Rick Noriega, candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, recently unveiled his immigration plan. Below, I’ve separated out his immigration plan for easy commenting. On the left is the text of his plan. On the right are my comments. Enjoy.
| Secure the Border | |
| Washington’s Failed Approach. More than 4 million illegal immigrants have arrived in the U.S. since 2000, bringing the total undocumented population to approximately 12 million. One reason for this population spike is the failure to secure the border with Mexico. | Let’s not forget that 40% of the 12 million were legally admitted and either actively or passively let themsleves lapse into unlawful presence. |
| In 2000, the last year before the Bush Administration, U.S. Border Patrol located 1.64 million deportable immigrants at the Southwest border. By 2006, the most recent year that full statistics are available, the number of Southwest border apprehensions had dropped to 1.07 million. This drop-off was not because fewer individuals were trying to cross the border – it’s because there was not sufficient manpower and resources securing the border. | Very recently, however, the number of entries without inspection have declined due in large part to the declining economy. |
| Immigration and border enforcement is a federal responsibility. Washington’s failure to enforce the border or enact real solutions has forced states to pick up the slack. The National Conference of State Legislatures found that in 2005, approximately 300 immigration bills were introduced in state legislatures across the country. By 2007, after Congress failed to enact sensible immigration reform that number jumped to 1,562. | Washington’s failure has spurred politically opportunistic, borderline racist bills in many states? |
| The Noriega Soltion: Securing the border must be the first step in any real immigration solution. Despite tough talk, Washington has failed in this effort, and border states like Texas see that failure every day. As the Laredo Border Sector Commender during Operation Jumpstart, Rick Noriega knows first-hand what it takes to really secure the border. | It’s good someone knows what it takes. Cornyn sure doesn’t. |
| The Noriega plan rejects gimmicks like the border fence and instead focuses on hard work patrols, human intelligence and state of the art technology. This is a matter of will, not rocket science. We simply have to be willing to do what it takes to secure our border. | It might make political sense, but how does it make financial sense for the nation? |
| The Noriega plan will: | |
| Establish Real Border Security Measures. As Rick Noriega learned during Operation Jump Start, there’s no substitute to well-equipped and well-trained human intelligence at the border. Real border security means additional patrols, developing new technologies to monitor the border, and deploying additional electronic surveillance equipment. Such steps will not only protect against unlawful entry to the U.S., but also will crack down on the drug and human smuggling operations that have thrived due to the porous borders of recent years.Operation Jump Start was an important first step in bringing greater security to the border. The combined efforts of the border patrol and the Texas National Guard were instrumental in reducing illegal border crossings and cracking down on the flood of narcotics and human trafficking. Border state governors agreed. The governors of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas two Democrats and two Republicans are staunch supporters of the program. In fact, Governors Richardson, Napolitano, and Schwarzenegger wrote a letter to the President and to leaders of the House and Senate insisting that the program be extended. | How does this make economic sense? Is this simply a jobs program meant to make Middle America feel better like the TSA? |
| The Noriega plan calls for the immediate authorization of an Operation Jump Start II, which will redeploy the National Guard to assist Border Patrol efforts on the southern border. To provide more sustainable and lasting border security, the Noriega plan will also hire and train 18,000 new Border Patrol agents. | How will this be funded? |
| Empower Local Leaders. Any immigration reform plan must also empower local leaders because local leaders know best how to secure their sections of the border. The mayor of Laredo doesn’t need a Washington bureaucrat telling him how security in Laredo works. For years, communities on the border have been asking for the resources for practical efforts to develop areas of the border to make it easier for local law enforcement to watch, monitor, and track the border. The Noriega plan will call for federal grants to implement local development and security initiative. | Is this code for letting the police act as border patrol? Is this code for letting police start harassing anyone who is brown (or yellow)? Perhaps they’re reasonable in Laredo, but that is not the case in many locales around the country. |
| Increase Partnerships between the Federal Government and State and Local Law Enforcement. State and local law enforcement have been particularly burdened by Washington’s policy failures. The Noriega immigration plan will increase homeland security grant programs to provide assistance to law enforcement agencies along the border and will boost funding for Byrne/JAG criminal justice grants, which will provide needed law enforcement assistance funding to states and localities over-burdened by new responsibilities related to immigration enforcement. | |
| Enforce Harsh Penalties for Those Who Traffic in Human Cargo as well as Drugs. One of the tragic consequences and dirty undersides of our broken system is the profligation of human trafficking. Any serious immigration plan must confront this ugly reality. Stopping illegal immigration means stopping the trade in human lives. We need tough penalties that match the nature of the crime. Drug traffickers currently face much more severe federal penalties than do those who traffic in human cargo. Many who smuggle immigrants across the border and deal in other forms of human trafficking are unfazed by getting caught and continue their operations even after their initial apprehension. We need to ensure that our policies and penalties punish human traffickers to the fullest extent of the law and with full recognition of the heinous nature of their crimes. | Is Noriega’s plan simply referencing coyotes or is this a vague reference to the international sex trade? Additionally, a completely new approach to drugs could dramatically reduce the money spent trying to reduce drug use, but that’s beside the point. |
| Reject Gimmicks like the Border Fence. The border fence is a 700-mile monument to Washington’s failure, not a realistic solution. The federal government abusing the power of eminent domain to seize Texans’ private property in order to build a wall is simply not effective. Originally John Cornyn did not support a border fence. By 2007, he flip-flopped and changed his tune, voting for the fence three times. | Noriega’s plan is absolutely correct here. |
| Crack Down on Employers | |
| Washington’s Failed Approach: To solve the immigration problem effectively, we need an immigration policy that targets bot the supply and the demand sides of the immigration equation. Washington’s do nothing approach to immigration hasn’t worked for Texas. The shoddy enforcement of recent years has given a free pass to empoyers, despite their critical role in the rise in the undocumented population. | Noriega is again correct here. |
| In 2007 and 2008, 98% of all worksite immigration arrests were of undocumented workers, despite the fact that many employers and supervisors were knowingly employing illegal immigrants. | |
| In 1999, 417 employers received fines for employing illegal immigrants – a number that dropped to three by 2004 and was only 17 in 2007. This is not a drop in illegal hiring practices; it demonstrates a clear lack of enforcement. | Noriega is right once more. |
| Employers and those who profit on the backs of the illegal immigrant population in our country need to be the focus of immigration enforcement as well as the illegal workers themselves. Focusing on only one side of the equation will not achieve real results or address the root cause of illegal immigration. | Yes. |
| The Noriega Solution: The Noriega plan focuses on both the supply and demand sides of the immigration equation. To fix a broken system, we need a balanced approach to enforcement that holds employers accountable for illegal hiring, while fully recognizing the impact on the state’s economy. A previously-cited study found that removing undocumented immigrants from Texas would cost the state gross product over $17 billion and that this population puts $420 million more into Texas state economy than they use in services. | If the “problem” is economically beneficial, why enforce? What does that “solve?” |
| The Noriega plan will: | |
| Increase the Number of Agents Devoted to Employers Investigations. In a nation of approximately 6 million employers, it’s outrageous how few fines and penalties are given for illegal hiring practices. As part of a balanced approach to immigration enforcement, the Noriega plan will have more Immigration and Customs enforcement agents devoted to employer investigations. | The last thing ICE needs is more money and more manpower. They seem to have plenty now. Perhaps if they simply refocused their efforts onto employers. |
| Boost Employer Penalties for Illegal Hiring. The current scarcity of fines and criminal penalties for employers who engage in illegal hiring, not to mention the relatively minor punishments doled out to those who are penalized, does not provide a true disincentive to hiring undocumented workers. The Noriega plan will increase the criminal penalties for facilitating false documentation and engaging in illegal hiring. The Noriega approach will rely on both financial penalties and prison-time for employers who knowingly facilitate false documentation for undocumented workers. | Penalties are good. Do they create a net “profit” for the country? Prison may work only to some extent. Examples will need to be made early and often. |
| Shut Down the Shadow Economy. A large “shadow economy” currently exists in which businesses employ undocumented workers and operate outside the rule of law. Such an arrangement allows businesses to pay their labor “under the table” and avoid paying taxes or minimum wage. This hurts legal workers searching for employment and endangers the undocumented worker, who has no legal standing to ensure that the employer does not take advantage of their undocumented status to engage in illegal labor practices. | Hit the employers for tax evasion. |
| Turn Illegal Immigrants into Taxpayers and Get Rid of Real Criminals. | |
| Washington’s Failed Approach: There are 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. who are already living here. At the current rate of enforcement, it would take over 100 years to deport all of the illegal immigrants in our nation. | So let’s focus on the most egregious aggrovated felons. |
| Mass Deportation Isn’t Realistic. According to a comprehensive study, deporting 10 million undocumented immigrants would cost over $200 billion. Even Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has stated, “[t[he dirty secret is that we couldn’t deport 10 million illegal immigrants if we wanted to.” | You should point out that your opponent is your opponent. |
| Instead we need a policy approach that re-establishes the rule of law, deports the criminals and bad apples, and forces the folks already here and working to pay back taxes, become taxpayers, and emerge from the shadow economy. | Who is a criminal and bad apple? Will we continue using the vague IIRAIRA definitions of crimes of moral turpitude and aggravated felonies that lead to increased need for litigation and overburden the courts? |
| The Noriega Solution. To fix the broken immigration system, we need to rely on practical approaches that acknowledge the realities of our current situationa nd provide realistic and orderly ways to reestablish the rule of law and solve the problem. | |
| The Noriega plan will: | |
| Force the Undocumented Population to Pay a Fine and Become Taxpayers. In combination with secure border enforcement and cracking down on employers, any realistic immigration policy approach must address what to do with the 12 million individuals already in the United States. | Can they afford a fine? Filing fees for adjustment of status are already over $1000. Not to mention legal fees (or notario fees, to which many are sure to fall prey). |
| The solution is to do what is best for Texas and the nation – that is, require the illegal immigrant population to come out of the shadows, pay a fine, and become taxpayers through an orderly process under the rule of law. Any deportation-only alternative is simply unrealistic and unenforceable. But turning the undocumented into taxpayers will require more than just a fine. | What will this do to the current immigration backlogs? Will they get a nonimmigrant visa, a priority date in a new immigration category, a priority date in an existing immigration category, or an immediate green card? |
| Just as the border will require more agents, we’ll need more agent-staffers to handle the massive workload of putting these folks on a path to citizenship. We can’t just put people “in the back of a line” that never moves. We have to invest resources in both sides of the equation. | We already have a deperate need for more staffing to process both immigration and naturalization. We also need more immigrant visa numbers. Some people wait over 20 years for a green card. |
| Establish Criminal Background Checks. Currently, our broken immigration system does not devote sufficient technology or resources to ensuring that those within our nation are law abiding. As part of the effort to close the shadow economy and force the undocumented population to become taxpayers, the Noriega plan will require a detailed criminal background check to ensure that those within our borders contribute to our nation in a lawful and productive manner. | How long will it take? FBI criminal background checks are already backlogged. Will there be more staffing for this too? Will the fines make all of these changes revenue neutral? |
| Increase the Number of Annual Visas. To force immigration through legal channels, the Noriega plan will boost the number of visas available each year for both high and low-tech, white-collar and blue-collar workers. Instead of education then expulsion, immigration policy should encourage the thousands of foreign students who take advantage of Texas colleges and universities to become vibrant contributors to the state economy after they graduate through increased access to H1B visas. Similarly, agricultural, seasonal worker, and NAFTA visas must be promoted as legal alternatives to attempted illegal border crossings. | Great! How about more immigrant visas too so families are not separated nearly as long as they are now? |
- Justin Gillenwater
As and educator, I have seen outstanding students run into an educational brick wall after high school graduation. For years they have been told to work hard in school and their dreams will come true. Live by the laws of our government and school policies and they will be successful. These kids may be illegal immigrants, but they have the status not by choice. They were innocent victims of parental circumstances. Some students have been thru the entire educational process, working hard thru a language barrier, doing everything asked of them by everyone they encountered. Then, after graduation from high school they are told they “do not qualify!” They do not belong in their home country, they do not have the documented education from that country to qualify as a foreign student, and they cannot get any financial aid to continue into higher education. I cannot imagine the suffocating feeling. Where do they turn? Who will listen? When you know some of these kids you cannot help but feel your heart sink with the helpless feeling. What have they done wrong? They only did as their parents told them to do, the schools told them to do, and what society told them to do. Where do they fit in now? Is it right to kick them out of the only country they know as home? How will they exist in their home country now foreign to them? Mr. Noriega, thumbs up for your courage, intelligence, and big heart. I know the Noriega Act will be successful for the kids it is going to affect are great kids. Not only will they continue their education, and earn their legal status, but they will become successful citizens of our great country. So many of us have!
By Joe Olivas on May 22nd, 2010