Lets put immigration issues to rest

[Caligurl]

Immigration laws have been brought into the millennium and as people and society change, so should the laws that govern us. One side says we are terrorizing families by ripping them apart and deporting them back to their countries. Other side says they are breaking the law and are here illegally. I would like to know if we as a forum group can put our differences aside and find a way to make immigration law work in everyone's interest. I suggest making a legal pathway to citizenship. This can be done by:
1. Having a job and paying taxes.
2. Not commit serious felony crimes or risk instant deportation.
3. Must have been in the country illegally prior to 2024. 
4. Must register and follow up annually with Immigration Department.  
5. No government benefits until they gain citizenship. 
These are just a few policies I would like to see.

By implementing these new policies, illegals can gain citizenship through following the laws and making a honest contribution to society. In return, they will not be deported back and wont be subject to constant fear of ICE. 

I am hoping you can add on to these or expand what is already above. What do you think?

[Solvedit]

I suggest making a legal pathway to citizenship. This can be done by:
1. Having a job and paying taxes.
I am hoping you can add on to these or expand what is already above. What do you think?

They may have displaced someone from their job.

They may be driving down wages. 

Wealthy special interests may be trying to increase the number of lower paid workers to change the business environment to their favor but it may not make things better for the rest of us.

5. No government benefits until they gain citizenship. 

The numbers allowed in could be made inversely proportional to the number of US citizens on government benefits so the newcomers didn't just wind up displacing American workers onto benefits by undercutting them.

[RazorV66]

All pretty reasonable to me except #3.

Not sure how anyone would know but it needs to be prior to 2020 when Biden took office and let in millions.

Edit - The bottom line is.....the Democrats don't want common sense immigration laws.

[DBCowboy]

Immigration laws have been brought into the millennium and as people and society change, so should the laws that govern us. One side says we are terrorizing families by ripping them apart and deporting them back to their countries. Other side says they are breaking the law and are here illegally. I would like to know if we as a forum group can put our differences aside and find a way to make immigration law work in everyone's interest. I suggest making a legal pathway to citizenship. This can be done by:
1. Having a job and paying taxes.
2. Not commit serious felony crimes or risk instant deportation.
3. Must have been in the country illegally prior to 2024. 
4. Must register and follow up annually with Immigration Department.  
5. No government benefits until they gain citizenship. 
These are just a few policies I would like to see.

By implementing these new policies, illegals can gain citizenship through following the laws and making a honest contribution to society. In return, they will not be deported back and wont be subject to constant fear of ICE. 

I am hoping you can add on to these or expand what is already above. What do you think?

No one is above the law, yes?

Deport them all.

[Solvedit]

I am reposting this from the Minnesota shooting thread because it's more relevant here.  

Plus, this is in part a forum for odd topics. 

Some of the recent arrivals where I'm at (definitely near a sanctuary city but not Minnesota) show signs of having done a bit of work.

Can it be sanctuary cities are extracting a harsh price for letting them stay?  Maybe the newcomers fled their home because the mob was victimizing them there, but maybe not.  

The few I have known a little seemed like orderly, well-behaved, gracious, well-spoken people who seemed to be well educated.  It almost made me suspect voters in Mexico insisted on the best schooling they could get when they probably could have used more capital investment in industry which would have led to more jobs, and perhaps a little more spending on law enforcement. 

Meanwhile, now that fewer people are patronizing rock & roll and some young people are turning to abstinence, the far left and the inner city seems to be several degrees worse than they used to be.  Can it be they learned reason and social skills (perhaps even basic math) at Woodstock or Lolla instead of by studying, and are desperately trying to secure a replacement? 

Sanctuary city liberals may hope the newcomers wind up strengthening laws, policies, and community standards, often unspoken, which make it easier to function communistically.  The US may have better attracted people with something to contribute to our society before the 1960s. 

To the layman it looks like schools are dumbing down so no one feels left out, and no longer insisting on correct behavior or academic excellence. 

It may even be part of the reason why Democrat administrations have been soft on border control.  Drugs became easier to export into the United States and the drug money made the mob stronger which led to more people fleeing here to avoid the lawlessness and gang wars.

Don't care about a few illegals?  "Send not to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."  Communism is here.

[Solvedit]

Limited, vetted immigration made this country great especially when the numbers were low enough to assimilate.  

The US Civil War may have happened in part because large numbers of newcomers, perhaps even illegals from Canada, stormed in too fast to assimilate and decided they'd like things to run their way. 

The Cavalier society they touted they were building was allegedly about freedom but they may have wanted freedom from the federal protections of a republic which sought to guard the rights of all (admittedly white) people equally, so the South's unspoken laws could govern who made it and that meant antebellum. 

Eli Whitney may have himself been something of a slave because trapped in the South.  He was invited to Georgia from the North on the promise of a job, but there was no job.  He wound up having to work for some plantation-owning widow and somehow the whole South knew of his invention before he could patent it.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IqNot1lxTM&t=24s

Before the 1960s, it was more likely the USA attracted people with something to add to our society.  The present-day newcomers probably don't want an armed revolt but may hope to wind up modeling the postwar Confederacy and keeping their people in charge by not cooperating with anyone they deem wrong for their society, and trapping helpers in roles where they have to compromise themselves to share their intelligence.  

Too many may have come in at once to find a place for them consistent with the laws and values of the USA.

[RazorV66]

No one is above the law, yes?

Deport them all.

I get it, I've also said that many times in the past. 

I think if strict criteria are met and they are strictly enforced, it could benefit everyone.

But there's got to be zero tolerance enforcement. 

If you commit any crime above a traffic violation, you are GONE with no chance fixing it or coming back.

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

Immigration laws have been brought into the millennium and as people and society change, so should the laws that govern us. One side says we are terrorizing families by ripping them apart and deporting them back to their countries. Other side says they are breaking the law and are here illegally. I would like to know if we as a forum group can put our differences aside and find a way to make immigration law work in everyone's interest. I suggest making a legal pathway to citizenship. This can be done by:
1. Having a job and paying taxes.
2. Not commit serious felony crimes or risk instant deportation.
3. Must have been in the country illegally prior to 2024. 
4. Must register and follow up annually with Immigration Department.  
5. No government benefits until they gain citizenship. 
These are just a few policies I would like to see.

By implementing these new policies, illegals can gain citizenship through following the laws and making a honest contribution to society. In return, they will not be deported back and wont be subject to constant fear of ICE. 

I am hoping you can add on to these or expand what is already above. What do you think?

We miss them already. The Southern California Hospitality Industry anyway. 

Even with $20/hour fast food minimums we still are short workers across the service industry.

We have service jobs-a-plenty, and with so many bilingual people, English is totally optional... And that's not a problem, its a labor demographic..

So anytime everybody wants to stop terrifying them and make it easier to come here, because our understaffed kitchens full well paying jobs would benefit greatly. And stop having to close. 

You can get everything you need about their past in a 48 hour hold. We can do The Biden-Styled Asylum.  You could vet them at entry and that is cheaper than chasing them down later. Make the preferred way the easiest way and they'll show up and wait in line with background reports and letters of recommendation. 

The wait for proper channels is too damn drawn out and bureaucratic anyway when you need to breath free immediately. Cant blame those who cut the process. Some things are more immediate than painfully drawn out court processes. 

Like my great grandparents. One set got to show up "without papers" and eventually open a general store in an italian neighborhood. 

Because, in 1900s-1910s Anywhere, NY, everybody had a market or general store, they are like Indians, Persians, Kurdish, Armenian and Chaldean People today. We are The Land of Marked Up Goods For Lazy People.

Im pretty idealistic though, and in my mind we can still benefit from an Ellis Island like entry process.

[Solvedit]

We miss them already. The Southern California Hospitality Industry anyway. 

Even with $20/hour fast food minimums we still are short workers across the service industry.

If some industries contracted a bit, it may not be so bad.  

Less hospitality industry will be needed.

From Wikipedia: (and yes California allows food stamps for fast food:)
 

PovertyAn estimated 11.8% of Californians live below the official poverty level in 2025. The Supplemental Poverty Rate was 17.7% in 2024. An estimated 13.5% of Californian households received food stamps in 2025.

Although California doesn't stand out from other states for the official poverty measure (ranked #23 highest in 2023), it's tied for highest with Louisiana for the supplemental poverty measure, primarily due to the high cost of living.

It can't automatically be assumed that the state is supporting the illegals but they may be displacing other workers into poverty.

Why import more fast food workers so they could serve one another on stamps? 

Do you lobby for the fast food industry?  Do you hold stock in the fast food industry?

[chr0naut]

Immigration laws have been brought into the millennium and as people and society change, so should the laws that govern us. One side says we are terrorizing families by ripping them apart and deporting them back to their countries. Other side says they are breaking the law and are here illegally. I would like to know if we as a forum group can put our differences aside and find a way to make immigration law work in everyone's interest. I suggest making a legal pathway to citizenship. This can be done by:
1. Having a job and paying taxes.

I think that this previous point 1 is an absolute essential, however, sometimes people have difficulty finding work, so I would suggest that the government have special work schemes for 'bridging' to normal work. These need not be limited only to immigrants.

These schemes could include civic duties such as Parks and Wildlife maintenance, or secondary unskilled fire and emergency response teams, food-bank assistants to help with storage and transport, unskilled charitable workers, and seasonal pickers etc in agricultural centres.

The work schemes would have just above subsistence low pay and would be audited (and the auditors also audited) to ensure that everyone was doing as they were supposed to.

In addition, a good record of attitude, attendance, capability and enthusiasm could be certified and part of their CV for when they transition to a 'real' job.

Of course, people with handicaps need to be treated with compassion and understanding and there must be legal considerations made for their capabilities.

2. Not commit serious felony crimes or risk instant deportation.

For point 2, it might not go far enough. You want these people to be squeaky clean. Perhaps even a sequence of non-felony conviction recidivism (like gang membership, vandalism, minor theft and threatening behaviour) deportation could be considered in lieu of issuing yet another fine, or sentencing to another short term imprisonment? I mean, if they are just going to keep causing others grief, they aren't the ones you want to stay.

3. Must have been in the country illegally prior to 2024. 
4. Must register and follow up annually with Immigration Department.  

For point 4, I think that there should be a statute of limitations, and that the extra reporting stops after full naturalization.

Also, if they can't get citizenship after decades, then they really aren't likely to become citizens and should be assisted to de-migrate. You know, "It was a good try but you didn't meet minimum criteria after all this time, so, we'll help you to move back, we are so very sorry."

5. No government benefits until they gain citizenship. 

I think that sometimes people need assistance, so I would like to posit the idea that there is some assistance for truly needy cases, but that instead, flip the scenario so that those able to earn and work should pay an additional tax levy, an "Immigration Assurance Levy", designed to cover the immigrants legal protective, support, infrastructure, regulatory, policing and integration costs.

This would continue for some time after naturalization as a fixed cost but recoverable by the government through small incremental payments. Of course, for those who do well financially, they could pay it off all at once and be done with it.

Imagine it, immigration that pays for itself and immigrants can even get a better immigration "gold service" experience by paying more for better perks!

These are just a few policies I would like to see.

By implementing these new policies, illegals can gain citizenship through following the laws and making a honest contribution to society. In return, they will not be deported back and wont be subject to constant fear of ICE. 

I am hoping you can add on to these or expand what is already above. What do you think?

I mean, there are hundreds of equitable, humane, financially sensible solutions, but only if you don't look at the world through the filter of racism. You want them to become us!

Everyone overseas now knows about Trump and his policies and toughness on illegal immigrants, yet still they try and come. Perhaps they are desperate?

And the idea that they are all leaving their lives, jobs, and families, just to do mischief in the new country they want to stay in forever, is plain dumb.