Fixing the INSanity American's Immigration Crisis
by Neville W. Cramer
Scottsdale, AZ Immigration Enforcement Solutions, LLC
197 pages, $13.57
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has been out-numbered, out-foxed, and out-gunned by illegal foot traffic on the border. According to Neville Cramer's dictum, the agency is beset with inefficiencies, incompetence, and incoherence.
Cramer's 26 years with the INS have engendered a rich history of anecdotes, which are deployed freely in this work, and punctuated with a trace of bravado.
He holds a Master's Degree from George Washington University, is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, and draws on his experience as a Special Agent for the INS.
The author observes that the number of illegal immigrants curiously bears a direct relationship to the number of border patrol agents. At present, there are over 10,000 border patrol agents, and over 10 million illegal immigrants. By his calculations, in the year 2030 there will be 50,000 border patrol agents and 50 million illegals! Under this curious rationale, if the border patrol were eliminated the illegal population would correspondingly plummet to zero.
Cramer opposes a national ID card and ridicules efforts to eliminate the sanctioning "anchor babies" by way of the Fourteenth Amendment (characterizing the effort as "fruit and nuts").
In the Preface, Cramer draws on the concept that "we are a nation of immigrants." This might have colored his views on birthright citizenship. With the possible exception of Ethiopia, all nations are lands of immigrants; the United States is no exception. His ridicule of concerns over birthright citizenship is difficult to reconcile with perspectives in the rest of the book.
To undercut the value of a counterfeit Social Security card for employment purposes, Cramer proposes a verification system. Under this system, employers would be obligated to verify the Social Security Number against government records of the person's name and other basic information. The proposed verification would take place only after the employee was hired (presumably to avoid discriminatory hiring practices).
He also promoted an "e-passport," as adopted by Malaysia. Magnetic information in the passport eases airport congestion.
Confronting the blur of records maintained by separate agencies, Cramer suggests that a single agency handle all immigration-related issues.
In addition, he proposes a central non-political body on immigration, perhaps akin to the Federal Reserve Board. The complexity of monetary policy had caused Congress to delegate this task to the Federal Reserve Board. It is independent, and not political. This enables monetary policy to be driven not by crisis, but rather by sound planning. Cramer suggests a similar board regulate immigration-related issues and policies.
Cramer urges that visas not be issued by the State Department, but by the Department of Homeland Security.
Neville Cramer's book offers an insider's view of immigration administration. The author's insight on administrative and executive details is based on his time and grade with the agency. On the other hand, his purview of history's broad sweep respectfully awaits further enlightenment. ;