Sent the following letter (email) to my congressmen today:
One complaint about undocumented residents is that they tend to commit crimes. So, how about granting visas to those who help us fight crime? Those living in Mexico are living amongst the drug runners, sometimes learning things about them that could lead to prosecution. But, they dare not sing on them for fear of reprisals. And, if they come to the U.S., they dare not turn over information as that would be turning themselves in to be deported. But, if we gave them a visa (I call it a Sing Visa) they could pass over the information, and we could pass it back to the Mexican authorities to have them prosecuted. Or, if the information implicates them on U.S. laws, we could request extradition and prosecute them here.
Many of those coming illegally across our border are forced to smuggle -- at point of their lives. They, too, should be afforded the Sing Visa. Just as we normally choose not to prosecute some who are involved in crime if they testify against the key perpetrators, so we should do with these who are forced to smuggle. While it is those who are being forced to smuggle we want to help, the law should not require proof that they were forced, as that would often be hard to ascertain. Rather, it should in the hands of the law enforcement officers, allowing them to make the judgment on whether to take the case, or whether to go ahead and prosecute the immigrants, themselves, for the smuggling.
Legislation such as this can benefit both sides of the contentious immigration issue. It will help fight crime entering our country, and it will allow many otherwise unauthorized immigrants a way to be here legally.
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