Border and Immigration
Broken system yields broken outcomes. The fix is obvious.
As long as I’ve been alive, there has been talk of needing immigration reform. Yet, here we are in 2024, and the same arguments are still being made. It’s almost like it’s essential not to resolve this area of life in our nation. Why? Could legislators make money through donations, the media can increase or retain viewership, and money can continue to flow to the benefactors?
Let's settle this once and for all. No, Immigrants are not good or bad. We don’t paint people with such a broad brush. I look at our border and immigration policies as a larger picture. The power dynamic at play is that immigrants have none. With that said, the following changes need to be implemented to address issues created by existing legislative failures:
• Deploy more judges to address the current backlog of immigrants awaiting a decision.
• Reduce wait times and bottlenecks that create such long wait times that incentivize others to circumvent the legal processes.
• Secure the border with a wall and other more modern technologies.
The processing time built into our existing system creates a barrier to pursuing legal immigration. Furthermore, immigrants outside the legal path can only survive if they can earn a living. The power is in the hands of employers. Not the immigrants. Therefore, this policy must be implemented:
• Implement an e-verify system, making it illegal for employers to hire undocumented workers.
• Financial penalties for employers hiring undocumented immigrants.
It is important to keep a fair labor market. When employers are allowed to dilute the market, that hurts us all, including immigrants working here legally.
We have many who only know the United States as their home. We must not keep them in limbo:
• Make Dreamers citizens.
As we look closer at the motives of those immigrating to our great nation, we must understand most are either seeking opportunity or fleeing danger. The following are policies meant to address such scenarios:
• Establish asylum requirements to be initiated at US Embassies in one's home country rather than a requirement to come to our border.
• Establish a Marshall Plan. We did this in Europe after WWII to help Europe recover physically and economically. Partnering with Latin America through commerce, we'll help establish economic opportunities in one's home nation.
The objective must be to do something different, but these policies are not in a vacuum. Our commitment to the drug war must end. Corruption runs rampant because of the continuation of an unregulated market.
Under my administration, we will streamline the legal process while partnering with our neighbors to create conditions of safety and opportunity.