Titled:   A Fair Trade

Wizbang comes up with a novel concept to solve the immigration problem, both legal and illegal:

One of the more popular arguments against a crackdown on illegal aliens has been the "do you know how hard it would be to deport 12 million people?" My standard reply has been "then we better start soon."

Yesterday, I heard an interesting idea on a talk show. A caller suggested that we couple deporting illegal aliens with increased legal immigration. This was not a new idea, but his iteration of it was: a simple one-for-one exchange: for every illegal sent back, one legal is allowed in.

I think this is a good idea, but it could stand improving. Instead of a simple one-for-one exchange, I propose that for every illegal alien deported to their home country, one applicant currently going through the legal process is chosen at random for expedited processing. We, at once, punish the law-breakers and reward those obeying the laws.

(I have no idea how this will also get twisted into some form of racism/bigotry/xenophobia, but I have absolute faith in the illegal-alien advocates to find a way to do so.)

This could also have the benefit of fully splitting off the legal immigrants from the pro-illegal side, as suddenly they have an incentive to turn in illegals. If sending Sven down the street back to Norway means that Cousin Lars will have a chance to jump to the head of the legal line, then that just might do the trick the next time Sven annoys Lars' cousin.

I am loath to use such a cliche' as "thinking outside the box," but this notion is a perfect example of that. It's making the statement I believe we need to make -- we welcome and value immigrants, but ONLY if they obey the rules and respect the law from the outset. It punishes lawbreakers and rewards those following the rules. It's incredibly simple, self-explanatory, and could work wonders for the problem.

Naturally, I expect it to go exactly nowhere.

As a legal immigrant, and now a naturalized, fully-integrated and assimilated US citizen, I applaud this line of thought. Big problems have to be solved one step at a time. And anything that expedites the immigration of those willing to do things in a legal manner is a blessing. The endless forms, embassy interviews, afidavits of financial support, medicals, money and months and months of waiting sort the chaff from the wheat. And most Brits don't qualify to come here unless they get a job first, which is hard if you don't live here and can't legally come here on a visit to look for work. Brits don't even get a chance to play in the green card lottery. Yet they generally have a good education, reasonable health and speak English already.

I know of several families in the UK that are desperate to move to the US and can't. Families that work hard and want to become a part of society. Reform is long overdue.