TRUMP- A Man of Action

Refreshing? Earth shattering? Surprising? Hopeful? Exciting? I am not sure there are enough adjectives to describe what it is like to finally have a candidate openly and unequivocally declare what they believe and then lay out a proposal that actually supports those beliefs. Well… Trump did both last night! He reaffirmed his belief that a strong nation must enforce its laws, protect its borders and work to advance the interests of its citizens by laying out a multi-pronged policy on immigration reform.

Whether you agree with his plan or not, isn’t nice to finally have a candidate move past platitudes and empty campaign promises to actually layout a plan of action? A willingness to go on record weeks in advance of the election and face an onslaught of criticism from his protagonists shows that Trump is confident in his position and believes he can get the American public, i.e. voters, behind him.

So let’s look at his 10 part plan of action:

One, his promise to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it is brilliant. Why? Because it needs to be done and it is the big idea and seemingly insurmountable task that challenges and excites our “overcome and win-all” American spirit… We landed on the moon for crying out loud! I think we can build a 1,000-mile wall. And to all the naysayers who laugh about Mexico actually paying for it, it is not like Trump is going to ask them to write a check. There are diverse ways that we can have Mexico fund the wall through cutting aid, taxes, re-negotiating trade deals, tariffs, etc. Anyway, “if there is a will, there is a way,” as my mom always said, so it can be done and will be done if we have a President with the gumption to do it.

Two, he will end the policy of “catch and release” that has been the hallmark of the Obama administration’s immigration policy. Does it make sense to anyone to spend money to have ICE or CBP catch illegal immigrants and then release them in the U.S.? It’s insane. If we are going to have a police force on the border they need to be allowed to do their jobs and send people back to the countries they came from. It’s like stopping a shoplifter, verifying they’re shoplifting, then releasing them into a store where they will continue to shoplift. It makes no sense and is why Trump’s commitment to end the current administration’s “catch and release” policy is so important.

Three, zero tolerance for criminal aliens. Need I say more? Who really disagrees with this? Do we want to be a nation that harbors criminals? The faster we can get them out of our country and keep them from coming in the better. I wonder if he can send some of our own felons with them… oh wait, probably wouldn’t pass Constitutional muster, so we won’t go there.

Four, block funding for “sanctuary cities.” I guess the first question I have is why federal money is going to cities in the first place? Instead of just cutting off sanctuary cities, let’s do ourselves a favor and altogether stop the city welfare train in its tracks. I guess that won’t happen overnight, so this proposal is a first step in the right direction, but I’m not comfortable with any proposal that assumes federally funding of cities, states or other entities is always appropriate.

Five, cancel Obama executive orders on immigration. Whew… there is some serious unwinding to do after Congress has allowed Obama to run willy-nilly with their legislative powers. Trump has a lot of cancellations to do and I hope he will not start issuing his own… resist the urge to abuse your powers sir.

Six, suspend visas from certain countries that don’t have adequate screenings. I am not sure why the left is so incensed by this. The ongoing issues at home and abroad have shown that the screening process is severely lacking and needs to be improved. A temporary moratorium to allow us to get our house in order is not only reasonable, but logical, and in the end will save innocent American lives. This may inconvenience a few folks who would like to get into our country immediately and are completely safe, but I am completely safe and am inconvenienced every time a TSA agent in the name of safety gropes me. It stinks, but I am not about to go soft on screening when the result could be catastrophic.

Seven, make sure countries take back their citizens that we deport. I honestly don’t know exactly how we would do this in practice, but I am sure there are processes in place for the proper reentry and establishment of illegal immigrants. We need our allies and other nations to take responsibility for their citizens and can’t be expected to do their job for them.

Eight, initiate the bio-metric visa tracking system. We all know that people overstaying their visas is a huge problem. Implementing and enforcing a tracking system will go a long way in solving this issue. The 9/11 attacks were led by terrorists who had overstayed their visas. Let’s make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.

Nine, discontinue and stop benefits. It’s all about risks and rewards people. If we remove the incentives that bring illegal immigrants here in the first place, then we won’t have such a huge problem. Trump promised to expand E-Verify to stop employers from hiring illegals and would also cut-off welfare benefits like food stamps. Once again, it’s a fairly logical approach. Stop incentivizing people to break the law.

Ten, reform legal immigration. Once again, Trump points to the need to have an “American first” immigration policy and the American worker should be given the priority when it comes to allocating jobs and resources. Do we run our households any different? Does someone adopt a child if they in turn won’t be able to feed the child they already have? I hate thinking about the federal government in a paternalistic way, but the analogy holds. We as a country need to care for our own first.

A plan folks… an honest to goodness attempt at putting a coherent plan together and a promise to put it in action. I don’t care what you may think about Trump, I know many of us had other candidates in the primaries that we preferred, but give the guy credit for trying to articulate a policy that could really work. An immigration reform plan that our country desperately needs and has been waiting for for years. After being sorely disappointed by ineffectual leadership in Congress and an unwillingness to make the hard choices to fulfill campaign promises, I want to elect someone who will get things done. More and more, I am starting to think that Trump is a man of action and that is exactly what conservatives need… someone to take back the ground that we’ve lost to the progressive liberal movement.

Read it for yourself if you want to get a better look at Trump’s policies: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/immigration-reform