Issues and Solutions

Immigration

Joe Biden and the Democrats want an open southern border to bring in their new future voters at the expense of American citizens who have paid taxes for all their adult lives. The Democrats aren’t concerned about COVID spread, illegal drugs and the criminal cartels that are taking over south Texas and Arizona. The Democrats don’t care about American citizens nor the immigrants, they only care about being elected, having power and enriching themselves at the expense of the American taxpayer.

Legal immigration is a great asset to our country. Illegal immigration is decidedly detrimental to American taxpayers. People are not racists or xenophobic because they want a lawful, orderly process for entering and living in the US. What about all the immigrants who have followed the rules and waited their turn in line? Isn’t it discriminatory to those legal immigrants being processed according to our laws to allow groups flooding across our borders from Central America, Haiti and all other parts of the world to be allowed entry before them? In the Build Back Better/Broke Bill, that did not pass, Democrats proposed granting amnesty to approximately 6.5 million illegal immigrants, if they have been living illegally in the U.S. before January 2011. We can’t have a reward system based on length of time someone is able to getting away with breaking the law. 

Furthermore, the open southern border is an enormous national security risk as there is no vetting nor follow up with the over 2.4 million illegal people that have entered the US by simply walking across the border in the last year.

In 2022, illegal immigration net total costs on a federal and state level are estimated to be $143.1 billion dollars for 15.5 million illegal immigrants.  That figure takes into account any taxes having been paid by illegals. With thousands more illegals entering the US every day at the Southern Border, these numbers are increasing exponentially.  In 2022 in Florida alone, there are over 1,000,000 illegal persons who cost the taxpayers of Florida $5.46 billion dollars to provide schools, healthcare, welfare and other government services. We also have to consider the strain on our criminal justice and prison resources. In 2019, the Department of Justice estimated that 21% of the prisoners were illegal aliens.

First and foremost, the asylum laws have to been amended to reflect the realities at the border. In 1997 the Flores Settlement, which limits detention of minors to a 20 day period, was agreed to by the US Government. This Settlement is now being abused as a loophole to avoid detention while awaiting a hearing on an immigrant’s asylum claim. The cartels are trafficking and renting children to immigrants, who are not related to these trafficked children, so that adult illegal immigrants can be released rapidly into the US, never to be seen again at their asylum hearings. These rules have to be changed.

WE NEED MORE IMMIGRATION JUDGES and/or MAGISTRATES,  ESPECIALLY AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER. Presently, there are about 400 immigration judges and 63 immigration courts. We need to double that number and hear the asylum cases quickly without releasing illegal immigrants into the country. Almost all the immigrants from Central America and Haiti do not qualify for “asylum” under federal immigration laws. They would have to be fleeing “persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion” to qualify for asylum. Economic hardship is not a standard for being granted asylum.

Reinstatement of the Remain in Mexico Policy has to be enforced. The US and Canada have a first entry agreement that states the immigrant seeking asylum must be processed in the first country they enter. If not, the immigrant is sent back to the country of first entry. The European Union has the same first entry policies for immigrants entering from non-EU countries. Remain in Mexico is the correct policy because if the immigrant is fleeing persecution in their home country, by arriving in Mexico, “persecution”, as it is defined under asylum laws, is no longer an issue.