A couple of days ago when my good friend Oli had to go back to Britain, unwillingly, I got angry enough to post my idea of an immigration policy, which I've thought a lot about, on Twitter, in a handful of posts. That's right peeps. Immigration policy does not need to be complicated. In fact, most government operations do not need to be complicated.

The main problem with US immigration policy is that it tries to be all things to all people, and fails miserably. Laws have been added on over the years without trimming old ones. Lawmakers have focused on individual issues, without looking at the big picture, or they've looked at the big picture without looking at the individual issues.

The American public (including many lawmakers) views immigration as an affront to "sacrosanct" American values (when the irony is that we are *all* immigrants or descendants thereof, essentially). Worse, there is an overwhelming stench of racism in the immigration debate that disses anyone with a hint of brown skin. *Gaegh*. Brown's just as good as white is peeps. Get over it.

So, taking in consideration that the Constitution posits that all people are inherently equal, we ought to have an immigration policy that treats immigrants like people, as nascent Americans who are contributors, not as potential criminals that will bleed the system dry of resources. Our policy should also not make distinction for country of origin (the horrid lottery system needs to be abolished, as well as decades-long waiting lists for people from certain countries).

Here's the policy:

1. Put foreign students who graduate automatically on a citizenship path. It doesn't make sense to invest tax money in developing students who won't stay in the country. Keep bright minds.
   
2. For everyone who is not a tourist, conduct a background check. Don't allow criminals in unless they have been pardoned in their home country, have not committed a crime in 10 years, or their crime would not be considered a crime in the US (i.e. former political prisoners).
   
3. Immigrant candidates must prove they can support themselves financially for 6 months. This includes family support, an offer of employment, scholarship, or grant. This would be reduced or waived for qualified refugees. All imigrants have the same visa regardless of the reason they've come to America -- no more arcane visa categories.
   
4. Give each immigrant a social security number on entrance. This allows the immigrant to establish bank accounts, get local identification, pay taxes and become employed. For employment, make everything the same as for a normal worker to reduce redtape and complexity (ergo cost) for the employer. Employer must however consider qualified citizens first.
   
5. After three years clean record (go back to zero if immigrant commits a crime), achieving English proficiency (if not already), and acquiring knowledge of citizen responsibilities, start on the citizenship path.
6. To acquire citizenship, the immigrant gets 10 citizens to vouch for his/her character and commitment. Present to judge. Take oath, and done.

Remember that the benefits of citizenship are voting, participation in government, serving on juries (not necessarily a benefit depending on your view...), and social programs. These would be reserved for citizens. Employment, residency, and equal treatment by the law should not be exclusive to citizens. A person does not have *any* control over where he or she is born, and should not be punished by legal systems (in this country and others) for their geographical coordinates of birth. People do have control over what skills they learn, who they decide to be morally, and what culture they identify with. Migration ought to be a basic human right, and while immigration should not be trivial, it should not be overly expensive, require legal representation, or be bureaucratically impossible to achieve.

As for the issue of "illegal" immigrants currently residing in the US, decriminalize and normalize. Breaking immigration laws as a consequence of bureaucratic inefficiency is not the same as grand theft auto (I have a friend with a PhD from a US university who is relatively wealthy who has struggled for well over a decade to obtain citizenship and spent over $10K in the process. I have another friend who got her greencard for a reasonable few thousand dollars from the Russian mafia (while married to an American). If they have trouble coloring in the lines, how is a low-income immigrant supposed to do it?) It's a farce to consider illegal immigration illegal. As for the normalization part of it, put anyone in the US onto step 4 above. Rinse. Repeat.

What do you think? Bad idea, good idea? Awesome or horridly flawed?