My immigration fix: Honesty plus a 20-point plan
SAN DIEGO -- No matter which political party they hail from, immigration "solutions" usually come in three varieties: half-baked, hateful and hideous.
You'll find all of the above as Americans from across the fruited plain refuse to let their ignorance about the issue stop them from putting in their 2 cents about how to solve the crisis at hand: wanton separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border.
People also have lots to say about the bigger issue -- how to secure the border, legalize the undocumented, provide a workforce to do jobs that Americans think are beneath them, etc. Everyone is an engineer, convinced that their plan is best.
A reader asked: "What are your ideas regarding this issue?" Another demanded to know: "TALK IS CHEAP, doesn't cost a [expletive] thing. What is your fix to ILLEGAL immigration?" Another said: "I would find it helpful to read your thoughts on how to handle the situation at our border."
I am often asked for my own solution, and I hate it. While it's true that my vision is clearer than most because I'm not beholden to either political party, my ideas are no more valuable than anyone else's. Besides, I'm not selling anything. My goal is to get you to think about what you support or oppose.
Sure, I have a 20-point plan to fix our immigration system. Doesn't everyone? Ideas, we have plenty of.
What we need is honesty. The immigration debate is broken because it is mired in lies -- from the right, left and center. If we don't talk straight about how we got here, we'll never create the immigration system that our country deserves.
To get there, Americans will need to:
-- Keep refugee families together and give them hearings even if it ultimately means deporting the entire family unit;
-- Reform legal immigration not by giving a leg up to the skilled and educated but by tying it more closely to labor needs;
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