Time to Get Tough

by Donald Trump

  For a Canadian applicant to be considered for permanent residency, he must score a minimum of 67 points out of 100. He must also have a minimum of one year of full-time work experience in a desired skill area within the last ten years. The better the immigrant’s attributes, the higher the score. If the alien doesn’t earn 67 points and is serious about wanting to live in Canada, he can work on developing his marketable skills until he does qualify. For example, if the applicant isn’t a college graduate, he can go home, get a college degree, and add 25 points to his total and reapply. As a result, roughly half of Canada’s immigrants have a bachelor’s degree.21

  Canada’s legal immigration system also requires that before an immigrant qualifies for Canada’s equivalent of Social Security, he has to have been resident in the country for at least ten of his adult years. In America, we only require five years.22

  Work Visas

  Our country’s leaders are just so plain stupid. As an example, foreign students come over to our colleges, learn everything there is to learn about physics, finance, mathematics, and computers, and graduate with honors. They would love to stay in this country, but we don’t allow them to. We immediately ship them back to their country to use all of the knowledge they learned at the best colleges in the United States back in their country rather than keep it here in ours.

  When we have gifted people in this country we should cherish them and let them stay. But instead we fling our arms wide open to the lowlifes, the criminals, the people who have no intention to contribute to our country. We spend billions of dollars taking care of them as they, in many cases, run rampant through our streets, doing many things you’re not supposed to do. But the great ones, we immediately expel.

  Wouldn’t it be better if we invited foreign students graduating from our colleges to stay to build American companies, instead of foreign companies that will be wreaking havoc against Boeing, Caterpillar, and many other of our great American companies in the future?

  If we adopted this commonsense merit-based approach, our immigration policy would be guided by what benefits America. That’s the way it ought to be. If American businesses need immigrants with particular technical skills, by all means, let’s hire them. The privilege of becoming an American citizen should be about the value an immigrant brings to our country, not about an open door for anyone and everyone who wants to come here.

  Bottom line: living in America is the greatest blessing a person could ever receive. If people want to live and work here, they should bring something to the table, not just be feasting off it.

  The 5-Point Trump Plan

  Now, as for what to do about illegal immigration, we should follow the repeal of the anchor baby provisions with a five-point program to create a smart and humane plan to get illegal immigration under control. It starts with securing our borders. Look, if a nation can’t protect its own borders, it ceases to be a country. We’re not just some landmass that anyone who wants to can trample on at will. I believe America is an exceptional nation worthy of protection. That requires getting tough on border enforcement. We can and should have a robust debate over whether that means continuing to build the physical border fence or utilizing “virtual fences” that use lasers as trip wires to monitor illegal border crossings.

  From the research my people have shown me, I’m not impressed with the mediocre success rates of the current crop of virtual fences that have been developed and tested. I am, however, impressed with the success of the double- and triple-layered fence in places like Yuma, Arizona. The wall there is a serious 20-foot wall. It has three walls separated by 75-yard “no man’s lands” for border agents to zoom up and down in vehicles. It also has cameras, radio systems, radar, and pole-topped lights.23 “This wall works,” says U.S. border patrol agent Michael Bernacke. “A lot of people have the misconception that it is a waste of time and money, but the numbers of apprehensions show that it works.” After the triple-layered fence was installed, the 120-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexican border known as the Yuma sector experienced a 72 percent plunge in illegal immigrant apprehensions. Before the fence was installed, 800 people were apprehended attempting to enter America each day. Post-fence, that number was 50 or fewer.24

  Some say Yuma’s flat terrain makes it a special case and that other parts of the border aren’t conducive to that kind of fence. In that case, we just need to be ready to build other kinds of fences, too. The point is that properly built walls work. We just need the political will to finish the job. And by the way, finishing the job will employ a lot of construction workers. Moreover, I call on Congress and the president to hire another 25,000 border patrol agents and give them the aerial equipment they need, such as Predator drones, to provide real-time aerial reconnaissance information to agents guarding the border wall.

  Second, we need a president who will enforce our laws. Right now, in a sneaky attempt to appease the strong and well-organized pro-amnesty lobby, the Department of Homeland Security has, on Obama’s orders, put a freeze on the deportation of 300,000 illegal immigrants. The administration says it wants to review each case individually and will only deport illegal aliens with criminal records, and that “no enforcement resources will be expended on those who do not pose a threat to public safety.”25

  This wholesale abdication of a president’s constitutional duties is as shocking as it is foolish. It’s political pandering of the worst kind. Worse, Obama has said these aliens who were slated for deportation can obtain work permits !26 So in Obama we have a president who is not only not enforcing our laws, he is helping illegal immigrants to break them further! Obama wants to reward illegal immigrants by giving them the chance to take yet another American job. “The lesson for illegal aliens,” says James R. Edwards Jr., coauthor of The Congressional Politics of Immigration Reform, is that if they get “caught, they can escape immigration trouble, win legal status and seek a work permit.”27

  How can we ask our brave U.S. border agents to risk their lives when the commander in chief is just going to shrug his shoulders and let 300,000 illegals make a mockery of our laws? It’s a total disgrace. Obama should be ashamed to play politics on an issue of such national importance. But he’s not. He thinks it’s cute and makes jokes about it, and he thinks it will win him votes on the insulting assumption that Latino Americans don’t care about America’s laws. The evidence is clear that President Obama certainly doesn’t care about America’s immigration laws. After all, two of his relatives—his uncle Omar Onyango Obama (arrested for drunk driving in Massachusetts) and his aunt Zeituni Onyango—are illegal aliens who have magically avoided deportation, with his aunt having finally been awarded asylum. Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa has called for congressional hearings into whether the White House intervened on behalf of President Obama’s relatives. But of course the bigger scandal is that it is Obama administration policy to give special treatment to all illegal aliens—to treat them as if they are legal.

  You just can’t make this stuff up. Can you imagine the national firestorm the liberal media would have stoked had President George W. Bush had not one but two illegal immigrant family members who had received special treatment and been permitted to stay in America?28 Or what if President Bush had failed to enforce environmental laws and gave orders to federal agencies to help businesses break such laws? Democrats would have called for Bush’s impeachment. But not this president. The liberal media protect Obama every way they can.

  The third thing we need to do is overturn Obama’s insane new ICE recommendations for illegal immigrant detention facilities. In an effort to coddle illegal aliens, officials at nine detention facilities have now been instructed to make the following changes:• Soften the look for the facility with hanging plants, flower baskets, new paint colors . . . wall graphics and framed pictures on the walls, and enhance the aesthetics of the living areas....

  • Expand programming for detainees to include movie nights, bingo, arts and crafts, dance, walk and exercise classes, health
and welfare classes, basic cooking classes, tutoring and self-paced computer training on portable computer stations....

  • Provide celebrations of special occasions and [allow] a detainee to receive outside, packaged food for celebrations....

  • Provide fresh carrot sticks and celery or other vegetables in a bar format....

  • Provide self-serve beverage bars....

  • Offer water and tea in the housing area at all times.

  • Provide a unit manager so detainees have someone available to talk to and to solve problems in the facility other than the immediate guard....

  • Survey community-based immigration advocacy groups and immigration attorneys for suggestions that may improve communication and ease of access....

  • Increase availability of legal supplies and postage ... for legal correspondence.

  • Add research resources at the law libraries....

  • [Provide] non-penal clothing for detainees to wear.

  • Eliminate lock downs and lights out....

  • Reduce the frequency of and . . . wholly eliminate pat down searches....

  • Provide four hours or more hours of recreation in a natural setting. . . .

  • Provide internet-based free phone service.

  • Provide email access for detainees....29

  That’s right, your government now requires resort-like accommodations—paid for by you, the American taxpayer—to reward the flood of people entering our country illegally. Obama has turned America into a laughingstock. Our next president must stop this insanity.

  The next part of my plan involves opposing the so-called DREAM Act, which grants in-state tuition benefits at public colleges and universities to illegal immigrant college students. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) proposal is yet another attempt by Obama and his pro-amnesty pals to create new anchors and rewards for those who defy our laws.

  So get this: under the DREAM Act, if you’re not a citizen but a child of illegal immigrants, then you get in-state tuition benefits, but if you’re a legal citizen living out of state, you have to pay higher tuition. So an American student in Texas who wants to go to college in Arizona will have to pay more in tuition than a non-citizen student living illegally in Arizona. How fair is that? The fact that legislation like the DREAM Act has even seen the light of day shows you just how upside down our immigration policies have become—and just how far politicians are willing to pander to what they see as a Latino voting bloc. Sacrificing American laws on the altar of political expediency is immoral. If Congress is ever foolish enough to pass legislation that grants tuition breaks for illegal aliens, America’s next president must have the political courage and constitutional conviction to veto it.

  Democrats need to respect our laws, respect the fact that Latino Americans are as interested in the rule of law as anyone else, respect the immigrants who are patiently and lawfully standing in line for legal citizenship, and most of all respect our own citizens who should not have the rule of law, their jobs, even their lives and their nation’s future put at risk by irresponsible Washington politicians. That’s the sort of “hope and change” we need, not a commander in chief who thinks border security and the rule of law is a joke.

  TEN

  THE AMERICA OUR CHILDREN DESERVE

  Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

  —President Ronald Reagan

  Barack Obama has done an incredible job of tarnishing our kids’ futures.

  He’s saddled our children with more debt than we accumulated in 225 years in America. He’s bowed down to China and allowed them to steal our economic future through currency manipulation and ripping off our technological and military secrets. He’s failed to stand up to the Middle Eastern oil mobsters known as OPEC who think they can hold us hostage through higher prices at the pump. He’s unleashed Obamacare on our small businesses and brought job creation and hiring to a screeching halt.

  And he’s created an economic climate where young people out of college face incredible uncertainty. Three years ago, 90 percent of college graduates landed a job out of college. Today, under the community organizer, that figure is a depressing 56 percent.1

  I love America. I’m saddened by what I see happening to our country. We’re being humiliated, disrespected, and badly abused. Obama was a leftist experiment that has failed and gone horribly wrong, and everyone knows it. Even friends of mine who voted for the guy privately admit that he’s been a huge disappointment. We cannot afford four more years of this mess. Our children’s futures are on the line—and we have to come through for them. We have to get tough so that our country can be great again.

  We have to get tough on OPEC. These oil thugs rip us off year after year. We’ve had no leadership in Washington willing to stand up to them and put a stop to it. We have spent hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives in Iraq, and now Libya, and gotten nothing in return but disrespect and ingratitude. That must end. Now. I say we take the oil. No more free military support. Either you pay us to defend you or we take the oil. It’s fair and smart, which is probably why the politicians in Washington haven’t implemented it.

  We have to get tough on China. For every one American child there are four Chinese. China is out to steal our kids’ jobs, and so far they’re doing a tremendous job of it. They’ve manipulated their currency to such an unbelievable degree that they have destroyed our manufacturing sector. It’s time to bring American manufacturing back to life. It’s encouraging that the U.S. finally did as I have been saying for over a year and got tough on China’s currency manipulation. The president should sign that measure into law effective immediately. Unfair trade is not free trade. China cheats and wins to the tune of more than $300 billion a year. No more. They either must play by the rules or they pay the price. End of story.

  It’s time our leaders in Washington wake up and realize that China’s massive military buildup is producing weapons with our names on them. Our kids are the ones who will be facing down the Chinese in the years to come. If we don’t get tough and put a stop to their rampant theft of our military and technological secrets, we will have failed the next generation of Americans miserably. Those who pretend China is our friend are either naïve, incompetent, or both. The Chinese can be reined in easily—we are their biggest customer. All we need is a president willing to stand up, not bow down, to China.

  I believe we are at a monumental fork in the American road. I always say that the next election is the “most important election” in our lifetimes. Our national debt is at $15 trillion. Just imagine what Obama will do if he knows he’s not facing reelection? What kind of damage to our national security and international standing will we suffer over the next four years with Obama bowing down to a rising Russia and China? It’s horrifying to think about.

  America the Exceptional

  But maybe my biggest beef with Obama is his view that there’s nothing special or exceptional about America—that we’re no different than any other country. If a guy is that clueless about the character of America, he has no business being the leader of America. Our country is the greatest force for freedom the world has ever known. We have big hearts, big brains, and big guts—and we use all three. In the past our free market capitalist system has created more wealth and prosperity than any government-controlled economy could ever dream of doing. Because of that wealth, we give more in charity than any other country, and twice as much as the second most generous nation.2

  Obama thinks America would be better off if we acted more like European socialist countries—many of which are in default and economic freefall. I think America would be better off if we ditch the community organizer experiment and get back to being the America we’ve been since our Founding Fathers risked their lives to create our country.

  In 2012, our nation needs
to send Barack Obama a message. We need to say loud and clear: Mr. President, we’re not interested in your utopian vision of “fundamentally transforming America.” We like the vision our Founding Fathers and the Constitution created just fine. If that’s what you meant by “hope and change,” you can keep the change. We’re not interested.

  We need a leader who will get tough, get smart, and get America working again. I believe America is worth fighting for. I believe America has nothing to apologize for. I believe America can get back her greatness. But we need a tough leader for tough times—someone who isn’t afraid to do hard things. We must find and elect that leader so our children and grandchildren will inherit an America as free and safe as the one we grew up in. The price of failure is too great—we have to succeed. The fate of freedom rests on it.

  We have to get tough on the notion that government is the solution to every problem. It’s not. As President Reagan said, “Government isn’t the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” Barack Obama is the most liberal president the United States has ever dared to elect. When he was running for office, Obama warned the country that his goal was to “fundamentally transform America” and that he believed in “spreading the wealth around.” Now, with three years under his belt, America looks like an economic wasteland. One out of every five men you pass on your way to work is out of work. Every seventh person you pass on the sidewalk is now on food stamps. Forty-six million Americans—more than at any time ever in the history of this country—now live under the poverty line. Businesses are being shuttered. Foreclosure rates are at historic highs. For the first time in American history, the United States has lost its triple-A credit rating. Gas prices have doubled. Our national debt has exploded. Jobs and economic growth are nowhere in sight.