Some Clarity On My Viewpoints on Fixing Illegal Immigration

It is apparent that there is some word-twisting and/or misunderstanding by a few people at hburgnews...as a discussion about illegal immigration has deteriorated to a couple of readers not understanding (either accidentally or intentionally) what I believe.

Let me bullet point a few things I believe, and I'll try to make this as crystal-clear and plainly-stated as possible...

- Preventing illegal immigration does not simply mean "put up a fence on the southern border." To believe this would be an end-all/cure-all solution is preposterous. We have issues with the illegal smuggling of workers from China (a situation that gets little play from the mainstream media on both sides, but it's been going on for a long time). We also have problems with those that overstay their visas (see my next bullet point for that).

- The legal immigration process needs to be streamlined and made more efficient. A reader of frequent opposition to my viewpoints (who goes by the name Gxeremio) does agree with me on this (and nothing else, really). Both the process of filing for legal immigrant status and the process of renewing visas must be made more efficient and less complicated. Doing this would greatly reduce the number of illegal immigrants in this country.

- If you're an illegal immigrant, and you commit another crime...deportation. Period. End of story. That's 2 strikes...you're not legally here, so you don't get the luxury of a 3rd strike.

- Border security includes a well-maintained fence on the southern border, this I do believe. This is nothing against my hispanic brethren, because if we had this problem with massive amounts of Canadians jumping over the border illegally, I'd say we should be securing the northern border, as well.

- Do not mistake my beliefs that stronger border security helps protect us from terrorist attacks with the idea that illegal immigrants from Latin America would commit such acts. The truth is that lackadasically-enforced borders do provide another avenue for jihadists and other anti-American terrorists a way to enter this country. I believe that when 9/11 occurred, our need for stronger security at our borders, our airports, our seaports, and other transportation hubs/points of entry became greater than ever. Is that such a hard thought to swallow?

- Once we reduce the number of illegal immigrants to a manageable amount through the enforcement of immigration laws, you will still have the question of "what do we do with the rest". I believe that once you achieve all of the goals stated above, then (and ONLY then) can you look at providing an avenue for the remaining illegal immigrants...provided that they have been productive members of society. That avenue, of course, requires placing them at the bottom of the waiting list for legal status. Remember, they still committed a criminal act to enter this country in the first place.

A monetary penalty would also be a good thing to institute for these legalization avenues, but instead of this "one-time fee", they should be put on a payment plan...if you miss a few payments without getting in contact with the local office in charge of processing your fee payment, then you lose your right to legal status and *snap*, out you go. It's like defaulting on a collateral loan...except in this case, the collateral is your legal status until the fee is repaid.

However, I must emphasize that the border must be secured, the illegals that commit (or have committed) other criminal acts must be deported immediately, and the flow of illegal immigrants into this nation be reduced to a trickle...only then can you discuss legalizing the remaining illegal immigrants.