A new plank in the Centrist Party Platform...

is our new approach to the issue of illegal immigration.  Any attempt to solve this problem is stymied by the issue of what to do with the 11 million or so who are already here.  But if we could seal the border and make a determination that anyone who is not in this nation on the date we impose this proposal, we could solve the problem.

Take all of those who are here currently here and give them a legal status.  A status that contains no path to citizenship.  Non-resident non-citizen permanent alien status cards would be issued to them.  They would have the right to work.  Some of our social safety nets may or may not be available to them, depending on how government chooses to structure those safety nets in the future.  They would be eligible for old age benefits under Social Security. 

It's a good solution.  They might not make enough money to owe large amounts of income tax, but they would pay into Social Security.  They would be part of the real economy, not an underground cash economy.  It would be much easier to enforce the rules of immigration involving employers because the gigantic pool of illegal immigrants would no longer be there.

It's a temporary fix because all of the children of these non-citizens would be endowed with citizenship at birth.  We could even choose to allow the minor children who are currently here illegally a path to citizenship because they shouldn't be held responsible for the choice to come here in violation of immigration law because they weren't adults at the time.

This requires that we take the required actions to seal the borders once and for all.  One part of doing this requires implementation of another Centrist Party platform plank.  Legalize marijuana on the federal level.  Most of the drugs smuggled into the U.S. are pot.  They are smuggled because there is a profit motive.  Legalization would eliminate the bulk of that profit.  Pot smugglers are often involved with the smuggling of illegals as well.  We can't build an impenetrable fence along all of the borders, but we can do a better job of closing the gaps where people are snuck in on a nightly basis.

Two more planks for our party platform.