FIRST ON FOX: A conservative think tank outlines how the incoming Republican Congress can fundamentally overhaul the US immigration system and help it rise ‘from the ashes’ left by the Biden administration.
In a new article, the Heritage Foundation offers a roadmap to Congress, suggesting it should go beyond border security and overhaul the U.S. immigration system.
In the paper, author Lora Ries – director of Heritage’s Border Security and Immigration Center – argues that a dysfunctional immigration system has existed for decades. It made legal immigration complicated and slow, while illegal immigration was rarely punished.
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People line up outside a migrant ticket center at St. Brigid School on East Seventh Street, Jan. 5, 2024, in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“In short, it is a slow, frustrating and expensive hassle to legally immigrate to the US. As a result, if it’s faster, easier, and cheaper to migrate to America illegally, then that’s what some people will do – And they’ve been doing it for decades. Others will not come to the US at all to start businesses or develop new technologies,” she says.
She argues that the Biden administration has transformed the world immigration system further and “erased the line between legal and illegal immigration.” She accuses the government of abusing humanitarian parole, rendering asylum meaningless and unleashing an open borders agenda.
“The US immigration system used to be broken due to a lack of enforcement and overly complex legal provisions. Now it’s a pile of ash,” she says.
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But now, with an aggressive incoming Trump administration and a supportive Republican House and Senate about to be sworn in, Ries and Heritage outline five principles for how to move forward.
“From the ashes, however, rises a tremendous opportunity to redesign a new, simpler, fairer, and more manageable immigration system that prioritizes America and legal immigrants second,” she says. “The principles and policies set out in this report could play a crucial role in shaping such a new immigration system.”
These principles include upholding the rule of law, recognizing that the immigration system serves the American people, keeps the US safe, creates a system that is simple and sustainable, and eliminates incentives to break immigration laws.
A guard escorts an immigrant detainee into the Adelanto Detention Facility on November 15, 2013 in California. (John Moore/Getty Images)
As a result, each principle produces a set of more specific recommendations for Congress to follow. In the area of legal immigration, the roadmap recommends that those who violate visa conditions should have them revoked, including those who support terrorist groups; that proof of citizenship should be required to vote; that only citizens should be counted in the census for apportionment by Congress; and that the visa system must ensure that wages for Americans are not flattened.
The paper supports the elimination of the green card lottery system, says employers should be able to hire U.S. citizens instead of foreign nationals, and calls for assimilation as “critical for America to remain a united country.” It recommends the implementation of E-Verify, and that due process in immigration be limited.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS
On border securityThe document recommends that border police should have deportation powers during national crises, and that immigration detention is necessary to protect public safety and ensure deportations, while security should be fully funded. It also states that the government should not “collude” with non-governmental organizations to promote illegal immigration.
More broadly, the document calls for simplification of the Immigration and Nationality Act to make the process less complicated, and for the abolition of a number of waivers and exemptions. It argues that costs and data on immigration should be made available and that in times of huge backlogs the flow of new immigrants should be halted.
Finally, Congress says that Congress should exclude illegal immigrants from benefits such as bank accounts, and that lawmakers “should oppose all forms of amnesty and not reward illegal behavior or violations of our immigration laws.”
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President-elect Trump has made it clear that he sees immigration and border security as top priorities for his new administration. He has appointed former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan as the “border czar” and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as his nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
A number of Republican lawmakers won their elections in November by focusing on illegal immigration at the southern border and the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis.
