Topic: immigration

With this common ground, the two stakeholders can come together, and the compromise can be made. The compromise proposal is this; secure the border, allow hardworking immigrants who came illegally to become citizens if they pay a fee (due to the burden from U.S. taxpayers), and finally increase the caps on visas. The main priority is to secure the border. It isn’t just hard-working people trying to come to the US for a better life, but also those who intend to harm Americans; whether through selling drugs, stealing, or even murdering. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy “More than half of the cocaine on our streets and large quantities of heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine enter the United States across the Southwest border. Illegal drugs enter by all modes of conveyance — car, truck, train, and pedestrian border-crossers” (ncjrs.gov). With this fact, the border needs to be secured not to keep out those who are just tired of waiting in the long immigration process, but it needs to be secured because drug traffickers are sending massive amounts of narcotics across our weak border. This helps the ability to come to start the compromise with securing the border since the main issue is not only affecting immigrants but the citizens too who are victims of drugs or the drug war. After the border is secured, the next step involves what should happen to those undocumented already in the country. The biggest difference between the two groups is this step (FWD wants amnesty and Heritage Action doesn’t). There needs to be an agreement that there is a burden Americans face by allowing these illegal immigrants to remain in the country without consequences. According to a study done by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, “illegal immigration costs U.S. taxpayers about $113 billion a year at the federal, state and local level. the bulk of the costs — some $84 billion — are absorbed by state and local governments” (Martin and Ruark, 2011). Gregory Ball in his thesis, “America’s Broken Promises: Our Faltering Immigration System and a Format to Fix It”, gives the idea that those who haven’t committed any crimes (aside from of course crossing the border illegally) should have to pay a fee for citizenship. If amnesty were just granted, that money would never be made up for. With the fee, however, some of the lost money can be made up and be used to provide background checks and anything else to those accepting to pay the fee for the pathway. While those who haven’t broken the law after coming to the country illegally are given the ability to gain citizenship through the fee, those who have broken the law do not deserve anything and should be deported immediately. If you come to the United States and continue to break laws, you don’t deserve to ever be in the country again. Those who came, worked hard, and helped the economy in some way should be allowed to become citizens. The compromise of getting those who haven’t broken the law to pay a fee for the pathway to citizenship should satisfy both sides’ agenda. It’s not amnesty, but it allows those who deserve citizenship to receive the opportunity to do so. Then the common ground in the compromise brings it all together: work visas. As previously stated, both groups agree that working visas, specifically H-1B, should be raised to allow more hard working and intelligent immigrants to come into the country. The common ground on visas allows both sides to come together and agree on the entire process of the compromise.