A country without borders is not a country. We must fix our immigration system so we control who comes and goes and that starts by securing our southern border.
Many people from around the world want to come to this country to build better lives for themselves and their children. We should embrace America’s place in the world, but we must do so in a strategic, common sense way. ISIS and others intent on doing us harm are looking to use any means possible to get into this country. We need to be vigilant.
It is essential that we take our country back, and that starts by common sense reforms to our immigration system.
Secure Our Border
This has to be done immediately. It is a national security risk that we can no longer ignore. We can’t allow even a single person with ties to ISIS or any sort of radical Islamic extremism to enter the United States and do harm to our citizens.
Build the Wall: We need to secure our porous Southern border to prevent anyone who wishes innocent Americans harm to enter the U.S. Those who mock the idea of building a wall do not want a secure border for our country.
Ban Travel from the Middle East: Until we can ensure that our vetting process works, we should temporarily ban all travel from Middle East countries known to be a base for ISIS and other terrorist groups. Israel, which has an advanced vetting system, would be excluded from this ban, as well as Christians fleeing persecution whose personal histories can be verified by church records.
Modernize the Legal Immigration System
Our legal immigration system has not been updated in decades. We keep passing bad laws on top of more bad laws and nothing gets fixed. Our nation is blessed with some of the greatest minds and most innovative technology companies in the world. Let’s bring them on board and use private sector solutions to modernize our legal immigration system and bring it into the 21st Century.
Implement an Entry-Exit Visa Tracking System: Securing our border to stop illegal immigration will only solve one part of the problem. Forty percent of illegal immigrants are people who came here legally but overstayed their visas. We need to know who is coming into the country and who is leaving. And, we must have a process to track down individuals who have overstayed their visas altogether.
Implement Private Sector Solutions: Since the 1800s, bail bondsman have been responsible for tracking down criminals who do not show up to court or who try to escape justice. The same system can be applied to our immigration visa system. A small fee is added to each visa. If an individual overstays their visa, their information will be distributed to bondsman who can locate and turn them over to the authorities.
End Abuses & Maximize Information Sharing
In order to prevent the flow of illegal immigration into this country, we need to establish clear rules and consequences for governments or employers who hire an illegal worker.
Crackdown on Abuse of H1-B Visas: As a homebuilder, this is a problem that hits close to home. Companies have abused the H1-B visa system to try and replace qualified American workers with cheaper foreign workers. This is not in the spirit of the law. H1-B visas were intended to be an opportunity to allow skilled workers from other companies to come and participate in the American economy, not steal American jobs from those already doing them. One solution is to also increase the prevailing wage associated with H1-Bs.
Cut Funding to Sanctuary Cities: End federal grants to any city that refuses to cooperate with federal law enforcement and federal law. We can’t continue to have local governments around the country flouting federal immigration laws.
Enact Kate’s Law: There should be a mandatory minimum sentence for illegal immigrants that are deported and reenter the country to commit crimes.
Mandatory E-Verify System: An E-Verify system would require businesses to verify an employee’s immigration status making it less likely to employ undocumented workers unknowingly.
Share Information with State Law Enforcement: Currently, when the federal government tracks immigrants coming from foreign countries into the US there is no process to share information with the state law enforcement authorities to receive immigrants. Florida, in particular, due to our large size and diverse population, has long been a place for federal authorities to place immigrants seeking asylum. The latest example of this was the Obama Administration placing hundreds of Syrian refugees in Florida without telling the state any information on these individuals. States must be a partner for the federal government in order to help ensure the safety of US citizens and better track immigrants who may choose to walk away from the citizenship process altogether, or at worst, commit a crime.
Carlos Beruff is running for the Republican nomination in this year’s U.S. Senate race.
