Solutions

Political disagreements cost energy. Effort. If we stopped playing games with posturing and public relations gambits, the American people would see solutions to those problems. For example, illegal immigration is a perennial hot topic. Whichever political party is not in the White House, makes a point about unresolved border crossings by undocumented immigrants.

How much of this issue is actually a problem? If we handled it as a normal influx of immigrants, what cost for that administration compared with treating the issue as an illegal immigrant influx? The border defense is one cost. Tracking down and capturing illegal immigrants is another cost. Processing them through the court system is yet another cost. Tracking each case in this complicated system is another high-cost process. Returning the immigrants to the border and removing them from our country is a major cost factor. Now, add to all of that reuniting families caught up in this mess and the expense just jumped beyond enormous.

There are other ramifications of the above paragraph. No sense going into it, really. We must stop at some point and simply state the obvious: “We need to define the problem in need of a fix, then find an appropriate solution to it. Several options exist. Which will produce long term outcomes most of the nation supports? What potential negative effects are possible and how do we administer to reduce the negative results and gain positives?

The truth of the matter is illegal immigration is a national issue in need of a solution. No one party or political sect owns or causes this issue to exist. The only logical matter is to find a solution to the issue together so we can move on to other, more pressing problems needing our attention.

The nature of politics, however, has muddied this issue for generations. I repeat, generations. This is not a new problem. It has been around since I was a kid and I’m 80 today. So? Fix it.

My personal feeling on the issue is simple: we need more people living in our nation to handle all of the work and skills required to operate a smoothly functioning nation. Welcoming all comers seems a good place to start. I know that many would disagree with me on this, but every treatment of the problem will have opposing views. The only logical conclusion is the problem needs to be managed in its full form to arrive at workable, affordable, and value-oriented solutions.

We can do this. America is good at solving problems. Cease the political chicanery and we have both the time, financial resources and talent to address the problem appropriately.

Please. Let us do this. Congress needs to do this. No excuses. No games. Just do it.

December 18, 2023