The Trumpies have demonized immigrants to the point where comparisons to Nazi Germany are all too real. That fomenting of hatred obscures the real need for a functional immigration policy that addresses America’s tradition as the land of opportunity,
Here is my plan:
1. Felonize illegal employers
2. Create a Canada style immigration law that prioritizes immigrants who bring skills to the US, especially students of our own colleges. Family visas would be restricted to children, spouses and parents who meet other qualifications.
3. Grant temporary worker visas to the 12 to 20 million illegally here now. These visas would include strict requirements that these illegals achieve permanent residency including a requirement that they become citizens withing a defined period. If not they would have to leave.
4. Update our citizenship policies. I would include fluency in English, established employment, educational achievement as part of this. Other positives would include service in the military or other agencies that provide for the public good.
5. Create a national identity card to do all this, replacing drivers licences and social security cards. This would make all arguments that an employers did not know who she was hiring absurd.
6. Create a rational guest worker program directed at inviting a diversity of workers from across the world to fill low wage jobs. This would minimize the focus on Latin America by inviting folks from Bangladesh, Africa and even Mississippi. To assure that guest workers are not used to replace American workers, employers would need to pay a head tax.