Posted on 05/19/2006 12:11:46 PM PDT by Irontank
For those few of us who have championed rational immigration control policies over the last 30 years, there have been constant and insensate challenges to what seemed the most central of nation-state business: controlling the borders and carefully choosing new immigrant populations.
Thirty years ago, when I started writing in this column about border control, self-righteous professional Third World-sympathizers such as Sen. Teddy Kennedy had already arrogantly pushed through the 1965 immigration reform act, which switched traditional immigrant preferences from the ethnic groups already in America to the impoverished and uneducated Third World, especially Mexico.
Most of us shook with fury when, in 1986, Congress, with total ignorance about human nature and systems, passed what was to be the "last amnesty bill." It legalized nearly 3 million illegal immigrants already here. We were most angry that legislators could not guess that their acts would lead to where we are today, with 12 million thusly encouraged "new" illegals demonstrating in America for their "rights."
But now, you may think, it is finally going to be solved. In President Bush's speech, he seemed to come across as bearer of a moderate solution to this deadly serious problem. But in fact, he didn't.
Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, who has studied Congress for 25 years, has just published a shocking article. As he said this week, if the immigration bill before Congress goes through, "It would end the U.S. as we currently know it."
Should you think that's extreme, listen to his findings (which are exceeded by a separate analysis by the office of Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record)):
If the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (S.2611) does go through, it will not only grant amnesty to some 10 million illegals already here, but it would permit entry over 20 years to a maximum of nearly 200 million additional legal immigrants. That's over 180 million more than current law permits.
From his meticulous rundown of people who would be allowed to immigrate -- those under the current visa program and the amnesty, expanded family chain migration, employment-based green cards, a guest worker program, spouses and children of guest workers and illegal immigrants given amnesty, and parents of naturalized citizens -- Rector carefully arrives at a conservative tally of at least 103 million new immigrants who will be added to the nation's current population of 298 million.
"Within 20 years, some 103 million new immigrants would enter the U.S.," Rector writes in his stunning report, "Senate Immigration Bill Would Allow 100 Million New Legal Immigrants Over the Next Twenty Years" (www.heritage.org). "This number is about one-third of the U.S. population ... (The bill) would transform the United States socially, economically and politically. In its overall impact, it would rival other historic milestones such as the creation of Social Security or Medicare. Within two decades, the character of the nation would differ dramatically from what exists today."
Even worse, citizenship would become an "entitlement," Sen. Sessions says. "The decision as to who may come will almost totally be controlled by the desire of the individuals who wish to immigrate ... rather than by the United States government." Both estimate that the eventual cost of this American giveaway would be about $50 billion a year, particularly since it favors poor, uneducated and unskilled workers.
And in the last few weeks, respected economists have come forward, all making the same argument: With these wanton attitudes toward immigration, far from bringing in those ever-so-needed workers, the country is massively importing poverty, the great majority of it from socially static Mexico, where the rich get richer and more of the desperate poor head for "El Norte" every day.
If this is, indeed, what takes place, the America of the future will be unrecognizable to Americans of our largely Central European traditions. Mexicans will form their own blocs, politically run by advocacy groups that pretend to represent them; the far leftist trend in Latin America will insinuate itself here, buoyed by the innate historical anti-Americanism of most Mexicans; the U.S. will become thoroughly bilingual, with all the separatist disasters that bilingualism always brings with it; American education and health care will decline; a Mexican government could easily use this unassimilated population of dual citizens to cause chaos in the U.S.; and today's Americans will find themselves strangers in their own land, as the environment, the national parks, the urban centers, the air and the water will be overcome by this huge and unassimilated population.
Is this what Americans really want? Is this all our hapless American Congress can figure out to do when it's supposedly in charge? (Just wait 20 years until it isn't in charge.) Are they simply not capable of doing the obvious: halting immigration for a grace period until the border is controlled and we can make wiser decisions?
"Obviously, our leaders no longer believe in the nation-state," Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told me. "This would simply change the whole concept of what being an American is."
I commend the President for his courage in calling the nation's attention to the urgent need for comprehensive immigration reform that includes providing a path to citizenship for those who are here. We are at a critical moment in this debate and his leadership is essential as we fight to fix our broken system once and for all. In reality, this debate is much larger and far reaching than the issue of immigration alone. It is about our national security and protecting our homeland. It is also about the kind of America we have been and the even stronger America we hope to become. It is about opening doors of opportunity to unleash the talents and strengths of everyone in the land, regardless of color or creed, so that we face the future with hope and determination.
--still-Senator Ted Kennedy commenting on President Bush's Speech on Immigration
Tell the senate what you think:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
I have stood by Bush on a lot of issues. but I am afraid I must depart from him when it comes to his solution regarding illegal immigrants.
Ted Kennedy was one of the principle reasons I moved out of Mass. I still see him on the wrong side of almost every issue. I just have to look where he is and I know where I need to be. If only Mary Jo had been a better fighter...he might have been left to drown.
I wonder if something happened to Ted Kennedy when he was under water and that is where he learned to do this FLIP FLOP stuff.
I doubt if he was under water very long. he was back at the hotel working on the cover-up...what? Wasn't it 9 hours before he reported it.
Holy crap! Our Congress-Critters have gone off the deep end. This will make 1929 look like boom-times.
You might want to read this article carefully.
It's comforting to know that I'm justified in being completely jaded at this point. Thanks for sharing.
Ping
If the country is going down, I want to be on the side of the winners. If the US has become so weak as to succumb to this onslaught (no, not illegals, but our elected leaders), then we deserve everyting we get.
In the meantime, astute investors should recognize how to profit from the coming transition to a 3rd world country and act accordingly. Big money has been made in certain asset classes & regions resulting from the '86 Act; 2006 would magnify this effect by orders of magnitude.
I myself have greatly benefited (from passive investments) from the impact of illegal immigration. I aim to repeat this experience and share it with others who want their grandchildren to enjoy the benefits of being an American. Sure, it might be behind gated walls, but it's better than being cast out amongst the victims.
I think that is how many of us feel.
President Bush takes the most liberal position humanly possible by trying to push amnesty and citizenship through for millions of illegals. He has politically united himself to Ted Kennedy as though they were .... twins. How is any part of Bush's position 'conservative'? It places foreignors' needs ahead of American citizens.
The President's promise to place NG troops at a small fraction of the border, but strip them of all power to arrest or detain illegals is a transparent attempt to appease conservatives, (and even the many liberals who want illegal immigration reform), and I find it an insulting token.
These millions of illegals have shown America that they can do what American citizens cannot do, namely, unite en masse to fight for what they want. Now, if you give them citizenship status and they want MORE YET, (and they likely will), we will have a huge problem on our hands because they will unite the entire hispanic 'community' one day, (which is estimated to be over 110 million by 2020), and we'll probably see Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico be given up to them without a fight. Based on what I've seen over the last two months I do not think this is an extreme possibility at all.
In any case, as the author has said, if Bush and Ted Kennedy manage to push this immigration bill through and make it law, America will have lost its face and its identity for all time.
Start spreading the word friend, because it's coming. Globalism has superceded the American Constitution. Notice the Courts and the politicians are working overtime to grant citizen's rights to terrorists, enemy combatants, and illegal aliens. The Constitution soon won't be worth the paper it's printed on the way our leaders are ignoring it. Their obsession with globalism will be our downfall.
I understand why snivelling world-socialist weasels like Teddy K. are in favor of this crap, but why are so many Republicans going along?? And it's not just some 'business' interest in cheap labor -- this is so insane and goes so far beyond any rational interest in "cheap labor" that it is clearly aimed at altering the very nature of the USA.
Georgie has been a shrill shrew in her tirades against the Iraq war, but on this she is right on the money. This paragraph sums up the most serious threat from this nonsense:
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"If this is, indeed, what takes place, the America of the future will be unrecognizable to Americans of our largely Central European traditions. Mexicans will form their own blocs, politically run by advocacy groups that pretend to represent them; the far leftist trend in Latin America will insinuate itself here, buoyed by the innate historical anti-Americanism of most Mexicans; the U.S. will become thoroughly bilingual, with all the separatist disasters that bilingualism always brings with it; American education and health care will decline; a Mexican government could easily use this unassimilated population of dual citizens to cause chaos in the U.S.; and today's Americans will find themselves strangers in their own land, as the environment, the national parks, the urban centers, the air and the water will be overcome by this huge and unassimilated population."
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This future is what you should be quaking in your boots about. We will become a new Argentina or a new Venezuela under a social-marxist tyrant like Chavez, willingly elected by a hispanic majority and hell-bent on pay-back to the gringos.
With a future like this, it makes you wonder why we even bother with the war against terror and islamofascism. It will all be moot in 30 years as America takes its place in the ranks of the third world and China rules the world.
Of course, the progeny of the Bushs and McCains and Specters will be living in luxury in walled communities just like they do in Lima and Rio and Caracas. Things like "freedom" and "liberty" never did mean much to them - power did.
Now some Americans may not go willingly into that dark night, in which case you will have a deadly struggle that will make the Civil War look like a family dispute.
Glad I'll be dead by then.
For anyone interested in how to profit from the coming transition, buy a r/t ticket to LA and stay a few days. No, you don't have to do something stupid like stay in a bad part of town or drive around at night.
Stay in a normal hotel and check it out during the morning. Observe the neigborhoods and segregation: Asian-Hispanic-White-Black. The first thing you'll notice is that only the poorest stay in any integrated neighbohood/school.
Now do the math - those that have higher incomes will spend more to self-segregate. ID those types of communities in your own home towns because that is where the appreciation will occur.
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