Former Army lieutenant colonel Larry Smith, who hopes to unseat U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger in Maryland's Congressional District 2, recently announced his plan for addressing illegal immigration.

“It is time for real leadership on the issue of illegal immigration because our states and communities can no longer bear its financial burden,” said Smith in a release. “Above all, we must reserve citizenship’s benefits for our citizens.”

Smith who was a Maryland racehorse trainer and Army National Guard officer before the events of 9/11 led him to serve six years of active duty at the Pentagon and deployments in Afghanistan and Korea feels that we need to secure our borders while providing pathways to American citizenship.

“Having served our country, I understand how important securing our borders is to our national security. We need high walls; but we also need broad gates,” said Smith. “Allowing illegal immigrants to hold jobs that Americans could perform is just another form of outsourcing.

Smith's plan:

1. Withhold federal transportation funding from “sanctuary” states that indirectly provide prohibited government benefits to illegal immigrants by refusing to verify their social security numbers.

2. Deploy various Army and Air National Guard units to civilian border patrol agencies each year, while fully leveraging national intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets.

3. Remove the annual numerical cap on H-1B visas for high-skilled guest workers.  [By 2020, America's schools will provide only about 50 million of the 125 million highly skilled or highly educated workers we will need. Without help from abroad, we’ll be short over 90,000 doctors.]

Employers: Verify worker eligibility or pay a stiff penalty

1. Mandate national use of “E-Verify” to verify every employee’s social security number.

2. Require employers to offer their openings to Americans first and to sponsor their guest workers by paying $1,000 towards each guest worker’s $1,390 H-2B visa petition fee.

Illegal Immigrants: Find employer sponsors or go home

1. Deport illegals who have no employer sponsor, and use 10% minimum payroll deductions (on top of payroll taxes) to pay down $5,000 illegal entry fines on guest workers who arrived illegally. Any immigrant who secures a sponsor and then loses his or her job would be given a four month grace period to obtain another sponsor.

2. Guest workers who enter legally would pay $390 of their H-2B petition fee and then pay regular payroll taxes.  Previously paid income taxes would be credited towards any illegal entry fines.

3. Limit birthright citizenship to the children of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.