Politico (Op-Ed)
By Alfonso Aguilar
June 15, 2015
I'm
a conservative, and I support immigration. Those are two statements
that you don’t hear together nearly often enough. I have seen the
positive impact of immigration
in my own life. My parents are both naturalized Americans. My mother is
originally from Italy, and my father is from Costa Rica. Like most
immigrant parents, they both love America immensely and treasure the
unique political system of our great republic. They
both encouraged me to assimilate and feel fully American, while
preserving the beautiful customs and traditions of the cultures of their
countries of origin, and most of all, the practice of our faith as
central to our lives.
I’ve
also seen the problems with immigration — in fact, I’ve had a unique
vantage point as the controversial issue has unfolded in recent years.
As an attorney with expertise
in immigration law and policy — and after serving for almost six years
as chief of the U.S. Office of Citizenship under President George W.
Bush — I have a unique understanding of what is specifically wrong with
our immigration system and how we can fix it.
That’s why, earlier this spring, I put forward a five-point plan for
action on immigration — a general framework to encourage my fellow
conservatives in Congress to offer positive solutions and reclaim the
immigration issue, rather than run away from it. The
debate over immigration has lasted for too long, and it is time for
Congress to finally do something to begin fixing our dysfunctional
immigration system. The American people expect Washington to show
leadership on this issue.
Based on this experience and background, these are the five steps I propose to effectively address our immigration woes:
First,
we must secure the border. We call for extending double fencing to all
areas along the southern border where illegal crossings can potentially
occur to attain effective
and realistic operational control of the border. Double-layered fencing
— a two-fence barrier with a road for patrolling between — would
drastically reduce the number of illegal entries. Border security
metrics arbitrarily set by Congress are generally useless.
Double-layered fencing instead provides a tangible marker that would
clearly show we are doing something concrete to secure the border.
Second,
Congress should mandate that all businesses use the federal employment
eligibility verification system or E-Verify to ensure only citizens and
individuals with
legal status are employed. Most immigrants who come to the U.S.
illegally do so for work. If we can ensure they cannot find a job if
they lack legal status, we will remove the main incentive for entering
the country illegally.
Third,
we must fully implement a biometric exit tracking system of foreign
nationals to ensure they depart the country by the time their visa
expires; 40 percent of undocumented
immigrants do not enter the country illegally, but come legally and
overstay their visas. A biometric exit tracking system would identify
those who have remained after their visas have expired, allowing
Immigration and Customs Enforcement to go after these
individuals to detain and remove them.
Border
security and domestic enforcement should be a priority, but we must
also deal with the other challenges that we face; specifically, what to
do with the 11 million
undocumented immigrants living here and how to facilitate the legal
flow of the foreign workers our economy needs. Congress should
definitely legislate in this session to address these problems, but,
since I realize we cannot trust this administration, I propose
that lawmakers postpone the implementation of these specific measures
until after the president leaves office on January 2017. Pass these
bills now, but implement them later.
Therefore,
as a fourth step, I recommend that after the first three steps are
executed — and not earlier than January 2017 — that we implement a
market-oriented guest
worker program that allows businesses that cannot find American workers
to recruit and bring the foreign workers that they need into the
country temporarily. We also need to substantially increase the quota of
temporary visas for foreign professionals with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and math, boost
the number of green cards available to STEM students and allow foreign
STEM students who are offered employment here to remain in the country
while they adjust their legal status.
Our
economy needs a steady stream of foreign workers to perform jobs
Americans do not want to do or for which there are simply not enough
Americans of working age. Even
during these difficult times, there are many industries that could not
continue to exist in their present prosperity without foreign labor, at
the low-skilled and the high-skilled levels. Agriculture and technology
are certainly a few of them.
A
temporary worker program would incorporate into our system the concept
of circular migration. Foreign workers would come in legally, perform
their work, return to their
home countries when they want to, and then reenter legally to get back
to work. Contrary to popular belief, most immigrants who come here do
not want to settle in the U.S. and become citizens. If they end up
staying, it is because to return home would require
them to go through the unpleasant and dangerous experience of trying to
enter the U.S. illegally all over again, which, of course, they don’t
want to do.
The
fifth and final step is to provide a path to legal status to
undocumented immigrants. Again, after the first three steps are executed
and not before President Barack
Obama has left office, the government should provide legal status to
undocumented immigrants. They would be allowed to remain and live in the
U.S., but they will not have a special path to citizenship.
This
does not mean that we would close the door to citizenship to them, but
we would require them, if they want to naturalize, to get in the back of
the line and follow
the process under current law to acquire lawful permanent residency and citizenship.
As
this Congress decides to move forward, however, they should not feel
that they have only two options: President Obama’s amnesty, on one hand,
or Mitt Romney’s self-deportation,
on the other. There is a third way, a conservative way, to approach
immigration that is based on the rule of law and on the realization that
immigration is good for the country and for our economy.
Republicans
cannot just be the “party of no” on immigration. Instead, they should
call the Democrats’ bluff on immigration — and lead.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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