A solution to the border issue

In the fall of 2007, I was sick of the 2008 Election.  At the end of December, I had an idea to show how sick I was of it.  At the time, I wrote a Weekly Story for my website.  I’d think of an idea, hammer it out, proofread it once or twice, and post it.  For the week of January 1, 2008, I wrote my first Jonathon Davies story.  Who was Jonathon Davies?  He was a just a bitter guy running a write in campaign for President.  Why was he doing that?  Because all the real candidates sucked.  He was of the opinion that politicians put party above country, and maybe, just maybe, if he showed them someone who put country first, it might shame them into actually doing their jobs. 

It was a silly idea for a story, but I ended up writing six Jonathon Davies stories.  Three of them were his “Stand on the Issues,” where he gave a common sense “solution” to an issue.  The first one I wrote was on Immigration.  (I’m sure you are all shocked to learn that immigration was an issue eleven years ago.  It’s almost as if politicians haven’t done anything to solve the problem.) Recently, I remembered the solution Jonathon Davies had for the immigration problem, and I figured I should dig it out and offer it to the politicians of today.

His solution was twofold.  First, since there is no way to deport all the people in the country illegally (I wrote a blog a couple of years ago on why that is a stupid and dangerous plan), there needs to be some path towards citizenship.  His idea was to set up some commission that would work for a year that would allow those in the country illegally to come forward and get a temporary visa, or whatever.  Then after paying a small fine and going through a background check, they would be “citizens.” I put quotes around citizens because the real penalty for them being in the country illegally would be that they wouldn’t be allowed to vote for a period of ten years.  This would only apply to the adults.  At the end of the year, the commission would disband, and anyone found in the country illegally – whether they’ve been here for two days or two decades – would be deported.

The second part would be increased border security.  Not a wall – which is just an obstacle for people to go over, under, around, or through – but people who are more flexible and can more quickly change to fit current circumstances. 

Basically, Jonathon Davies would give both parties what they wanted, which can never happen because neither party will let the other get a “win.” Which just means that in 2030, we’ll probably still be arguing about this shit.