Every sense of an immigration policy has two objectives:
One, to regain control of our borders,
so that we decide who enters.
And two, to find a humane way,
to deal with the 11 million illegal immigrants,
who now live among us.
Start with the second:
For both practical and moral reasons,
America cannot, and will not,
and should not expel 11 million people.
That leaves us with two choices:
ignore them or figure out a way to legalize them.
Ignoring them hasn´t worked, but there´s also
a huge problem with legalization.
It creates an irresistible insentive,
for new illegal immigrants to come.
We say, of course, that this will be the
very last, very final, never again
we´re-not-kidding-this-time amnesty,
and everyone knows it's phony.
That´s what we said in 1986, when we passed the
"Simpson-Mazzoli Immigration Reform";
It turned out to be the largest legalization program
in American history; nearly 3 million people
got premnant residency; there was no enforcement.
We now have 11 million new illegal immigrants,
in our midst.
The irony of this whole debate, which bitterly splits the country,
is that there is a silver bullet,
that will not just solve the problem,
but also to create a national concensus behind it.
A vast number of Americans who oppose legalization,
and fear new waves of immigration
would change their minds,
if we could radically reduce
new i.e. future illegal immigration;
and we can.
First: build a barrier.
Call it a wall, call it a fence, call it what you will.
Add cameras, and sensors; add drones,
Beef off the patrols, all that matters
is that we regain control of the border.
Fences work.
The triple fence outside San Diego
led to a 90% reduction in infiltration
Israel's boarder fence at the West Bank produced a similar decline.
Even holier-than-thou Europeans
have conceded the point.
Hungary, Macedonia, Bulgaria
Austria, Greece, Spain, why even Norway
have all started building border fences
to stem the tide of Middle Eastern refugees.
Then enforce two other measures.
A national E-Verify system
that makes it just about impossible to work
if you are here illegally and a functioning visa
tracking system since 40%
of illegal immigrants are visa
overstays. The wall/fence will
of course be ugly. So are the concrete
barriers to keep truck bombs
from driving into the White House. Sometimes
function has to supersede form.
And don't tell me that this is our Berlin Wall.
When you build a wall to keep people in, that's a prison.
When you build a wall to keep people out,
that's an expression of sovereignty.
Of course no barrier will be foolproof.
But it doesn't have to be. It
simply has to reduce the river to a manageable trickle.
Once we do everything becomes possible.
Including dealing with our 11 million
illegal immigrants. So let's fix that.
Track the visas, do E-Verify build the
damn barrier. It's ridiculous to say that it can't
be done. And who would certify that the border
is back in our control? I would have a neutral party,
perhaps a commission of retired jurists,
issue the judgement. Once they do
we legalize the 11 million
granting them the right to stay and work here.
We can't give them citizenship.
That's a bridge too far.
You don't get to join the political destiny of the country
by entering it illegally. But any children born here
would be American, which means that over time
the issue resolves itself. The American
people are legitimately angry at the price
the American society has paid
due to illegal immigration.
But they are also a generous people. Once
they're assured that we do indeed control our borders,
that anger will abate. A national consensus
will emerge. Radical border control
followed by radical legalization.
No mushy compromise.
A solution requires
two acts of national will.
Putting up a wall, along with E-Verify,
and visa tracking, and absorbing those
who broke our laws to come into America.
This is not a compromise meant to appease both sides
without achieving anything. It's not some piece of
hybrid legislation that arbitrarily divides
illegals into those with five year old
roots in America and those without.
Or some such mischief making nonsense.
If we do it right not only will we solve
the problem we will get it done as
one nation.
I'm Charles Krauthammer for Prager University.