Illegal immigration has always been a hot topic in this country and no administration has ever truly been able to deal with it. As such, it naturally came up in last nights debate. Although each candidates ideas were similar, Romney’s “self-deportation” approach became the most buzzworthy and most tweeted moment of the night.
Romney’s self-deportation in a nutshell is - don’t let illegal immigrants work and they’ll be forced to either find a legal path to citizenship or they’ll go back to their respective country of origin – i.e. “self-deport”. This approach organically leaves only two choices for illegal immigrants-(1)earn legality or (2)leave the U.S. The goal in this is essentially to have the U.S. save face by avoiding the backlash of forcible deportations and still give immigrants legal options for staying here.
It seems as though all of the Republican candidates see the importance of legal immigration, considering its strong foundation in this country - but the key word for them is legal.
A study done by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (F.A.I.R.) claims that illegal immigrants cost the U.S. $113 billion a year and that the burden has hit the states especially the hardest. In California, the additional cost of immigration each year is $21 billion – a number which is more than its current deficit. Opponents of these studies claim that it doesn’t fairly account for the GDP created by the population and unfairly includes children of illegals, who will eventually become U.S citizens.
Either way both Democrats and Republicans can agree that the system is flawed and in desperate need of reform. There’s an estimated 13 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. today and the number is growing. The DREAM Act, which was mentioned during the debate, is a bi-partisan bill that makes a pathway of legality for illegal immigrants that came here as children – however, it is being held up because many republicans believe that without modifications the bill encourages illegal immigration.
The hard truth is the term “illegal” isn’t just a label it refers to a law being broken and that’s why its clear we need reform. But what type of reform is up for debate. If it were a simple situation we would follow the letter of the law – but we’ve kept the status quo of turning the other cheek for so long that we have generations of families here now and that’s why finding the solution has become so difficult.
What kind of solution would you support?
