Bloomberg
By Laura Curtis
August 3, 2015
Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush outlines his immigration plan in post on
Medium.
Plan includes his ideas on “creating more forward-operating” Border Patrol bases and cracking down on “sanctuary cities”:
Securing the Border and Enforcing Our Immigration Laws
When
Clint Bolick and I published Immigration Wars in 2013, we presented a
number of proposals to strengthen America’s immigration policy. Border
security and the interior
enforcement of immigration laws, including a greater role for states,
formed key parts of this package of reforms. We emphasized that finding a
practical solution to the status of the people who are here illegally
today is a nonstarter if our borders are not
secure against future illegal immigration.
I
believe that for those already in the country, we need to put in place a
rigorous path that requires individuals to pass a thorough criminal
background check, pay fines,
pay taxes, learn English, obtain a provisional work permit and work,
not receive federal government assistance, and over an extended period
of time earn legal status. But any plan to address the status of illegal
immigrants must be accompanied by a robust
strategy to improve border security.
Securing
the border is possible, but it will require Washington to move beyond
divisive rhetoric. The following six proposals offer concrete steps that
the federal government
should take to help secure the border and enforce our immigration laws.
We must transform immigration from a broken system into one that
benefits every American.
Border Security
1. A forward-leaning Border Patrol with the flexibility to deploy resources to meet threats.
In
some cases, it takes Border Patrol agents over an hour to get to the
remote and rugged areas they need to patrol. Creating more
forward-operating bases maximizes agents’
time on the border by stationing them there (much like a fire station)
for multiple days at a time. We also have to interdict drugs and people
as close to the border as possible by using quick reaction teams that go
after the threat the moment it crosses the
border. An approach to border security that waits until illicit traffic
is miles into the interior of the country effectively cedes sovereign
U.S. territory to the cartels and smugglers. These forward-leaning
Border Patrol agents should be at the front line
of a multi-layered “defense in depth” where additional lines of defense
increase the likelihood of detecting and apprehending illegal crossers.
The
Border Patrol also must have the flexibility to deploy resources as
needed. The flow of illegal immigrants can and will shift over time. For
example, in the mid-2000s,
the Tucson, Arizona sector saw the most traffic based on the number of
apprehensions; after we applied more resources, people went to less
secure areas of the border, such as the Rio Grande Valley sector in
South Texas. Our border security posture must be
as nimble as the cartels’ ability to shift operations to a different
area.
2. Use new technologies to achieve continuous surveillance of the border.
Having
the ability to detect illegal crossings is necessary to secure the
border. In order to apprehend a person, you first have to know when and
where a crossing occurs.
That is one of the biggest problems right now — we do not have enough
surveillance on the border and we are being beaten without knowing it.
We can leverage technology to constantly watch the border, develop
intelligence, and put our agents and resources where
they are most effective at preventing and apprehending illicit border
crossers.
Technology,
such as drones, advanced sensors, and radar, can give our agents a
fuller picture of the illegal activity that in turn will enable the
country to better allocate
resources on the border. More than that, technology can make securing
the border safer for our agents who will not have to respond to false
alarms. And because the cartels do extensive counter-surveillance on our
agents through the use of spotters who report
on the movement of the Border Patrol, we need to keep them guessing by
using mobile technology.
3. Bolster border infrastructure and improve access to federal lands.
Road
construction and maintenance can provide agents access to areas of the
border that would otherwise go unpatrolled. New roads are needed on the
border to secure access
to remote and rugged terrain to interdict smugglers, and respond to the
detection of illicit traffic by technology. Likewise, new boat ramps
can provide Border Patrol riverine units more points to put their
vessels in the water so they can patrol more effectively.
As
noted in Immigration Wars, fencing is a component of border security.
When combined with surveillance technology and agents to detect and
respond to crossings, fencing
or other barriers can serve several purposes, including: (1) deterring
illegal entries by making it more difficult to cross the border, (2)
facilitating enforcement by increasing the time available to respond and
apprehend people, and (3) steering dangerous
criminals and traffickers away from populated areas, improving public
safety. Sufficient funding should be provided to maintain, improve, and
expand fences where appropriate (e.g., based on the terrain along the
border or the proximity of populated areas).
Access
to federal lands is another key part of improving access to border
areas. Currently, agents have to navigate byzantine environmental rules
and regulations to access
federal lands, which make up a large portion of the southwest border.
Removing these restrictions would help untie the hands of our agents to
patrol every inch of the border.
Interior Enforcement
4. Require electronic verification of employment eligibility.
Many
illegal immigrants come to the United States for jobs and, despite the
prohibition on hiring illegal immigrants, they are hired in large
numbers. If we decrease the
likelihood of being employed, crossing the border will be less
rewarding. However, the current I-9 system does not effectively prevent
the hiring of illegal workers. We need a strong E-Verify system to
ensure that American businesses are not hiring illegal
immigrants. E-Verify is an Internet-based system that allows businesses
to determine the eligibility of their employees to work in the United
States. Employers should not be penalized if they use E-Verify in good
faith and receive an incorrect eligibility
confirmation. Identity theft protections are also necessary. Finally,
with an improved E-Verify, the government must enforce penalties for
violations.
5.
Identify and send home the people who are entering the United States
and overstaying their visas or otherwise violating the terms of their
admission.
In
its widely-cited 2006 review, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that
nearly half of all illegal immigrants living in the United States
entered the country legally through
a port of entry such as an airport and overstayed their visas. While we
need to find a practical solution to the status of people who are here
illegally today, as we secure the border going forward, we also need to
identify and send home the people who enter
the country legally but overstay their visas or otherwise violate the
terms of their admission.
Unfortunately,
without a system in place to track adequately who has actually left the
country, it is difficult to know who these individuals are. A biometric
exit system
must be rapidly implemented so that immigration and national security
officials know with certainty who is, and is not, in this country.
We
also need to increase federal resources dedicated to overstay
enforcement. In FY 2012, the federal agency that investigates overstay
cases, among other activities,
spent less than 2 percent of their time on these cases.
Furthermore,
we need to create intergovernmental task forces to locate and apprehend
overstays, especially those who present public safety risks. With
proper training
and supervision, state and local police could augment federal agents
because they know their communities and have more boots on the ground.
6. Crack down on sanctuary cities that undermine efforts to enforce immigration laws.
We
should withhold federal law enforcement funds for cities that undermine
federal immigration laws and make sure we detain and deport illegal
immigrants who are serious
criminals. We should also expand federal partnerships that train state
and local police to help enforce immigration laws, particularly in jails
and prisons. When I was Governor of Florida, the state was a
trailblazer in working with the federal government
to enforce immigration laws. In 2002, Florida signed the first
agreement with the federal government under the Section 287(g) program,
which trains state and local police to help enforce immigration laws.
These
six proposals, when combined with a rigorous path to earned legal
status, would realistically and honestly address the status of the 11
million people here illegally
today and protect against future illegal immigration. While passions
run high on this issue, there is no rational plan to deport millions of
people that the American people would support. It would disrupt
communities and families and could cost taxpayers hundreds
of billions of dollars. The policies I am advocating can ultimately
receive bipartisan support in Congress and become law. President Obama
has had six-and-a-half years to address our broken immigration system.
Instead of leading the nation towards consensus,
he has divided the country. One has to ask whether he is more
interested in providing a wedge issue for his party than offering a
solution for the country. There should be no doubt where I stand. I am
committed to addressing the problem of illegal immigration
in a comprehensive fashion so we can respond to the legitimate concerns
of the American people and build stronger support for legal
immigration, which if done properly can be a catalyst to bring us to
strong, sustained economic growth that will benefit every
American.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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