CONNOR HOFFMAN
Staff Writer
One of the biggest issues in the 2016 election so far has been illegal immigration. Much of the coverage of this issue on the Republican side has been focused on Trump’s plan to build a wall between the United States and Mexico and forcibly remove all illegal immigrants. Many have rallied behind Trump’s ideas towards solving immigration but some are worried
“I think it’s pretty strict, and I don’t really see how there’s any kind of way that you can move 10 million people,” said Ethan Thompson, a sophomore liberal arts major. “There’s not really a sound way of enforcing that kind of law.”
“I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me — and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words,” said Trump at his campaign announcement at the Trump Tower in New York City.
Trump’s wall idea is not only extremely fiscally unsound, but it is simply just an easy solution to a much broader problem we are experiencing.
Trump’s border wall could cost anywhere from $15 billion to $25 billion to build on our 2,000 mile border with Mexico, according to a CNBC article. Also, we have to consider that there are ways around border walls, such as tunnels.
“He’s going to deport all these people, and then he’s going to allow back in the ones that are ‘good’ … His plan makes no sense,” said Republican Senator Marco Rubio on CNN’s State of the Union.
Democrats, for the most part, favor a path to citizenship for eligible illegal immigrants in this country. The problem with this is that these people broke the law, and some illegal immigrants must be sent back to their country.
On May 29, 2015, Julio Sarvia, an illegal Salvadoran immigrant, was sentenced to 29 years in prison for rape of a minor, according to patch.com. That may be an extreme example, and yes, not all illegal immigrants are evil criminals, but Sarvia still committed a crime and may be more predisposed to do so again.
“We can’t wait any longer for a path to full and equal citizenship,” said Hillary Clinton, according to a Wall Street Journal article.
“It is time to bring our neighbors out of the shadows. It is time to give them legal status,” said Senator Bernie Sanders at a conference meeting of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
But it’s not that easy to just give every illegal immigrant full citizenship as people like Clinton and Sanders believe. We must thoroughly look at it case-by-case to ensure our nation’s safety.
The solution to our illegal immigration problem is for us to compromise on this issue. We must create a reasonable path to citizenship and carefully look at those who apply. Those who chose not to apply and entered the country illegally must be sent back to where they came from.
Also, we have to realize that our immigration problem right now is such a complex and complicated situation that we can’t just have one fix-it-all solution. It must be done incrementally.
We must make the pathway to citizenship easier and allow all of those that do not have any sign of other criminal behavior to be able to apply for it. By allowing those eligible people to become citizens, we would be able to bring in more tax revenue and solve the problem of illegal immigrants using our welfare programs without contributing to the economy.
This will not be easy, and it is exactly why we can’t buy either side’s “simple” solution to this complex problem.