BY: STACY SWIMP

Official portrait of United States Senator (R-KY). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

MICHIGAN- March 19, 2013- Per an article published by Politico, Republican Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday that illegal immigrants should be allowed to become U.S. taxpayers and ultimately get a shot at citizenship.

“Let’s start that conversation by acknowledging we aren’t going to deport” the millions already here, Paul told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “Prudence, compassion and thrift all point us toward the same goal: bringing these workers out of the shadows and into becoming and being taxpaying members of society.

I agree with Sen. Paul that we need to begin a conversation about what to do with illegal aliens. However, whether to offer them citizenship should not be a part of any option offered to those who have chosen to break American laws. 

Illegal aliens are criminals, in that they have intentionally avoided being processed by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

Furthermore, illegal aliens have forced a harsh burden on American taxpayers, costing hundreds of billions of dollars in tax dollars to provide public services to illegals who should not be accessing services reserved for citizens and legal immigrants.

It is clear that this amounts to federal theft, which is a felony punishable by prison. Of course, politicians don’t want to go that far.

Immigration and Naturalization Service & Assay Office Building. The building has been vacant since October 2004;  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While I am not open to any form of “amnesty’, I would be open to a conservation about (some)  illegal aliens being given a pathway to remaining in the U.S. as documented immigrants, since there seems to be no interest in the rule of law and deportation.

I call it a “Pathway to Documentation’ rather than a “Pathway to Citizenship”.

There is a sense of urgency, reasonably so, in trying to come up with a solution that is seen as “compassionate” and also one that respects the Rule of Law of our nation.

Therefore, I am proposing the following:

• Illegals who become documented should be required to pay reparations to the American people in the form of a percentage of all earned income. They should go to a fund in their respective states that would be paid out in the form of educational vouchers for American citizens
• Illegals who become documents must be accountable to our justice system. This means they must be charged with federal misdemeanors for violating our immigration laws and processed just like any American citizen who breaks the law
• Businesses that hired them must also be held accountable through our legal system and, at the very least, heavily fined
• Illegals who become documented should not be allowed to receive any federal dollars for grants for any reason, nor should any “anchor babies“. They should be allowed to work and pay for their own education and vocational needs
• Illegals who become documented should forever be banned from voting, along with any “anchor babies”. Third generation children should be allowed to vote. That means at least 20 years should pass from the time of documentation, before their children’s children can vote. This way, political parties have no incentive to pander to this demographic.
• Illegals who are documented who have been in the U.S. less than 25 years must be deported, along with any anchor children under the age of 25, with no opportunity to return for at least five years.
• “Anchor children between the ages of 19-25 may stay only if they enlist in the U.S. military and must serve a minimum of six years. However, they may never receive “citizenship” if born here as a result of illegal entry. A part of their salary must also go to reparations to the State from they enlisted
• Pass Congressman Steve King’s Bill, which would amend section 301 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to clarify those classes of individuals born in the United States who are nationals and citizens of the United States at birth. This would end the abuse of the 14th Amendment.
• Secure the border, implementing Gov. Rick Perry’s border control plan

There you go, my plan for a “pathway to documentation” rather than “Pathway to Citizenship”.

Military Naturalization Ceremony – Yongsan Korea – 15 December 2008 – USFK – United States Army – USAG-Y (Photo credit: U.S. Army Korea (Historical Image Archive))

I will never support giving citizenship to people who enter the U.S. illegally. However, as a very good friend recently expressed to me, the current illegal immigration “mess” is the direct result of failed policies that both Republicans and Democrats have passed and enabled over the past several decades.

The “Pathway to Documentation” is a better idea than “Pathway to Citizenship” because it does not discard any and all incentives for would be legal immigrants to enter the U.S. through the legal process.

There are no easy answers. However, whatever the answers shall be, they must include accountability and fairness to the American people, first and foremost.