Broken US Immigration? Here's the fix!

Last night, I watched Frontline, one of my favorite TV shows about immigration. I was totally disappointed with its structure, its approaches, its lack of constructive ideas and conclusion. What follows is my reaction:

First of all, “Illegals” have broken the law. As a result, they should be sanctioned, not empathized with. Before we do anything though, we should first “fix” the leak. Visitors with tourist or work visas should be tracked down if they fail to exit on time; We have computers for that, right?

If we catch them, they become unable to ever re-enter the USA. “Fresh” illegals (less than 6 month in the country) are deported sine die and never allowed to re-enter the country. Other illegals are screened. Anyone with documented criminal activity gets deported on the spot. 

All others can apply for permanent status provided they pay a fine of say, $10,000 per person or more, for every individual, including all family members currently in the country. If they are “only” 11 million illegals, that would bring $110 billion to the Fed coffers. We could do a wonderful overhaul of our crumbling infrastructure with that money!

These individuals might have to take loans, work extra, but they would have to “earn their way” into legal status. The fee would be waived for in-demand folks like engineers, health care workers, educators, researchers or job creators, and these people would be fast-tracked into permanent residence.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot. For anyone entering the USA, English becomes the official language and the social customs of North America must be adhered to.

Low-skill workers would still be granted seasonal or time-defined work visas based on domestic demand. Finally, only children born from permanent resident or citizens would earn US Citizenship.