My Immigration Plan for the USA

I have two proposals to handle the immigration problem in the US.  I am OK with being told I am insane, but we have to start somewhere.  My plan has two parts which I will call the Haiti Plan and the Second I’ll call the North & Central America plan or NCAP.

Before I discuss these two separate elements to the plan let me state what I think should be the goal of USA immigration policy.  Our policy should emphasize making as many people happy in their own countries as possible so as to lessen their desire to immigrate, while ensuring adequate levels of skilled labor still enter the country, as well as fulfilling our UN obligations for refugees.  I will emphasize keeping as many people as happy as possible in their own countries with my plan.  Suffice to say what we are doing now does not work.

The Haiti Plan:  Put simply, make Haiti and other similar countries a US Territory.  If the people vote for this, and I think they would, this will solve many problems.  Chief among these is that it would increase our ability to provide stable government and increase the levels of prosperity.  Places like Haiti have shown for decades they do not provide stable government that takes care of their population.  We simply cannot help Haiti on a long-term basis while they still rule.  I suspect most Haitians would love to be a territory of the US.  I think if we can manage it, Cuba is another candidate, and I am all for regime change if this can be managed peacefully.

NCAP involves forming something like the EU with respect to work and trade.  I’m not sure we extend this to currency but if we did, the dollar would have to be the currency and not a new currency because the USD is the world currency despite people who say otherwise.  Although not perfect, the EU did a pretty good job lifting old Soviet block countries out of the hole.  I think many Americans don’t realize how deep that hole was.  NCAP would allow more freedom for workers.  Let us face reality.  The US needs migrant workers to do jobs we don’t want to do.  This is primarily true in agriculture.  NCAP would allow the US to fly workers in from other countries, make more money than they do in their own countries, then fly them back when the harvest season is over.  This is a win-win situation.  Here in Australia, we fly Pacific Islanders in to harvest crops.  They make more money than they ever would back in the islands.  Then we fly them back.  The only reason we allow any Pacific Islander to migrate here permanently is if they are good Rugby Union players.  Joking aside, this works for everyone, and we even had to make pandemic exceptions to fly people in to prevent our crops from rotting on the plants.  NCAP could force better regulatory frameworks on poorer countries, and I expect Canada, the USA, and Mexico would be dominant players.  And if we can add Brazil, which of course is in South America, we can regulate forestation like the EU does.  Yes, the EU had to fight corruption in poorer countries, but overall, things improved.

We must acknowledge two things.  First, what we are doing now does not work.  People want to migrate.  Second, climate change will make matters worse as is being demonstrated already.  The US needs to take a more decisive role in poorer countries and doing so will benefit everyone.  These two plans are high level and there would be many details to work through.  But I think this approach is a sound one in principle.