Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Markham
Rochard. Please explain your stance on illegal migration. Are you for or against it.
Any other liberal can take a swing at this. It would be interesting to know.
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I have stated my thoughts on illegal immigration multiple times. Just like everyone else I am against illegal immigration.
However, spending billions of dollars on a wall will not prevent illegal immigration. They will go around, over, or under any such wall. I want money to be spent where it will be most effective.
I also don't want my local police department involved in illegal immigration issues. It's not that I am against it; I want such people arrested. However, local police departments are not able to handle this. My hometown is a perfect example - we are a town of 50k people and at any time we have three - four officers on duty. Any time they came across anyone illegally, they would have to stop everything, make an arrest, and transport them to the county jail... This reduces the effectiveness of our local police force by 25% - 33% to handle what is a federal issue, not a local one. The FBI doesn't come to my hometown and handle domestic disputes or hand out speeding tickets - that's a local issue, not a federal one.
I am also fine with federal agents arresting people here illegally. However, there is a proper way to do this and a wrong way to do this. I used to work at Taco Bell (don't laugh) and once a month Border Patrol would come up to the front cashier and half the staff would go running out the back door - right into the arms of Border Patrol agents. This is effective. These "Special Response Teams" are not effective - it involves large teams of agents to arrest individuals one at a time. Do you see the difference? A team of agents can arrest a dozen people in two hours, or a team of agents can arrest one person in six hours. Also, we should never be arresting people at schools or hospitals unless we have to. There are exceptions to this, however. The Special Response Teams are tasked with going after hardened criminals who are a threat to American society and I am fine with that. But they shouldn't be tasked with arresting someone who hasn't committed a crime.
I also want all of this to be done properly. Prior administrations didn't have to lock people up in large numbers and remove their children from them. There is no reason for this. What's happening now is a crime against humanity. Some of these children are being molested, and others are being "lost" in the system and we are unable to eventually match them up with their parents. If you took my child away from me and "lost" my child, I would sue for billions.
We also need to give people a path to becoming a US citizen. This has always worked in the past.
There is a right way to do this, and a wrong way. At every turn the Trump administration is doing everything the wrong way. At the same time, the Trump administration is spending more money and being less effective. The Obama administration deported more illegals than any other administration, did it in a cost effective way, did it properly, did it without controversy. The problem is Trump has made "border security" a top priority - trying to fix a problem that isn't really a problem and now he needs to make it look like he is doing something. The end result is they are spending too much money and being less effective in the process.