Grande Ideas Would Solve Illegal Immigration
By E. Ralph Hostetter (03/30/07)
Laws to curb unlawful immigration have returned to the radar screen. Representatives Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) offered for review their comprehensive immigration reform bill. Senators Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy (D-MA) and John S. McCain, III (R-AZ) immediately endorsed this proposal, ostensibly to combine forces for a House-Senate joint proposal.
Announced as new, the 600-plus page document allows the 12 million illegal immigrants in the country to become citizens after paying fees and undergoing a background check, and creates a "future flow" path — a guest-worker program that could initially take in 400,000 low-skilled workers a year, a cap that could be adjusted upwards depending upon market conditions.
Some sort of a biometric, electronic verification system is proposed for employers to check employees' work status.
No mention is made of the additional 500,000 to 800,000 illegal immigrants who will gain entry into the United States annually or what happens after they arrive.
No illegal alien solution with an accompanying documented worker program is possible until two major obstacles are overcome.
First, the flow of illegal aliens into America must be stopped.
Second, no documented worker program can begin or become successful with no viable means of documentation.
The solution to these two vital items does not require rocket science. The following suggestions are intended to provoke discussion and perhaps new and better ideas. For sure, the ACLU will be provoked.
The United States cannot be considered an open-range country as in the Wild West days. Individuals who state that fences or walls don't work are expressing their lack of knowledge of history. The purpose of the Berlin Wall was to keep people imprisoned.
The purpose of the proposed U.S.-Mexican Border wall is for the protection of U.S. sovereignty, the protection of the U.S. citizen from crime and the spread of international terrorism into the United States. These are all decent, honorable reasons.
With the application of the genius of the American entrepreneur and his vast ideas, such a 2,000-mile wall could be built in less than a year.
The 2,000 miles of the Louisville-Nashville Railroad were converted from narrow gauge to standard gauge (distance between the rails) in a single day. Six thousand workers were placed along the railroad. At dawn on May 30, 1886, work began, and at 6:00 PM that evening trains rolled over the line.
The Trans-Siberian Railroad across Russia, through mostly through wilderness and several mountain ranges, was expected to take more than 50 years. By starting the railroad in 1891 at a number of locations, the railroad was completed by 1917, 26 years later. Crossing 5,973 miles from Saint Petersburg to Vladavostok, it is the largest continuous stretch of railroad in the world.
By locating 50 independent steel erection companies in the five-state area along the Mexican Border, providing specifications for the wall, obtaining bids for 40 miles each of construction, letting the 50 contracts that would begin construction simultaneously with substantial bonuses for completion ahead of time, the length of the wall is now only 40 miles, and by requiring construction to begin at both ends, the length of the wall is now only 20 miles.
No documentation of workers can exist until the Social Security system of this country is repaired. The present Social Security system is badly damaged with some hundreds of thousands or perhaps a million counterfeit cards in existence. Re-issued Social Security cards with photograph and vital information, including fingerprints encoded on a magnetic strip, as with a credit card, are necessary.
Applications for the re-issue of the Social Security card will be mailed to all present holders well in advance.
A new Social Security card will be issued only when the qualified holder appears in person with a birth certificate, valid passport, naturalization certificate or green card at a designated location where photo and fingerprints will be taken.
This work can be accomplished by locating, for a 90-day period of time, places at or near the 33,000 voting precincts where national elections are held. With local board of elections supervising the re-issue of the Social Security card, a completely new and cleansed voter registration could be accomplished at the same time. Voter registration personnel on a normal Presidential election-day handle 54 million voters in a 12-hour period. Digital photos and the scanning of fingerprints would be done at the same time.
This solves two problems: the Social Security card with photo re-issue and a complete renewal of all valid voting records.
The new Social Security card would become a valid photo ID for boarding aircraft, buying airline or train tickets and all other such needs.
As for documentation of temporary guest-workers, the employer must be held responsible for the worker he needs to this extent: He must see that the worker is documented with a similar Social Security card. The card would be a different color from the regular Social Security card, with an expiration date of the worker's contract on the front. During the term of employment, the employer is responsible to report extensive absences or dismissal to immigration authorities, and on completion of contract the employer must see that the worker is returned home with all expenses paid.
Now that we have documented every legal person, all others are illegal.
E. Ralph Hostetter, a prominent businessman and publisher, also is an award-winning columnist and Vice Chairman of the Free Congress Foundation Board of Directors.
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