My tweets

[howeird]

• Fri, 12:09: RT @TheOnion: Immigration In America: The Path To Second-Class Citizenship http://t.co/7WxjnIZUfy http://t.co/86Za7ytUVB

Comments

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Interesting, and probably has a bit too much truth to it. For all the hoopla, this is very seriously not a solution that is permanent or complete.

I've pretty much heard your opinion on the subject, & don't want to have the conversation again, but I have a question:

If you were the president and congress and senate, all the same party in power, and wanted to work together toward a permanent, reasonable, not-too-costly and politically expedient solution to our immigration problems, what would your solution be?

Most people in the US, and most of our representatives in government, could not and would not answer this question.

I have answers. You would probably like some parts of my answer and not like others. But I'm more interested in your answer than mine. You can't (a) deport everyone, (b) spend billions building and manning a giant wall along the border, or (c) leave things as they are. What else you got?

[howeird]

But if you can grant amnesty to all of them, you can deport them. It's the same mechanism. Police do this all the time - send letters out to people with outstanding warrants telling them to come claim a prize, and the prize they get is an arrest.

We are talking about felons. People who broke the law either to come here or to stay here past their visas. And they all are aware of the seriousness of their crime, and knew the consequences.

The billions we are wasting on the war on drugs can be diverted to this effort.

I'm open to one kind of amnesty. Allow any undocumented person to enlist in the armed forces, and grant citizenship at the successful completion of an enlistment term.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Your solution is impossible, impractical and accomplishes nothing at great expense. Even if all were rounded up and deported, most would have a nice vacation and be back in a few weeks. Do you have any practical ideas?

[howeird]

It's no more impractical than amnesty. And no, they would not be back in a few weeks, unless they were running drugs for a cartel. Those who overstayed their visas would be unable to get new ones, and those who paid the human traffickers would not have the funds.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

A relative spent many years as a custodial supervisor for a state government agency that employed many such people. Occasionally, there were late night INS raids of the graveyard shift, and a group would be sent back. One of the first things they do is set aside enough well-hidden cash to get back, and most were back at work in 2 weeks or less.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Sorry to be a bother, but I ran across an article you might find interesting. It gives stats showing in 2011 46% of deportees had been deported previously. Which kind of supports my earlier off-the-cuff impression that deportation is not particularly effective in anything but giving people half a free vacation to visit their families, and increasing profit for coyotes. http://cis.org/revolving-door-deportations-of-criminal-illegal-immigrants