America, we have a problem. Immigration is the foundation of America, but illegal immigration is growing exponentially, causing a political divide rooted in polarization without a pragmatic solution. The problem is not going away. America is now competing globally for our political and economic future. Let’s change our paradigm. Let’s grow America with human power.
The historical irony is, America’s creative core is solving problems. The Constitution is our legal framework designed to solve the challenges of human nature politically, recognizing that every human has worth, value and potential if a government is shaped by the Rule of Law. So, how do we solve this complex problem? The answer is simple- we monetize it.
At the moment, the illegal and legal immigration challenge is mired in endless debate and it is out of control because we are too focused on these tactical topics:
- Strengthen the Border– build the wall (physically and/or digitally)
- Illegal Self-Deportation– destroy incentives (anchor babies, access to benefits)
- Improve Legal Immigration– improve the legal process (use work visa)
- Use America’s Military at Borders– legal or civilian voluntary solution
- Mandate E-Verify– end employer hiring of illegals with penalties
- Legalize with Amnesty– settle the immediate population (maybe 20-40 million)
- Strengthen Interior Enforcement– the most controversial (criminal targeting)
Let’s end the immigration debate. We no longer need to argue about open borders or the terminology of legal versus illegal immigration. Let’s take control of the problem and address the big picture of how America can compete globally and thrive.
Make America Grow Again
America’s solution to our global health- socially, politically and economically, is to grow our population massively like a business growing sales. America needs to reach 500 million in population to sustain the tax revenue and cash flow to rebuild our infrastructure, our manufacturing base and to support the technology growth to compete in our modern world.
Unlike Europe’s massive migrant absorption without assimilation, America can proactively solve our immigration challenges- remove the “illegal stigma” and make everyone legal as part of America’s marketing- promote capitalism, liberty and human potential.
We can make immigration our competitive edge in the global economy while China and other countries struggle to keep the virtues of immigration to temporary expats. America’s economy will boom and we’ll capture the financial resources versus spending our resource to keep people from coming.
America must return to thinking pragamatically as a business. As a result, other countries will have to compete to keep them from losing their best people and experiencing “brain drain” or loss of human potential.
America Solves Global Problems
America was founded on solving global problems, with its early message… “The Business of America is Business”. How America has historically solved problems, innovated or created new technologies has always involved “thinking big” or attracting “big thinkers”. Globally, in the big scheme of things, America needs more revenue sources and to capture revenue legally that builds our American brand- “Come to America”:
- Revenue Growth– every business person knows that “sales covers many sins”, an old proverb of covering business mistakes made with strong revenue or cash flow. To solve our social problems and our national debt, we cannot keep taxing people more and more, destroying human or business incentive. Monetizing is capturing revenue from what is now free.
- Training & Assimilate– we would now document human movement, create a series of immigration “user fees” and convert immigrants to adopt & assimilate via a legal process- now only reserved for legal immigration. We must offer American values & Constitutional (Rule of Law) understanding that current illegal immigrants are not exposed to. Mandatory classes would be required for a fee.
- Scale– every business person is hearing about scale, as we move into a digital economy and monetizing big data. The small revenue captured on a huge volume of transactions has exponential value. America needs a massive human scale to grow our revenue.
- Rule of Law– to generate massive revenue that follows our ethical standards within the Constitution, capturing & multiplying America’s revenue must comply with our Rule of Law. Today, our illegal and legal immigration enforcement is debating fairness. Why not solve the illegal immigration challenge using the fairness of the Rule of Law?
- Crime, Drugs & Human Trafficking– shift the immigration away from the human movement of virtuous “opportunity seekers” to strictly controlling & reducing crime or the criminal incentives. Make the criminal activity so costly in some areas while also removing the profit motive for crime in other areas. For example, a returning criminal who was previously deported would be immediately given a harsh sentence. Deporting non-criminals would stop- they are paying a fee. If they commit a minor crime or fail to pay, they are now subject to a criminal penalty and/or deportation.
- Conservative Fears– at the moment, the progressive movement or the left wing liberals are winning the human debate; yet, most immigrants are family-oriented, want to escape poor governing or seek a future opportunity not available in their home country. Conservatives have an opportunity to grow our base by taking control of the immigration debate and crush those who seek to eliminate our Constitution. We want initiative, but we do not want “takers” who only want to come for free benefits. By participating in mandatory Constitutional education, they learn conservative values.
The big picture goal is- we encourage the best & brightest, together with the eager & hunger to come and assimilate, while discouraging evil from coming. Competitively, other countries will no longer export their human problems to sustain political power. The non-democratic countries will no longer keep their best!
America’s Solution- Sell America’s Brand
Every business wants sales and strives to find the marketing strategy to capture and generate repeat sales. Worldwide, the product America sells is our LIBERTY and OPPORTUNITY. Our customer to reach are the global humans who do not experience our product. We need to sell America.- we need to sell humans to come to America legally and assimilate to our Constitution. Here’s how it can work- monetize every movement:
- Registration (Accounting)– take an accurate human inventory of illegals already here. Incentivize a national registration system- you fill out a form with 120 days and you can stay for 1 year legally. There is a reasonable fee (maybe $100- $1,000).
- Border Crossing– make all border crossing legally with transparent registration and payment of a legal fee ($1,000 +) to end the illegal coyote costs. We can eventually track every human digitally using modern technology but without force or mandate of threatening devices. If you do not commit a crime, you stay by paying a fee.
- Employer Fee– every employer can hire a “registered alien” if the company pays a fee. Now, the economic value has to be evaluated by the employer. This would solve the technology or “brain drain” issue- you stay, you pay.
- Temporary Resident Fee– if a registered alien wants to stay, fine, just keep paying a user fee, but the right to stay and secure a job means it will cost, without free access to benefits. If you want benefits or access, you pay a fee- like an insurance policy would give you access to a larger benefit for access to a value.
- Vetting Process– certainly America needs security & safety with immigrants who will assimilate and be contributors. America wants the best in the world to come; yet, as humans, we can never limit human potential by screening people based on economic standards of “buying a visa”. Some of America’s greatest inventors or entrepreneurs came to America from poverty, arriving at America’s shores with nothing but desire & determination.
Access to the legal immigration process must be updated and modernized, making the process more easily available, incentivized by future access to voting, and receive the financial benefits of being a citizen.
Why I’m Passionate About Immigration?
I grew up in Ohio, a farming area surrounded by European immigrants. Immigration stories of Ellis island dominated the culture. I even hated taking Spanish in high school, claiming I would never need it. Here’s a quick summary:
- Out of college, I went to Houston, captured an accounting position in construction. I was shocked by the massive illegal construction workers- some shared scary stories of crossing the border. One admitted killing the group’s coyote. On every site, I was now surrounded by hard-working, eager Hispanics, all working on major constructions sites, using interpreters.
- Initially, the illegal population was predominately young men. On weekends, they filled the bars and strip clubs. Soon, women arrived- girlfriends & wives, shifting the illegal male dominate culture into family communities. Neighborhoods changed and Houston became a sanctuary city- now a calling itself a “friendly city”.
- I watched neighborhoods fill-up with illegal immigrants and Houston became a social experiment with employment, housing illegals, burdening the local schools & hospitals, illegal drivers & increased traffic, more crime and need for police enforcement.
- Launching & growing a landscape start-up, I competed with companies who hired illegals. I followed E-Verify and angrily debated the competitors who laughed at me. Eventually, after 5 years with 170 employees, I sold the company.
- Then, an older brother married an illegal from Mexico while he lived in California and his journey to help her become legal was costly and a process nightmare. The family learned to adapt and embrace the new challenge.
- I happened to experience being part of a large 9 car pile-up accident on the freeway with my young kids in the vehicle. I had avoided the accident until a woman behind me could not stop and hit me. All 9 drivers were safe, but the freeway was shut down. A police officer arrived and allowed the illegal drivers to freely go, although one caused the accident. The policeman stated, “they will not show up to court anyway”.
- Eventually, a corporate path led me to be recruited by a global Chinese firm. Overnight, I was living in China, a country of 1.4 billion who digitally track every movement, and learning to adapt to a new culture. The exposure to their immigration and human tracking was amazing. China is very advanced in digital solutions because the one-party system thrives on safety & security as their “political tool” to rule & sustain power. In spite of the political debate, they are learning to monetize their big data.
Nearly every American has an immigration story. Given my global travel and exposure to over 30 countries, my mind changed.
We must shift our thinking, be aggressive again and compete in the world of ideas- grow America with human power
I’m a conservative, libertarian who wants America to excel socially, politically and economically. I want America’s global brand to prosper in the potential of human being- leveraging human nature and be globally competitive. I do not want immigration fears to dictate how we solve or delay solving America’s immigration problem. We need to think big and we need to sell America’s greatest value- our LIBERTY and RULE of LAW brand.