Gardner C. Osborne
for
U. S. Congress Texas-12
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Problem: The United States has a significant number of illegal aliens from many different countries. Most estimates are in the range of 15 to 20 million. These people work here but, due to their illegal status, most do not pay income and other taxes. Additionally, we do not know the background or have the ability to locate these people.
Cause: The reasons that most of these people come to America is for economic reasons. JOBS! The current political stance is a mess. We can not deport them all: impossible to catch and transport 20 million people, the economic loss would be devastating to the economy. We can not officially integrate them; we have scared everyone that they are criminals and terrorist.
Solution: The solution is fix the root cause of the problem. Jobs and opportunity within their home country. This solution has two parts, Economics 101: US work visas and Home country reform tax.
The US has a productive economy because we support the foundations of capitalism. Capitalism is based upon free markets for trade, technology and labor and a reliable system of property rights. The US has a need for labor and many foreign countries have an excess of labor. Therefore, I support the issuance of work visas (green cards) for all foreign workers within the US that provide basic biometric data (photo, fingerprints, name, etc.) and agree to a $1000 fine for past illegal entry (payable over 2 years). All of these individuals will be issued a tax ID number and will be paying into our system. If they would like to become American citizens, then after 5 years of work visa status without criminal activity and passing citizenship testing, they will be American citizens.
Step two, Reforming their home country. These work visa holders will be required to pay an additional tax of 5% on their tax returns to be transferred to a non-profit quasi government corporation. Every country with work visas holders in the US will have a separate non-profit corporation. Ex. Reform Mexico Corp or Reform China Corp. These non-profit corporation will issue financial statements and reports concerning their efforts to reform the private property rights, make the judicial system impartial and effective, improve the market place for goods and services for their home country. The work visa holders will vote on the members of the Board of Directors for their home country Reform Corporation, when we vote for Congressmen. (every 2 years)
Once Congress has decided that the home country has reformed their economy and judicial system to a level comparable to our, I propose to open the border with that country. There would now be equal opportunity for workers and companies to provide goods and services in either economy. This would be a huge incentive for the home countries to elect, reformer candidates. Once the home economy has opportunities similar to ours, workers will not want to or need to travel to the US for jobs.
These steps will accomplish the following: greater security from knowing who is in our country, increase revenue from otherwise cash based workers, resolve past illegal entry issues with a reasonable penalty, rapidly reform the home countries of illegal workers, restore one of the foundations of a market based economy - the freedom for labor to travel on equal terms with capital, goods and services.