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Reality In Immigration: We Need Reform Instead of Rhetoric

 Let's come back to reality again. The real issue is reform, and how open the law should be. I think that immigration should be open as it has been for most of our history, and particularly the most prosperous points in our history. 

I suspect that many of you would want something more constricting, like only Nobel Prize winners who have been neutered and would work for free and still pay taxes. The Trump system was working toward and had the effect of zero legal immigration and that is insanity. 

Immigration prohibition like all forms of prohibition, produces bad results: You still have immigration, and you are likely to get a higher concentration of more desperate people using much more risky methods of entry. If restrictions are few, no one will hire a coyote to get them across, and that business model dies! The same was true of alcohol prohibition and is true of drug prohibition.

I can see an immigration policy that allows anyone to come in and apply for citizenship if that is what they want. Or they could apply for a green card to work during growing seasons or construction seasons, etc, pay taxes while here and go back home afterward then return when the season is right. They would be subject to payroll taxes which would shore up our Social Security System and largely does so now. It is a "win-win" situation!

The Republicans calling for zero immigration are not working toward reform, they are just bashing the other party for something they supported for most of our history. We need reform, not rhetoric!

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