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Washington, D.C. - The question of what to do about immigration is, in my eyes, a multi-part problem. Today in the United States, somewhere between 11 million and 20 million people who live in our country came here illegally. That's right, there are more illegal immigrants in this country than there are Ohioans.
How did that happen? What are we going to do about it? What will we do with the illegals who are already here?
These are some of the very basic questions we need to answer, and frankly, we need to do so quickly. The question of what to do with the illegals already here is a controversial issue. While some advocate deportation, others promote a path towards citizenship. While I do not favor granting citizenship to our nation's illegal immigrants, my position is based not out of anger but what I believe is simple fairness.
There are millions of people around the world who are waiting patiently in line to become citizens in the United States. For decades, people have waited in counties where their economic prospects are often worse than our neighbors to the south. It is grossly unfair to those who wait legally to be bypassed by those who broke our laws. Imagine the impact if 20 million new citizens began bringing their families to live with them in the United States. That 20 million could easily triple in short order.
The average illegal immigrant in the United States is a hard working, law abiding, freedom loving, God fearing, good person. The bottom line is that they came to this country both to escape poor economic conditions and, more importantly, because they could.
For decades we barely patrolled our borders. Millions of people crossed them with no or very little resistance. Now, because we looked the other way for decades we find ourselves in a jam.
I may be the new kid on the block in the halls of Congress, but allow me to propose some of what I call Clermont County common sense.
In the last nine months, the United States government has captured 901,428 persons trying to cross the border. More than a million people will be caught this year alone. Unfortunately, estimates are that another million may have crossed the border undetected.
While the debate on what to do with those already here lingers on, thousands more are crossing every day.
I believe we should concentrate first on stopping people from crossing the border illegally -- building a fence either literally or electronically. Surely everyone can agree that, at the very least, we need to do everything we can to stop the problem from growing.
Capturing 901,428 persons in just nine months is a solid indicator that millions of people believe they have a pretty good chance of not being caught crossing our border. Washington has a way of focusing on the hard issues, while ignoring the simple solutions that can alleviate some of our problems.
Let us first stop illegal immigrants while we build a consensus on what to do with the illegals already here. Every day that we do not, the problem compounds. Doing nothing is becoming more and more costly. It is time to act.
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