What is your idea of a fair immigration reform?

Terry H

Contrary to popular opinion, immigration doesn't need to be reformed; the US just needs to enforce the laws already on the books. When people say that immigration needs to be reformed, the only thing that they are referring to is what to do with all of the illegals who are already here. We don't need to change terms of our guest worker programs (if anything, to disallow family members); we don't need to change the wait period to get a green card or US citizenship (if they wanna be US citizens bad enough, they'll wait); we do not need more immigrants altogether (if anything, we need less); we do not need to give amnesty (a path towards citizenship) to anyone, they need to take their asses home!
As with any rules, there needs to be some sort of assessment made to accomodate changing times, but total reform is not necessary at all. When people are talking about "comprehensive immigration reform," they are really talking about (in the case of politicans) getting more voters; whereas, many of the Hispanics who speak of such, only want to legalize their brethren and bring more of the here.

JUSTME

No compromises. No amnesty. Build more walls. Follow the laws that are on the books now. Catch the illegals, confiscate all that they illegally acquired in this country, send them back home and put whatever assets recovered to use on catching more illegals and building more walls.

JessicaRabbit

Secure borders. No amnesty. 14th amendment is treated how it was intended - no anchor babies. Deport and/or jail all illegal aliens. Jail employers of illegals. BUILD THE WALL!

Sure that may look harsh. However, this is a land of laws. Illegals are criminals for breaking our laws. They should not be rewarded for breaking the law. They must return to their home country WITH their children. Just because a child is a citizen since they were born here doesn't give the illegal parents the right to stay.

This is not about race. This is about our LAWS!

Princess of the Realm

All who are in the US illegally have to go back to their country of origin and apply for a visa. If accepted, then you can come to the US and get a SS number, get a job and learn the language. If you don't want to do it that way, then you will be deported and have no chance of coming here again.

Galaxie Girl

Our immigration is fine how it is. What we need is a bill that forces police to check the immigration status of people they suspect of being illegal, and we need to build the wall. As for the illegals already here, we need to enforce our current laws by prosecuting those who employ illegals - once that starts, most of the illegals will leave on their own.

steddy voter

Make the penalties for getting caught stiffer, no amnesty, hard penalties for U.S. companies caught hiring illegal aliens, more funding for our border patrols, declare one national language, reinforce the laws we already have - and give law enforcement the tools and incentives to crack down.

I agree with the above 2.

ICE AGENT

Where illegal immigrants must go through the proper process to become an american citizen.

DAR

Fair to citizens whose children go to ruined, overcrowded, year round schools with teachers on emergency certificates and programs for their own children cut to fund programs aimed at an ESL demographic at least double what it would be if the student's parents hadn't come illegally?

I think NO ONE is addressing stopping the problem, to begin with. They are reneging on the fence, and why isn't implementation of the visa exit tracking system a necessary touchstone of 'border security' even in the Bush proposal?

Numbers, poverty (meaning inability to cover their own family's education costs etc.) and crime are the biggest problems.

We are getting lip service only to stopping the problem, because neither the big business pro guest worker program proponants nor the 'amnesty' proponants pushing for reform really want the problem stopped. They want open borders for their own reasons.

We aren't stupid, and resent it when those we elect treat us as if we were.

No amnesty, Put INS offices in every emergency room to deport the illegals as they sponge off our tax dollars. Build a DMZ across the entire southern border and protect border patrol doing their jobs from idiotic prosecution. Explain that english is the preferred language, put employers of illegals in jail on first offense so long as they truly knew the worker to be illegal. Adopt heavy fines for offenders that hire illegals.

Ben C

Fair for whom? What Bush is calling "immigration reform" is really an attempt to legalize illegal immigration. He's desperately trying to find some way to get Americans to accept another massive amnesty. The problem isn't that we need reform, it is that the laws as they now stand need to be enforced. As an American citizen, that is my idea of fair.

On second thought, fair would be indicting for treason anyone and everyone involved in making this immigration debacle a reality. This includes the POTUS who took an oath to uphold our laws. In fact, the Constitution provides that the Federal Government will protect the States from invasion, and it is not doing its job. In fact, it is doing quite the opposite. So to be fair, the US government should be investigated starting with the US Chamber of Commerce and ending with the Dept. of Homeland Security. To be fair, heads should be rolling.

mikey

Fair to whom? It depends on whether you mean fair to criminal aliens, fair to the employers who hire them @ slave wages, fair to the American citizen taxpayer, etc.
From my perspective as the citizen taxpayer, the only fair thing is to enforce the law because it is expected of me to obey the law. People who break laws are criminals and need to be dealt with accordingly. If the current laws were enforced and the border were secure, there would be no problem.

Anne

First, no one found in this country without status (being here legal) would ever be given any type of green card, tourist visa, and any other visa, never mind amnesty. Then I would stop all types of legal immigration until we can assess the needs of the work force. Then I would have our immigration policies meet the needs of our country not the needs of those who think that just because they crossed our borders they can set the immigration rules

Terk

1. If a family loses a loved by him/her serving this country and paying the ultimate price (dying), then the immediate family should get citizenship automatically.

2. If they are here working, paying taxes and want to be a citizen, then give them citizenship and charge only a small fee.

3. If someone commits ANY crime and it could proven they and/or family are here illegally, then send them right back to Mexico or any country they came from.

4. Make it against the law for any business which is not licensed to accept cash for their services. If the company does not obey, the owners and workers can be deported. Plus you can fine or deport the people who hire them.

5. Make all companies hire people in this order veterans, American born, legal immigrants and illegal immigrants. The last ones, I mean people who had work permits but are continuing to work and pay into the system even though the permits expired..

6. Find a way to ship the people back to their own country but on the other end of the country with no money. That way once they are let go then they will not walk right across the border.

7. Don't give them any free services. No hospital, medicine, etc.

bulabate

No immigration of any form here is why. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5871651411393887069

Frank

First off, secure our borders (whether better surveilance, gaurding, walls, whatever) so that NOone can enter here unchecked.

Illegals who are here should be given two options: Leave if you wish, OR take a path to citizenship (which includes learning US history, learning some english, taking a citizenship exam). No amnesty, but they have to come out of the shadows and WANT to be US citizens, not just live here. Get them a social security number, get them in the IRS database and make sure they pay their fair share of taxes, etc... If they do not want to be citizens and go through the same process all legal immigrants do, they should not be allowed to stay here. There are thousands and thousands of people wanting to move to the U.S., noone should be able to step in front of anyone else.

That said, we can rewrite the immigration quotas to become more fair and let in immigrants based on how our economy is growing, by our own accord.

That is fair.

amyvalencia870

First we have to secure the borders. Forever.Boost ICE to rid of the bad people. Then we make sure employers can be sure they hire legals.Then we take applications.Throw the ones with criminal records out. Keep the rest. But the borders have to be SECURE first.

russ_in_mo

Dismantle the current Immigration department and re-build it in a way that works.

US Immigration is a joke all over the world for inefficiency, expense, delay, and incompetence. Rebuilding it into a department that actualy worked would release huge amounts of cash to enable the current rules to actually be enforced reasonably, accurately, and in a timely manner, instead of the current situation.

worldtraveler434

Building walls is such a dramatic idea, yet I don't know how effective it would be, at least by itself. What really needs to happen is a suspension of all immigration for a predetermined amount of time. Say, 1-2 years. In that time all of the current immigrants, illegal or otherwise should be screened and placed in some sort of monitoring system to make sure they are working, following the laws and things of that nature. Anybody caught breaking terms of their probation agreement, or any other law for that matter is to be detained and deported immediately. Another major issue would be taxation, if you work in this country, and reside in this country then you must be paying taxes on your income and contributing to social security. Anybody found working without paying taxes and social security will again, be detained and deported. Most of these ideas are already in the laws, but they are rarely enforced, company's who use the work of illegal immigrants will lose tax credits, and those who employ a certain amount of americans will be given tax credits.

I'm against the idea of amnesty because that will only encourage a mass migration of people from other countries who will flood our borders all at once and be impossible to monitor and track once they have crossed the border. We must stop any new people from comming before we can even begin to deal with those who are here.

I don't have a problem with people wanting to come here for a better life. But i do have a problem with people comming here and not wanting to live by the law of the land. And as much of that blame goes to our Government as it does to the immigrants, maybe we should sent the Congress to Mexico along with the immigrants they refuse to detain.

Earthman

The Kennedy/McCain bill in the Senate and the Flake/Guiterrez bill in the US House are Not Acceptable to most patriotic American citizens. Here is an alternative that most â€œnativistsâ€ would agree to.

Acceptable â€œComprehensive Immigration Reform.â€ The United States government must do the following before putting illegal aliens on â€œa path to citizenship.â€

a) Provide funding to build a fence along the entire US/Mexican border; this is essential.
b) End the practice of giving US citizenship to the children of illegal aliens.
c) Make it a felony punishable by a minimum of 90 days in prison to be in the US illegally.
d) Keep the National Guard on border patrol duty and let them interdict intruders.
e) Pass The Nuclear Family Priority Act by Phil Gingrey (R-GA), HR 938, which would reduce chain immigration.
f) Stop providing social services to those who are in this country illegally.
g) Mexico must be charged for the cost of incarceration of its citizens.
h) End the practice of dual citizenship. You are an American, or you are not!
i) English must be made the National Language.
j) All US police officers must determine the citizenship of those who they arrest.

In order to remain in the U.S. the illegal alien must:
a) pay a fee of $10,000,
b) demonstrate fluency in the English language,
c) have a high school education with a 3.0 or better grade point average, or be a student with a 3.0 or better GPA,
d) must pass a background check and have committed no more than 2 felonies, and must never have belonged to a Hispanic supremacist group that advocates the return of the southwestern US states to Mexico,
e) must give up citizenship in their native country.

Franklin

Because the country is so polarized on this issue, it would make sense to have different rules for different states. This would allow states like California to have a guest worker program or other ways of legalizing the status of the illegals who are already there- while states where the majority of people hate illegals could opt not to participate in any reforms and continue the current system of random roundups of illegals, perhaps with increased enforcement tools or penalties.

The only long term solution to the problem is to help make Mexico so prosperous that Americans want to start crossing the boarder to work there. We don't have an immigration problem with Canada, and there is no reason we can't solve our immigration problem with Mexico.

I am not sure how to do this, but one way would be to give tax credits to U.S. corporations that outsource jobs to Mexico and build factories there - instead of having their products made in China. Not everybody will like that idea, but it is not right to advocate keeping the illegals out and at the same time keeping Mexico poor.

Antis Suck

immediate citizenship and $5000 for all illegal immigrants

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