Immigration Insanity

Why are we having all this immigration insanity? America is a nation of immigrants so why is the subject so confusing suddenly? Find those who are illegally living and working and leading productive lives here and simply tax them. If they don’t like the tax they will leave. Force out the criminals. Sounds like a simple plan to me. As usual Trump has to create insanity. He is expelling immigrants without a court hearing. Denying people due process is convenient   to him because the countries immigration courts are already overwhelmed. It is not surprising that people from all over the world want the stability and wealth that this country can provide since there are so many countries in strife now.

Look at the numbers. There are 374 judicial positions that review immigration cases. There is a judge shortage so now there are only 301 Federal Immigration Judges in those jobs. At the end of   January, the immigration court system had a backlog of 542,646 cases and that was before the Trump Administration started ramping up raids. One Judge can go through about 750 cases per year. So do the math. 542,646 divided by (301x7590) gives you about 2.5 years to get through every case already in the system by just one judge. Deportations would swell the backlog even more. Everyone deserves their day in court.

The Department of Homeland Securities new mandate to deport any illegal immigrant who has committed any infraction has everyone undocumented on edge. It is already causing severe damage to the economy. Sure throw them out of the country. The housing industry is suffering. Those people lived in rental properties. They owned homes that are now vacant and not rented. The homeownership of people born out of America is now at 50%. The countries estimated 40 million immigrants contribute 3.7 trillion dollars to our housing market and that number is from a 2013 study. It is hard to get the facts now but it should be even higher numbers.

A recent analysis by the Migration Policy Institute estimates that more than 3 million live in a home that they or a family member own. Mortgage lenders have been directly marketing to them. First Choice Loan Services Inc. will finance home loans to DACA Recipients. They are helping immigrants who were brought here as children.  If we don’t make people feel like they can have a home here, home prices will suffer. The working class immigrant is fueling society with cash. Eliminate that cash flow and we all suffer. Housing is not the only sector that will suffer without immigrants. They do not only live somewhere, they buy clothing and food and any product they can afford just like a legal citizen.

They make up a big part of the labor force including the food industry. Without them food wouldn’t be picked, cooked, houses cleaned, lawn’s mowed and anything you needed would suffer shortages. Trump might want to get rid of all undocumented immigrants instead of help these law abiding people get documented faster. With his type of reform we all will eventually suffer. Instead of all the name calling at Presidential Debates we need real solutions put forth when we have to decide on who we vote for.