Human Trafficking

Over at the Gun Toting Liberal, GTL has linked to smalltowngirl, who has decided to throw her hat into the presidential ring, and to whom I will add to my sidebar here shortly. In this post, the comment thread moved towards illegal immigration, which led me to an idea, which I commented on there, and will post on here.

We have immigration here in the United States, but we limit annually the number of immigrants we allow in. Additionally, there are thousands of individuals who cross the border illegally because to live here illegally is the only choice aside from dying in poverty where they were.

These are the same immigrants who we hear are necessary to do the jobs that keep the prices down so that we can afford the stuff we buy because american citizens won't work for the wages that illegal immigrants will work for.

The current immigration policy favors bringing in the best and brightest that other nations have to offer, for various reasons.

Here's my idea: reprioritize the immigration policy - use the system to bring in those who have a survivalistic need to immigrate to escape the hell in which they were born - the tired poor huddled masses yearning to breathe free, if you will. Encourage education for those who are already here, and cultivate the minds of Americans to achieve greater potential instead of buying the minds from others. And kill No Child Left Behind, which has left hundreds of thousands of children behind in the last five years.

This program has benefits - first off, it would encourage education, which is important for a functioning society. Second, it alleviates some of the illegal immigration strain, in a couple ways. It allows legal access to some who were going to cross anyway, and it provides some hope to others who would have crossed illegally that they have a chance to get across in a lawful manner. It would help to keep costs down, because we would be importing working class as opposed to management types. Finally, we would have a means of keeping track of a greater number of border crossers.

It's not that I dislike the idea of a giant fence to keep them mexicans out - well, actually I hate that idea. I think it's stupid and ineffective. I think that this solution would demonstrate trust in our education system by our government and provide the hope for liberty that helped make this country the greatest in the world.