Senate Undecided On Betrayal
Senate immigration overhaul in doubt
By Donna Smith
Thu Apr 6, 2006 11:18 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate compromise on an overhaul of immigration law appeared to get bogged down late on Thursday in the face of opposition by some Republicans who say it would give amnesty to lawbreakers.I was honestly ambivalent about the Dubai Ports World deal. It didn't seem to matter much either way, and it's fine with me that the deal got queered in the end.
It appeared unlikely the Senate would approve before a two-week congressional break on Friday the radical immigration reform that would give millions of illegal immigrants a chance to earn U.S. citizenship.
The bill's backers expressed fear that failure to enact the legislation before lawmakers leave for their spring break could hurt its chances in a congressional election year.
Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada earlier hailed a "breakthrough" on the compromise bill that would include a guest worker program sought by President George W. Bush.
But the two leaders were unable to agree on how many amendments to the bill would be allowed.
The illegal immigration issue cuts deeper. Citizens appear to take it even more seriously than the ports deal, but are offset by business money and the huge number of future votes the illegals represent. Will our elected officials preserve our country, or will they sell us out?
When immigration came to a head 20 years ago we let the politicians and businesses have their way and give 1+ million illegals amnesty "just this once." What did it get us? Empty promises that they'd improve border enforcement and streamline legal immigration. Fast forward 20 years and we've got 10+ million illegals. They want another amnesty but refuse to acknowledge that that's what it is.
"They have to pay a fine, they go to the end of the line." "We just can't have strict enforcement without a guest worker program." "It's not practical to deport them." "They're doing jobs Americans won't do." "They're hard workers." "They pay taxes." "They built this country."
Enough of this bullshit. It's clear where this is going. We're either going to get some watered down compromise that is basically amnesty along with some hollow promises to do more on enforcement (riiiight), or we're going to get a lotta hot air and no action, which is to say the status quo of the last 20 years.
That's not good enough. We are literally suffering an invasion. People, drugs, the Mexican army itself flow across our border and our government acts like it's impossible to stop it. We can afford to send troops half a world away to conquer and police other countries, but we can't stop the Mexican army, their drug smugglers, and their peasants?
It is absofreakinlutely absurd that in a post-9/11 world it's still possible for unscrupulous business folks to influence unprincipled politicians to let dirt poor uneducated "workers" flood into the US. It's too expensive to enforce our border with Mexico? It's too expensive not to. Americans won't do those jobs? Not for 3rd world wages they won't. Stop the flow and the money we save on not subsidizing illegals will more than pay for the increase in wages to actual citizens.
Build a wall. Deny illegals participation in and the benefits of our society. No automatic citizenship for their children. Fine businesses who employ them. We won't have to deport them. They will go home. If the economy takes a dive we can always fling open the border again. Right?
Let our politicians prove that they answer to the desires of their current citizen-voters by actually taking such steps, then we can talk about what kind of guest worker program we'll create so they can ingratiate themselves to the future voters they seem so willing to sell us out in favor of.
This time if they get away with another "compromise" there's not going to be a next time.
posted by Tanstaafl at 4/07/2006 01:47:00 AM
8 Comments:
TV and newspaper reports on this story focus on citizenship for those who are here illegally rather than on tightening our borders. When you leave the faucet on and the sink over flows, don't you turn the water off first and then worry about cleaning up the mess? We're watching congress try to mop up the water while the faucet continues to run full blast.
Its nice to see some cold feet in Congress work out for the best.
Si Se Puede - Yes we can (still deport you).
All we really need to do is send the National Guard to the border...oops.
This is also a "war" - one that the congress has decided to underfund. Coupled with the fact that a separation exists between local and federal law enforcement on immigration issues and its no wonder the "protesters" are emboldened.
On the coverage issue - Drudge on radio made it sound like an invasion, Dallas was a riotous mob and April 10th will be VE Day with all the Illegals taking to the streets to shut down the US economy. I think you are right - this will all pass with little to nothing done about the problem. The solutions promoted by both sides accomplish little without a concerted financial investment to shut down the borders, enforce the II laws and audit/hammer the employers using II labor. At best they will try to do the first two and not even consider the third and there lies the open faucet - if there is a job here for them - they will come.
And it seems likely that when Congress returns from Easter recess that they will bend to the will of the potential hispanic voting block. They seem to have lots of time on their hands to demonstrate. Gringo's are too busy working and paying taxes that fund free hispanic health care/education to take to the streets.
On XM radio they reported that Vicente Fox recently deported thousands of Central Americans who were illegals in Mexico. Some months ago, the same Vicente Fox had pamphlets distributed instructing his countrymen what to pack and how to avoid detection while sneaking into the US. ¡Hipócrita
Savage Nation reported that latino voting bloc was 3% in the last election (taken with some salt). There is more to the pandering than latino votes.
One can argue that there is a need for 10 million plebian workers to avoid economic imbalance. This ever-growing work force is stemming inflation in one arena and creating it in others. The victims are state govts in healthcare and education costs - which "trickles down" to Joe taxpayer.
We can pay to keep them in or pay to keep them out - in either case we pay.
Then again I dont think our representatives are thinking all that much into it. Offer amnesty for military service, theyve been quietly doing that for years with legal immigrants.
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I remember a phactoid on the Iraq war. If we gave every Iraqi $10K (cost to date - or $40k projected $1T tally) we could have avoided all this bloodshed.
If we didnt go to war, we couldve given $20K to every II and sent them home.
The first thing we should do is shut the border with Mexico (shut off the faucet). Once that is done then it would be time to figure out what to do with the 10 million that are here. To discuss their status, e.g., citizenship for military service or paying restitution, before the border is secured is futile.
About paying Iraqis thousands of dollars in order to avoid war, I don't follow the logic. How would paying Iraqis increase our national security such that invasion would not have been necessary?
Danegeld.
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