Republican presidential candidate nominee Ben Carson says he would seal the border between Mexico and the United States by cutting the benefits responsible for encouraging illegal immigration. His comments were made on Sunday after campaigning in South Nevada.
Carson says the border could be secured within 12 months and a double fence could be installed, along with surveillance driven by technology and the prosecution of first offenders to drive down the number of illegal border crossings. “You can pretty much get it to 100%,” he claims. Carson believes that eliminating benefits would alter the way in which immigrants view the incentive of making such crossings.
Under Carson’s plan undocumented immigrants with no criminal record would have six months to register and pay a small tax fine. They would then be able to take guest worker jobs, for which they would have to pay taxes; however, they would not be given voting rights or US citizenship. Carson is also against the idea of accepting refugees from Syria into the United States, saying the idea threatens national security and that it would be better to help the refugees to either stay in their own country or resettle elsewhere.
“I do not believe that we should bringing them here,” Carson admits. “And the reason I don’t think we should be bringing them here is because it would be too easy to embed with them, within them, those who were members of the jihadists groups who would be interested in wreaking havoc in this country.”