The main reason why political parties and the federal government have failed to deal with illegal immigration head on is due to a calculated, though craven, concern of alienating Hispanic voters.
If politicians on the left and right would frame the narrative on illegal immigration in to persuade voters of all races of the inevitable danger and dysfunction of failing to enforce the country's immigration laws, and dissuade any concerns of race-baiting xenophobia, then the states and the federal government would be well on their way towards to enact comprehensive immigration reform.
First of all, free market economists have already argued that the naturalization process in this country is fraught with problems. For some legal residents seeking permanent status, the wait for full citizenship can take up to thirty years. The errors and inefficiency of the federal bureaucracy to file an evaluate applications, interview candidates for naturalization in a timely manner, and process applications for citizenship discourage immigrants from taking the legal avenue to seek legal status. Including the rising costs and the decline of available agencies for review all throttle legitimate immigrants from attaining welcome legal status in the United States.
Beyond indicating the failure of the federal government to process citizenship requests in a timely manner, politicians must frame the argument for discouraging illegal immigration along neutral economic lines and in the best interests of the immigrant, including the undocumented individuals who hide in the shadows.
First of all, politicians have to attack a sacred cow larger and more menacing than the population of undocumented individuals in the country. The welfare state, including the facile vulnerability of the welfare system, is the largest magnet for attracting illegal immigrants. The encroachment of entitlements, including the ill-conceived and ill-received Patient and Affordable Care Act — ObamaCare — has only expanded the debt and deficit spending menacing this country. By repealing and limiting the current federal handouts bankrupting this country and burdening the states, the United States can discourage illegal immigration while prospering a nation for legal applicants to enjoy.
Regarding the DREAM Act legislation that has taken hold in some students, undocumented students who seek the quality education offered by state and private universities only compromise the education which they hope to receive. If illegal residents are allowed to matriculate at resident fees, then they are taking advantage of a state subsidy which they have not paid for through taxes. This arrangement hurts everyone enrolling in higher education, including naturalized students and enrollees on student visas.
In connection with the draw on public services, illegal immigration has raised the number of individuals who take advantage of public services like schools and hospitals. As many undocumented individuals live in the shadows, they take advantage of services which they do not pay for through taxes. They end up stretching services beyond capacity, thus diminishing the utility of the service for themselves.
In addition to siphoning off depleted funds for public services, individuals who choose to enter and reside in this country illegally only frustrate the wealth and prosperity which they seek. Law and order are the highest priority for a number of migrants. Yet a nation with no border control only incites lawlessness. Would an individual who recently moved to this country want to submit himself to the hardships of gang activity, much of which is fueled by illegal immigration?
There are many dangers which illegal immigrants subject themselves to as a result of their compromised status in the country. Because illegal immigrants are not citizens, they cannot assert their natural rights in American courts. The 1996 Supreme Court ruling in United States vs. Verdugo-Urquidez asserted that the provisions in the Bill of Rights apply to individual United States citizens, and no one else. Leaving themselves prey to civil penalties and criminal behaviors, undocumented workers may show up to a site for one month, then the head of the company calls immigration and enforcement, sending every hardworking back to his or her home country without pay. This unscrupulous practice hurts the economy, the business, but most of all the immigrant.
When an illegal resident suffers from a crime, he cannot report the incident to the police without risking deportation. Such was the unseemly circumstance for many children allegedly victimized by Mark Berndt at Miramonte Elementary School, the details of which have horrified many parents, yet for many they possess few options for protecting their children through the system.
Then there is the unpleasant status of the child in families of divided status. If the parents are illegal, and later they have given birth to children born and naturalized in the United States, they have invited an unwholesome dynamic that frustrates child-rearing. Parents with the status of law-breakers command less respect at home because they do not speak English as effectively as their children, which compromises communication among parents, students, and school staff.
In addition to communication issues between families and public institutions, the wide difference between parenting styles in the parents' home country and the acceptable methods of discipline in the United States, parents from different countries find themselves commanding less respect from their children. In some cases, parents who endured corporal punishment as minor have no other disciplinary skills, yet if a parent raises his had against a child, then he or she can call the police. In more grave instances, children have threatened to inform local authorities of their parents' illegal status in the country. Because parents fear deportation, many of them acquiesce to their children, and therefore many of them demonstrate no respect at home or in school.
From the economic costs that frustrate wealth creation and status, to the criminal and legal problems which undermine the security and safety of undocumented immigrants, statesmen across the country must submit effective immigration reform that ceases to endanger immigrant and citizen, that ends the drain on public services, and streamlines naturalization, free of quotas and excessive fees, while dismantling an unsupportable welfare state. These reforms will ensure that more individuals may enjoy legal opportunity to enter this country while protecting the rights, markets, and public services available to every American, born and naturalized.