“The Immigration Problem”…

… isn’t, exactly.

No, I mean this. Bear with me a moment.

It’s not that the people of the United States don’t welcome immigrants. As the son of a Hungarian refugee, I am utterly certain of that.

We The People welcome folks who want to come here, share in our fortune, help make us a better people, who want to join us.

BUT.

We object to freeloaders. We have no use for the ungrateful. Come to our home, spend our taxes, bankrupt our emergency services and our social safety net… and you treat us thus?

We don’t have an immigrant problem. We have an ungrateful visitor problem; we have an uninvited guest problem.

Looking at it from that perspective, I offer a couple of notions:

1. It’s time to close the door. Bring US armed forces home from Europe. They aren’t appreciated there much (a recurring theme; but another time for that); we have a mission for them here. Close the borders, with combinations of physical barriers, electronic sensors, and/or patrol drones, as appropriate to the terrain. Back those barriers with airmobile rapid reaction forces, drawn from the troops we brought home. Detain and return immediately. You want to be in the US? Fine. As invited guests; not just as you please.

We can do this. We have the resources. (Oh, and 1.a… whilst we’re redeploying our troops, stop playing cozy with elements of the Mexican government who’re trying to send us more uninvited guests?)

2. It’s time to pay the bills. Illegal immigrants are useful to employers who desire a cheap source of labor. But … TANSTAAFL, always and forever. Illegal guests don’t pay any income taxes. They do use emergency services; but they don’t often pay their bills, and being undocumented, they can’t easily be found. They do use social services, aided and abetted by laxity on our parts… which they don’t pay for.

I would personally be delighted to see the United States move to the Fair Tax system. The relative financial health of Texan and Californian health and social service systems shows why. I acknowledge, though, that this is a big step, and many want persuading of the merits of the Fair Tax approach.

Here’s an interim proposal: Let’s tax remittances. In 2003 alone, the United States Agency for International Development figures Mexico received $13 billion in remittances. To quote the late Senator Dirksen, “that’s real money”. So… a forty percent tax on all Mexican remittances, levied on the wire agencies and banks. That would drive the price of labor up, as the workers would need more money to offset the pass-through charges the banks and the wire services would levy. The revenues should go to assistance grants, for states awash in red ink due to the extra strain illegal guests have placed on their services; the farms and labor camps and contractors would have to pony up. Pressure where pressure is due.

Government doesn’t always enforce laws well, but they’re hell on wheels when it comes to collecting taxes. Let’s not argue about “draconian enforcement” by ICE. Squeeze the people who pay the illegals.

3. It’s time for unwanted guests to be given a choice. We’ve been lax, these past years. We’ve made it easy for ungrateful guests to freeload on us. We’ve allowed illegals to assume that there’s going to be an ever-increasing flow of benefits and privileges from our hands.

Enough. It’s time to change things, and make it clear that we welcome honest immigrants. We welcome guests. But it’s our home, run by our rules.

Let’s start with English … which needs to become the sole language of government. No foreign language ballots; no foreign language governmental services, except for translators and public defenders for criminal cases. Voting is for citizens, who should know our language. Guests can be accomodated in matters of commerce. Trespassers need no longer be given the impression that either the federal or the governments are there to serve the needs of the trespasser. As striking as the jest is, we are not FreeLunchistan.

It’s time that became clear.