Stating the Obvious

Apparently, there is politic support for a plan to give citizenship to undocumented immigrants who've been in the US for more than 5 years and to deport the rest.

Okay, so what will happen when we ask these undocumented immigrants how long they've been in the United States?

Think about it. Here is a person who broke a law to enter the country. When asking an undocumented immigrant how long they've been in the US. They will:

A) tell the truth about when they crossed the border and be deported like a good law abiding citizen.

B) lie through their teeth and come up with false documentation that they have been in the country for x number of years.

As for companies that undercut their competition by hiring illegals. These companies will

A) help point out which workers came across the border in the last five years.

or B) Lie through their teeth and feel self righteous and smug about it.

Of course the main problem with the 5 year cut off is not that it will cause some people to lie. The problem is that people who know they miss the cut off will simply hide.

The time criteria is not the best criteria. Quite frankly, I think people who crossed the borders illegally right after the 1986 amnesty are the worst of the lot. These people specifically worked against a compromise that our country had worked out.

IMHO, the best way to handle the problem is with a lottery. In such a lottery, we would accept a large number of people for citizenship track. It might include a bunch of different points ... years in the US might give you extra points, speaking English might be extra points. However, no group would automatically be completely excluded from the possibility of citizenship.

A lottery would give immigrants an incentive for coming forward to get documentation.

Temporary work permits could also be in the mix. As I said in a past post. We should not give temp work permits to people with the intention of immigrating to the US and we should not give a citizenship path to those people who really just want to work in the US temporarily.

On an unrelated note. A homeless advocate named Ted Hayes seems to be breaking from the dialectical haze and sees that immigration is effectively reducing blacks back into a slavelike existence. The immigration is undermining the salaries for low and semi-skilled jobs that blacks need to realize their part of the American dream.