While the first version had some good ideas, there were others that needed to be amended.
Any immigration policy should ensure that we can continue reaping the benefits that immigrants bring to this country. Any immigration policy should reduce illegal immigration to a minimum. And any immigration policy should be able to protect American jobs while giving people outside the country who wish to enter this country the opportunity to come here and live and work.
A few things are in order before we proceed. The first is that this is not a plan for open borders. There are procedures that have to be followed for anyone to come into this country. This is not an amnesty, either — immigrants who came here illegally or overstayed their visas would still have consequences.
Instead, what we are doing is eliminating the system of quotas, which is arbitrary and results in people who want to come here legally waiting for as many as 15 years before they can come here — or which encourages illegal immigration. Instead, what we would replace it with is a system of sponsorships. Families, employers, or relief agencies could sponsor immigrants into the country. People could come here as students or get a temporary visa and then obtain such a sponsorship to stay here.
People who came here legally or illegally for the purpose of working hard and playing by the rules would be subject to more lenient penalties. People who came here for the purpose of committing crimes would be deported after serving their prison time, although there would be limits to how that would be applied. People who came here illegally or who overstayed their visas would have to wait longer to get their citizenship papers.
Furthermore, in order to alleviate the potential problem of overcrowding, we would need to address and eliminate the root causes of immigration, both legal and illegal. Many people come here because of economic hardships and because their way of life has disappeared as a result of NAFTA, CAFTA, or the China Agreement.
Furthermore, no immigration policy would work unless we are able to create jobs not only for immigrants but for American citizens as well. That is why we will continue to push for policies that lead to more and more job creation which would end the cycle of cheap labor by pushing wages up. Some job creation policies are listed below.
Finally, no immigration policy will work unless we do it in conjunction with a concerted effort to unionize all workplaces. Many employers will refuse to hire American workers and then either hire illegal immigrants and pay them substandard wages or fire their high-paid American workers and then hire legal immigrants who will work for half their salary. Unions would act as a check on this kind of corporate abuse of power. Furthermore, there would be criminal penalties for people who fired someone and then turned around and hired someone else for less money to do the same work.
1. Renegotiate NAFTA, CAFTA, and the China Agreement.
All of these bills failed to adequately protect our workers from losing their jobs to outsourcing. All future trade agreements should have adequate protections for workers so that they can be retrained if they lose their jobs, there are tax incentives for companies to stay in this country instead of leave it, and adequate environmental protections as well. Not only did NAFTA result in the exporting of jobs overseas, it resulted in the impoverishment of millions of Mexican farmers, triggering the big increases in immigration that we see today. You can read more about my fair trade ideas here.
2. End the Occupation of Iraq, get out of the Middle East, and get off of foreign oil.
In order to do all this, we need to create jobs through the construction of Ethanol and Biofuel plants as well as Wind and Solar farms. This would create millions of new jobs and thus drive wages back up as businesses would compete to attract workers, not compete to undercut the competition.
3. Fully Fund the INS so that they can enforce immigration laws; fully fund the IRS to allow them to verify that employers are not hiring illegal immigrants.
The whole principle behind these policies is simple – the more jobs we create, the more wages will go up. The more people that come into this country, the more wages will go down. Our goal as a party should be to become as inclusive as possible while preventing insidious wage suppression that is disguised as “inclusion.” In addition, we should be able to enforce immigration laws fairly and equally and not hand out blanket punishments, but to take each individual situation into account. Immigrants are our guests and as such should be treated with the same standards that we treat our own people through our Constitution.
In addition, the IRS used to be diligent at cracking down on employers who would hire illegal immigrants for substandard wages before Ronald Reagan. But when Reagan took office, he abolished that practice, allowing Corporate America to drive down wages.
4. Laws against wage suppression.
If an employer “downsizes” an American worker and then turns around and hires a legal (H-1B, etc.) or illegal immigrant to perform the work for less money, they should be held liable for both civil and punitive damages.
5. Fair and reasonable penalties.
All people who overstay their visas should pay a fine, repay back taxes, and be placed on probation on condition that they obey all laws and make timely payments. Furthermore, they should wait 10 years before they can apply for their citizenship instead of the usual five-year waiting period. If they subsequently commit any crimes beyond a simple traffic violation, then they should be deported.
6. Children and Family members.
Many immigrants have children and come here to provide better lives for their children. Therefore, the above penalties are median penalties and judges should make their decisions with the best interest of the child in mind. The Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution requires that all children born in this country – even to two illegal immigrants – be considered US citizens.
7. Eliminate quotas and allow family and employer sponsorship.
The problem with the quota system is that it is too arbitrary. Instead of quotas, any employer with a valid tax ID number with the IRS should be able to sponsor an immigrant to work in this country and get them a Green Card (if they wish to work here) or temporary work permit (if not). Furthermore, anybody can sponsor an immediate family member (parent, grandparent, brother, sister, son, grandson) and children who are US citizens should be considered sponsors of their parents for purposes of these reforms.
Note that there should still be penalties for a sponsored immigrant if they came here illegally – but that they should still be legally be in here provided that they contribute to this country.
Requiring employers to prove that they tried to hire American workers but could not does not work. First of all, the Equal Protection Clause and the Equal Opportunity Employment Act require employers to give all job applicants equal opportunity employment opportunities. Such a clause would be discriminatory. Secondly of all, this is based on a faulty premise — Americans would not work in the fruit fields or the coal mines for $5 an hour, but they would for $50. Employers should be able to hire the most qualified people regardless of whether they are an American citizen or they are an immigrant.
What we would do instead is instead of the arbitrary quota system, which is outdated and is a relic of the Know Nothings of the turn of the 20th Century, we would allow families to sponsor members and employers to sponsor highly-qualified employees.
8. Benefits.
All immigrants who pay into the Social Security Trust Fund should be able to receive their benefits from it. The Equal Protection Clause requires that all people be treated equally in the eyes of the law.
9. Border entry.
People who enter at the border with Mexico or an airport or seaport illegally and are caught should be taken to deportation centers, directed to the proper applications so they can fill them out, and then sent home.
10. Unionization of Immigrants.
The INS and the NRLB should go to employers and hold regular information sessions and fairs educating immigrant employees about their rights to organize unions and advise them of their rights under our labor laws. Union reps could be at these fairs. Employers would be required to advise all non-supervisory employees of their rights to form a union and bargain for better wages.
11. Immigrants who commit felonies.
Immigrants who commit felonies should be deported after serving their time in prison. Immigrants who flee for the purpose of escaping crimes committed in their former country should be deported. Immigrants who violate the terms of their probations should be deported.
However, there should be a statue of limitations for three years for the above, except for probationary immigrants who commit felonies (Up to the discretion of the judge; decisions must be made in the best interest of children involved) or persons wanted in their former country for felonies (except in the case of refugees from countries listed as Not Free (see 12))
12. Asylum.
People of any country which is deemed to be Not Free, as defined by here. should get automatic refugee status. They should keep it until the political status of their home country becomes “Partially Free.” People from “Partially Free” countries could be considered on a case-by-case basis and people whose countries became Partially Free could apply on such basis.
In addition, people who get their Refugee status could get employer sponsorships. Refugees who committed felonies would be subject to the normal laws governing those offenses.
13. Immigrant Employers.
Many immigrants who come here start their own businesses. People who demonstrated their intent to start their own business in this country could come and would be subject to periodic inspections to ensure proper understanding of labor laws.
14. Legalization of Pot.
The legalization of Pot would create more jobs in this country and would thus bring up wages in this country.
15. Microcredit.
Many people come to this country due to economic hardship in their own countries. We should engage in Microcredit loans to residents of countries that have high numbers of immigrants per capita who immigrate here. This would bypass corrupt political systems and give people the resources they needed to survive in their own countries.
16. Peace Corps Expansion
In conjunction with (15), we should expand the Peace Corps and create projects that would develop impoverished countries whose people frequently immigrate here.
17. Hearings
People should have the right to have their cases appealed through the Court System. The courts should be just as open to immigrants as they are for any other person.
18. Extend the GI Bill to include recruitment and training of INS agents.
This would provide incentive for people concerned about immigration problems to provide a hand in the solution without taking the law into their own hands.
19. Aggressive enforcement of Labor Laws.
Fully fund the NLRB and appropriate agencies to investigate and prosecute any instances of labor law violations. There should be an emphasis on detecting instances of threats to close down plants in response to union organizing and threats to fire workers for organizing unions. Employers would be required to post a complaint hotline at their place of work which employees could call to report labor law violations. In addition, it should be a felony for any representative of an employer to make such threats against employees.
20. Create High-Speed Rail.
This would provide millions of jobs (and consequently drive up wages) as well as save energy. See this recommended diary for more information.
