These two problems are capable of resolution in one fell swoop. Allow easier entry and a Social Security number to everyone who comes uninvited. Vet all who enter to weed out criminals, terrorists and those from nations whose stated goals are clearly against our democratic interests.
Make them pay into Social Security and Medicare with none of those funds accruing to their own benefit until they complete the stringent and lengthy process of becoming a citizen or obtaining permanent resident status.
Only then do the amounts withheld from their wages accrue to their own benefit. They get no public benefits. No WIC, no food stamps, no free school lunch. No Medicare.
This is the penalty for coming uninvited.
Some would say this is unconstitutional, to require them to pay into a system from which they derive no benefit. Really? I don’t get WIC, food stamps, or free lunch from the government. That list goes on, yet I pay into a system that provides that to others.
I am not a heartless “white guy.” My paternal grandmother, Ines Eva Trejo, (God rest her soul) came to this country from Mexico in 1913, when the border was at least as porous as it is now, and married a white man. I straddled two cultures. My first employer was a legal resident from Mexico. I attended elementary school and church in Midvale, with other Hispanic kids.
Grandma had no birth certificate, so leaving the country voluntarily became impossible until Sen. Orrin Hatch was able to get her a passport so she could visit the birthplace of her father, Meliton Trejo. She worked and paid into the system and received the benefits that citizens born here receive.
Yeah, I have a white surname, but I know a little more about this than the average white guy. Congress? Are you listening? There is a cure to both problems. Marry them together.
James Trejo Dunn, Salt Lake City
