Immigration has been a long-standing problem in the United States. More recently, it has become a wedge issue ripping the two political parties apart.
Republicans want to build a wall. They want to criminalize those crossing the border, those trying to find a place where they can raise their families in relative safety and have hope for a future.
Democrats do not want a wall. They want to enhance the security already being used at the border. They also are working to economically develop those countries where all the migrants are coming from, in hopes of providing opportunities in their native lands.
Neither side is willing to compromise much anymore, and we have reached a stalemate: a stalemate that continues to see as many as 10,000 migrants coming through the border every day.
And that is not sustainable.
So much has been written and done to support one side or the other. Governors build barricades and the federal government goes to court to have them removed. The former administration separated children from their parents in an effort to use terror to keep people from crossing.
Nothing is working.
I am not a politician. I certainly don’t know all the issues at the border, or concerning immigration, or have any contact with those affected—either the migrants coming here, or those involved in trying to manage the issue.
But there is one solution no one has mentioned: one that works for both Republicans and Democrats. And for all Americans. Not so much for the migrants, but hear me out.
Look at the image above: those are towers carrying electricity acrossed a vast sea. It could be a river, or a sea, or anything.
REPUBLICANS: We need border security.
DEMOCRATS: We need to fight climate change.
ME: Why not do both TOGETHER?
Along the southern border of our nation, there is a lot of land that is not currently inhabited by humans. It is miles and miles of vast, open spaces.
Surely there are areas where population centers have popped up on one side, but a great percentage of the border is similar to this.
But what if it wasn’t?
What if we built a green energy area at the border? What if we used this land to build our next-generation power facilities, capturing the wind, and the Sun, and all other forms of energy?
Through public domain, the federal government could seize the land from the border for at least 1/2 mile. This would create an energy zone: a highly sensitive area that is used to collect green energy for the nation. It could, over time, greatly reduce our nation’s carbon footprint and ultimately have a positive effect on the climate by reducing our dependence on oil and gas.
It would also need to be protected, because the energy produced there is of vital national security. That would require all the manpower and technology necessary to secure our green energy investment.
The Border Energy Grid is what I’m calling it, and I BEG both sides to consider it.
Democrats get to begin serious development of green energy technologies fully supported by Congressional act.
Republican's get to secure the border to protect the BEG.
A WIN-WIN.
I know it’s not that easy, but big ideas never are: the first thing to do when someone drops a big idea in your lap is not to say “no” right away, but to look at it from many different perspectives. The right. The left. The middle?
This will not be an inexpensive proposition: it will take years to develop, and would need to have funding for that entire period.
And it would not fix the immigrant issue. They will continue to come to the border in the hopes of crossing over into America, still in search of that safety and security we all long for. It would be a federal crime for anyone entering that space: surely both Democrats and Republicans would want to protect the BEG.
I don’t have all the answers here. It’s an idea in its infancy. But babies need love, not squabbling. Babies need nurturing, not arguing. Babies need to grow, through the carefulness and thoughtfulness of many people, each one contributing to that growth.
Are you interested in helping this baby grow?
Please give it some thought, and consider giving it some feedback.
© Radical Liberal 2023. All Rights Reserved.
Sounds like something worth thinking about. My mate's idea was to help countries that are "friendly" to the US build towns for all these folks (places such as Guatemala). If they have a decent place to go to then that would give them the opportunity to help BUILD these places themselves and there would be less people trying to come into the US (which is really messed up itself at this time in history).