as you go back and start on the other side of the border (and haven't killed anyone, of course). I don't feel it's excessive to ask for cooperation from the other side. With that in mind, I also feel that it's fair to impose some sort of penalty if ICE has to expend resources for your compliance. The best way to solve this, to me, would be a short suspension of your visa privileges. I don't mean anything excessive, either. 6 months minimum/3 years max seems absolutely fair, and it should go on a case by case basis depending on the amount of struggle the alien puts up. While it's fair to impose a penalty, I don't necessarily think it's right to slam the door completely on the otherwise law-abiding immigrants who will, in the end, help improve our GDP.
Lastly, I want to touch on the people who aren't "dreamers", because they would probably wind up getting the short end of this proposal. I am absolutely in favor of extending this proposal to all illegal immigrants, whether or not they were in the DACA program. I grew up in rural Wisconsin, and I worked in foodservice a lot growing up. I've heard all the stories from bitter people about how "those damn illegals are just in here, working for pennies and not paying any taxes." Let's be completely honest, though. a 45 year old Guatemalan guy who jumped the fence 25 years ago and has been dodging INS and ICE ever since may be working for cash under the table to avoid his income tax. However, in 44 of the lower 48, it's statistically impossible that he's gone that quarter century without paying sales tax. It's a very small victory, I know. But he has been contributing to both the economy and the state and local coffers. We do have to be fair, and if we extend an olive branch to one group of illegals, we really do have to extend it to all of them.
Do you have a better solution for our dreamers and illegal aliens that is also fair to our naturalized citizens and current resident aliens? Or do you think we should just give them all broad brush amnesty? I always welcome comments and discussion both here and over on Twitter. My handle is @edsblogtw1tter if you want to follow me to comment or read previous articles from my feed. If you like what you've read, go ahead and hit that like button, and consider hitting the retweet button as well. That would be cool of you. Remember, never take the words of journalists, bloggers, or podcasters as Gospel. Find all the facts, and draw your own conclusion. Thank you for reading.
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