The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, signed by President Ronald Reagan, promised border enforcement first, then amnesty of illegal immigrants living within the U.S.
The result: 2.7 million illegal immigrants granted citizenship. The border control never came.
The current bipartisan immigration deal decided by the Gang of Eight released Jan. 28, may decide the future and “comprehensive approach that finally deals with the 11 million undocumented immigrants,” according to President Barack Obama.
The proposed reform deals with the illegal immigrants but doesn’t fix the border.
The illegal immigrants will reach a “probationary” legal status on day one of the reform. As political commentator Charles Krauthammer sees it, “probationary” might as well mean “forever.” The terminology is misleading. No one is going to revoke probationary legal status.
Yes, there will have to be a committee in the future to grant green cards and then citizenship later. But until then, amnesty is granted prior to security of our borders, resulting in another incident like this in the future with another wave of amnesty having to be granted to the illegal immigrants due to late border enforcement.
The border enforcement plan offered now is essentially the same idea offered in 2006.
Drones, long-range radar and a high-tech fence are nearly an exact replica of the last solution to this mess. One billion dollars, five years and only 53 of the prescribed 2,000 miles of border fencing required to complete the project resulted in a termination of the program by United States Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.
The only difference between this program and the last: First, we grant “probationary” legal status amnesty, which is, in reality, permanent before building a fence that was a failure last time. And now, we are dealing with 11 million illegal immigrants instead of 2.7 million.
Sen. David Vitter believes Sen. Marco Rubio’s plan for immigration is a poor proposal. Vitter called Rubio “amazingly naive.”
The solution is enforcement first, eligibility later.
San Diego is a prime example of a city that has built up a border fence to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing.
It has a low-tech, triple-layered fence designed with various barriers and obstacles that have proven their efficiency.
“It was an area that was out of control … There were over 100,000 aliens crossing through this area a year,” Assistant Chief of the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector Jim Henry told NPR in 2006.
Since the building of the fence, apprehensions have dropped 95 percent, down to 5,000 a year.
That is how you build a fence.
Forget the expensive drones and throw out the radar. Build the fence that we can afford and then deal with the remaining illegal immigrants within our secured borders.
Comprehensive legislation is not the solution. The U.S doesn’t need any more abuse of executive powers and “prosecutorial discretion” with deportation deferrals.
We need a problem-solving approach.
We need a fence.
