“I have been a stranger in a strange land,” said Moses, referring to his immigration to Midian from Egypt. If the Midianites had closed their borders, we would not have any of the Abrahamic religions.
America was made and remade by migrants and wanderers. The First Peoples arrived long before Europeans and ranged across the continent. Their culture was destroyed by waves of European immigrants. Thirty million Europeans came to escape persecution, to escape famine, and for greater freedom and opportunity.
Immigrants roll the dice and give up everything in their home countries to come to a place where they are strangers in a strange land, with a new language and new customs. Immigrants overcome obstacles and are often talented and valuable in their new home. Legal immigrants start businesses at twice the rate of natives. In Wyoming, 22,000 are immigrants. In Laramie, the University of Wyoming hosts students from Bangladesh, Russia, China, Kuwait, Uzbekistan and other countries.
If legal immigration is good, why don’t we have open borders for the 158 million people who want to immigrate to the U.S.? One reason is that we are a rich economy with a large welfare state. Because our government has created entitlements to education, health, retirement and subsistence, there are legitimate concerns that immigrants may consume more in entitlements than they pay in taxes. A second reason is that mass immigration can change political power, laws and rights in our country. Wyoming once belonged to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapahoe tribes, who now control only the Wind River reservation; how well did unlimited immigration work for them?
Which brings us to our present immigration mess. Our southern border symbolizes the incompetence of our government, unable to secure a border that Americans have wanted secured for decades.
An insecure border kills and harms Americans
Some suggest that illegal immigrants commit no more crime than the native population. The more important statistic is that illegal immigrants commit many more crimes than legal immigrants. Allowing high levels of illegal immigration has killed or harmed tens of thousands of Americans. In Texas alone, over several years, 189,000 illegal immigrants were charged with 295,000 crimes including 539 murders, 403 kidnappings, 37,234 drug crimes, and 5,643 sex crimes. Ask the families of the teenagers chopped up by the MS-13 illegal immigrant gang how they feel about insecure borders. Ask Democrats who support “sanctuary cities” to defend the murder of Timothy Cruz by an illegal immigrant whom Denver released from jail, refusing to honor an immigration hold. Ask Democrats who want the status quo of an insecure border to defend the murder of legal immigrant and California police officer Ronil Singh by a gang member who crossed illegally from Mexico. Ask Republicans why they never fixed immigration in the four recent years when they controlled Congress.
End the asylum loophole
Current federal law explicitly allows illegal border crossers to apply for asylum, thus many people now cross the border, apply for asylum, and then are often released into the U.S. Potential immigrants exploit loopholes as readily as the rest of us; 262,000 people applied for asylum in 2016. A caravan traveled to our southern border to apply for asylum, while refusing asylum in Mexico. We should change U.S. law, withdrawing from related treaties if needed, so that applications for asylum or refugee status are normally accepted only outside the U.S., not in the U.S., not at the border, and not from those who enter illegally. Illegal entrants should normally be immediately returned to source countries. Asylum or refugee status should exclude unprovable criteria such as domestic violence or gang violence and Congress should limit the numbers of asylees and refugees admitted.
End the visa overstay loophole
Many illegal immigrants enter the U.S. on visas and then stay; nearly half of illegal immigrants arrived on visas. Congress passed a law in 2004 to deal with overstays but our incompetent federal government has not implemented it. Record when people on visas leave the country as well as when they enter and promptly follow up with every person whose visa has expired but who has not been recorded as leaving.
Secure the southern border immediately and permanently
My preferred solution is the Million Grandparent wall. Hire a million grandparents, along with other retirees, to stand at the border alongside the smaller number of ICE agents. When someone crosses illegally, a grandparent meets them, gives them water, milk, and cookies, and escorts them to a van where their biometrics are taken and they are then driven to the Mexican border and immediately deported. As a bonus, the million grandparents can conduct 100 percent inspection of every person and vehicle entering through legal ports of entry. As physical security measures are added we will need fewer grandparents.
Improve our legal immigration system
Our legal immigration system should prefer immigrants with resources, education, English proficiency, needed skills, good health, verifiable backgrounds, and of working age with many years still to work. Legal immigrants should arrive from many different countries, with any per-country caps adjusted downward for countries that have provided large numbers of illegal immigrants. We should also admit some family members, some refugees, and some asylum seekers. Once our illegal immigration problems are largely solved, we would benefit from higher numbers of legal immigrants.
It is up to Congress
Only Congress can change laws, appropriate funds, and authorize programs to fix our broken immigration system. Two successive presidents, Obama with the “Dreamers” and Trump with his wall, have taken unconstitutional actions regarding immigration. We should respect the Constitution and demand that Congress do its job.
The news media can help as well, by reporting the citizenship or immigration status of every person arrested for or convicted of a serious crime. And that Moses fellow we began our story with? He had committed murder in Egypt. Midian should have promptly deported him.
Martin L. Buchanan
Writer, software developer and UW student living in Laramie, Wyoming
Email: MartinLBuchanan@gmail.com.
