For many years, politicians from both sides of the aisle have talked about immigration reform. They have always come together to pass such reforms, especially when it comes to illegal immigration, such as with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. Former President Trump ran on a tough platform against immigration, promising to build a wall along our southern border and deport illegal immigrants. However, the amount he deported was tiny compared to the over 3 million deported under his predecessor, President Obama. Now it has become a partisan issue to tackle illegal immigration and secure our border. As the son of immigrants who came from Mexico and who has seen firsthand what our southern border is like, I agree that the GOP needs to implement change. What the party needs to do once we return to power in 2024 is secure our southern border, deport all undocumented immigrants, grant more visas based on education level or the skills one possesses, increase the number of legal immigrants, and continue to accept refugees from authoritarian governments.

Our southern border is in shambles, with more illegal immigrants crossing during the Biden administration than under former President Trump. In the first two years of the Biden administration, there have been over 4.1 million Southwest land border encounters, according to data gathered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That’s more than double the 1.9 million under the Trump administration. The U.S. no longer controls the border, but it is the Mexican cartel that smuggles people and drugs, such as fentanyl, into this country with no regard to what happens once they cross. As of August this year, the CBP has seized 21,846 pounds of fentanyl, compared to 14,104 pounds last year. President Trump had the right idea to construct a wall, but his design can be cut through with the proper equipment. What we need is a secondary wall behind his design, with outposts and CBP agents patrolling in between. To do this, we need to build it in a fiscally responsible way that doesn’t add to our debt and protects those living in the border states.

After we secure our southern border, we need to deport all illegal aliens that have been living in this country. We have immigration laws for a reason, and the time is now to enforce them. We also need to make it easier for people wanting to come into this country to live a better life that will benefit our economy as well. The best way is to have a merit-based immigration system that awards points to people based on their education and skill set. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom have this in place. With the Baby Boomer generation retiring and not as many Americans being born, we need to allow companies to fill those jobs by increasing the number of legal immigrants that come to this country, just as my parents did. Finally, we need to increase the number of refugees fleeing authoritarian governments in our merit-based system. Where would this country be if they turned down Albert Einstein’s refugee application when he fled Nazi Germany? We have accepted people fleeing authoritarian governments in the past and have benefited from their contributions to society. If we increase the number of refugees, then we can continue to improve our country and honor the refugees who chose America as their new sanctuary in the past.