Major Issues on US Immigration - Essay Example

Question The issue of interest is immigration. U.S. immigration system appears to be broken since many employers dodge it by employing undocumented workers who form part of the eleven million undocumented people. This is not good for both the country and the economy. Plan by the President involves creating a smart and effective system capable of enhancing efforts for securing the country’s border as well as tracking employers hiring undocumented immigrants. The plan demands any undocumented individual to follow the law through paying taxes and penalty charges, learning English, as well as undergoing background checks prior to being eligible for a US citizenship. Moreover, the plan requires all businesses and workers to abide by these rules. For a long time Republican and Democratic presidents used legal authority in dealing with the issue. However, President Obama took a commonsense approach. The approach by the President relies on his executive authority to ensure everyone is accountable and capable of following the law in contributing to the US. The president took the approach as the country anticipates for the Congress and Republicans to act. No hindrances exist that can affect the president’s decision since US constitution as well as Immigration and Naturalization Act offer the Executive authority to come up with enforcement priorities that improve the way agencies apply the law. US Supreme Court agrees on this. The executive authority allows both Democrat and Republican presidents to act on immigration. All presidents after President Eisenhower have legal authority that enables them to deal with immigration (The White House). For a long time, the US immigration system has been broken making it pointlessly difficult for the country to draw the best talent around the globe. Skilled workers usually wait for years or even decades before obtaining green cards to allow them contribute fully to the country’s economy and gain citizenship with time. Entrepreneurs lack devoted immigration corridor to allow them develop their enterprises and create jobs in the country. Every year, the country’s universities educate a number of well talented students only to coerce them to return to their country of origin and compete against the US. Through the executive action by the President, the immigration system is set to enhance immigration of highly skilled workers, entrepreneurs, and graduates (The White House). In the past, skilled immigrants got temporary work visas. Only in cases where no American employees available to accomplish a certain task would the employer sponsor an immigrant to have a permanent and lawful residence through green card. However, waiting for the green card would take years or decades even when the application is accepted. During this period, the employee is in effect locked in one position in the sponsoring enterprise. Through the President’s action, highly skilled employees as well as their spouses will be authorized to have portable work, change employers or position, and even start new enterprises as their families await green card to become American citizens. American universities train a number of the world’s talented students but the broken system of immigration coerces majority of them to return to their countries of origin. Through the President’s executive action, these previous hindrances will be eliminated through clarified and dedicated immigration corridors. However, only congress is capable of finishing the commonsense steps by replacing the President’s actions and fixing the entire system (The White House). Question 2 Memo To: Incoming President From: Advisor Date: December 10, 2014 Subject: White House Staff There is need for an active staff in White House that serves the president as well as a well-laid foundation for coming up with the ideal candidates. Although staff lacks the authority to make decisions or offer any instructions in their own accord, they are an essential part since they are conduits between the president and heads of departments. At no instance is the staff allowed to act as assistant presidents, since they act in the background, never give orders, never make decisions, and never try to exercise authority on their volition. Therefore, the staff needs to be made up of individuals who show high levels of competence, zeal for anonymity and vast physical vigor (Pfiffner 67). Selection process Selection for members of staff would be extremely competitive. The criteria for selecting ideal members for the staff would necessitate interested individuals to show remarkable professional achievements in their careers. Moreover, ideal candidates must show leadership skills and the likelihood of further development. The individuals have to demonstrate dedication toward public service and the skills needed to succeed when working in the highest level of Federal government as well as the capacity to work efficiently as a team. These qualities together with the strength of the individuals’ personality, and positive attitude as well as the capacity to work well in a team are accounted for in the selection of a white house staff team (The White House). Offices There are various offices that need to be set up. These offices include: National security council (NSC) Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood partnerships Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) and Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) The staff to occupy these offices must be American citizens. Moreover, federal government employees are disqualified unless the individuals are military personnel by career. The individuals to occupy these set offices must at least have undergraduate education and working within their preferred professions (The White House). These individuals must also meet the selection criteria. The PIAB and IOB are to exclusively help the president through offering independent advice to the president regarding the effectiveness of country’s Intelligence community in meeting U.S intelligence requirements as well as future vitality and insight of the intelligence community. OSTP exclusively provide advice on various advances in technology like the technology responsible for improving health, protecting the country’s security, harvesting clean energy and succeeding in future all of which point to sustaining US as a world’s leader in technological innovation and driver of scientific discovery (The White House). The NSC functions as the President’s main forum for evaluating national security as well as foreign policy needs. The council also allows the president to coordinate national as well as foreign policies in several government agencies. Presidents Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships enables experts and leaders from various fields to come together in providing recommendations regarding ways of improving their partnerships in order to be of help to needy people (The White House). PIAB and IOB face many challenges in ensuring the security of the country while the Presidents Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships has to cope with challenges that Americans face like the situation homeless individuals. All of these have the ability to affect the decision the president makes. Works cited Pfiffner, James. The modern presidency. Cengage Learning, 2010. "The White House." The White House. The White House. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. . Read More