A Modest Proposal

On the subject of immigration reform, I'm a little closer to "deport them all" than I am to the Democratic Party platform. To a Democrat, immigration reform is just amnesty.

To me, immigration reform means ending birthright citizenship and chain migration.

I'm willing to admit that assembling a deportation force and rounding up eleven million people is not politically feasible. At the same time, not everybody in the United States illegally has identical claims on citizenship. Some are more worthy than others.

My approach would involve a point system.

For example, if you have never committed a crime, you would have a higher point total than someone who has. I don't think traffic infractions are serious enough to deduct points, but everything else is. Driving without insurance, failures to appear, all sorts of crimes would lower a person's eligibility ranking.

Thus, the person who violated our border with the intent to stay, has committed a crime. If they are working, they are also committing the crime of fraud. They are either using fraudulent social security numbers, or working off the books. Also, there are millions of people who knowingly lied on tourist visa applications with the intent of staying. These are all crimes with varying degrees of severity.

People in these situations should do the equivalent of an immigration plea bargain. If they admit guilt and return to their home country, they will get more points, and get closer to the front of the line. The more points, the better the chance of being offered citizenship. If they continue to live and work here illegally, that would be the immigration equivalent of pleading not guilty. We would need to expend more resources to prosecute them, and they should suffer a lower point ranking.

Demonstrating English proficiency would be a way to amass points.

The demonstration of high levels of knowledge of American history would also be a scoring tool.

A felony conviction would mean immediate deportation, and a permanent ban. We should have the right to ask our government to prioritize which people will become our neighbors.