CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, January 22, 2018

Immigration: Should the NFL draft be our model?

Recently, with the use of just a single, vulgar, Anglo-Saxon word, President Trump changed the focus of the bi-partisan negotiations over immigration policy from "compassion" to "merit." Prior to that shocking, albeit conflictingly reported moment, the mainstream media (MSM) were focused on the future of Mexican and Central American children who entered the United States illegally and are still here.

But, by interrupting the negotiations to ask: Why should more people from [redacted] countries be allowed into the United States? President Trump suggested that "merit," not "compassion," should be the criterion by which sovereign nations decide who gets to enter their borders and remain.

But President Trump deserves to be harshly criticized for his choice of words. His word choice was imprecise. Because so many of today’s impoverished countries, such as Haiti, are the result of brutal, French colonial misrule or Belgian and French colonial misrule in Africa, President Trump should have referred to them as: "merde-hole" countries.

On the other hand, President Trump’s use of the widely known and widely understood Anglo-Saxon word for "merde," caused many who had not previously been paying attention to the immigration debates in Washington to pay attention and, perhaps, learn more about the Trump-endorsed, merit-based legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Tom Cotton (R) and David Perdue (R) which would give priority to the best-skilled immigrants, irrespective of their race, religion, or country of origin. The Cotton-Perdue legislation (S.354) is called Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE). Essentially, the RAISE Act would limit chain-immigration to spouses and children only, eliminate the visa-lottery system and, based on a point system like that being used by Canada and Australia, admit more high-skill immigrants and fewer low- or no-skill immigrants.

Point systems, however, raise the ire of those who do not believe in judging other people on any basis whatsoever, They believe that the poor, uneducated, sanitation-challenged "huddled masses" are that way through no fault of their own. Therefore, any restrictions on open borders are un-American, illegitimate, and blatantly racist.

But what if we ran our immigration system like the National Football League (NFL) player draft? For those who do not follow NFL football, the "merit" of each player seeking to be drafted is carefully evaluated by NFL scouts. Among the 32 NFL teams, the teams with the worst win-lose records get the first pick of the new crop of players. That is supposed to level the playing field while, at the same time, offering the top draft picks millions of dollars, making the NFL, which is almost 85-percent minorities, the epitome of a capitalist meritocracy.

Maybe we should give our most economically depressed U.S. states first-round, draft-pick priority. That way, our states needing new talent the most could get the top new talent. Our more prosperous states would have to be satisfied with lesser talents.

On a much larger scale, the United Nations could administer a merit-based, international draft system whereby the top-scoring immigrants are assigned to live in sanitation-challenged places like Haiti, helping to level the international economic playing field. If they already speak French, as do many from the merde-hole countries, they should feel right at home. D’accord? We propose. You decide.

©2018. William Hamilton.

Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, is a laureate of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame, and was a recipient of the University of Nebraska 2015 Alumni Achievement Award. Dr. Hamilton is the author ofThe Wit and Wisdom of William Hamilton: The Sage of Sheepdog Hill, Pegasus Imprimis Press (2017).

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Email: william@central-view.com