Déjà entendu

1. Controlling the Borders
2. Increasing Work Visas
3. Offering "earned" citizenship for those already here.

Sound Familiar?

It should, those are the "three legs" of the Simpson-Mazzoli Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. It may also sound familiar for another reason.

1. Border Enforcement and Security Must Come First
2. Reforms to Legal Immigration System
3. Individuals Living Outside the Rule of Law

That's from the text of the Republican's Principles on Immigration.  The text also states that our immigration problems cannot be solved with a single piece of legislation and offer a step-by-step, piece-by piece approach.  The problem is that whether you have one piece of shit or ten pieces of shit, in the end... all you have is shit.

Insanity:

Is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. 

One cannot fix the problems with illegal immigration by immigration reform any more than one can fix the problem of bank robberies by reforming our banking and financial regulations.  The only thing that prevents bank robberies is enforcement of the law and the only thing that will prevent illegal immigration is enforcement of the law, whatever that law may turn out to be.

The DHS claims, and many laugh, an 80% success rate at the border (others put that number as low as 40%).  If 2 out of 10 bank robberies went unsolved do you think the number of bank robberies would go up? What if 6 out of 10 bank robberies went unsolved?

We need a completely new approach

I don't claim to have all the answers but I do know doing the same thing over and over again won't work.  In 1986 we had 5 million illegal aliens in the country today we have 11 million illegal aliens in the country.  We don't need a repeat of Simpson-Mazzoli.  

Completely separate work and immigration requirements, move responsibility for work visas to the Department of Labor, leave immigration and enforcement with the DHS.

Work visa reform.  Short of an impervious border, people will continue to cross illegally as long as it is easier than crossing legally.  If you can't walk or drive up to a border checkpoint and get through in no more than a few hours the problem isn't going to go away.

Establish a computer system through the department of labor by which employers with unfillable vacancies can register by category; agriculture, labor, construction, assembly, etc.  You can have a requirement that positions must be advertised internally for x amount of time if you wish to make those positions available to citizens first.  Match vacancies in the system to persons at the border by locale or region, obtain biometric data on the persons entering, run a simple background check and issue a visa/ID.  You can even give them a list of employers with vacancies in the area they want to go to on their way out the door and you can make it renewable with proof of employment. Check in/Check out.

I'm not saying that's the answer, it's a suggestion, a starting point.  What are your suggestions for fixing this problem? As neither the Democrats or Republicans seem to be coming up any new and innovative approaches that aren't going to leave us in the same place thirty years from now.