Jeh Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has been testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning. He expressed the Obama administration’s disappointment in the Supreme Court stalemate that effectively blocked the president’s efforts to legislate an amnesty for categories of illegal aliens. He also took a swipe at Donald Trump, without mentioning his name, over the notion of massive deportations of illegal aliens. As a practical matter, he observes, this is never going to happen. Of the aliens, he said, “They’re here and they’re not going anywhere.” Therefore, he deduces, Congress must ultimately take some action to legalize their status.
I’ve argued a few times that Trump’s position on deportations is so much hot air. What he is calling for is touch-back amnesty, a ludicrous process in which he would purportedly deport all 11 million (or so) illegal aliens but then bring most of them back with legal status. Even if DHS had the resources to apprehend and process the deportation of 11 million people, and then process the legal re-entry of however many million (and it does not – not even close), such a prohibitively expensive system would never be implemented for the pointless objective of kicking people out just so we can bring them back in.
Boiled down to reality, Trump’s would be a proposal for the ultimate goal, mass amnesty, with the touch-back scheme cast aside as unaffordable and unworkable. Mass amnesty is exactly what has been proposed in various forms over the last decade, and it hits a brick wall of congressional opposition, as it should.
The problem with the administration position articulated by Secretary Johnson (a smart guy who does a better job of defending it that just about anyone) is that it assumes the burdens of an alien’s free choice illegally to enter or remain in the United States fall on Congress (i.e., on the American people), rather than on the aliens themselves. That’s ridiculous. Even if Johnson is right that the millions of illegal aliens are here and not gong anywhere, why should the fallout of their decision to place themselves in an unlawful status be our problem? Putting to the side illegal aliens who were brought here as children and had no choice in the matter (and for whom the equities are obviously different), the vast majority of illegal aliens voluntarily chose their outlaw status.
The challenge presented by their illegal presence and the violations of law they commit while here (from identity fraud and unlawful employment to more serious offenses) is a law-enforcement matter, not a national security issue. Obviously, national security threats are posed by a very small percentage of illegal aliens (legal and illegal). But overwhelmingly, illegal immigration is a matter of ordinary law-enforcement. The distinction is important because, while national security threats must be defeated, law enforcement problems are managed. We don’t expect to wipe them out. We figure out how many offenders there are and what resources we have to address them, and we deploy the resources in a manner that gives us the biggest bang for the buck.
In immigration enforcement, the biggest bang for the buck is (a) detaining and deporting illegal aliens who are arrested because they’ve committed criminal offenses or come to law-enforcement attention in the course of criminal investigations, and (b) investigating and prosecuting businesses that employ illegal aliens.
The result of this approach would be that millions of illegal aliens would not be arrested or deported, but their lives would be more difficult – as life should be for people who are violating the law. Some percentage of them would leave the U.S.; others would stay in outlaw status – they’d probably continue to be fine if they kept a low profile, but they’d have no guarantee against arrest or deportation. That is the life they’ve chosen for themselves. If they’re not a major crime problem, we don’t need to make a major deportation effort. But we don’t owe them legal status.
There are problems that must be addressed. This is not one of them. Enforce the law reasonably and let the rest take care of itself.
Jeh Johnson DHS Illegal Aliens Here Not Going Anywhere