Immigration

I support immigration and I always have, most of my family came from somewhere else. Here is my response to some common myths and my plan for the current situation:

Myth: “Everyone can immigrate legally” - Ah, no there is really no legal immigration from several Central American countries, not to mention Cuba.

Myth: “We should just ship all of them back” - Ah, no first some of the countries won’t accept back people we feel came from there and second we can’t just drop them off inside that countries border without permission from their government which we aren’t getting.

Myth: “We want them all to learn English to destroy their cultural identity” - Ah, no we hope their influences will help expand our shared culture. We don’t want people to forget their heritage which is why curling is a sport in the US and even North Texas has an Irish Festival. Being who you are as a part of the tapestry this nation has weaved is what we are all about.

Myth: “We never asked them to come here in the first place” - Ah, yeah, the Statue of Liberty says it best: “Bring us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” America is more than a country, it’s an ideal and we should welcome others who want to help us lift her up.

My solutions:

Enforcement: First and foremost begin cracking down on employers in the US who are hiring illegals. If the enforcement team takes a page from the “War on Drugs” and starts confiscating property from businesses that employ illegals, this project can almost fund itself.

Incentiveize South of Border Development: If a company is already going to expand overseas we should provide incentives for them to relocate that expansion to Mexico to help our partner south of the border to build their infrastructure. Working with them to help grow their economy will slow the flow of immigrants.

Modify NAFTA: One flaw in the North American Free Trade Agreement is that we didn’t put in provisions for our Mexican partner to meet our standards when shipping goods to our country. Currently trucks roll across the border into the US with dangerously out of repair trucks that aren’t held to any inspection or safety requirement…not to mention the emissions issue. Trucks bringing goods to our market must meet our standards or be turned back at the border.

Path to citizenship: There has to be a mechanism for anyone in this country who is not a citizen to become a citizen. They have to denounce their previous citizenship and follow a process to become a citizen here but there has to be a process anyone can participate in. I support making learning English a requirement on the path but we need to stress that this country doesn’t want people to loose their culture but adapt and blend with ours.

Guest Worker Program: I am currently against a guest worker program because of the problems with exploitation and the negative impact on the long-term economy. But I am open to hear ideas on how it should work and perhaps I can find a program to support in the future.

Taxing Money Transfers: I support some taxation on out of country money transfers but we need to gauge the business impact. This will be a difficult law to make as targeted as needed and not lead to unexpected consequences.