I’ve been pretty vocal about my feelings regarding I.C.E. and their actions of late. One friend asked…What would you do?
Whoa…someone who wanted my opinion. Rare, but welcomed.
There are four underlying areas that are at play here with this issue:
- Securing the border
- Deporting illegal aliens
- Fixing the illegal alien problem
- Fixing the immigration system
Trump has done an excellent job of securing the southern border; I’m not sure about the northern border, I’ve not paid much attention to that area. But Trump sure kept his promise to secure the southern border!! Well done President Trump ! !
If I were to do one thing differently on securing the border it would be to use the military. Bring some of the hundreds of thousands of US military personnel back to the US from foreign countries and let them guard our borders. That would be a win-win for sure. And as a bonus CBP would be freed up to do far better at entry points.
As for deporting illegal aliens, there are two groups; 1) criminals, 2) and “regular”. Yeah, yeah…I get it; all illegal aliens are criminals by definition, I agree. For this article I differentiate them by those who have committed crimes once inside the US vs those who keep a low profile and don’t commit crimes.
To deport the “criminals” is a pretty easy one. First, go to every single US prison and jail, any illegal alien gets immediately deported to their country of origin…period. No hearing, no trial, no process other than handcuffed and shackled and put on a plane. Gone! My reasoning? Why should we pay the $65,000 per year for these folks to overcrowd our prisons and jails? Yeah, no we shouldn’t. This is a no-brainier.
As for the other illegal aliens…let them self-deport as much as possible. By that I mean motivate them to leave the country. Such as, no illegal alien gets any US federal money or assistance of any kind; including any federal money that has gone through a state government program.
So the above two steps are pretty self-explanatory and reasonable for everyone (most reasonable people) to agree on. This next step is a bit tougher to implement, enforce, and “sell”.
To fix the illegal alien problem we have to fix the illegal immigrant “system”, by which I mean make it virtually impossible for an illegal alien to live in this country. I would think the following would be a good start:
- Make it illegal (a felony) to give an illegal alien a drivers license.
- Any illegal alien found with a drivers license, immediate deportation.
- For individuals involved in the process of providing a drivers license to an illegal alien it is a felony with a $100,000 fine.
- For the state involved in the process of providing a drivers license to an illegal alien it is a reduction in federal funding for roads of $1,000,000 per instance.
- Any illegal alien found with a drivers license, it is immediate deportation and a reduction in federal funding for roads of $1,000,000 per instance to the state.
- For any entity found to harbor illegal aliens it is a felony for the leader of that entity, plus a $100,000 fine per instance. And that includes states, counties, or cities…including police departments and sheriff offices.
- Voter ID for any election.
- It is a felony for any person involved in providing funds or services to illegal aliens which funds or services come from a federal government source.
- To send money outside of the US a valid drivers license must be shown.
I think that would be a good start that most reasonable people could be agreeable to.
Now…fixing the immigration system for legal immigration…I have no clue. I don’t know the system well enough to give any meaningful suggestions here. There are two things I do know that have to be considered:
- Legal immigration must be for the benefit of the country and no cost to the country’s taxpayers.
- Legal immigration must make occasional exceptions for true hardship cases.
Why is my system/ideas the better route? Oh my gosh…arrogance showing!!!
Seriously, other than securing the southern border, what is going on now is an absolute disaster…an embarrassment of monumental proportions! Come on, you have to admit:
- US citizens being beat, pepper sprayed, and shot.
- US citizens being shot and killed.
- Local law enforcement and correction officers being detained as suspected illegal aliens.
- People being dragged out of their cars in the middle of the road.
- US citizens being dragged out of their homes in below freezing weather in shorts and flip-flops.
- Five year old being detained outside after school in the middle of winter.
- Father of 3 US marines beat, cuffed, arrested, and scheduled to be deported.
Father of 3 US Marines beaten and violently arrested by I.C.E agents.
Don’t try to justify it…that is not my point. My point…those actions are extremely stupid!! For a moment consider this…”optics”. This is my whole point.
It looks horrific for military dressed ICE agents with covered faces, armed to the hilt, conducting military style raids on what appears to be normal people…and children…and old people. How bad does it look? Ask Americans for goodness sake…
- 58% of Americans disapprove of the way Trump is handling this ICE debacle.
- Nearly half of the country wants to abolish ICE.
Ya think that pretty damn clearly indicates there is a problem here!?!?!?!?!!?
No one objects to a rapist, murderer, drunk driver, or drug dealer being arrested and deported…but a 5-yo???? Wake up!! Think “perception” & “perspective”…not just ours, but others as well…you know, reasonable people.
A five year old standing in the snow in below zero weather whose father just brought him home from school is not a picture 
that any reasonable person can justify. Think…the father picks up his son from school in the middle of a freezing cold winter…then gets jumped by a bunch of federal agents dressed like they are going to war, armed to the teeth. What the hell kind of government does that!!!???
Sure, the father is in the country illegally, I get that…but has he committed any crime while here? Does he work? Does he pay taxes? Does he help his neighbors? Does he go to church? Is he a good father? Those are legitimate questions! Should he be on the top of the raid, arrest, and deportation list? Hell no!! That is not who we are!!!
Oh, wait…Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, the father of the 5-yo, entered the country legally with his son at a point of entry via the CPB app and requested asylum, and was awaiting his immigration hearing. Oh, and there is NO record of any criminal activity by him. What the hell was ICE thinking???!!!
What I am getting at are the optics. We can accomplish the goal(s) of stopping illegal immigration without looking like, or acting like, a Nazi-style authoritarian government. There are plenty of bad-guys out there…who are also illegal aliens…go 
get em! But no…our idiotic leadership has to create the appearance of masked terrorists beating and killing people…and abusing children and their fathers. And that is why we have nation-wide demonstrations opposing these actions. Justifiably so.
What is taking place now is just plain stupid by any measure…and very possibly criminal in some cases. Why did we choose the stupid path? Probably nothing more than to “look tough”…and we get stupid instead. Doubt me? Well…way more than ½ of the country, almost 2/3rds, objects to the way it being handled to the point that nearly half want to get rid of ICE altogether.
So, why do you think the country’s leadership is blatantly ignoring the will of the majority of we the people? Therein lies the real question…what’s going on behind the curtain? Or, is our leadership just plain stupid?
Whatever it is…it is dividing this country even more than what it already was. Then again…maybe that is the goal…divide to the point of civil unrest and violence in the streets. And why do you think they would want that?
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