Let ‘Dreamers’ stay by kicking out politics

politics. Democrats want them as votes. Republicans are worried this could tip elections. So why not take the politics out of it?

Here’s a possibility to consider: Let Dreamers stay — given permanent work and resident status — but not citizenship and voting rights. Conferring something as precious as citizenship upon people as a reward for their parents’ breaking the law isn’t the right way to go about this.

If they want to become American citizens and vote, they’d be free to leave and attempt to re-enter the country as legal immigrants.

And what about their parents, who crossed the border illegally and who worry about being deported? We can protect them, too, with some reasonable amnesty.

Why not give them permanent work status, like green cards? But no welfare. Yes, you read that correctly.

The idea isn’t to penalize people in this country illegally who would be given legal status in any amnesty. The idea is about convincing Americans that amnesty would be about fairness, not power. Those who enter our country illegally shouldn’t be given government benefits that would lock them in as permanent clients of the Democratic Party, compelling them to vote for taxpayer-subsidized benefits.

Banning such benefits would be an important and reasonable step.

Again, no citizenship, unless those here illegally first leave the country and petition to re-enter legally.

In exchange for all this, where a border wall is required, we should build it. U.S. employers should be required to use the E-Verify program to determine whether new workers have legal status or not.

Those workers who don’t have legal status should be turned over to immigration authorities and deported.

It’s called compromise. You get some of what you want. The other guy gets some of what he wants.

But it must be understood as fair, not just for the immigrants, but for the American people who believe that this is their country, and they still have a say in who stays and who goes.