Immigration Reform - Lonnie Wills for President

 Immigration Reform has been long overdue, with no final movement towards resolving immigration for over 20 years which has made this a bipartisan issue that has been ignored by one or both sides.  After reading the current immigration law, https://www.uscis.gov/laws-and-policy/legislation/immigration-and-nationality-act, I can see the challenges we face with the current law and the challenges at our border where I visited the border in Yuma, AZ.

I think the first thing to address is what is our goal for immigration and can we agree on the following:

1. We want immigrants to come to America.
2. We want immigrants to come here using the immigration process.
3. We want to ensure our borders are protected so we can ensure the safety of the citizens of the United States.
4. We want to allow anyone who is a law abiding citizen from another country to have the opportunity to become a US Citizen not putting a cap on the number of immigrants that could come to our country.

The current immigration law restricts the number of immigrants that can come to our country legally and the process that potential immigrants need to follow to become a legal citizen of the United States.  The total number is 480,000 per a year.  There are subsections for additional numbers that impact work visas and other special types of immigration categories.

What should we do right now in 2023:

1. Finish the wall along our Southern Border.  This is a critical component of our national security that we need to complete and ensure the border is secure from random or planned "rushing the border" from immigrants not following the law.

2. Create check points for immigrants to come to the US with the promise to allow them to become citizens of the US.

3. Create a system, process and funding to accommodate the current influx of immigrants that have come to our country that are not here legally. This system and process would allow immigrants to report they are here and a legal document is created noting location, purpose of entry and date to meet with immigration to approve their status to become US citizens.

4. Create an Entry Fee for all immigrants wanting to become a US Citizen that is reasonable and helps fund the resources to manage immigration.

5. Invoke the national Guard, Army Reserves and USMC Reserves to come to the border and secure the border with physical presence.

6. Create immigration camps along check points to provide temporary housing for immigrants so they have a clean, safe environment to stay while we process the immigrants into the US.

7. Work with the Mexican government to police and ensure that they take responsibility in managing their border as well.

8. Via the US Military, use drones to monitor the border and ensure that drug cartels are shut down with US Military Force if necessary. 

9. Announce that any drug cartel pushing drugs or people over the border will be classified as Terrorist and treat as such in accordance to US law. We should aggressively pursue these cartels and shut them down. 

In Parallel:

1. Congress needs to address the current immigration law and provide some temporary relief under a special order that provides funding, other government resources and focus on mitigating the migration challenges at the border.

2. Denounce any Federal funding to states and cities that say they are sanctuary cities and states. 

3. Green light border completion along the southern border and fast track the completion.

4. Fund border patrol so they can actually guard the wall and stop people from crossing our southern and northern border illegally. 

Long Term Planning:

1. Work with the immigration and citizenship sub-committee to develop a long term strategy for immigration reform in the US.
2. Modify and update the current immigration law to enable a more efficient immigration process moving forward.
3. Develop a system to handle immigration more effectively with the use of a mobile app and web app to identify and manage immigration into the US.
4. Complete the border wall along the southern border.
5. Give more power to souther border states, including financial resources, to support migration issues that these border cities and states have to deal with on a daily basis.

Conclusion:

In general, we can all agree, that we are all immigrants who came here at some time in the past with the exception of the indigenous people of North America prior to immigrants coming to the US.  We should welcome people to our country with open arms with some guidelines that protect the US citizens while enabling new US citizens to join our country.  To do this we need to reform the current immigration policy and provide humanitarian services at the border to provide a humane process in welcoming and encouraging legal immigration. 

What we can't support is a massive invasion on our southern or northern border and allow people to be shipped all over the US as undocumented immigrants. It doesn't solve the problem of immigration, it only creates more issues for cities handling the influx of these immigrants as well as the immigrants themselves.  We now have a humanitarian crisis on the border and we need everyones help to support the challenges these immigrants face.

We all agree the border crisis is real and as the country begins to report on this and come together, we need to work together to provide real solutions to these challenges.  Our mutual goal should be to help others in need and find ways to support immigration that is humane and not an expensive endeavor to overcome the legal components of becoming a US citizen.  I believe if we can follow this plan I have outlined that we can come together as a country on immigration.  Let's stop pointing fingers and blaming the other side and start doing the work necessary to reform our immigration laws.