Hey GOP, here's how to win the immigration battle in 3 simple steps

(AP)

Solving illegal immigration is so easy and simple. All it takes is 3 simple steps. If only the GOP had the brains or courage to present this plan.

Step 1: Demand we secure the border before anything else gets done. Period. The argument here is simple. Study the wall in Israel. It worked. It is 100% living proof you can secure a border. Without securing our porous, crime-ridden, drug-smuggling border first, I’d agree to nothing. Zero. Zip. There is no negotiation.

Now Obama and his amnesty crowd don’t want a wall. I know why. Because a secure border is bad business for Democrats, who rely on poor, uneducated, helpless, dependent citizens who support big government and demand more handouts and income redistribution in the name of “fairness.”

Obama and his socialist cabal want millions of additional illegal immigrants to keep crossing the border, simply because they see them as millions of future Democratic voters.

Obama’s mentor Saul Alinsky famously taught “the ends justify the means.” So Democrats distract us from the truth by claiming a wall is too expensive and can’t work.

Really? Why don’t Republicans point to Israel’s wall? Before the wall was built Israel suffered from nonstop terrorist attacks and cross-border killing rampages. Since the wall was built, Israel is safe again. The citizens can sleep at night. It’s a fantastic success, proof that a wall works.

Now to the expense question. This is 2014. We don’t need to build a real wall. You can create a VIRTUAL WALL with high tech surveillance.

All we need is drones and cameras. Not one person could cross a border protected by drones- with border patrol, or National Guard, or U.S. military positioned to swoop in the moment anyone reaches the border.

Obama has created a Soviet-style surveillance state that snoops on his own law-abiding citizens. He asks the NSA to listen into all our communications without a warrant and asks the IRS to intimidate his political opponents.

He wants our skies filled with drones. But when it comes to protecting our border from criminals, drug smugglers, and illegal aliens, suddenly he forgets how to put the same high tech tools to use to protect his own citizens. Drones create an impenetrable virtual wall, at a fraction of the cost.

Step 2: Let’s see how much Democrats really care about illegal immigrants. Because I don’t think they give a damn about them. I think they only want them for their votes. So why not test my theory?

After the border with Mexico is secured by a virtual wall (and ONLY after), let’s give illegal immigrants still living in this country the chance to become permanent legal residents (over a long period of time, meeting certain strict conditions), but not citizens.

They’ve broken the law. They’ve given up the right to become citizens. Millions of people around the world apply to become legal citizens.

Most wait a lifetime and never get in. So the compromise is that those who are already here get the break of a lifetime. They get in. They never have to fear that knock on the door in the middle of the night ever again. They are free to work. They are not threatened with jail or deportation. They can sleep soundly at night. What a gift. But they can never be citizens, they can never vote. Period. They gave up that privilege when they broke the law.

The American Dream is simple --  it’s about working, class mobility, raising a family, and enjoying our unique freedoms.

It’s not about voting. People from other countries don’t dream of voting in America. They come here for a better life.

No one comes here to vote. So under this plan illegal immigrants gain the opportunity to stay and achieve the American Dream. They just can’t vote.

Will Democrats support that? My bet is they won’t. Let’s call their bluff.

Step 3: Here’s the big one. Here’s where the GOP is disconnected from its own voters. Conservatives welcome immigrants.

We have no problem letting immigrants who want to work and contribute (like the rest of us) into America. But the problem with immigration reform is it never deals with differentiating between those who come here to work, and those who don’t.

This is the key issue immigration reform must deal with. No entitlements. Ever. That’s the agreement. You can become a legal resident, but only if you give up your food stamps, housing allowances, aid to dependent children, free meals at school, and free health care.

Did you come here to work, or to collect handouts? That’s the key question we should be asking before we let anyone into America.

America is generous. But we’re not stupid. We’ll let you in, but only if you’re here to work. We won’t let you in, if you’re here to mooch off us.

Why would taxpayers invite strangers into our country in order to collect handouts that raise our taxes, hurt our children’s future, and force the rest of us to work longer and retire later? Why would we invite you in so you can lower our quality of life? We’re not THAT dumb, are we?

So create immigration reform that bans entitlements in return for this legal residency status. And be sure to ban those “earned income tax credits” that have allowed billions in tax refunds for illegal immigrants who never paid taxes in the first place, based on “dependents” that don’t exist.

If immigrants are truly here to work, and want to sleep soundly at night without fear of deportation, they’d be crazy not to embrace this plan. They’d welcome this gift of a lifetime.

So would Democrats if they actually cared about the well being of immigrants.

Secure the border forever; end welfare as we know it for immigrants; allow into our country only those who want to work; give them legal residency, but not voting rights; and we have a deal.

Call the Democrats bluff. I’m betting they will pass.