Illegal Immigrants

Open Email to House Speaker Boehner:

Dear Speaker Boehner,
The Washington Times says that House Republican leaders have ruled out granting citizenship, but do support granting some form of legal status and work permits to most illegal immigrants. You are quoted as saying, “This problem’s been around for at least the last 15 years. It’s been turned into a political football. I think it’s unfair. So I think it’s time to deal with it.”
I completely disagree with the proposal, because it is further weakens our society as being based upon enforced laws. Do we continue to modify our laws with exceptions that eventually lead to no law and no enforcement, with resulting anarchy?
Consider the ridiculousness of the statement of granting any kind of legality to illegals. An illegal has broken the law, and the law should not be changed to conform to that illegality.
However, consistent with any problem, there are opportunities for resolution if one starts to look at the detail.
Any person over the age of 18, who entered the United States illegally, is an illegal alien. He should remain as such and prosecuted according to the abilities of US law enforcement. Note that this does not mean the desire of law enforcement officials. Prosecution of illegals should involve deportation back to their home countries, where they can get in line for possible immigration to the US, under a work permit or a green card, which could lead to their becoming eventually naturalized citizens. There should also be some penalty for their having previously acted illegally. This penalty might be a minor fine of say $100 per Illegal, or an extension of time, say one year, if they reenter the United States legally and have opted to gain US citizenship. We have a few million of these people, and it is said that it is impractical to handle them all on an individual basis. There is obviously some merit in that, which only means that illegal immigrants in the US, must remain illega, l until such time as Immigration Contro l catches up with them. Since that may never be, they will remain illegal immigrants until their death in the US. During their time of illegality in the US, they will receive none of the benefits of US citizens, including the right to vote, be on Social Security, have legal drivers licenses, etc. In other words, they will be people without a country. If this is unsatisfactory to them, they always have the independent option of returning voluntarily to their native countries.
Children born in the US of illegal citizens should automatically be US citizens, consistent with my understanding of present immigration laws. If their illegal parents are deported, the parents should have the right to take their children back to their home countries, or leave them with responsible citizens in the US. A court should determine whether such guardians are responsible.
Children, less than 18 years of age, who have entered the United States with their parents are by definition not illegal aliens, simply because they are children. This should apply whether the parents have entered legally or not. As those children gain in age and eventually reach 18, they automatically become citizens as do any children in America. Children whose parents are deported for illegality before the children reach the age of 18 should be under the parents option of taking them back to parents' home countries or leaving them with responsible US citizens. See the previous paragraph.
With respect to your statement of "time to deal with it", it is almost always time to deal with any problem. However, some problems do not have to be dealt with at a particular time, if conditions are improper to the development of an appropriate solution. As long as we have a Democratically controlled Congress and a Democratic President, who collectively want legal status for illegals, in order to gain more Democratic votes, this does not appear to be the appropriate time. My above suggestion of treatment is consistent with constitutional integrity and avoids the use of any improper motivations, such as both gaining. When the political time is right to take a common-sense approach, as I have proposed, that will be the time to do it.