Politicians who push for increasing legal immigration levels will often make reference to the "Broken Immigration System". By fixing the "broken system" what they really want is to dismantle enforcement and make it easier for employers to access cheap, foreign labor. But they often ignore the real broken pieces within our immigration system that drive more illegal immigration and harm national security and public safety.
The following list of Ten Steps to Re-establish the Integrity of the Immigration System would make great strides toward ending illegal immigration, assisting struggling American workers, and making our communities more safe. Many of these items are already federal law, but simply ignored by the current and past Administrations. Legislation has been introduced to repair much of the rest.
- Make E-Verify mandatory for all U.S. employers to eliminate the jobs magnet.
- Complete the Congressionally-mandated biometric entry/exit system to track non-immigrant visitors to the U.S.
- End the practice of birthright citizenship for illegal aliens and foreign visitors.
- Require state and local law enforcement to report affirmatively all non-citizens in custody to ICE, make ICE detainers mandatory, and require ICE to pick up and remove deportable aliens.
- Expand expedited removal to include all illegal aliens with criminal convictions.
- End catch-and-release of illegal aliens by requiring that they be detained until removal.
- Deny immigrant and nonimmigrant visas to nations that refuse to repatriate their citizens.
- Reform the judicial process in immigration courts, including restricting relief from removal, to expedite the process and reduce the backlog of cases.
- Restrict asylum to the internationally recognized definition of those who are unable to be returned to the home country due to a well-founded fear of (state) persecution due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
- Allow Border Patrol access to all federal lands.