American eagle holding an olive branch in one claw and arrrows in the other This week in WashingtonAmerican eagle holding an olive branch in one claw and arrrows in the other

Congressman Charlie Norwood, 9th District, Georgia

 
October 18, 2006
 

A True “Comprehensive” Border and Immigration Reform Plan

 

5 Steps to Stop the Invasion:

 
By Congressman Charlie Norwood
 

1.  Secure the Borders with 50,000 Troops

2.  Ellis Islands Centers and Temporary Work Visas for working    

     illegals, the CLEAR Act for criminal illegals

3.  Medicaid Proof-of-Citizenship Laws Enforced

4.  English Only

5.  End Birthright Citizenship

 

 

It is amazing how politics can so rapidly add new meaning to old words.   In terms of the debate over what to do about America’s porous borders and the flood of illegal aliens streaming into the country, the word “comprehensive” is now synonymous with “amnesty”. 

 

Those who currently demand that only a “comprehensive” approach should be approved are in reality saying no compromise is possible.  Either grant amnesty to those who intentionally broke the law in coming here, or do nothing.  They openly defy the will of the American people, who have demonstrated in poll after poll and election after election they want no part of amnesty.

 

The American people want the borders secured, first.  Then they want existing laws vigorously enforced against criminal aliens, illegal immigrants, and their employers.  Then they are willing to discuss what to do about illegal aliens already in the country.  That is the only true “comprehensive” approach that will work.

 

Too simple, say the advocates of doing nothing and granting amnesty.  The amnesty crowd says there are no simple solutions to their “migrant phenomenon”.  That’s the term the Mexican government coined to describe their official policy of encouraging and abetting the breaking of U.S. immigration law. 

 

However, there are multiple initiatives that must be enacted, logically and in order, if we are to stem the tide of lawlessness engulfing our nation. 

 

1. Secure the Borders before Thanksgiving:

50,000 troops; 400 patrol boats; 160 aircraft

 

Last year the Minutemen proved the southern border can be immediately secured with adequate manpower, and the actual numbers of personnel necessary are infinitely achievable. 

 

The report “Results and Implications of the Minuteman Project” demonstrated that between 36-48,000 National Guard and reserves deployed to the border with Mexico would result in a virtual stop to illegal immigration from the south. 

 

Since publication of that report, Customs and Border Patrol Director Robert Bonner and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger estimated the number of auxiliary troops necessary at around 50,000; Texas Governor Rick Perry stated a 60,000 estimate.  Heritage Foundation’s Homeland Security research fellow Jim Carafano references a 48,000-man figure.  So that rough figure has since been confirmed by multiple independent sources. 

 

President Bush responded to that call for action in May by ordering 6,000 National Guard to the southern border.  Initially, they were not armed or stationed on the border itself, but only tasked with helping the Border Patrol with logistical duties and road building. 

 

Now they are repositioned on the border itself, armed, and basically taking over the duties of the Minutemen in observing and reporting illegal crossings and helping coordinate Border Patrol responses to increase the number of invaders apprehended. 

 

The Guard and the Border Patrol are doing everything right, but results are mixed.  While the Guard deployment has produced a measurable decline in the number of illegal entries, hundreds of thousands of lawbreakers are still getting through. 

 

The size of the deployment is a fraction of what’s necessary to do the job right, which requires a minimum of 36,000 troops for a short-term mission, and 48,000 for a 2-year mission or longer.  It simply will take that many soldiers posted on the 2,000-mile border with Mexico to stop this crisis.

 

For those who say that deploying “tens of thousands” of soldiers to secure our 7,000 total miles of border is unrealistic, please explain our posting 37,000 troops for 50 years to secure 155 miles of South Korea’s border.  

 

As to our border with Canada, we now have real numbers to use in planning to secure that border for the first time, following release of the report “Securing the Northern Border”, the follow-up to last year’s southern border findings. 

 

Thanks to strong partnership efforts between our Border Patrol and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, we need far fewer auxiliary personnel on the northern border than in the south.  But we do need a decidedly different mix of forces, due to the greater length of the border, topography, and the fact that 2,000 of the 5,000 miles of border is water - the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

 

Around 11,000 personnel, 400 harbor patrol boats, and 160 surveillance aircraft can virtually seal our northern border, thanks to the good start we have courtesy of the Mounties cooperating with us, instead of opposing us like the Mexican Army.

 

Grand total, that’s an estimate of 47-59,000 troops to secure both our southern and northern borders.  A 50,000-man call-up should do the job nicely.  Maybe that’s a few too many or few, but let’s get them in place then decide whether an adjustment is in order.   They will be necessary for 2-5 years, while we build our Border Patrol, infrastructure, and technology to provide a permanent federal solution.

 

The President can make this happen with a simple executive order.  A 50,000-man call-up is 20,000 less than he called up for Katrina last year, so it is a very realistic number.

 

If the President and others believe that we truly can’t sustain a 50,000-man troop deployment to secure our borders with our National Guard or federal armed forces, we should call for volunteers from our Civil Air Patrol, Coast Guard Auxiliary, Naval Militia, and State Defense Forces, the reserve to the National Guard.  We currently have over 300,000 Army National Guard, 110,000 military auxiliaries, 700 surveillance aircraft, and 6,000 patrol boats available for duty. 

 

Heritage Foundation made that recommendation earlier this month, and the President can lead the way by calling for Americans to enlist in these services en masse like they did in World War II, if they’re serious about securing our borders.  If President Bush issues the call and approves the deployment, and sufficient numbers don’t volunteer for duty, then he’s off the hook.

 

By the way, this isn’t the first time we’ve used this solution.  President Woodrow Wilson sent 100,000 National Guard troops to the border with Mexico in 1916, who were then relieved by state defense force reserves in 1917 when the Guard was needed for WWI.

 

Congress should encourage the President to issue the order before we head home at the end of September.  By Thanksgiving, our borders would be secure for the first time in decades, and we can start the cleanup process. 

 

We won’t need all of those troops in place forever.  As soon as we can double the current size of our Border Patrol, and install new technology and infrastructure, we can gradually turn border security back over to the Border Patrol alone, which is precisely how we handled this situation during the 1916 deployment.  

 

It should not take anywhere near the amount of time it currently does to train new Border Patrol officers and get them in the field.   If our military could get new recruits off to war through boot camps in 90 days, our Border Patrol should be able to get basic field officers in place in short order as well.   They may not be able to learn Spanish in those 90 days, as is the current requirement, but they can certainly carry out the other duties of enforcement officers, and work with partners who do know the language.

 

The quicker we can get those new Border Patrol reinforcements in place, the quicker we can scale back the military deployment.   Two years of training per Border Patrol officer is unacceptable, and reform of that requirement is critical to our success.

 

We need Border Patrol boot camps, with graduates in the field in 90 days as privates, working under more senior members.  As they complete additional courses their duties, pay, and responsibilities would increase, identical to our military standard.

 

In the meantime, if necessary to help fill the gap, we can use private security guards alongside our federal, state, and local manpower resources.

 

2. Deal with the Current 12 Million Illegal Aliens:

Ellis Island Centers

When the last major flood of immigrants hit America early in the 20th Century, they were channeled through New York’s Ellis Island, where they received health and criminal background checks, and were documented and registered with authorities. 

 

In dealing with the 12 million illegal aliens already in this country, we should begin by demanding the same.  We should establish a network of “Ellis Island Centers” in every state, to which every illegal immigrant should report for the same treatment. 

 

Those who do so, and pass the criminal and health inspection, should become eligible for a new temporary visa designed specifically for current illegal immigrants who want to come clean.  Those who don’t show should be declared felons, subject to immediate deportation, and forfeiture of all civil assets in the United States.

 

Those who are currently in the country illegally would then have a clear choice.  They can try to remain here illegally and risk prosecution and jail time as a felon, and lose all the financial gains they have made since coming here.  Or, they can become legal, no longer have to hide or masquerade under false identification, be guaranteed to retain their cars, homes, property, and financial assets, and gain the freedom to freely visit their home country and family while they remain here temporarily.

 

The majority of current illegal aliens, faced with those choices, would choose legalization.  Those who prefer to remain illegal would be far fewer in number, and make our job of gradually reducing those numbers with serious and consistent law enforcement efforts far more attainable.  In five years time, we should be able to reduce the current 12 million illegal residents down to a manageable number.

 

Temporary Visas

The new tamper-proof temporary visas, embedded with departure dates, should be good for two or three years, whatever Congress decides is best.  It should allow the immigrant to work legally for that period, and to leave and re-enter the U.S. legally during that period.  At the departure date, they would be required to leave, with no guarantees of return.  They would have to reapply to come back under whatever policy we had at that time, and get in the back of the line for those applying to immigrate here.

 

PRIVATE-SECTOR CONTRACTORS, RATHER THAN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD ISSUE THESE VISAS IMMEDIATELY.  To wait for a federal agency to begin this program would take years, while the companies that currently issue charge cards and the like have the programs and resources to begin immediately.  Preparation for this program should start immediately, so that it will be up and running full-speed the day we open the Ellis Island Centers. 

 

Clear Our Streets of Criminal Aliens with the CLEAR Act

The CLEAR Act provides indisputable congressional authorization for state and local law enforcement agencies to voluntarily become full partners in America’s fight against the most horrific side of illegal immigration – criminal aliens.

 

Under current law, police and deputies are left guessing as to whether illegal immigrants are just looking for work or are serious and frequently violent criminals with outstanding warrants.   Far too often, violent illegal aliens are turned back into the streets after being safely apprehended.

 

There are currently just 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents charged with apprehending nearly 500,000 identified criminal aliens.  That is simply planning for failure.

 

The CLEAR Act provides immigration law enforcement training for local police, at federal expense.  It places criminal aliens in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) databank, so that when police run background checks they will know they have a criminal in hand. It mandates that every state in the union must participate in the Institutional Removal Program, and stop letting criminal illegal aliens return to our streets instead of their own country after they finish their most recent jail term.

 

In doing so, we add a potential 700,000 state and local police as backup to those 2,000 ICE officers, and change the odds against these thugs in our favor. 

 

And by getting the criminal illegal aliens off our streets, we start to eat away at the criminal support structure for overall illegal immigration – human trafficking, drug dealing, gangs, identity theft, and document fraud.   

 

If nothing else passes this session, this is one bill for which there should be universal support from both parties, and we should not go home without sending some version of it to the President.

 

3. End Free Medicaid for Illegal Aliens

The first step in eliminating free healthcare for illegal aliens became law earlier this year, as the Medicaid proof of citizenship requirement I sponsored with Rep. Nathan Deal went into effect.  No longer will illegal immigrants be able to simply say they are eligible for 100% paid healthcare benefits in order to receive them.  So far in Georgia, over 40,000 people have failed to reapply for the Medicaid program since the law went into effect, which irrefutably demonstrates the degree of health benefits theft going on under the old regulations that required no demonstrable proof of citizenship. 

 

This provision is already under attack by illegal immigrant advocates, so we must remain vigilant that they are not allowed to water down one word of the new protections.

 

4. English Only

A critical key support component to all of these efforts should be to establish English as the official language of the United States, and English-only as the official policy for government documentation and enrollment in all programs, other than those specifically offered to legal guest workers and immigrants.

 

5. End Birthright Citizenship

Finally, we must end birthright citizenship.  Under current law, any child born in the U.S. is automatically a citizen, even if their mother intentionally entered the country illegally for that purpose.  The child is then legally eligible for free health care, education, food stamps, and a welfare check.  In addition, the family of the child then has a leg up on everyone else wanting to come to the U.S. legally.

 

We are one of the only industrialized nations left in the world that has this absolutely foolish policy, and it serves as a powerful incentive for illegals to breach our borders, have children, and claim their welfare benefit. 

 

 

It is doubtful we can address this issue in the near future, but address it we must to end the flood of “anchor babies” we currently fund.

 

BORDERS FIRST

Those are the five steps for a true “comprehensive” solution to illegal immigration.  As logic dictates, they must be undertaken in order, and in rapid succession.

 

None of the reforms can be fully effective with our borders left open.  Document fraud will continue if we allow large numbers of criminal aliens to remain.  Benefits fraud will continue if we allow document fraud to continue, and so on.

 

But to start, Congress and the President can agree to secure our borders before we adjourn this September, and if we only have the will, America’s border can be secure by Thanksgiving.

 

That’s the necessary first step.

 

 

 

 
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CONGRESSMAN CHARLIE NORWOOD 2452 RAYBURN BUILDING WASHINGTON,DC 20515 www.house.gov/norwood

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