For the Sake of National Security and Rule of Law: ID and Tax

With an unsecured border and 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in America today, it’s clear our nation’s immigration system is broken and has failed to do its job for many years. For the sake of our national security and sovereignty, something must be done to stop illegal immigration. The ID and Tax plan would secure the border, identify and properly tax unauthorized immigrants who can pass background checks, and enable ICE to focus on prosecuting the actual criminal aliens. 

The first step of the ID and Tax plan is to secure the border so our government knows who and what are coming into our country. This should be done in the most efficient and effective manner possible by building structural improvements in strategic locations, improving technology and electronic surveillance equipment, and hiring additional officers to patrol the border, especially at ports of entry. Policies to better monitor and prosecute people who overstay their visas will also be necessary to prevent future illegal immigration. 

As the Federal government achieves full operational control and situational awareness of the border and enacts policy to prevent and correct visa overstays, in order for the interior of the United States to be fully secured, something will have to be done about the estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants who are already in this country.

While rule of law implies the United States should uphold the immigration laws that it has failed to enforce for so many years by attempting to deport all of these currently unauthorized individuals, that option is not feasible. Consider that in 2017 under President Donald Trump, ICE arrested 143,470 unauthorized immigrants from the interior of the United States and deported 81,603. That means if our immigration laws are continuously enforced at the rate the current administration is enforcing them, it would take about 135 years to deport all of the 11,000,000 unauthorized immigrants who are in the United States today.

So what can we do? While many of these unauthorized immigrants are hardworking people who would gladly follow our laws and pay all of their taxes if a viable pathway for them to earn their legal status existed, some of them are criminal aliens looking to do us harm who need to be arrested. Imagine if instead of chasing after and filtering through all 11 million illegal immigrants and deporting them at the current rate of less than one percent a year, ICE could focus only on searching out, prosecuting, and deporting the actual violent criminal aliens like the MS-13 gang members.

The ID and Tax plan would allow unauthorized immigrants who have been here for at least five years and can pass background checks the opportunity to come out of the shadows, pay back any taxes they owe, and earn conditional legal status and protection from deportation. Under this conditional legal status, we could ensure that they are working legally and paying the proper taxes. They would not be allowed to apply for government entitlement programs, and they would lose their legal status and be imprisoned and deported if they are convicted of any violent or property crimes.

By allowing these individuals the opportunity to come out of the shadows and earn their conditional legal status, the ID and Tax plan would put ICE in a much better position to catch all of the remaining unauthorized immigrants who either cannot pass background checks or do not want to follow our laws or pay all of their taxes.

After the eligible unauthorized immigrants are allowed a chance to apply for and earn their conditional status so that they can work legally, E-verify, or some kind of policy to prevent employers from hiring unauthorized immigrants could also be more effectively implemented and enforced. This would prevent corrupt employers who employ unauthorized immigrants and pay them cash under the table from avoiding taxes and undercutting ethical employers and workers. 

A recent poll revealed the 81 percent of Americans support a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. who pass a background check, and that percentage is even higher in competitive congressional districts. Another recent poll revealed that 79 percent of Americans want a secure border. 

Not surprisingly, since the economy is doing well after the recent tax cuts and our immigration system is so broken, another recent poll revealed that the majority of voters said immigration is the topic they would most like to see candidates address in the November midterms.

Maybe lawmakers in Washington would benefit politically if they consider their constituents’ demands and put forth immigration legislation like the ID and Tax plan that provides a solution to multiple facets of our nation’s broken immigration system. The status quo is not working, and President Trump has even said he would consider shutting down the government if Congress does not fix it.

The ID and Tax plan would not only secure the border and greatly deter future illegal immigration, but it would help make the interior of the United States safer as well. Once we can identify who is in our country, and gain control over who and what are coming into our country, our nation will be more secure and sovereign. Only then can we can begin to truly enforce our immigration laws, and it will become much easier to address legislation to improve our legal immigration system.