Immigration

By Christopher Balding

We cannot talk of immigration reform without considering the needs of the American economy and matching labor to meet those needs. The United States needs to create a system which admits in an orderly fashion immigrants from around the world, both skilled and unskilled workers required to drive the American economy for hard working people who accept our values, learn our language, and abide by the law

Immigration policy needs complete reform that allows people a path to immigrate legally to the United States. It should provide a path to legalization for hard working, law abiding undocumented men and women already here. We cannot talk solely of a path to legalization without reforming the legal immigration process and streamlining the process for immigrants around the world who dream of coming to America and try to follow the rules

National security requires us to protect our borders just as every other country protects their borders. We cannot trust and hope that terrorists will not cross the borders because we have left them unprotected. Streamlining legal immigration and providing a path to legalization with background checks demands that we protect our borders from terrorists and drug smugglers

Legal and illegal immigrants must pay taxes. One cannot argue for a path to legalization if immigrants are not full stakeholders and participating in the society they are adopting. This means paying taxes, attending school, learning English, and entering the political process