CAMPAIGN FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM
- Facts bearing on the problem:
Twenty-five million is probably a low estimate of the number of illegal aliens in the United States now.
In 2021, 1.9 million illegals crossed the border and checked in with Border Patrol Agents; tens of thousands were unaccompanied children who are being housed in facilities, some of which are at 800% capacity. That’s 5,200 illegals per day that we know of, an estimated 20%, 1000 per day, were sick; aka Covid carriers.
In 2021, illegals crossed into the U.S. from at least 54 nations.
The real taxpayer cost to support Biden’s illegal immigration is undisclosed but $3 billion in 2021 is a starting figure.
While the agents were overwhelmed with those 5,200 illegals per day who checked in with the agents, Border Patrol knows the 1.9 million illegal crossings in 2021 does not include the tens of thousands of criminals, MS13 gang members, drug dealers, human smugglers and terrorists.
Also, while the Border Patrol Agents were overwhelmed processing families and chasing “runners”, tons of fentanyl, marijuana and cocaine was smuggled across, killing over 100,000 Americans in 2021.
Branden Judd, National Border Patrol Council President, in a Fox News interview 8 February, made four important points you will not hear about on main-stream-media: 1) “During January, 2022, 2,206 pounds of fentanyl was seized on the southern border”.
2) “If we seize 5% of the drugs crossing the border, we are very lucky.”
3) “90% of our Border Patrol resources are performing administration duties.”
4) “For example, in a 150-mile crossing area we have only four agents on patrol.”
2. The Biden administration’s unspoken/unwritten policy on immigration is pure and simple open borders. While it is a huge and growing national security issue, and an embarrassment in the eyes of the rest of the world, it is, first and foremost, the most despicable deliberate national program any president has led in modern U.S. history. It is the epitome of the democrat programs to develop and nurture an identity group, enable them with disincentivized federal cradle-to-grave entitlements and in doing so develop a solid recurring voting bloc.
Biden-the-unifier conveniently overlooks the fact that two thirds of Americans disagree with his immigration policy. Biden won’t talk about it and his immigration czar is busy looking for the “root causes” of the caravans coming out of southern Central American countries. Madam Vice President, let me give you a little help; anyone with two brain cells to rub together recognizes the root cause is rampant crime, corruption at every level and endemic poverty. You have recently been emphatic about the need to get out of Washington. Well, how about spending some time in the Rio Grande area and perhaps get inside one of the unaccompanied-minor housing facilities that is at 800% of capacity and then look for the root causes of that mess.
3. End State. If the Republican Party was to brain-storm a possible 2022/2024 campaign plan to clean up the illegal immigration mess, what would we be looking for? It might look something like this:
Institute a policy that will shut down the mases of illegals crossing our borders, forever.
Free up the Border Patrol agents to fulfill their intended mission; catch illegals and stop the flow of drugs and human trafficking.
Create a path to citizenship for the hard-working, law-abiding illegals already in the U.S.
Provide a clear distinction for illegals that ICE should locate, arrest and deport.
Do all this with a program that pays for itself.
4. Looks good on paper, but is it doable? Absolutely, yes, it is. Here is the program outline and possible timetable:
November, 2022: Republicans win majority in the House and Senate.
January/February 2023: Hold hearing and pass a 10–20-page law that will accomplish the campaign goals in paragraph 3. To do so the Congress may have to override a Biden veto. If a veto-override fails, this program should then become a high-priority 2024 presidential campaign issue.
5. Phase one, Spring, 2023, The Immigration Reform Act (IRA) should:
Require every state to set up Illegal-Immigrant-Card (IICard) processing sites. The logical solution is to add positions to each existing DMV office.
Additionally, in Phase One, every law enforcement agency in the United States will forward information to the FBI 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 IICard.
6. Phase Two, 1 July thru 31 December, 2023: Every undocumented inhabitant in the U.S. will be invited to report to an IICard 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 July, 2021, etc.). the DMV will check into the FBI felony data base and if the applicant has a felony conviction, that person will be taken into custody, deported and will NEVER be eligible for an IICard. This is an example of the specificity of the language that must be in the IRC; one strike and out.
At this point you, the reader, are thinking something like, invite the illegals to report to the DMV, are you out of your mind? Please stay with me, they absolutely will report to the DMV.
Prior to appearing at the IICard 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 IICard. The form must contain a statement of strong penalties for any employer signing a false statement. Registration fee for the IICard is $50 per year which is the first step in fulfilling the objective of immigration reform without taxpayer dollars.
The IICard will have a number for each individual; for example, if issued in North Carolina the identification number will be NC123-45-678. The card will include a photo, height, weight, hair color, issue date and termination date.
Also, during Phase Two, the IRS will establish a National Registry of Card numbers. Every card issued by the state DMV will automatically be updated on the IRS registry.
When Phase Two ends it will never have to be repeated because every illegal immigrant in the U.S., on 31 December, 2023 will be either a legal holder of an IICard or they are deportable. That is, on 1 January, 2024 we will know how many employed illegal aliens there are, where they live, where they work, what they do and how many direct family (spouse and children) members they have. The remaining non-IICard holders need to be located and deported.
7. Phase Three, 1 January, 2024: This is the phase that begins to change behavior and thereby solve the dual problems of 25 million undocumented inhabitants and continued unsecured borders.
On 1 January, 2024, the day following the initial 6-month registration period any employer who employs an undocumented worker (no IICard) will be subject to a first-offence fine of $25,000 for each worker and $50,000 each worker, second offense. No exceptions, no excuses. No employer is going to risk their livelihood over the employment of an illegal alien. Laws change behavior and immediately adds accountability of employers into the immigration solution.
This simple act of requiring illegal aliens to carry an IICard will have four positive and immediate results:
First, employers will protect themselves from potentially heavy fines by only hiring inhabitants who have a valid IICard.
Second, undocumented inhabitants who choose not to apply for an IICard or were denied an IICard 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, and this gets us to the objective in paragraph 3 to, “shut down the mases of illegals crossing our borders, forever”. 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 a futile effort. This inevitable behavior change will, by default, reduce illegal immigration to a manageable trickle.
Fourth, this will provide Border Patrol agents the opportunity to concentrate their efforts on the illegal entry of drugs, terrorists, gang members and those operating in the slave/sex trade.
8. Phase Four, 1 July 2024 thru 30 June 2025: This phase begins the twelve-month reissue of IICards; $50 fee. The IICard color will change each year. ONLY those inhabitants holding an IICard 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 or if they failed to pay their 10% federal tax. Once denied, they will be detained, deported and never receive another card. Any IICard that is not renewed by the annual renewal date will automatically be moved to the government’s deportation list.
9. In order to fund the Immigration Reform Act, a provision in the law will require IICard holders to pay 10% Federal income taxes on gross income. Employers must issue a 1099 using the individual’s IICard 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 IICard renewal process, the DMV registration center will 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 four national data bases for The Immigration Reform Act. The remaining 8% will be returned to the States in proportion to the number of IICard holders.
Any IICard holder convicted of a felony will have his card pulled, be detained and deported. That person’s file and IICard number will be annotated at the national registry to ensure that any future attempts to reapply will be denied.
10. To assist the law-abiding, hard-working illegals towards citizenship, the Department of Labor will establish a web site that can assist an individual who has lost their job. Any card holder can get on the Labor Department website and provide their name, location and skills. Employers will be encouraged to check this website when they have job openings.
11. 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, maintained by Immigration and Naturalization Services. Second is the data base of taxpaying IICard 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 registry at the Department of Labor.
12. An IICard 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 also prominently display the individual’s IICard number on the State Driver’s License. Additionally, every applicant must show proof of auto insurance.
Two, a current IICard will authorize the holder to legally cross U.S. borders.
Three, legal holders may apply for an IICard for their immediate family members using the sponsor’s IICard 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 IICard for five consecutive years, that person is eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship for themselves and their immediate family (spouse and children).
13. Remember, these people are here illegally. Therefore, they will not be eligible for social security, federal welfare payments, food assistance programs, Medicare, Medicaid, or social services. This will save hundreds of billions of dollars per year in federal and state assistance payments.
14. Conclusions:
Objectives for a completely reformed immigration system, paragraph 3, are reasonable and clearly within the art of the possible. But it isn’t going to happen unless the Republican Party collectively gets to work and makes this a priority campaign issue in 2022. Has anyone in the Republican Party figured out that this is 2022 and we are just nine months away from perhaps the most impactful election in our history? We cannot take a chance on not winning because this nation may not survive three more years of Biden/Harris/Pelosi/Schumer.
Have we yet heard from a Republican leader exactly what the party will stand for this election year? Have we heard any candidate spell out in detail, this is what needs to be done and this is how we can get there?
Has anyone searched the RNC website looking for a page that lists the 2022 Republican platform. Yes, I have and it isn’t there. Biden has already asked the question, “What are you (republicans) for?” Well, I don’t know because the RNC and Republican leadership has not told our hundreds of 2022 candidates what to talk about, what to promise, what to say. This is absurd, incompetent and disgusting. For the last six months all we have heard is how easy it is going to be to win in November, 2022. Well, here is a news flash; that is not a fact, that is an assumption and plans bases on too many assumption are rarely successful.
15. Note to my readers. This is the third recent article in which I tried to define a problem, recommend what needs to be done and how to go about achieving the desired end-state. See Spending and Debt Reform January 22, 2022 and Education Reform in America, January 29, 2022. In the previous articles I requested that you, the readers, who personally know and can communicate with our 2022 candidates, reach out to them and ask that they make Spending and Debt and Education Reforms part of their campaigns. I again suggest that you do that for Immigration Reform.
At this point let me depart from the immigration reform issue and quickly look at the possibility of this, or any other subject, being recognized by the Republican National Committee as a critical 2022 campaign issue.
16. My conclusion is that Ronna McDaniel and the Republican National Committee need a wake-up call. Open the website by asking for the RNC 2022 Republican Platform. What you will get is a 50-page narrative written in 2016 by a committee. 2016! Yes, it’s good background reading but it is not what we need right now. What the hell has the RNC been doing in 2021 in preparation for the 2022 mid-terms that is the most important election in the last 50 years? Obviously, nothing.
We need a list of what we are for. We need this because Biden, on 19 January, during his 2-hour press conference, said six times, “What are the Republicans for?”, “What are the Republicans for?”
We need sound bites with talking points yesterday. We need them in the hands of every local, state and federal Republican candidate. Here is a starter list: spending and debt reform, education reform, a strong military, smaller federal government, regulation reform, states’ rights, individual rights, law and order, secure borders, lower taxes, school choice, immigration reform, etc. etc. We need at least 25 of them that every Republican candidate in the country can tic off in one minute at every speech. And for every one we need talking points in one short paragraph that tells the why and how. One paragraph, not a thousand-word chapter from the 2016 platform.
Additionally, from the RNC, we need a list of what we are NOT for with talking points. We are not for higher taxes, a massive controlling federal government, over regulation, cradle-to-grave entitlements that are paid for with borrowed money, education unions’ control over education, etc. etc. etc. We need it right now.
In this 2022 campaignwe need to attack two things beginning right now and keep up the pressure. One is the answer to Biden’s question, exactly what we are for. And secondly, we need an overall theme that democracy, as we have known it, is being seriously eroded by the Democrats’ socialist/total government control agenda. The Democrats have zero accomplishments to campaign on so they are going to key on the 6 January hoodlums at the Capitol and imply that they are the voice of the Republican Party and their objective is to kill democracy. Hillary has already publicly stated that should be their game plan.
Last June, House Minority Leader, Keven McCarthy launched Commitment to America with seven task forces working the details. The objective is to pull together a proposed legislative agenda for 2023 that would also serve as a 2022 campaign platform. Great idea, but here is the problem. When completed it will undoubtedly be hundreds if not thousands of pages. More importantly, where the hell is it? We need it yesterday for the 2022 candidates.
Ms. Ronna McDaniel at the RNC needs a wake-up call. Someone there has been asleep at the switch. Let’s wake her up with about 20,000 emails tomorrow morning. Go to www.gop.com/contact-us/ and send them an email. Here is the one I just sent; please feel free to copy and paste:
The 2022 campaign is under way and we, the Republican Party, are not adequately prepared to win the most important election in decades.
Your website gives us a 50-page 2016 platform to work with! What have you been doing in 2021 to arm every local, state and federal candidate with a list of topics and talking points for 2022?
Talking points, in the hands of every candidate, will accomplish two vital objectives: First it will answer President Biden’s question, “What are the Republicans for?” which will become the battle cry for the Democrats from now until election day. Secondly, when the American people hear every Republican candidate singing from the same sheet of music, they will sense the commitment, honesty, intellegence and the compassion of the Republican Party towards every American in 2022.
You need to get to work and support every candidate with the arguments that will reassure Republican voters and win over new Democrats and Independents. This needs to be done right now.
Here is a scenario that I would like to see played out tomorrow morning at the RNC headquarters: The Admin Assistant (AA) to Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel (RM) goes in to see her boss and says, “Ms. McDaniel you have 20,000 new emails, do you want them sent to your computer?” RM, “20,000! What is the subject?” AA, “They all have the same theme, that is we are not on top of the 2022 campaign.” RM, “Send me a few.”
A few minutes later, RM to the AA, “Get all the senior staff in the conference room in 15 minutes and tell them to clear their calendars for the next 48 hours.”
RM in the conference room, “We are going to brainstorm the answer to Biden’s question, ‘What are the Republicans for? Here are the rules: everyone can speak but me, I will listen. There are no wrong answers, everything goes on the white board; there will be no debate at this time. Susan, you record the input on the white board, John, you type it all into your laptop.” 20 minutes later they have a list of what the Party stands for.
RM to the staff, “OK, now go back to item #1, Secure Borders. In phrase and sentence form, develop the talking points for Secure Borders. Susan at the white board, John capture it all on your laptop. We need fact-checked numbers to back up the verbiage.” And they proceed through the entire list for the remainder of the day.
RM to the staff, “OK, good work, we have talking points, every issue with talking points will become a one-page fact sheet.” RM makes each staff member responsible for three of the issues and then says, “Final draft of all fact sheets are to be completed by 4 pm tomorrow. A packet of all the fact sheets will be provided to each of you by close of business for you to review and comment on tomorrow evening. The day after tomorrow we go final with the fact-sheet package. Today I will contact every state Republican Party Chairperson, update them on this project and direct them to forward the finished product to every county chairperson with instructions to get a copy in the hands of every local, state and federal candidate that resides in their county by close of business three days from now. Two days from now we will reconvene in the conference room to begin the entire process over again answering the question, what is the Republican Party NOT for.
My point is, this is leadership 101, working this simple problem is not rocket science and can be accomplished this week but they need a kick in the butt to get them moving. Your emails is a kick in the butt.
17. Final thought on Immigration Reform: Mr. President and Madam Vice President, unless you were watching Fox News on 9 February, you probably don’t know that Border Patrol agents rescued (another in a long list) a 5-year-old unaccompanied little girl from Guatemala on the banks of the Rio Grande River. That little girl and the dedicated Border Patrol agents were lucky this time. But Mr. President and Madam Vice President, how many 5-year-old children were abandoned by some Cartel coyote, not rescued by our Border Patrol agents, and died along that river, alone, cold, hungry, frightened and calling out for their mother? Where is your compassion, your common sense? How can you turn a blind eye to the death, rape and suffering along the route to our southern border? How can you be driven by such an unethical, unamerican, politics-driven policy of open borders while two thirds of Americans disagree with the policy?
18. Readers, please send your email to the RNC right now. Thanks.
Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.