The Gingrich Immigration Plan

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

10 Steps to a Legal Nation

America must be a nation of laws.

Everyone in the United States should be here legally.

America also is a land of immigrants, and our lives, economy, and history have been enriched by immigration.

There has to be a robust and attractive program of legal immigration. There are major positive economic and social benefits to streamlining and simplifying our convoluted, broken visa process.

At the core of being American is a thorough understanding of American exceptionalism. We are a nation not defined by place or ethnic heritage, but by the collective understanding that we are “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." It is precisely these rights, freedoms and opportunities that have drawn ambitious, risk-seeking immigrants to our shores for four centuries.

It is essential that every native-born American and every immigrant learn about this exceptional heritage and our exceptional history.

Three Principles

1. No “comprehensive” plan can work. President Bush could not pass one during six years with a Republican Congress. President Obama could not pass one with a Democratic Congress. Immigration reform can be outlined as a complete proposal but has to be passed in a series of steps, with each one understood and passed on its own merits.

2. Under no circumstance can a path to citizenship be created which would allow those who have broken the law to receive precedence over those who patiently waited to become residents and citizens via the legal process. Those who adhered to our immigration law cannot be usurped by those who violated it.

3. We must reconcile the goal of legality with the reality that there are millions of immigrants currently here outside the law, some with a long set of family and community ties, and some with no ties. A system has to be established that establishes legality but no citizenship for those with deep ties, repatriates those with no family or community ties in a dignified way, and quickly sends home those who have committed criminal and other destructive acts.

SOLUTIONS

1. Control the border.

The United States must control its border. It is a national security imperative.

Every nation has the right to control its border. Historically, every country that has been determined to control their border has been able to do so.

Controlling the border is a matter of resources and will.

As Americans, we can accomplish unimaginable feats when we have the resources and the will. The United States won World War II in 3 years and 8 months. In the 44 months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States mobilized its resources to defeat Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan.

Unfortunately, we haven’t brought any sense of urgency to controlling our border – even as a drug-fueled civil war now rages in Mexico.

In October 1986, Ronald Reagan wrote in his diary that he was signing the Simpson-Mazzoli immigration reform bill because it was “high time we regained control of our borders & this bill will do this."

Today, a quarter century later, we still have not achieved President Reagan’s goal and expectation.

This bill will waive every obstacle to controlling the border and would shift resources to achieve virtually 100% control by January 1, 2014. If necessary, we would move one-half of the 23,000 Washington-area Department of Homeland Security bureaucrats to the Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona borders.

A border control strategy must be responsive to the unique threats that exist at different parts of the frontier. This strategy must include round-the-clock drone flights to monitor activity, multi-layer, strategic fencing in urban areas, and vastly improved communication between state and federal authorities.

2. Create a 21st Century Visa Program

Our current visa program is inadequate, inefficient, and outdated. Americans and newcomers deserve a system that works.

Americans will benefit from a fairer, more secure, more efficient system, which will ensure that foreign visitors, students, workers and job-creators alike provide as many positive benefits as possible to our economy and society.

Future visitors and future legal residents will be drawn to the most efficient visa system in the world, whether one wants to come to the United States to travel, to study, or to work. – and especially to bring talent and capital to create American jobs.

A huge element of this reform will be to dedicate the necessary resources to eliminate inefficiencies for all visa processing at our consular facilities.

A Brazilian tourist who wants to visit Disney World and spend thousands to support American jobs should not have to wait four months to get an interview for a tourist visa.

• A foreign entrepreneur who wants to establish legal residency and immediately create American jobs should not have to spend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees first.
• A brilliant graduate of an American engineering program should not have to go all the way home to initiate the process of applying for a high-skilled work visa.
• An American farmer in California should have efficient, legal means to hire temporary, legal labor to support the American economy.

Another key part of this reform will be standardizing the technology of identifying documents. Every single visa issued by the United States government, at home and abroad, should include a biometric, tamper-proof card.

3. “In-source” the best brains in the world

From the time of the first settlers, America has always attracted the most entrepreneurial and innovative individuals from all corners of the globe. Drawn to our freedoms and mobile society, many of the world’s most talented individuals have left for America, and proved to be key pillars in American accomplishments ranging from the Manhattan Project to the rise of Silicon Valley.

Highly-skilled workers from all corners of the globe still eagerly line up for the chance to bring their immense talents to American companies in the United States. Our policies that place inflexible limits on the number of talented individuals who are allowed to work in America are seriously eroding our global competitiveness and must be modified.

Unfortunately, Congress still sets rigid caps on the number of highly-skilled foreigners who may come to work in the United States per year, and it is increasingly onerous for both employers and employees to obtain H1-B high-skilled work visas. This is wrong and economically misguided, and if America wants to continue to be a haven for the most talented people in the world, this program needs to be vastly expanded to meet our economic needs

We have the best universities in the world, but many foreigners who come to study are turned away and sent back home as soon as they get their degree. It is foolish to educate someone well enough for them to start the next job-creating startup, only to force them to leave America and start their business overseas. We want the jobs here and that means we want the job creators here.

This could be done by allowing easier transition from an F (student) visa to an H1-B (high-skill) visa. Currently foreign students who want to work in the United States must leave the country and begin their application process from scratch. We should remove this inefficiency and allow qualified foreign students to transition immediately into the American workforce.

We can even consider a program that grants foreign graduates of our sophisticated math, science, engineering and business programs a work visa with their diploma.

This strategy will maximize the amount of talented individuals who are building the next great American businesses, creating American jobs, and paying taxes in the United States.

4. Allow foreigners who want to spend money, invest and create jobs in America to do so.

There is no shortage of foreign nationals who want to come to America to sightsee, to invest, and to create jobs. It is up to us to implement policies that ensure that our economy is as enriched as possible by these individuals.

If citizens of other nations want to invest and create jobs in America, then we should be making it easier for them to invest, work and potentially gain citizenship through an expanded EB-5 program. The EB-5 program grants permanent residency to overseas investors who create and maintain at least ten American jobs.

The existing EB-5 program, which sets as high as a $1 million minimum investment to be considered for legal residency, is too restrictive and selective. We must expand this program to allow for foreign entrepreneurs who may not have the capital yet, but have the ability to come to the United States and raise enough American capital to form a business.

America is the most visited country in the world, and the tourism industry supported over 7 million jobs in 2010. In fact, tourists from Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom alone spent nearly $50 billion in the United States last year.

However, except for citizens of a handful of countries, prospective tourists must wait days, weeks, and sometimes months, to obtain a tourist visa. Visa interviews must occur in person, which often means a long trip to the nearest U.S. consulate. As other countries streamline their tourist visa programs, billions of potential dollars and thousands of potential American jobs in our tourism industry are lost due to our bureaucracy.

A recent study commissioned by the U.S. Travel Association (USTA) found that the United States share of global travel fell 17 percent in 2000 to 12.4 percent in 2010. The vast new middle classes in countries such as China, India and Brazil are now taking a look at the onerous visa process and opting to travel and spend money elsewhere. According to the State Department, the wait time to receive an interview for a tourist visa in Brasilia is 110 days.

The USTA study found that if better practices, such as more consular staff and a video interview program, are implemented, we could create 1.3 million new American tourism jobs by the end of this decade.

Finally, many affluent foreign nationals would like to have the opportunity to spend their retirement years in the United States. Making it easier for these individuals to obtain legal residency would cost virtually nothing, while providing a steady flow of investment into the American housing and tourism markets.

5. There has to be a legal guest worker program, but its management must be outsourced to a sophisticated manager of anti-fraud systems, such as American Express, Visa, or Mastercard.

We want American businesses that need workers to be able to hire.

Today, the visa program for unskilled workers is cumbersome for employers and workers, and completely inflexible to the labor demands of the American economy. The number of temporary work visas granted stays capped, regardless of how many workers American businesses needs at any point – this is why, when the demand for additional labor is high, many foreigners come here to work illegally.

The solution to this problem is a well-regulated, robust guest worker program.

There is no possibility that the federal government could run such a program without massive fraud and counterfeiting. On the other hand, American Express’s rate of fraud is less than one tenth of one percent.

We can build on the universal system of biometric, tamper-proof visa documents that all visitors must have, and invite a private-sector firm with a proven track record to monitor the guest worker program.

For guest workers, the new tamper-proof, biometric cards will replace the e-verify system, which has some promising elements, but is too error-prone. Employers will be able to swipe prospective employees biometric cards, and immediately be able to confirm that these workers are in the country legally.

Once a legal guest worker system has been built with real-time, 24/7 verification, there will be no excuse for employers hiring people illegally. At that point the economic penalty on illegal employers should go up substantially.

The new guest worker program should be designed using the proven principles and it should be easy, convenient, inexpensive and practical for both workers and employers.

6. Create a path to earned legality for some of the millions of people who are here outside the law.

There are currently anywhere from 8 to 12 million people living in the United States who entered illegally.

These people range from day laborers who arrived recently, to grandparents who have been paying taxes, supporting their families and obeying the law for decades.

We need a system that enforces the rule of law, ensures that those who broke the law pay a stiff penalty, but also acknowledges that it is neither optimal nor feasible nor humane to deport every single illegal immigrant.

We need a path to legality, but not citizenship, for some of these individuals who have deep ties to America, including family, church and community ties. We also need a path to swift but dignified repatriation for those who are transient and have no roots in America.

We need a process that can distinguish at the human level.

Congress must charge the Department of Justice to establish a “citizens’ review” process for those here outside the law. It would establish committees to process these cases in individual communities and determine who will continue on this path to legality, and who will be sent home. Congress must define understandable, clear, objective legal standards that will be applied equally during this process. While this process is ongoing, those here outside the law will be granted Temporary Legal Status for a certain, limited period of time until all have had the opportunity to apply and appear in front of committees.

Applicants must first pass a criminal background check, and then the local committees will assess applications based on family and community ties, and ability to support oneself via employment without the assistance of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other entitlement programs.

The government will rigorously enforce a requirement that all individuals seeking this path to legality must be able to prove that they can independently pay for private health insurance. If an individual cannot prove this, they will lose the ability to stay in the United States.

Furthermore, proficiency in English within a certain number of years, similar to the requirement for naturalization, will be required for anyone who seeks continued legal status in the United States.

Once an applicant has been granted the right to obtain legal status, he or she will have to pay a penalty of at least $5,000.

Moving forward, those who receive this status will have to prove on a regular basis that they can support themselves without entitlement programs and pay for health insurance or else risk the ability to stay in the United States.

7. Deportation of criminals and gang members should be efficient and fast.

We must end the practice of “catch and release,” under which dangerous criminals here illegally are caught by law enforcement, but then quickly returned to society.

When someone is here illegally and is dangerous, there should be expedited procedures to remove them from the United States as rapidly as possible.

The current system is so cumbersome and time-consuming that many arrested non-citizens are released back into society and simply break their word and disappear. This is wrong and dangerous.

8. Ensure that every new citizen and every young American learn American history and the key principles of American Exceptionalism.

America is a learned civilization built on ideas, and the relentless efforts to eliminate American history and American Exceptionalism from our schools has weakened the very fabric and vitality of our civilization.

A key step in our future strength as a country must be to reinstate the importance of America in our citizenship process and our education process.

9. English must be the official language of government.

Teaching everyone English creates a common commercial and political culture.

We want people to come to America to become Americans.

For over 250 years there has been an emphasis on learning English as part of that process.

10. Young non-citizens who came to the United States outside the law should have the same right to join the military and earn citizenship.

Individuals who came to the United States as minors with their parents did not willingly break any laws. These individuals should have the opportunity to obtain legal residency/citizenship by serving their adopted country in the military.

Only the children will be considered for legal residency, and, unlike the so-called DREAM Act, there will not be an option to petition for legal status and citizenship for their parents who entered illegally as adults.

11. Once the new guest worker program is established and the "path to legality" system for those here illegally is in place, anyone breaking the law to get into the United States should face very severe penalties. Anyone facilitating illegal entry should face even more severe penalties. If these rules are enforced, the era of illegal immigration will be over.

CONCLUSION

If we embrace these ten steps, America will have created a truly efficient and fair system that embraces the rule of law, while acknowledging and celebrating the valuable economic, cultural and social contributions that both existing and future visitors and immigrants have to offer our country.

http://www.newt.org/solutions/immigration

[Boiler 45,467]

May have lost him the nomination.

With 14m unemployed officially and many more in reality unemployed or under employed how many Guest Worker Visa's should be allocated?

What would be the demand for such visa's?

How could anybody earning minimum wage pay for Health Insurance.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

None of these are BAD ideas. That said, NONE of them will work unless there is strict enforcement of the wage, hour and labor laws of this country.

Employers hire illegals because it saves them money in the costs imposed to comply with labor laws. Making someone a "legal worker" BY ANY MEANS requires their employer to be in complaince with all wage, hour and labor laws. It also requires the now legal worker to compete with other legal workers on an equal basis which most can't. Illegals are not hired because they are the best roofers in the world, they are the cheapest. If you force them to compete equally they are no longer a bargain and what you have, rather than an employed illegal is an unemployed LEGAL worker who will be replaced by the next illegal.

What results is simply a conscription of new illegals. Gingrich is basically proposing a way to further exploit foreign workers and not give them citizenship.

It is no secret that BOTH the Republicans and the Democrats WANT illegals here. They could end the "problem" tomorrow so the only reason it persists is because they WANT it. Republicans want cheap labor for business to avoid the costs of wage, hour and labor laws, and Democrats want new potential dependents to be reliable Democrat votes. With no path to citizenship this will be favored only by Republicans. There is nothing here for the Dems and nothing here for the exploited humans.

Our current tax system could be used to end the problem tomorrow in one of two ways...

1. A massive tax penalty on any employer that hires an illegal to work.

The IRS can padlock your business without a court order if you do not pay taxes. Imposing a huge TAX on the employment of illegals would allow the IRS to close down any business that employed an illegal, confiscate property to pay the tax.

This would require a mandatory E-verify system with an E-verify approval number being an affirmative defense to tax penalties. If they employer does an E-verify on each employee he is off the hook, so to speak. Make E-verify available to any employer with a tax number (which all employers are already required to have) Independent contractors would be required to provide their E-verify documentation to clients.

2. Massive tax credit for maintaining E-verify records on each employee.

The presence of illegals costs the country Billions of dollars each year. Eliminating illegals will save the government, federal and state, billions of dollars. This can be passed along to employers who verify ALL employees are legal. Again, E-verify cvan be used and the E-verify documentation can be submitted just as SSN info is done now. The credit could be $10,000 per employee or more.

I agree we need to update and streamline the visa process and the best way to do that is probably to farm it out to a private expert in that field, I would not be the one to say which compnay would be best qualified for that but it would not be a difficult task to determine that.

Unless, and until, we end the economic advantage to employers of employing illegals the practice will not change.

The employment of illegal workers MUST be an economic risk an employer is absolutely unwilling to accept, OR the employment of legal workers MUST be an economic advantage an employer is unwilling to pass up! Take your choice, but this is an economic issue and MUST be addressed with economics.

Edited November 26, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[Kang 22]

No mention of punishing employers for hiring illegals for bigger profit and denying them minimum wages, workers compensation and other benefits. (Modern day slavery!)

No mention of foreigners who made false claim to US citizenship and those who faked their papers so that they could get ahead of the immigrants who patiently wait their turn and then tell half truths of their "sob stories" in the media. (no wonder even legal immigrants are angry at them)

No mention of ending birth tourism! Tourists who give birth in the US who do not plan to raise their child as American, educate them in American "mainstream" culture, or even live in America. Most of these people see having a US citizenship child as a status back in the home countries -- not that they want their children to be Americans!

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

No mention of punishing employers for hiring illegals for bigger profit and denying them minimum wages, workers compensation and other benefits. (Modern day slavery!)

No mention of foreigners who made false claim to US citizenship and those who faked their papers so that they could get ahead of the immigrants who patiently wait their turn and then tell half truths of their "sob stories" in the media. (no wonder even legal immigrants are angry at them)

No mention of ending birth tourism! Tourists who give birth in the US who do not plan to raise their child as American, educate them in American "mainstream" culture, or even live in America. Most of these people see having a US citizenship child as a status back in the home countries -- not that they want their children to be Americans!

It just goes to show how our politicians sold us out to big business years ago and it's not going to get any better by the looks of it. This country is getting run over by third world illegal immigrants who wouldn't use birth control even if they learned to spell it. It's a shame and a travesty.

Edited November 26, 2011 by Why_Me

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

No mention of punishing employers for hiring illegals for bigger profit and denying them minimum wages, workers compensation and other benefits. (Modern day slavery!)

No mention of foreigners who made false claim to US citizenship and those who faked their papers so that they could get ahead of the immigrants who patiently wait their turn and then tell half truths of their "sob stories" in the media. (no wonder even legal immigrants are angry at them)

No mention of ending birth tourism! Tourists who give birth in the US who do not plan to raise their child as American, educate them in American "mainstream" culture, or even live in America. Most of these people see having a US citizenship child as a status back in the home countries -- not that they want their children to be Americans!

Number 1 I agree with (see above) the other two are fringe issues solved by number 1, or at least minimized to negligible levels.

Faked documents cannot defeat a central E-verify system and when there are no jobs and no benefits, what would be the reason to fake documents?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

It just goes to show how our politicians sold us out to big business years ago and it's not going to get any better by the looks of it. This country is getting run over by third world illegal immigrants who wouldn't use birth control even if they learned to spell it. It's a shame and a travesty.

This is half right, Kip. Yes half the politicians want illegal workers for business to save money. The other half want a "bought and paid for" voting base. Yes, they have sold us out, but not JUST to business. This assures the Hispanic vote for the Dems and also they want a path to citizeship for the rest, PLUS they want amnesty in order to throw current illegals out of work and make them depedent on social benefits.

Edited November 26, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[Kang 22]

Number 1 I agree with (see above) the other two are fringe issues solved by number 1, or at least minimized to negligible levels.

Faked documents cannot defeat a central E-verify system and when there are no jobs and no benefits, what would be the reason to fake documents?

What I meant was people using fake documents coming to the US. Like Jose Vargas who used fake documents to come here and has even making false claims to US citizenship repeatedly, but still not deported and the State Department seem not to plan to deport him. I think that US government should take these offenses as serious ones. People involved should be punished and deported , especially if they did it on their own. Small lies become big lies

Edited November 27, 2011 by Kang

[Kang 22]

This is half right, Kip. Yes half the politicians want illegal workers for business to save money. The other half want a "bought and paid for" voting base. Yes, they have sold us out, but not JUST to business. This assures the Hispanic vote for the Dems and also they want a path to citizeship for the rest, PLUS they want amnesty in order to throw current illegals out of work and make them depedent on social benefits.

If they want to give amnesty, they must make sure first that all holes are plugged before giving amnesty coz if they give amnesty without closing the loopholes, people will have more confidence in hiring illegals and bringing them for slave labor and people will prefer toa come illegally coz it is faster to come to the US that way and you are ahead of your kins patiently waiting at the embassies

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

This is half right, Kip. Yes half the politicians want illegal workers for business to save money. The other half want a "bought and paid for" voting base. Yes, they have sold us out, but not JUST to business. This assures the Hispanic vote for the Dems and also they want a path to citizeship for the rest, PLUS they want amnesty in order to throw current illegals out of work and make them depedent on social benefits.

Gary,

You converted me an I now 100% agree with you that mandating the use of e-Verify and imposing huge fines on employers who employ illegal immigrants would solve the whole illegal immigrant issue. Without means to make a living, 99% of them would self deport, and in the process save the American taxpayers over a trillion dollars.

But it's not half the politicians. The overwhelming majority of politicians of both parties are puppets of the corporations that finance them. Dems, you know the ones who are responsible for the highest rate of deportations in U.S. and world history . . . twice in a row now . . . don't benefit from illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants can't vote, and I would go as far as saying that a great many Hispanics and legal immigrants who can vote, including those who vote democratic, are anti-illegal immigration themselves.

[106206 15]

Overall, I like it. Specifics:

Pass on the "Creator" commentary but it doesnt bother me if it's there.

Agree on all 3 principles. Principle 2 should be worded as a positive to say the same thing so it sounds less inflammatory.

MISSING - principle that declares individual states should cease dabbling in immigration law. This is a federal matter and it needs to stay there.

Solutions

----

Agree on #1. Use military to enforce it and shut down the customs border patrol. Save money that way and keep the troops sharpened and ready for deployment. That will help contain military costs since they would create 'earned value' through their drills which would include border security.

Agree on #2. Run a Six Sigma & Lean method on the processes. Cut out the fat.

Agree on #3 & #4.

Agree on #5 particuarly the outsourcing. My business using these kinds of systems and it's not our core competency (Hence we outsource the components that make the engine work) nor is it the goverment's core competency to do anti-fraud. Send it out to competitive bid and make the vendor eat the costs if their system doesn't meet the SLA.

Agree mostly on #6 but the English proficiency is going to have to be loose at best. Put it on the table and take it off as a concession to the other party later if needed.

Agree on 9, 10, 11 particularly making English the one language of government. It passively makes english proficiency a requirement to live here comfortably.

I do not think this will end the era of illegal immigration but it will help control it. Illegal immigration will probably end faster due to our enconomy being in the toilet at least for the time being. No one is building new houses and we don't need $10/hr people to mix concrete like we used to.

The challenge is going past this "Paper Model" or blueprint and executing it.

Edited November 27, 2011 by caterino

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Gary,

You converted me an I now 100% agree with you that mandating the use of e-Verify and imposing huge fines on employers who employ illegal immigrants would solve the whole illegal immigrant issue. Without means to make a living, 99% of them would self deport, and in the process save the American taxpayers over a trillion dollars.

But it's not half the politicians. The overwhelming majority of politicians of both parties are puppets of the corporations that finance them. Dems, you know the ones who are responsible for the highest rate of deportations in U.S. and world history . . . twice in a row now . . . don't benefit from illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants can't vote, and I would go as far as saying that a great many Hispanics and legal immigrants who can vote, including those who vote democratic, are anti-illegal immigration themselves.

So you think only Republicans benefit but Dems still defend illegals? Seriously?

Have you heard of the "Hispanic" vote? Who gets it? Dems or Repubs? Why? It is not illegal aliens voting, of course, but they are like minded Hispanic citizens, many with illegal realtives here, who vote for more "stuff" to be taken from others and given to them and there is only ONE party that does that...Democrats.

BOTH political parties benefot or ONE of them would promote the very simple solution to this problem. It is not rocket science. Tax system manipulation ahs been used to get every other result imaginable but when it comes to illegal immigration they ALL get a brain cramp and can't seem to figure out what to do. If they want you to caulk your windows, they can come up with a tax credit for it, but if they want you to hire legal workers they just have no clue what to do!

I wish they would please stop insulting our intelligence.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

And yes, of course, if we implemented a comprehensive policy to prevent the exploitation of illegals by US employers, 99% of them would self deport and protecting the border would be a LOT easier if they did not have to try and sort out the drug smugglers from the lettuce pickers and roofers

the REASON this is not done? It would WORK! It would cost very little money (meaning very little in the way of government jobs) and it would end a phony "issue" and make politicians repsonsible for other more important things. Better to have a perrenial issue to appeal to their base with...forever

Edited November 28, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[Obama 2012 1,714]

want to solve a lot of the illegal immigration problem?

Eliminate the minimum wage.

[Dakine10 5,452]

want to solve a lot of the illegal immigration problem?

Eliminate the minimum wage.

Hmmm. Basically make Americans so poor that illegals can't compete huh? I like it! See how Mexico likes it when Americans are sneaking over the border to make a few extra peso's.

That's ingenious, Dr. Evil.