Race to Legitimize Illegal Voting Block
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010Author Mike Rough
As the Arizona Immigration Reform debate rages on in the media it’s interesting to note that neither party has stepped up to secure the potential voting block of illegal aliens by drafting legislation by which currently present illegal aliens could expedite the naturalization process.
All cynicism aside, the genie is out of the bottle and no amount of lawmaking, or enforcement is going to re cork the genie into the porous bottle we call our border. That being said we face the very real issue of what is “reasonable” when it comes to requirements and methods of selection and rejection of potential US citizens who are currently residing in our country illegally.
If I were a legislator of either party my requirements would be fairly simple.
Requirements for individual enrollment and acceptance into US citizenship program:
1. Mandatory enrollment of any person illegally residing in the US aged 16 and older.
2. No history of Felony convictions or repeat Misdemeanor convictions of a violent nature in either the US or country of origin.
3. Current employment or enrollment in either college or technical school.
4. Bilingual or learning English at an accredited program.
5. Enrollment or certificate of completion of US civics class taught in English.
6. Subject to full fingerprinting and biometric scans for identification purposes.
Conditions:
Any applicant who successfully completes and is accepted into the US as a legal alien must:
Remain Employed or in College/Technical Training
Must not commit any felony offenses or multiple misdemeanor offenses of a violent nature leading to a conviction(s).
Pay taxes via tax id number
All conditions must remain in good standing for 5 years, at which time the legal alien status would convert to US citizen with full rights and privileges granted to a full US citizen.
Any child who is under the age of 16 at the point of parent(s) successful completion and maintenance of conditions and requirements for the mandatory time period would be granted US citizenship. Children born during application period would not be afforded automatic citizenship and only granted citizenship if their parent(s) successfully complete citizenship conditions and requirements for the mandatory time period. Any child reaching the age of 16 during the time of application, acceptance, and or completion of residency time period would be required to apply for the citizenship program separately from their parent(s) and subject to all requirement and conditions of the program before achieving citizenship status.
Violators:
Any applicants who within the 5 year period who violate any of the conditions are subject to permanent removal from the immigration program and sent back to the country of origin.
Any former applicant having been permanently removed from the immigration program and returning illegally to the US will be incarcerated in a work program for 5 years and then deported to their country of origin. Penalties for repeat offenders would increase in duration by 5 year increments per infraction.
Any current illegal aliens residing in the Federal, State, County, or City detention facility with Felony convictions, or multiple repeat misdemeanors of a serious nature (drugs, sex crimes, violence, gang related activity) would serve their sentences and upon completion would be subject to full fingerprinting and biometric scans for identification purposes, and then deported receiving a default status of rejection from US citizenship program and be subject to all punishments for illegal presence in the US should they choose to illegally enter US borders.
Any US citizen knowingly harboring illegal aliens would be subject to reasonable punishment under current or improved Federal law.
Enforcement:
Any law enforcement agent is compelled by oath to check the legal status of anyone who is in violation or suspected violation of any law or statute of city, county, state, or federal law, or in connection with the investigation of violation of any law on the city, county, state or federal level.
Those found to be of illegal alien status during the course of an investigation who do not have a previous criminal record of felony conviction or multiple repeat misdemeanors of a violent nature would be subject to fingerprinting, photographing, biometric scans, and compelled to apply for the US citizenship program within 60 days or face default rejection status and be deported upon follow up or in discovery of status upon being detained for violation or during investigation of a violation or crime.
The key to these elements of immigration reform is that they are reasonable, not fair. Fair is relative to which side you are leaning toward. Instead of wasting our time and energy arguing about the situation and trying to push for an extreme point on either the “Right” or the “Left” we should be looking at what is reasonable.
Citizenship is a privilege and not a right. In my opinion if any of our current illegal aliens be they Chinese, Korean, Russian, Mexican, South American, South Pacific, or Intergalactic, have risked life and limb to pass through their own hardships to enter our beloved country, it does not seem much of a hardship in comparison to endure 5 years of assessment and compliance in order to gain legal status as a US citizen.
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Linda Brady Traynham says:
May 11th, 2010
10:26 pm
Michael, you just get better and better. Your plan will never fly, of course: it is entirely too reasonable! I’ve never seen a better one.
Val says:
May 12th, 2010
5:33 am
Of course it won’t fly. It doesn’t serve the convenience of everyone who wants to come to the U.S. when they want to come, especially for the wrong reasons (i.e. free health care, food stamps, housing and utility subsidies and education for their kids, drug trade). And after all, THAT’s what’s “broken” about our current immigration laws. Anyone and everyone who wants to should be able to come to the U.S. when they want to come. We really don’t even have a right to have immigration laws. That’s a violation of “human rights”. If you can’t tell, I’m a little fed up with people coming here to march in the streets waving the flags of their home countries and demanding we change our laws and customs to suit them. You go, Arizona!
oldmanriver says:
May 12th, 2010
6:06 am
This is probably the best plan I have seen. I would include confiscating the property of companies and people who knowningly hire illegal aliens. The problem with illegal aliens isnt that they are illegal, its that they are not paying into the system. They obviously already have jobs we just need to get them on the tax rolls. Quite frankly when you consider how hard they have to work just to get into the country, they probably deserve citizenship more than most people who are born here. Perhaps we should have a law where at age 18 you get kicked out of the country and you have to find a way back in somehow in order to become a citizen.