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Reality check

My ancestors, and likely the ancestors of everyone reading this, came to this land legally, after much hardship. With all the recent furor about a southern border wall, a reality check is in order. Illegal immigration across the border is down from what it was 15 years ago.

A monolithic wall is not the answer to the illegal immigration issue we face. There are areas of the border consisting of ranches, wildlife preserves, and extremely mountainous areas where a wall is just not practical. I have been to areas of the border in California east of Calexico that make the Dakota Badlands look like gentle prairie, and the area on Army Fort Huachuca in Arizona south of Tucson where 10,000 foot mountains go almost vertical.

So, what are the solutions to our immigrant situation?

Legal immigration: America, in order to avoid a decline in GDP, has no choice but to increase the number of immigrants we welcome in as new Americans, due to our declining birthrate. Demographic trends mean a severe labor crunch in the future, unless we import that labor, and not just doctors and engineers, but blue collar workers, like most of our ancestors who immigrated.

We need to double the number of legal immigrants from the approximately 1 million today to about 2 million, and soon. In order to control food costs, we should expand the successful H-2A strongly documented visa program for agricultural workers. Rules for assimilation, including a set period of time to learn English, should be a condition of citizenship.

The Dreamers: They ere brought into the country, mostly as toddlers, and have for the most part become successful and productive young adults. We need to provide a fast path to citizenship for these budding Americans.

Refugees: Those in the country now, and some have been here for as long as 20 years, should be provided a defined path to citizenship. Those applying now, like those Central Americans fleeing extreme violence in their home countries, should have their applications processed and adjudicated in a timely manner. We should press Mexico to house these people on their side of the border until they have had their hearings. We should address the causes of their flight by pressing Honduras and El Salvador to accept economic and military aid to restore law there.

Illegal immigrants: There are approximately 11 million living among us now. Yes, they came illegally, but what is the answer? I don’t enjoy the idea of rewarding their law-breaking, but our best solution may be a highly contingent amnesty, conditioned on registering as illegal aliens, obtaining gainful employment, learning English in a set period of time, and especially on severely restricting government benefits to those on such a path.

Lawrence Ross

Loyalsock

Submitted by E-Mail

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