I’m afraid that I – and many others on both the right and the left – are quite guilty of failing to use our brains when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration. Too often we have been told and we have accepted the idea that removing illegal aliens from the borders of the United States is essentially physically impossible. Therefore, argue the proponents of this dubious proposition (including myself at various points), we must accept some form of amnesty as an alternative to the all-out chaos and probable bloodshed which would result from any attempted mass deportation.

It occurs to me now that the deportation of illegal immigrants could, if the Congress could muster sufficient will, be conducted without cost, without bloodshed, and, in general, with a fairly rapid speed and with a minimum of fuss and difficulty. How? The answer is both simple and obvious: we find ways to “encourage” illegal aliens to self-repatriate.

I’m sure that some will notice my use of quotation marks around the word encourage. By those I do not mean to suggest that I believe that forcing illegals back across the border at gunpoint is either advisable or politically desirable. I like to call the approach which I’ve devised “Soft Deportation”, in contrast to the “Hard Deportation” of force. Think of it, if you will, as a nicer way of telling illegal aliens to get the hell out of the country.

To begin to understand how this will work, we must first come to grips with a simple question: why are illegal aliens in the United States? They are here, for the most part, not because they are lazy or shiftless – very much the opposite – but because they want to earn money for their families, either to send it back to their home nations or because they want to bring their families here and live a better life in America. Or, most accurately, they are in America for a single reason: money. They want to make it, they want to send it home, or they want to spend it.

There are many ways to kill a man. You can blow them up. You can beat them to death. But the best, the safest, and the most efficient way is to locate a single point of absolute vulnerability and to strike there. A swift slitting of the throat is far easier than a merciless beating.

Money is the vulnerable point. The illegals need it. They want to have it and they want to use it. If we want to make them wish to live here no longer then we need to separate them from that money.

How do we prevent illegals from getting the money that they desire? Some would have us crack down upon those who employ them and, certainly, I grant, that would help. But illegal labor is so widely used at this point in time that a crackdown upon those who employ illegals would either have to be massive or would be horribly unjust in its randomness. In any case, anything short of an operation on an unimaginable scale would probably be insufficient to deter most small-scale operations (the real employers of illegals) from taking action. There’s an easier way.

Instead of attacking illegal immigration through regular law enforcement, let’s attack where illegals will least expect it: through banking law. A few new Federal laws and a few new banking regulations would be a severe blow to most illegal aliens in America.

Pass a new Federal law requiring anyone wishing to cash a cheque, to open up a bank account, or to do a wire transfer of money overseas to present identification which proves that they have a legal right to reside in the United States. This would probably be most easily done by creating some sort of National Identification Card. Require all financial institutions, by law, to take, examine, and record said identification. If any refuse, then give the Federal Reserve banks the power to simply stop clearing any cheques drawn on those institutions. Similarly revoke the clearing privileges of any bank or institution which acts as a proxy on behalf of any institution dealing with illegals.

Of course, a number of banks have already opened accounts for illegal aliens – so there’s another way in which these laws could strike this scourge. The laws could provide that any money contained in accounts belonging to people who have no legal right to reside in the United States be frozen and forwarded to the Federal Treasury after a certain date.

Such a law would, overnight, prevent illegals from accessing banking services and stop them from sending money to their families overseas. It would make life for many illegals immeasurably more difficult and, in and of itself, would encourage many to pack up and head for home.

Naturally, not all illegals would be so easily cowed. After all, many of them are already paid in cash and deal in cash. Others, who previously relied upon the banking system, would probably learn to get by. So there’s another trick to be pulled.

Right now most American police forces have policies under which they deliberately fail to inquire as to the legal status of those who approach them to report crimes or who appear as witnesses. They do this, they claim, in order to prevent illegals from being victimized. But, I ask, why?

Illegal aliens have broken the law. They should have every right to report a crime against them – and every reason to expect that they will be detained and deported if they do so. The Congress needs to pass a law withholding all Federal funding from any locality which fails to enforce violations of Federal immigration laws.

Why is this important? Simple: first we will create a situation where the illegals are forced to walk around with massive wads of cash in their pockets (even moreso than today), and in which criminals are basically given carte blanche to victimize them. Many of those criminals will, of course be illegals themselves – doing another job that Americans no longer want to do.

I suppose that some will feel that this is as harsh as proposals to send armed men to round up six-year olds and ship them across the border in railroad freight cars. But I don’t feel so. I feel it is simply a restoration of the natural order of things. After all, people shouldn’t be able to expect the full protection of a country that they are victimizing by their very presence.