Many Americans and legislators are aware that the US immigration system has many problems. President Obama as well as many other lawmakers have called the system broken, while issues such as undocumented immigration, immigrant criminals, delayed immigration processes and all manner of immigration-related injustices make the headlines almost daily.
One problem is that there is almost no consensus about how to deal with these problems. A number of solutions have been proposed, but none have full support. For example, some individuals feel that offering amnesty is the best way to deal with undocumented immigration while others feel that deporting undocumented immigrants is the best solution, and many people have other solutions that fall between these two extremes.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican, has recently offered some solutions related to the issue of undocumented immigration. Rubio, who has Cuban parents, is often considered a possible vice presidential candidate and has previously stated that immigration is an issue close to his heart.
Rubio has criticized President Obama’s immigration policies. He has also stated that immigration is the US is about the families and about economics. In many cases, people arrive in the US to offer themselves and their families a better life. He believes that any immigration solution needs to address these fundamental reasons behind immigration. For example, he feels that one of the problems associated with the current broken system is not only that it affects immigrants, but also the US economy as a whole. The broken immigration system, according to Rubio, also deprives the US of talent, skills, and workers who could better the country.
Rubio thinks that a “functional guest worker” solution is needed. This system would allow people from all over the world to enter the US to work temporarily on visas and would then ensure that those workers left once their visa terms were ended. In order for this to happen, an affordable electronic employee verification system is needed as well as better border security to ensure that those workers who are in the US are legally allowed to be here.
According to Rubio, neither deportation not amnesty are a solution for the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the US. Rubio thinks that one solution is to offer a new type of permanent residency to the children of undocumented immigrants. This way, argues Rubio, undocumented immigration would not be rewarded but would still allow undocumented students to become assets rather than problems in the US.