Bill Siegel: Trump the Immigration Stalemate
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/trump-the-immigration-stalemate?f=politics
For decades, the Left, including today’s Democrat party, has had one overarching goal – to secure enough Democrat voters to establish a permanent majority from which to unleash its full scale program to transform the nation. Essential to this strategy is letting in as many illegal immigrants (preferably the unskilled from impoverished backgrounds to whom government benefits will mean significantly more) while gaining favor from currently residing immigrants- legal and illegal. Securing our borders so that we as a nation can choose who enters is as intimately connected to our concept of “nationhood” as the ability to lock one’s doors is to the notion of “home.” Nonetheless, the Left has held border security hostage to some fantasized “comprehensive” solution aimed at addressing the status of existing illegals.
Thus, far from unacceptable, the resulting decades-long stalemate has been desirable for the Left as it has allowed the illegal population to drastically increase. Effective border control is counter-productive to its ideological goal. Meanwhile, by pretending to care for illegals and insisting that the hardship they endure alone makes them deserving of citizenship (all the while branding the Right as “racist” and “hateful”), the Left has established the illusion of compassion in pursuit of the vote from present legal immigrants as well as from illegals should they ever obtain the right to vote.
Today, we are witnessing the growing frustration with the Left’s strategy in the fan base presidential candidate Donald Trump has accumulated. Trump has unleashed a deep well of anger in those disgusted by the stalemated failure to secure our borders. As the Left casts illegals as “innocent victims” and any criticism of them as “primitive” and “bigoted,” many angrily respond with, “Stop telling us we are racists – all we want is proper management of our nation’s immigration system. They are here illegally!”
The Trump crowds are also frustrated by Democrats’ promises to secure the border when they obviously have no intention of doing so. They deeply resent the idea that America owes the illegal something in exchange for the difficult life he is deemed to endure by living in the shadows: “We owe them nothing for breaking our laws.” And at bottom there is a fundamental cry, “Come out of the dark so we can see who and how many you are so we can understand the situation you have brought upon us.”
The Left-dominated media has been a substantial contributor to the status quo stalemate as well. It spreads messages such as the borders are substantially secure, illegal entry has decreased, there is no functional solution as walls can always be scaled or tunneled under, we do not have enough manpower to support monitoring, and any truly effective means would be cruel and unaffordable. It deploys deceptive mantras such as we are “a nation of immigrants” as opposed to “a nation of legal immigrants” and “they do the jobs Americans won’t do” instead of “they do some jobs at prices lower than some Americans will accept.” The Left’s language is replete with offers of “common ground” and charges of Republican insensitivity but its eyes remain steadfastly fixed on only one goal – votes to lock in a permanent Democrat majority. Just as “You can keep your doctor” and “The military option is on the table” were outright lies, Trump crowds are screaming, “Stop lying to us, your words mean nothing!”
The Left has fed the media various non-diverse images of the illegal population as all innocent, hard-working and loyal based on no credible body of information precisely because it is a varied group living in hiding. Consequently, when Trump or others reference those who actually are criminals, the Left pounds them for deviating from the delusional narrative it has foisted on us. Knowing so little true information about the illegal population has dangerously left our public easily manipulated by such imagery. None of us really knows much about the makeup of our current illegal population. Before fashioning some massive program, Washington should first learn all that it can about the subject matter.
More importantly, we witness the media’s collusion with the Left’s strategy in its approach to Republican candidates. Whenever a candidate makes the case for tighter border security, a subject that that should stand alone on its own merits and necessity, the media immediately links and asks, “What will you do with the 11 million ‘undocumenteds’ who are here?” Most of the candidates have been reluctant to answer, wary of navigating past the Scylla and Charybdis extremes of mass deportation and full amnesty.
There is a pathway out of this unnecessary linkage and resulting stalemate which involves a simple twist. This “non-comprehensive” plan would open a window, perhaps three to six months, requiring existing illegals to come out of hiding and register with the government. Registration in part consists of providing vast information about the illegal (personal history and stats, work, taxes, education, skills, health, family here and other family members seeking to enter, etc.). In exchange for this registration, compliant illegals will be temporarily free from deportation due solely to their illegal entry until Congress and the President decide on their ultimate disposition. No other rights are granted in exchange for registration nor is there protection from any other offense and, should the information provided not be truthful, the waiver from deportation is forfeited.
The consequences of this path are numerous. First, despite media repetition of the “11 million,” it has no basis; living in the dark, their number is, by definition, unverifiable. Some today even suggest the true number ranges from 30 to 60 million. Registration will make the relevant number irrefutable; those who register qualify for future benefits, if any, to be granted. Those who do not register simply do not participate.
Government no longer has to guess the extent of the benefits and obligations needed and can generate more accurate estimates about the true costs and ramifications of any solution it subsequently considers. It will not have to trust bureaucrats to forecast unknowns; registration with accompanying disclosures will give us most, if not all, of the information needed. More importantly, that information will help to create more appropriate and targeted solutions, both for the nation and to the registered, than those currently considered. What might be reasonable should 2 million register may differ greatly from that should 15 million register, or 25, or 50.
Registration also cuts off the endlessly growing problem (or, to the Left, this valuably growing prospective voter base). All discussion has centered upon the existing illegal population. There is no coherent argument for granting anything (amnesty, a path to citizenship, legal status with rights to government programs, etc.) to the future, yet to enter, illegal. Holding out such promise serves only as an invitation to break our laws. Registration thus distinguishes presently existing illegal immigrants from those yet to enter. While we have been hampered in containing the problem based on physical space (our borders), registration at least protects across time. After all, one error President Reagan committed was to grant amnesty in exchange for the fantasy that future illegal entry would be forestalled. We have been in a stalemate ever since while new illegals enter every day.
Registration also addresses some of the Trump-liberated anger by forcing the illegal to act in good faith first. It takes some of the sting out of the idea that illegals may ultimately be rewarded for their illegal behavior. Registering is a risk for the illegal. He has no certainty of his future treatment and may not trust the government will ultimately decide upon any favorable treatment of him. He will have come out into the “light” and given valuable information while not knowing his ultimate fate.
Some critics of this proposal will complain that such fear will stop any illegal from coming forward. Yet, that is the point. Realistically, an illegal’s ultimate status is equally undetermined today. Under this plan, in exchange for truthful information, he is protected until final resolution, if ever. He can freely move around without fear of deportation. It will take time before true effective border control is secured and, in the meantime, the country may somewhat favorably adjust to the registered illegal’s presence. That should be more preferable than living “in the dark.” He is certainly no worse off than when he initially illegally entered. Should he feel the need to go back into the dark, he is free and able to do so despite the information he has supplied as part of registration.
And to some extent, one who takes this risk is helping to change the way many others may regard him. While he disobeyed our laws initially, registration consists in his choosing to obey our laws when the status quo would otherwise suggest he stay in the dark. To some degree, he is “earning” whatever benefits, if any, are ultimately bestowed upon him. “Help us help you” can form the foundation for eliciting compassion for the quandary in which the illegal has placed himself and, perhaps, even soften the attitudes of some who vehemently oppose any hint of amnesty.
Contrarily, those who do not register have not shown any comparable respect for our laws. At that point they have broken our laws at least twice- through illegal entry and failure to register. By declining to register they have made it all the tougher to justify any “compassion” the Left so adamantly demands. Consequently, the tradeoff for the temporary suspension of deportation for those who register is that current laws should immediately be re-enforced against those who do not. It is to be made clear that they are to be excluded from any future benefit.
This isn’t amnesty. Congress and the President retain the ability to declare that as of some future date enforcement of existing laws, including deportation, against those who registered will resume. Any amnesty (or other possible outcome) still depends upon how our electorate or the elected may vote in the future. If anything, this approach yields only a temporary postponement, differing little from the current de facto suspension of enforcement under President Obama, in order to organize illegals into classes and derive useful information to formulate a more effective solution. Nothing final has been authorized. We are now and will be at the mercy of our elected officials to make any ultimate determination.
Again, once the registration period has closed, there are two clearly defined groups to address – those who registered and all other illegals, here now or in the future. Legislators are now equipped with information to assess the extent of the problem and craft an intelligent solution, if any. Those who did register can continue to exist as they currently do until issues such as e-verify, employer penalties, basing entry on merit versus relatives already here, back taxes, fines, guest worker programs and work permits, entry-exit biometric systems, background checks, where in the line to citizenship, if at all, they are to be placed and distinguishing those here through illegal entry from those who illegally overstay a validly issued visa etc. are agreed upon. With all of the actual information, Congress will be in a better place to evaluate the appropriateness of any ultimate resolution and also afforded an additional justification – that risk was taken and when given the choice, this new law was obeyed – should it ultimately confer any benefits at all.
In the interim, there is no excuse not to place all efforts upon border security. Breaking the status quo is crucial for our national security. By eliminating the “hardship” of living in the dark for the illegal who registers, this “non-comprehensive” approach makes it more difficult for the Left to hold border security hostage to some endlessly stalled “comprehensive” solution. In doing so, it makes it more likely that something realistic can actually be accomplished. And it does so without any of the anger or “tone” Trump has loosened.
It also turns the issue back on the Left to be pressured into why it resists immediate efforts to secure the border. No longer need a candidate be stumped by the inquiry as to what to do with the “11 million.” “Let’s first find out as much as we can about them.” Then the question should be reversed, “What stops immediate action to seal our borders?” Essentially, this plan is a means to “Trump” the immigration stalemate the Left has forced upon us.
Bill Siegel is the author of The Control Factor- Our Struggle to See the True Threat published by Hamilton Books.
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