A serious security threat to our nation is our failure to solve the immigration problem.   A simple way for terrorists to smuggle a bomb into our country is through our porous southern border.  This being so, solving this problem is a very high priority.  Although there are widely differing viewpoints on this issue a solution can be had if all sides focus on an optimum solution instead of a perfect solution.  There is no perfect solution.
An optimum solution to any problem always involves multiple approaches performed at the same time that are directed toward the same goal.  One approach may work better than expected; one may work worse, but used together they will move forward.

Start by developing a tamperproof ID. 

Require each individual residing in our country to obtain a tamperproof ID
verifying whether he is or is not a U. S. citizen within, say, nine months.

Announce in advance that at the end of the nine month period anyone who is not a citizen, and does not have an ID as of that date, will be deported immediately. 

Anyone using a government service such as obtaining a drivers license, school education or medical care would provide citizenship information when they request the service.  Anyone receiving government benefits would therefore be forced to obtain an ID.

All those with IDs who are not U.S. citizens would undergo a security check verifying they have not committed crimes and are not a terror threat to America.

Those who have committed a crime would be deported immediately.  Those who were ascertained to be terror threats would be held in custody.

Those remaining in the country with a security checked ID would be allowed to stay, but with no change in their status. Their status would be left to some future point where their behavior in paying taxes, learning the language, and showing other evidence of assimilating would allow the voters to develop a consensus on how they should be handled.  They should not be granted immediate amnesty as this would reward illegal behavior against those who have patiently waited in line often for years to obtain citizenship.  It would be akin to an officer of the law arresting a speeder and handing him $50.00 instead of a regular ticket or a warning ticket.  The proposal here is like a warning ticket.  It does not change the status but it neither penalizes nor rewards.

Allow county sheriffs of counties adjacent to the border to be responsible for border security in their county.  They know the terrain best and would be best able to give feedback on what was working in their designated area and what was not.  They would coordinate with Border Patrol agents and the National Guard to use their assistance in securing their area physically and electronically as a sort of virtual fence. 

To eliminate the desire of immigrants to come here, employers who hired those without ID cards would be fined, say, $30,000 for each occurrence which would be strictly and equally enforced.  With a fine of this magnitude being enforced, all employers would no longer hire any person without a valid ID.

With regard to seasonal workers or other additional workers needed in America, a system would be set up where the Government of Mexico would be required to set up some sort of employment group like a temporary help service where it took groups of workers and contracted with American companies to use them for a specified period of time.  The Government of Mexico would be responsible for eliminating those individuals they grouped who were terrorists or smugglers.  Duplicate security checks would be performed by the American government and the cost billed back to Mexico until confidence in Mexican security verification was obtained.  The Mexican government would be required to post a bond of, say, $10,000 which they would forfeit on each worker who did not return to Mexico when their contracted period of time was up.  Those workers allowed to work here would be given temporary worker IDs. 

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Here are the practical and political results. 

American companies would have the ready supply of labor that it presently has which is adequate and is already here. 

Because of the large fine no company would hire an individual without a card, which would eliminate the desire of any immigrant to come here to work.  Those still coming here would self identify themselves as drug smugglers or terrorists. Who because they would be fewer in number would be easier to apprehend with the increased force we would be employing.

Those illegal immigrants with ID’s who remained here would very likely have an increase in their income.  As the supply of them would now be fixed, a demand for their very good work skills would increase their income.  So after a short time they would likely be very satisfied with their status.
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American companies who needed an additional supply of workers could now have them regularly available at what would become a price established by the market.  This would eliminate the criticism that they were being exploited.

Mexico would now be forced by its own citizens to learn how to govern.  If they wished to continue to obtain the significant revenue their citizens in America send there, they would learn how to contract with American companies.  And there now would be pressure by their own citizens on them to get their act together.

A fence would be unnecessary, saving untold billions which could now be spent on a heavily guarded border against the truly bad guys.  Forfeited bonds could also help fund the security.  And the ones that did jump bond could receive no government services as they had no ID.  The first time they would be stopped for a traffic violation they would be deported. 

Because of the circumstances, those illegal immigrants with IDs would probably earn more, so either political party’s standing in their eyes would be unchanged.

Employers would not be too disturbed as they and their competition would be in the same boat.  It would affect them negatively only with companies who had not used illegal immigrants earlier.

Republicans would be relatively satisfied as the terror threat would be reduced, their worker supply would not be affected, and they would no longer feel they were being overrun by a foreign culture which was not assimilating.

Democrats would be satisfied that the illegal immigrants were continuing to get other government services and were not being deported.  Their hope would be that the status of illegal immigrants with IDs could be changed at a later date. 

This is one idea.  A businessman always starts with an idea and continually refines it.  The refinement never stops.