A NEW WAY TO LOOK AT IMMIGRATION REFORM

IMMIGRATION

Immigration in the United States is a colossal, embarrassing mess. There are two parts to the mess. One, the current immigration law using a lottery system and the provisions that allow a legal immigrant to bring along a large number of extended family members. We simply need a new law that bases edibility on merit.

Secondly, there is the problem of what to do with the estimated 10-12 million illegal immigrants currently inside the U.S. borders. Mass amnesty is not a viable solution because it is just plain stupid. Amnesty for 10 million illegals would set a precedent and open the flood gates along every U.S. border to millions more who want to come to America. In a few years’ time we would be faced with another 10 million illegals to deal with.

The purpose of what follows is to deal with the second problem. THIS PLAN WILL W0RK

IMMIGRATION REFORM PLAN

All persons residing in the U.S. are supposed to fall into one of three categories; that is, a U.S. citizen or those with a Green Card permanent resident status or temporary inhabitants with Visitor or Student Visas. However, an estimated eleven million inhabitants exist outside those categories; WE DO NOT KNOW WHO THEY ARE OR WHERE THEY RESIDE. They are undocumented and therefore illegal inhabitants.
Administrations have, for decades, been dealing with the illegal migration problem to not avail.This proposed Immigration Reform Plan is simple yet comprehensive, self-policing and it will work.

The objective of this Immigration Reform Plan is to document every U.S. inhabitant. Everyone undocumented is subject to deportation. Currently legal inhabitants have a Social Security number or a Green Card or a Visa. The “document” for the undocumented inhabitants will be an Illegal Alien Card (for simplicity, hereafter referred to as the IACard). The cards will have the high technology of a drivers’ license to inhibit counterfeiting; will be changed and reissued annually; and each card will contain a picture, fingerprint and an IACard number assigned from a U.S. central registry. This is a multi-phased operation but the Immigration Reform Plan can be fully operational within a few months after being signed into law.
This plan is simple, self-regulating, and does not require supplemental regulations or a federal bureaucracy to execute.
Phase One, July, Aug, Sep 2018: The President prepares a 10-page law based on the procedures explained herein followed by Congressional passage of the Immigration Reform Plan. The language in the law must be very specific and not subject to interpretation or change by States or local authorities. The reason for specificity in the law is to preclude the requirement for federal bureaucrats to interpret the law and re-write it into policy with unintended consequences.
Phase Two, Oct, Nov, Dec 2018: Each State will set up IACard registration sites. A logical solution is to add one or two positions to every DMV office. Additionally, in Phase Two, every law enforcement agency in the United States will forward information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on every felony committed by an undocumented inhabitant (who, what, when and where). The FBI will establish and maintain a national database of these cases which allows for an immediate check against an application for an IACard.
Phase Three, Jan -Jun 2019: Every undocumented inhabitant in the U.S. will report to an IAC registration site in the state where they reside in accordance with a published alphabetical schedule (last name beginning in A, B, C, or D report during January, 2019, etc.). If the applicant has a felony conviction, that person will be taken into custody, deported and will NEVER be eligible for an IACard. This is an example of the specificity of the language that must be in the Immigration Reform Law; one strike and out. Prior to appearing at the IACard registration site, each applicant must download a Federal Form, Employer’s Statement of Employment, fill it out and have it signed by their employer. No employer signature, no IACard. The form must contain a statement of strong penalties for any employer signing a false statement. Registration fee for the IACard is $50 per year.

(As time passes and this plan has not yet been executed, simply slide the dates in above paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 forward.)

WHEN PHASE 3 ENDS IT WILL NEVER BE REPEATED. EVERY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN THE UNITED STATES ON THIS DATE IS EITHER A LEGAL HOLDER of an IACard or THEY ARE DEPORTABLE. That is, by 1 July, 2019 we will know (probably about 10 million) who is employed, where they live, where they work, what they do and how many direct family (spouse and children) members they have. The remaining 1 million non-IACard holders need to be located and deported.

Phase Four, July 2019: This is the phase that begins to change behavior and thereby solve the dual problems of undocumented inhabitants and unsecured borders.

On 1 July, 2019, the day following the initial 6-month registration period any employer who employs an undocumented worker (no IACard) will be subject to a fine of $25,000 for each worker, first offense; $50,000 each worker, second offense. No exceptions, no excuses. No employer is going to risk his livelihood over the employment of an illegal alien. Laws change behavior and add accountability of employers into the immigration solution.

This simple act of requiring illegal aliens to carry an IACard will have four positive and immediate results:

First, employers will protect themselves from potentially heavy fines by only hiring inhabitants who have a valid IACard.
Second, undocumented inhabitants who choose not to apply for an IACard or were denied an IACard will not be able to find an employer who will take them on. They will therefore be unemployable, will be constantly liable for deportation if detained for any reason and will likely return to their country of citizenship.
Third, foreigners contemplating illegal entry into the United States in order to work will soon learn that no employer is going to hire them and illegal entry will be futile. This inevitable behavior change will, by default, reduce illegal immigration to a trickle.
This will provide Border Patrol officers the opportunity to concentrate their efforts on the illegal entry of drugs, terrorists, gang members and those operating in the slave/sex trade.

Phase Five, 1 July 2020: This phase begins the twelve-month reissue of IACards; $50 fee. The card color will change each calendar year. ONLY (again, specificity in the law) those inhabitants holding an IACard can receive a renewal card. Additionally, they will be denied renewal if they have been unemployed and made less than $5000 or if they have been convicted of a felony. Once denied, they will be detained, deported and NEVER receive another card. Any IACard that is not renewed by the annual renewal date will automatically be moved to the government’s deportation list.
In order to fund the Immigration Reform Law, a provision in the law will require IACard holders to pay 10% Federal income taxes on earned income. Employers must issue a 1099 using the individual’s IACard number to identify them to the IRS. The IRS will establish a National Registry of Card numbers and the data base will list earned income and taxes paid for the previous year. During the IACard renewal process, the registration center will immediately access the IRS data base to determine if the applicant has in fact been employed, made at least $5000 and paid taxes. No tax records, no renewal and the applicant will be detained and deported. The Federal Government will retain 2% of the tax revenue to fund three national data bases for The Immigration Reform Plan. The remaining 8% will be returned to the States in proportion to the number of IACard holders.
Any IACard holder convicted of a felony will have his card pulled, be detained and deported. That person’s file and IACard number will be annotated at the national registry to ensure that any future attempts to reapply will be denied.
An IACard holder who loses his or her job may immediately place an employment application to a National IACard holder registry website maintained by the Department of Labor. This database will describe the IACard holder’s skills and be broken down by zip code. An employer seeking to hire, for example, a carpenter has two options. One is to make direct contact with an IACard holder; second is to review the Department of Labor national data base of unemployed IACard holders.
There will be four related national data bases associated with this plan. First is the basic national data base with the personal data and card number of each IACard holder. Second is the data base of active IACard holders maintained by the IRS. Third, is the data base of undocumented known felons in the US; maintained by the FBI. Finally, there is the jobs-available register at the Dept of Labor.
An IACard holder will have the following four privileges:

One, they may apply for a State vehicle operator’s license and will be tested in English. A provision of the law will be that every State must prominently display the individual’s IACard number on the State Driver’s License. Additionally, every applicant must show proof of auto insurance.
Two, a current IACard will authorize the holder to legally cross US borders.
Three, legal holders may apply for an IACard Dependent Card (using the sponsor’s IACard number with a suffix) for their spouse and children (no extended family members). If granted, the sponsor will be authorized to escort the dependents across the U.S. border.
Four, after legally holding an IACard for five consecutive years, that person is eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship for themselves and their immediate family (spouse and children).

Remember, these people are here illegally. Therefore, they will NOT be eligible for social security, welfare payments of any kind, food assistance programs, Medicaid, or social services. This will save hundreds of billions of dollars per year in federal and state assistance payments.
Children born to IACard holders in the U.S. will NOT automatically be granted U.S. citizenship. If, however, the parents eventually gain citizenship, dependent children under the age of 18 will also be granted citizenship. This law will undoubtedly be challenged in the courts. The current law is based on post-Civil War intent to protect children born to freed slaves who had no documentation to substantiate their citizenship. That law should be updated as part of the Immigration Reform Plan
Conclusions:

Is this plan doable? Yes. Is it 100% full proof? No, but no system can be.
This plan is an efficient, simple, inexpensive way to document nearly every US inhabitant.
This plan will readily identify illegal inhabitants who are currently a drain on Federal and State support systems and provide for their deportation.
If employers want foreign workers, they must become involved and accountable. Their only requirements are to hire IACard holders and to report employee earnings on a 1099.
This program will drastically reduce the practice of unscrupulous and frequently deadly human trafficking.
Enforcement: Let’s say a person is stopped for a traffic violation. If the driver’s license contains an IA Card number the law enforcement officer can immediately access the FBI data base to determine if the person has a felony conviction, if the card is overdue for annual renewal or if the person is on the FBI’s deportation list. If any violations are found, the alien will be arrested, detained and deported.
For this to work two things have to happen. First, the Congress has to pass a pure, non-watered down, straight-talk law with specificity that is not subject to interpretation by bureaucrats at the Federal, State or Local levels. Secondly, the FBI, IRS and Department of Labor, will need to develop high-speed, simple, secure, data bases that are immediately accessible by State and Local officials. We cannot afford to create a bungling bureaucratic morass like the current Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Immigration reform is not about amnesty or open borders; it is about accountability and changing behavior.

Administrations have, for decades, been dealing with the illegal migration problem to not avail.This proposed Immigration Reform Plan is simple yet comprehensive, self-policing and it will work.

This plan is simple, self-regulating, and does not require supplemental regulations or a federal bureaucracy to execute.

(As time passes and this plan has not yet been executed, simply slide the dates in above paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 forward.)

Phase Four, July 2019: This is the phase that begins to change behavior and thereby solve the dual problems of undocumented inhabitants and unsecured borders.

First, employers will protect themselves from potentially heavy fines by only hiring inhabitants who have a valid IACard.

Third, foreigners contemplating illegal entry into the United States in order to work will soon learn that no employer is going to hire them and illegal entry will be futile. This inevitable behavior change will, by default, reduce illegal immigration to a trickle.

This will provide Border Patrol officers the opportunity to concentrate their efforts on the illegal entry of drugs, terrorists, gang members and those operating in the slave/sex trade.

Any IACard holder convicted of a felony will have his card pulled, be detained and deported. That person’s file and IACard number will be annotated at the national registry to ensure that any future attempts to reapply will be denied.

An IACard holder will have the following four privileges:

One, they may apply for a State vehicle operator’s license and will be tested in English. A provision of the law will be that every State must prominently display the individual’s IACard number on the State Driver’s License. Additionally, every applicant must show proof of auto insurance.

Two, a current IACard will authorize the holder to legally cross US borders.

Three, legal holders may apply for an IACard Dependent Card (using the sponsor’s IACard number with a suffix) for their spouse and children (no extended family members). If granted, the sponsor will be authorized to escort the dependents across the U.S. border.

Four, after legally holding an IACard for five consecutive years, that person is eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship for themselves and their immediate family (spouse and children).

Remember, these people are here illegally. Therefore, they will NOT be eligible for social security, welfare payments of any kind, food assistance programs, Medicaid, or social services. This will save hundreds of billions of dollars per year in federal and state assistance payments.

Conclusions:

Is this plan doable? Yes. Is it 100% full proof? No, but no system can be.

This plan is an efficient, simple, inexpensive way to document nearly every US inhabitant.

This plan will readily identify illegal inhabitants who are currently a drain on Federal and State support systems and provide for their deportation.

If employers want foreign workers, they must become involved and accountable. Their only requirements are to hire IACard holders and to report employee earnings on a 1099.

This program will drastically reduce the practice of unscrupulous and frequently deadly human trafficking.

Immigration reform is not about amnesty or open borders; it is about accountability and changing behavior.

Lt Gen Marvin L. Covault, US Army retired, is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders.