Dealing With Immigration Reform

It is time for Republicans to get ahead of the curve and propose meaningful Immigration Reform that is bigger than just dealing with Illegal Aliens.  We need to secure our border first of all to stop the flow of Illegal Aliens, Drugs and potential Terrorists from entering our country.   That goes without saying as the foundation of any Reform plan.   Republicans have to stop talking about deporting, or self deporting the current 12 million Illegal Aliens living in our country.  That is not going to happen anyway and it is just plain dumb.

Instead, we need to provide legal status for these people, not Amnesty and probably not Citizenship since in entering our country illegally, they have violated our laws.  They should not be rewarded with Citizenship, now or in the future.   However, that does not mean that these people can't be assessed a fine and provided permanent residency status with perhaps a Blue Card, instead of a Green Card.   This assumes that people provided a Blue Card have not been convicted of a crime. 

Any foreigner of any status convicted of a crime in our country, other than murder, should be deported immediately.  If these people entered the United States with children under the age of 18, they should be provided a path to Citizenship since an argument could be made that these children came into our country as a result of their parent's illegal action and therefore not voluntarily. 

In any case, we need to recognize that these 12 million Illegal Aliens are doing work that is not being done by other Americans.   We need the fruits of their labor in our country, so we must stop this silly discussion about deportation.   Next, we need a Guest Worker Program to allow single people to come from Mexico to work in the United States.   These people should only be given Guest Worker Status and should wait in line just like everyone else applying for permanent residency in the United States.   This should help with securing our border, since the need to come here illegally would be diminished.

Finally, any foreign student that graduates from a US university should be given permanent Green Card status and a path to citizenship.   This is particularly relevant to kids graduating in the Sciences, Engineering, Nursing, Medicine or any other field that would benefit our country.   The notion that we educate these kids and then turn them away to go back to benefit their country of origin is crazy.  We also need to increase the number of Green Cards we issue each year for these same disciplines because we need this talent in our country. 

Republicans need to get ahead of the curve on Immigration Reform.   A bill should be introduced in the House of Representatives controlled by Republicans.   There may need to be some compromise with Socialists in Congress and the President to get this done; but Republicans need to make it happen.  Let's not forget that it was the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, that signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 ending slavery.  And, so too should it be the Republican Party that once and for all deals with Immigration Reform. 

Latinos should be part of the Republican coalition because many of them are hard working, values voters.  If we get this done, many Latinos will see the benefit of Free Market Capitalism to their economic well being.  Latinos can and should be included in the Republican big tent.   Republicans need to push for Immigration Reform and make it happen.