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The Illegal Immigration Question I’d Like To Hear
True to form, Jeb Bush went full throttle into to the “we can’t possibly deport 11 million illegal immigrants” zone, and quoted a rate of 500,000 per month. To be honest, he makes a reasonable point. The logistics of it are near impossible.
An Airbus A380 variant flown by Emirates Air can seat 615 people, the largest passenger capacity of any airline. It would require 813 flights of these behemoths every month (i.e, 27 a day) to move that many people. There are only 173 A380’s in service. Jeb may have been exercising hyperbole to support his position, but he isn’t off the mark.
Additionally, identifying and locating that many illegal aliens each month is near impossible and we have no method of doing so now.
Stepping away from the hyperbole, let’s give the candidates some operating room and say they have one term to deport the illegal aliens, which would mean about 200,000 a month. If a half million deportations per month is impossible, 200,000 is only barely achievable.
Relatedly, we need to be realistic about what “securing the border” means. One of my friends is a Texas State Trooper and was one of the first volunteers for the boat squadron that patrols the Rio Grande. His team works closely with US Border Patrol. I visited with him about the situation; suffice to say, border security isn’t as tough-minded as we often think. These days, being detained by Border Patrol doesn’t carry a threat of immediate deportation and is a big reason we continue to see thousands per week streaming into the country.
All that said, I have a scenario I want to pose to Ricochet that I wish was posed to the candidates.
Scenario
Leaving dinner on a Wednesday night, I make a legal left turn with a green arrow when a well-used Mercedes runs the light and hits me head on. No one is injured, but my SUV has to be towed away and — when all is said and done — I’m going to be out $7,000.
The Mercedes was driven by a young man with a young woman in the passenger seat. Neither of them speak English, and neither has a drivers license or any other form of identification. The car’s inspection and registration are both expired and there is no insurance. The girl in the passenger seat is pregnant, about four or five months along. They have little money.
A Spanish speaking officer is dispatched to the scene and one of the of the EMS technicians speaks Spanish. The driver and passenger are not married and admit to being here illegally. They are evasive about how they got here and whether they have relatives in the country or not.
The Question
Sir/Madam, in your administration, what will happen to these two?
If it is verified they are illegal aliens will they be allowed to stay or deported? If they are allowed to stay, will the woman receive publicly-funded healthcare for her pregnancy and child? If their child is born here, will he or she be granted American citizenship?
What I’d Like to Hear
In a Brent Administration, the young couple are taken into custody, their immigration status is determined, and they are turned over to ICE and held until deported. A process measured in days, not years.
They are allowed phone calls and — if family came to visit and found to be here illegally — they will be detained and deported also.
Once detained, they would not be temporarily released or allowed to gather their belongings, money, etc. This may seem rough treatment, but at least we aren’t going house to house doing no-knock raids as happened with Elian Gonzalez.
The Way Forward
This uncomfortable process garners immediate attention, makes people feel “unwelcome,” and challenges those here illegally. If they wish to return home on their own, they can take their possessions, money, family, etc. If they are stopped for so much as jaywalking they are interned in the criminal justice and ICE system until they are released outside our borders.
Not an easy choice and not intended to be. Breaking our laws should not be comfortable or without consequence.
If they elect to stay, live in the shadows, and seek employment for cash, they may do so, but there will be no legal acknowledgement or path to citizenship. Increased use of E-verify and raids on suspect businesses decrease the opportunities to better themselves. As soon as they step out of the shadows, into the purview of law enforcement, or try to get a birth certificate for a child, deportation begins as soon as they are identified without an opportunity to gather their family or possessions.
Summary
Jeb Bush is mostly correct: deporting that many illegal aliens isn’t practical. The steps to solve this crisis include, but not limited to:
- Real border enforcement (no more notices to appear or other hand receipts).
- No incentive to come illegally in the first place. No contorted 14th Amendment interpretation that extends citizenship to the children of these criminals.
- End forcing public education for illegal aliens.
- Conduct government business in English only.
- Increase E-verify and employer penalties
- Restrict repatriation of dollars by non-citizens.
Please note I did not include a wall funded by a third party. Rick Perry made a good point awhile back: build a 14′ wall and they make 15′ ladders. Of course he also supported in-state tuition for those who’d broken our immigration laws, so there was motivation for ladder manufacturing courtesy Rick Perry.
Giving illegal immigrants the opportunity and motivation to self-deport is possible. Raiding homes of people we can’t identify and locate to ship them out on 800 flights per month is not.
Published in General, Immigration, Politics
Doesn’t Islam qualify as an ideology, a blueprint for conquest and war?
Because they are being done to before they have the chance, courage or ability to do it to other infidels -which can include those who identify as Muslim.
Tom, Rubio identified the issue, not perfectly but close enough. During WWII we weren’t at war with NAZIs, we were at war with Germany, most Germans were not NAZIs.
If the Cold War had advanced to a hot war, we would not have been at war with the Communist Party per se, we would have been at war with all of the people in the USSR and Warsaw Pact countries -most of whom were not members of the Communist Party.
The comparison is not perfect but accurately describes our current dilemma. Not all Muslims act on the Koran’s commands for Jihad but available polls suggest a majority agree with the actions of the Jihadists. As Jean Kirkpatrick said, it is a war of civilizations -it is existential, we need to to win. It requires beating Islam into the same submission as Germany and Japan in 1945.
In the interest of accuracy, you could point to violence perpetrated by Christians against Muslims in the CAR. That said, I don’t think it’s fair to equate that with what ISIS is doing. The civil war in CAR started more conventionally, then false and/or exaggerated reports of violence by Muslims against Christians were used to churn up an extremely violent anti-Muslim fervor. Once the war took that turn, numerous atrocities were committed by both sides. I won’t defend the Christian behavior there, but that doesn’t mean it’s apple-to-apples with militant Islam.
Seriously? Do you not know that Egypt is killing or imprisoning radical islamists by the thousands? Assad is a Muslim and he is killing thousands of them as well. The Kurds are Muslim and are killing thousands of ISIS members. The Jordanians and Saudis are killing radicals. What more do you want them to do? Their militaries are not strong enough to wipe out ISIS.
Should my peaceful Muslim friend here in Minnesota – who is an American citizen, BTW – leave his business and his family to go fight ISIS in Syria just so you can feel better about yourself?
Unbelievable!
This is the part I find unbelievable. ISIS is a relative newcomer to the scene and they command more military capability than the entire Islamic Middle East community can muster? And I thought the contention was that within Islam, the radicals were only a relatively small percentage, but now they are such a large percentage that the remaining Muslims who don’t support them have no say. And now we are to open our doors to them.
I hate to tell you this but the military might of Europe cannot wipe out ISIS either. After America, China and Russia, everyone else’s military pretty much sucks.
ISIS is very well armed and well funded, thanks to the failure of Obama to keep US troops in Iraq.
So those of us who are concerned are not overestimating the radical influence in Islam?
Details? This may be true but there are few sources for the supply of armaments to keep several nations at bay on a continuing basis.
No majority Islamic nation that I know of has the capacity to arm such large group of military on a continuing basis. So, who is going to provide the logistical support for ISIS to stay militarily potent?
When the Shia Iraqis fled Mosul, ISIS captured $600 mil in cash plus millions more in US military equipment. They had similar bounties in other captured areas, including equipment we gave to Syrian freedom fighters that they easily captured.
What is your point, Bob? That the Arab governments in the region don’t really want to defeat ISIS? That they’re secretly in league with them?
Every Arab country has internal jihadists they are trying to suppress in addition to fighting ISIS. King Abdullah of Jordan has radicals in the south of his country he needs to keep an eye on. Saudi Arabia is fighting radicals in Yemen. Egypt has the Muslim Brotherhood and the crazies next door in Libya. Just because they aren’t capable of doing a good job doesn’t mean they are all radical Muslims who are secretly rooting for ISIS.
My point is that unless ISIS has a continuing source for armaments and other supplies, if they are kept engaged militarily, the days of their military potency are numbered. Are all those other nations in the area going to fight, watch, or join ISIS. By the way, in your list of those impotent opponents who are killing thousands upon thousands, you left out Iraq and Turkey. Are they helping fight ISIS?
Iraq is very dysfunctional right now and not much help. Turkey doesn’t want to help because of the Kurd issue. Things are not black and white in the Middle East, shockingly enough, but you can be assured that most Arab countries are fighting ISIS as best they can – their militaries just aren’t very good.
ISIS controls a lot of oil and has no problem selling it on the black market. If you have money you can get weapons – simple as that. They have no problem resupplying. To infer that the Arab governments are supplying them with arms is silly.
I don’t and you shouldn’t either. I think any re-supply could be held in check very easily by the nations where the armaments are produced.
You are right, your straw man is unbelievable!