Americans demand that our immigration laws be enforced and clarified, and demand that the economic and national security quagmire issue of illegal immigration be remedied, once and for all. Illegal immigration is a bipartisan failure, which goes to show that bipartisanship is highly overrated. It usually just means both sides are wrong.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear oral arguments from plaintiffs who claim that the Trump Administration’s 2017 executive decision to end President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was unconstitutional. A decision is expected in June.
Obama’s 2012 executive order, DACA protects some illegal aliens from deportation on two-year renewable bases. Last year, a federal district court judge ruled that DACA likely is unconstitutional but ordered it to remain in place due to pending litigation; the judge also said that if Congress wants a DACA program, it has the power to enact one legislatively.
And there’s the rub for the Democrats. President Trump has shown himself many times to be willing to strike a deal on DACA, but the Democrats never even bothered to engage in preliminary negotiations.
I know amnesty, understandably, is as popular as a root canal sans Novocain on our nationalist side; my personal opinion is that no one who has ever entered the United States illegally should ever be eligible for citizenship. My political opinion, however, is that we can make this work.
An Imminent Loss
Hear me out on this. If the Democrats want to avoid a legal defeat at the Supreme Court, they could make a deal with Trump that would have GOP support in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
To achieve this, Republicans would have to give permanent residence (green cards) for qualified DACA applicants who can prove who they are, have no criminal record whatsoever, and pay fines and financial restitution, including back taxes; included here should be green card holders whose legal status has expired. We also offer this to so-called Dreamers, who, like many DACA applicants, are illegal aliens who entered the United States with their parents, sometimes as very young children. After a decade of staying out of legal trouble, whether those are misdemeanors or felonies, they get an opportunity to apply for citizenship.
This is a lot to give, yes. Here’s what we get: Ending the “diversity lottery,” because one’s sex, race, ethnicity, or country of birth isn’t a skill, achievement, accomplishment, or qualification.
Bye-bye to chain migration, because your 47th cousin’s half-black gay stepsister doesn’t need to be in the United States just because you are; potential visas for immediate family could be kept in place. No counting of anyone except citizens in the Census.
And, at long last, let’s have clarification of “birthright citizenship.” Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said recently that no constitutional amendment is necessary to end birthright citizenship, which automatically confers American citizenship to any person born on U.S. soil—including the children of people who have no intention of living or raising their kids in the United States. (Yes, “birth tourism” is real and it’s still a big problem.) Cuccinelli likely is correct, but let’s play offense, and have Congress clarify this. Legislation is preferable to an executive order, which would be more vulnerable to a successful legal challenge by the Democrats.
Last but not least—and if you’re still ambivalent, here’s my enticement: Mr. President, build The Wall. Democrats fund the balance of the 1,300 wall-less miles, totaling approximately $25 billion.
The Art of Compromise
If Democrats actually cared about illegal aliens (especially the minors), they’d make a deal. Rather, they and the Democrat Media-Industrial Complex will regurgitate their debunked “manufactured crisis,” “kids in cages,” “Mexicans are rapists,” and “xenophobia” conspiracy theories.
Without legislation, the Democrats stand to suffer an epic loss, thanks to our five originalist, textualist justices. Illegal aliens who long have hoped for a pathway to citizenship can thank the Democrats for refusing to compromise. When the Democrats heard that the Supreme Court would hear the legal challenges to DACA, their dentures must have discharged from their gums like missiles. If the Democrats were wise, they wouldn’t have waited for the dispute to reach the high court.
The Goebbelsian lie about illegal immigration is that there are 11 million illegals in the United States, with 60 percent or more who were originally green card holders, and are now illegal. It’s been “11 million” for forever. More likely, there are approximately 20-30 million illegals, which would mean 20-30 percent were originally green card holders.
Remedying the anarchy of unenforced immigration laws and open borders, should he be able to manage it, might very well be Trump’s most artistic of a deal.