Kelly Ayotte: “I’ve not seen the plan…I’ve not seen the plan…"

The Jr. Senator from NH was on the Howie Carr show as TMEW and I went out to do some errands right after supper tonight. We missed the beginning of her segment but it was clear that people were switching from talking about Obamacare to illegal aliens, immigration, and Amnesty. And they were not happy! And I really don’t think that Kelly Ayotte was all that happy about having to defend her Kerry-esque monster flip-flop on this issue as she had campaigned for really being against amnesty.

It is too bad Howie knows so little about the immigration issue. If he had any real knowledge about immigration, he could have skewered her.

The proponents of amnesty are wont to create the false choice between mass deportation and a blanket amnesty. There are other alternatives. Attrition thru enforcement works.

Why should border security be held hostage to amnesty? And the Gang of 8 bill increases legal immigration by 33 million over the next decade. This includes the 11 million who get amnesty, another 11 million of their relatives, and the normal 11 million who enter (1.1 million a year.) And the Gang of 8 bill doubles the guest worker program up to 1.4 million a year.

Howie does have a good knowledge of immigration. That was pretty weak by his standards.

His point was correct. You catch one illegal. You deport them. You catch another illegal. You deport them. Eisenhower didn’t deport all of them. He just deported some that were caught.

His point was correct. You catch one illegal. You deport them. You catch another illegal. You deport them.

That is called attrition thru enforcement. It does require border security and a system to track and deport visa overstays, which comprise 40% of the illegal population. Without that, the illegals will just return.

The illegal population is not static. One of the ways to diminish the size of the illegal population is, of course, to legalize some currently illegal aliens. Unrecognized by most, this is a continuing and major process under current laws. In FY 2011, for example, we issued new green cards to 1,062,040 aliens; of these, 580,092 were already in the United States and adjusted to green card status; an unknown but large number of the 580,092 were here illegally. The other 481,948 were new arrivals to the United States.

Eisenhower didn’t deport all of them. He just deported some that were caught.

Eisenhower deported about one million. It was called "Operation Wetback," something that would never be named that today. No responsible person is suggesting mass deportation. It is just a choice used by the pro-amnesty supporters to suggest the futility of doing it and that the only real option is a blanket amnesty.

I'm a perfectly responsible person and I think it is entirely reasonable to discuss deporting large numbers of criminals living in open violation of our laws.

What is wrong with attrition thru enforcement? The political will does not exist in this country to round up 12 to 20 million illegals and deport them. Many cannot be deported because their originating countries will not accept them back.

Then there is the logistics of actually rounding up that many people. We only have 7,000 ICE agents. How many processing and detention centers would be needed since everyone of those picked up is entitled to court hearings and legal representation? Our immigration courts are already backlogged.

If, and it is a big if, we can shut down most of the flow of illegals thru the border and our visa system, then we can start enforcing our laws and bring the numbers down. The illegals did not get here overnight and they won't leave overnight. We must also shut off the job market using mandatory e-verify and heavy fines on employers for non-compliance.

We know attrition thru enforcement works. When AZ implemented its mandatory e-verify law (upheld by SCOTUS), the number of illegals who self-deported to Mexico increased to the point that a group of mayors from Sonora, Mexico went to the AZ legislature asking for some relief from the AZ law because they were being flooded by returning illegals who were hurting municipal services. The schools were overwhelmed.

What we need to do is make this country as unwelcoming as possible to illegal aliens. They should find it very difficult to live and work here.

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