President Obama clearly has different stances on issues than those of former President Bush, the obvious ones being things like the war, Guantanamo Bay detention camp, economics … and the list goes on.

One that I just recently noticed is the way they go about handling illegal immigration. I have said before that Bush’s plan was to tank the economy so badly no one wants to come here anymore. This seemed like a pretty solid way to do it, too. Obama, bless his heart, has the lofty ambition of both saving our economy and stopping illegal immigration.

Obama’s plan is simple: Spend, according to Fox News, $819 billion to “stimulate” the economy. The money, of course, comes from loans from nations, according to Realclearpolitics.com, like China — who, if this borrowing continues, will essentially own us. Then illegal immigration becomes China’s problem. Wow, Obama is all he is cracked up to be.

However, for those of you like me — at least halfway intelligent — there is a better way to handle illegal immigration. Actually, the plan is pretty simple. It’s amazing that Washington D.C.’s finest haven’t thought of it. It’s almost like they are all incompetent, except maybe Duncan Hunter.

The first thing that we must do is start prosecuting people found employing illegal immigrants. Now, maybe we can give the employers a one-strike rule, but even that should come with a fine to let them know we are serious. After that there is no excuse — and that means jail time for the employers. This will help in two ways.

First, the government would not have to worry about watch-dogging large corporations who have a tendency of hiring those people here illegally because once the boss’s neck is on the line, you would be surprised how much more thorough background checks will be. Secondly, due to the loss of jobs, immigrants will start to realize America is actually taking itself seriously for the first time in a long time, and start doing it legally.

The second thing will to be to build a wall. Yes, a wall. A wall won’t solve all of the problems, but it obviously presents more of a barrier than just plain open space. For those of you critics of a wall that say fencing doesn’t work, that is not true. There is a border fence between Tijuana and San Diego that — while it is only 14 miles long — has stopped, according to assistant chief of the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector Jim Henry, an estimated 95 percent of the nearly 100,000 illegal immigrants trying to cross through that section. Just think what would happen if we actually built it across the whole border. Who would have thought that fences are good barriers?

You may be thinking a wall is expensive and not very effective. However, this recession offers a perfect time to build a wall — especially using some of that $819 billion. Obama has said he wants to use that money to put into infrastructure to create jobs, a recession fixer seen in the 1982 recession. Nothing says infrastructure and jobs like a wall across the whole southern border.

Finally, there is just one last piece of business to take care of with this whole illegal immigration issue.

For those of them already here illegally, they must be taken back to the country from which they hailed. Someone here illegally has broken our laws already, and should be sent back to the end of the line to wait to get into the country.

This is not an anti-immigrant stance. I welcome immigration and people who want to respect our laws, do the right thing and come here legally. Some people suggest we need illegal immigrants to do the jobs Americans won’t do, but a lot will change with this recession and rising unemployment. Obama and Congress need to step up and make this tough legislation because it is the right thing to do. Illegal immigration is not something that’s going to be solved by making these fuddy-duddy nice policies.

There needs to be a hard line drawn in the sand, and our politicians must enforce it.

If not, we are obligated to vote them out and replace them.

I’ll leave you with the words on Lady Liberty, from Emma Lazarus.

“Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

See, she even says, there is door — so let’s encourage people to use it the right way.

– Justan Spaid is a sophomore in history from McCallsburg.