LIKE A PHOENIX rising from the ashes, the painstakingly crafted but seemingly doomed immigration bill may have new life, thanks to a deal between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. After the latter agreed to limit amendments, the former said he'd bring up the bill again, perhaps as early as tomorrow.
The now-stalled measure, carefully stitched together by a bipartisan coalition, contains more pages than the Good Book. Leaders eager for its passage pushed it through the Senate, bypassing the usual gantlet of committee hearings, thereby raising objections from every side.
The complex bill surely contains something for everyone to hate, and it was an amalgam of social conservatives (mostly Republicans) and liberal Democrats that earlier this month threw up the unpassable roadblock. Conservatives dislike the bill's "amnesty" feature, which provides a pathway to citizenship for those now here illegally, while those on the left worry that the bill would create a permanent trapped underclass of "guest workers."
Mr. Reid--who has already adopted the term "undocumented Americans" for illegals--quickly blamed President Bush for the stalemate. "The headlines are going to be 'The President fails again,'" he said. But others saw the bill's derailing as a victory for grass-roots citizens incensed by the coddling of de jure criminals. A group of former Border Patrol agents, for example, calls the bill a "travesty" and "a complete betrayal of the nation."
Certainly, offering citizenship to the illegals now in the country is an expensive course. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has crunched the numbers:
From 12 million to 12.5 million illegal immigrants today live in the United States, more than half of them from Mexico.
Sixty-one percent lack a high-school diploma; only 9 percent are college graduates.
The poverty rate among illegals is twice that of native-born Americans.
If just 10 million illegals receive a grant of amnesty, the ultimate net cost to the government in retirement benefits alone will exceed $2.6 trillion.
Some proponents of the bill have taken to calling opponents "bigots" and "nativists." Rubbish. Americans are among the most generous people on Earth, with a history (even if somewhat mixed) of welcoming immigrants
legally
. It's ignoring the rule of law that has the nation's ire up.
As former Attorney General Ed Meese puts it, "From a national-security perspective, preventing illegal entry and reducing unlawful presence in the United States is an imperative." Any immigration bill should uphold the law, establish a reasonable, enforceable guest-worker program, and do nothing to diminish the nation's safety.
Listen up, Congress. And give us a bill worth passing.
Walking Dead(posted by
StokeyBob
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
The immigration laws and bills have been revived more than one of those science fiction movies were the attacker just keeps getting back up over and over. Immigration law inaction has pretty much finished both parties.
It is now time for a New First Party.
It doesn't seem to make any difference what is in a bill, the problem seems to be what or who is in our government!
The thing that scares me about any sort of immigration law reform is that every few years they re-invent the same laws. Each time they work in amnesty and gravy parts for the illegal aliens. They are always quick to hand out the amnesty and gravy parts but they never do get around to the enforcement parts of the laws.
Do we really need a shiny new set of laws when we have never given the old comprehensive laws a test drive?
http://www.vdare.com/rubenstein/051101_nd.htm
Notices of intent to fine employers:
1997: 865
1999: 417
2000: 178
2001: 100
2003: 162
2004: 3
Worksite arrests of illegal alien workers:
1997: 17,554
1999: 2,849
2000: 953
2001: 735
2003: 445
2004: 159
Nothing we can do(posted by
savedbygracealone
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
I have resigned myself to the fact that there is nothing I can do anymore to stop the onrush of ILLEGAL ALIENS. Our government has failed, and too many people see them as welcomed here. When we speak out against ILLEGAL ALIENS, we are labled bigots and racists. I am neither. I am an American, a citizen of the United States, and I need no hyphenated name to make me any more than that. My rights are being taken from me, and I am paying for lawbreakers to go to school and get free medical care.
Broken system(posted by
RivaPops
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
The "System" is broken and no one seems to know it. If you are a law abiding citizen, you will find you are on the wrong side of it and will suffer from the ignorance of our system since our standards have been dropped in the toilet. If you break the law you, not only are you fully protected, the "system" will bend over backwards to come to your aid. Our government on all levels has become no more than a bunch of greed seekers. Need I say more?
