We must not repeat the errors of the 80’s when an amnesty program proved to be a dismal failure. Current proposals all lack the teeth required and provide only the “wink” and lip service. Pseudo enforcement tactics employed the past twenty five plus years is only causing mistrust and disgust by the general public.

To avoid the Reagan calamity we need to examine how we can effectively police illegal entries as well as overstays. Perhaps we need to remove this responsibility from the INS where some twenty or so years ago they asked aliens to quit registering annually as advertised by TV announcements for they at that time were seven years behind recording the annual registrations. (My Canadian wife was so told) Obviously there is a sever problem in that agency with either under funding or management or some combination of both.

Thus, one quick way to get a hold of the illegal stays & entries is to offer a bounty to licensed bounty hunters who would be supervised by the US Marshals office for lets say $500 per head. Public service announcements could be televised by the US Marshal offices requesting tips from the public. An incentive would be an award of a refundable $100 income tax credit for each nabbed violators. How else can we make a dent in reducing the estimated 12 million currently in our midst?

Another way would be to conscript any caught illegals (both male & female regardless of age) into special units of our military to serve for 4 years at home or abroad doing tasks that befit their skill levels. Guess worker permits would expire after a fixed and certain number of years. At the completion of their guess status they would submit their names to authorities as they exit this country. All other guess workers who didn’t comply with the exit requirement would have their names submitted to the draft boards for conscription into a para-military group for service. Any unlocated overstays not reporting for military duty immediately would have their names then turned over to the bounty hunters for capture and removal.

While under conscription they could be educated at some level to make them better citizens of their home countries upon termination of service. Upon completion of their 4 year conscription they would be graded on a numeric graded from zero to 99 with the cream of the crop awarded with good references for fast track citizenship if they still seek opportunities in the US. Deportation for non-honorable duty acceptance would place them on a non-acceptable database file with iris scans and digitized fingerprints.

Perhaps national border respect could be gained by these conscripted illegals if they were assigned to an Iraqi border contingent. Every 21 feet of that border the conscripted sentry would watch for unauthorized entry into Iraq. This would keep some 1.7 million busy on 24-7 shifts of 56 hour per week. If the illegals entries would dropped drastically the sentry force perhaps could then be filled by opening our prisons & releasing those druggies that are now doing nothing!

The State Department or agency that replacing INS should set up offices through out Latin America that would offer short seminars to would-be guess workers. They could be handed out tapes and other English learning educational materials. The program would stress the need to obey and respect local law enforcements authorities and highlight civic matters that guest should be aware of. These offices would be assigned quotas for finding high quality guest workers. Follow-up evaluation of the respective offices must be monitored and evaluated periodically to make certain the program is running properly.

Large signs on the boarder in Spanish should forewarn the new arrivals about their upcoming four year commitment. Perhaps the Mexican governments (which now expects the USA to operate their poverty program) will have to rewrite the pamphlets that now encourage illegal entry activity. Mexico must realize that we will never have an open border until their standard of life and culture is similar to ours.