L&T Publisher Earl Watt
Ernie Schaffer and I worked together several years ago to try to come up with a plan to help revise the broken immigration system. And when I say several years ago, I’m talking about 2010, which is 15 years ago. We submitted the plan to Senator Jerry Moran’s office on his web site in 2001 and never heard back — good, bad or indifferent.
Immigration policy has not improved or even been adjusted since. That has left a variety of presidents to address the issue in different ways. Barack Obama became the Deporter in Chief, and Donald Trump’s first term was focused on creating a “big beautiful wall.”
Joe Biden’s solution was to simply hand out notices to appear to more than 10 million who illegally crossed the border, and now Trump in his second term is working to send anyone who did not come into the country legally back to their country of origin.
All of these responses are simply reactions at treating the symptoms rather than curing the disease.
The border has been broken for decades, and presidential interpretations on enforcement has been uneven.
The responsibility is shared. Much like the open prairie prior to having fences, ranchers squabbled over herds that traveled across property lines, and the ranchers themselves had disputes over where their landed ended and their neighbors began.
Eventually fences went up, and it was clear where the lines were.
Roadways were created through the properties to transport people and products in a way that did not create a trespass.
As a nation, we have never secured our southern border, and we have had to deal with the consequences of that lack of oversight.
There are three easy solutions, neither of them good.
The first is to provide amnesty to everyone. That was tried in 1986 and led to the largest illegal mass migration into the United States ever.
The second is to remove everyone who is illegal. Even Trump is recognizing that is not the best solution after talking to farmers in Iowa. It’s expensive and comes with the ugliness of splitting families and removing those who are trying to live decent lives along with those who are causing trouble.
The third and final poor solution is to leave things the way they are and expect that somehow the problem will just go away.
Comprehensive reform is needed, and that will require some give and take from both sides of the political aisle. That, by the way, is why we have no solution. Both parties benefit from having the argument rather than a solution. We tend to donate to one-sided solutions and have little interest in compromised answers.
But Ernie and I sat down to shoot for the middle, to finally solve the problem and create a system that would encourage community development while providing a path forward that overhauls the broken system today and prevents further need for mass illegal enforcement in the future by repairing a broken border.
For those here without documentation, there is a one-time shot at residency. Notice this is for residency, not citizenship. That process will continue, but to become a citizen, an immigrant must first be a legal resident so they can work, purchase a home and function in society without the fear of being deported. This plan provides a way of immediately becoming documented and starts a five-year period before the citizenship process can begin.
For five years the immigrant must remain in the same county, avoid any felony convictions, not be allowed to receive any federal welfare benefits, and must learn basic English.
At the end of the five years, the immigrant will have permanent residency privileges.
They can then begin the process of becoming a citizen.
The current path to residency is cumbersome, and the government is slow to respond to requests.
Unless an immigrant marries a citizen, the process just to be here legally can take anywhere from three to 20-plus years.
Our reform plan provides a six-month window for those here illegally to receive an identification card. This doesn’t go on forever.
While some will applaud this path to residency, others will deride it. After all, the law is the law. That’s why this is different. The current law isn’t working. We have to find a better way.
While those here illegally can come out of the shadows and register, there must also be an effort at the border to completely secure the open areas with physical borders and electronic surveillance. There can be no open spaces left, and anyone caught trying to enter any of these places will be immediately returned, no questions asked.
The only people allowed in must come through ports of entry, and we will need to increase the staff size to accommodate and properly vet those seeking entry. If they qualify, they can come in. If not, they can’t, but we don’t have to try to find them later or issue court appearances. All decisions on entry will be made at the border by border staff at the moment a request for entry is made.
With a secure border and proper staff to handle those requesting entry, we will have no further need to search for millions who didn’t enter the proper way.
Some will applaud the change while others will deride it.
Again, this is the give and take to get to a better system than what we have now.
Online trolls will attack the plan from both sides. That’s to be expected.
But reasonably minded people have to see this is better than what we have.
I encourage you to share this with family and friends and help build momentum so our federal lawmakers will hear us. This isn’t a Liberal or Kansas plan. This is designed to work from coast to coast. You may not like every point, but I challenge you to put aside a single criticism much like the founders did when they created the Constitution, and support the overall plan. It is called the FAIR Act (Federal Access Immigration Reform).
Send it to lawmakers at every level. Even though this has to pass in Washington, we need all of our representatives to get behind the effort to push for common sense solutions.
The more voices we have, the louder we can be.
It doesn’t start with 100 senators, 435 representatives and a president.
It starts with you.
