Posted on 05/18/2007 9:02:38 PM PDT by Politicalmom
At last. After months of closed-door negotiations and podium-pounding promises of sweeping immigration reform, the Senate and White House
announced this week they had managed to set aside partisan politics to give the American people the plan they've been begging for.
The result? A ludicrously unworkable scheme that rewards lawbreakers, shakes down taxpayers and ultimately will satisfy few.
Except, of course, for 12 million or so illegal immigrants currently in the United States and those who employ them. They're going to love it.
One might think so, though with the sense of entitlement we've come to know so well, illegal immigrants interviewed by Associated Press reporters this week said they find the bill's key provisions too pricey, too inconvenient and not at all to their liking. How's that for gratitude?
Not only would the bill immediately forgive illegal immigrants' trespassing and start them on the road to citizenship, it reportedly eliminates a former requirement that only illegal immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for some time -- those who are rooted to this country by years and families -- are eligible.
Until this year that was a particularly important requirement for President Bush, who inexplicably continues to insist this latest plan is not amnesty. Bush, new best bud Sen. Edward Kennedy and other supporters of the bill are so insistent on this point, I had to check my trusty Merriam-Webster, where the word is defined as "the act of an authority (as a government) by which a pardon is granted to a large group of individuals."
The Encyclopedia Britannica more elegantly defines amnesty as "a sovereign act of forgetfulness for past acts granted by a government to persons who have been guilty of crimes."
OK, let's break it down. The bill, if passed, would bestow immediate legal status (a pardon) on millions of people (a very large group, indeed) who have entered this country illegally (who broke the law to get here).
How is that not amnesty?
Another disturbing feature of the plan is its jaw-dropping cost. Policy researchers with The Heritage Foundation and, according to news reports, the Center for Immigration Studies, estimate the cost to legalize millions of low-skilled illegal immigrants at about $2.5 trillion.
A couple of trillion dollars is apparently a minor point to those who seek to make illegal immigration an issue of race and of fear, as if a country built on the backs of hard-working legal immigrants could arbitrarily slam its doors in the faces of those huddled masses yearning to breath free. Not so.
Like it or not, the first priority of our immigration system must be national security and consistent enforcement of immigration laws. To reward lawbreakers with the gift of amnesty would only encourage further law breaking and is patently unfair to those immigrants striving to live here legally.
In announcing the immigration deal, Kennedy hyperdramatically insisted the bill is our "best possible chance" to secure our borders and bring millions "into the sunshine of America."
This bill is our best possible chance? Hardly. Faced with this bill, I believe the American people will decide that our best possible chance could, and must be, a great deal better.
Yawn. Every attempt at immigration reform is called amnesty...this is getting really boring.
There IS no attempt at immigration reform!
Thanks for posting the entire article.
Hard to believe President Bush is selling his country down the river.
Fortunately for him, he is at the top of the food chain and thus the results of his actions will never affect him directly.
Right. Just like giving first time druggies probation encourages everybody to go out and become addicts.
And is an offense to those who try to stay straight.
These arguments are so worn out.
What's the cost to build a wall, deport every last one of them, and have them GET IN LINE?
Not this one.
....and it's long past time for Part 2.
Sure there IS. Educate yourself on the issue and then get back to me.
What do you think this legislation is? If I understand correctly, if an illegal immigrant came here before January 2007, you can immediately be given seek legal status without having to fear immediate deportation. Of O am wrong please correct me.
I heard a guy from some Chicano organization who was complaining about this legislation. He said "they want amnesty with no strings attached, so that Mexicans can get all the benefits they're entitled to." Can you believe that? What nerve!
IF I could have dragged that idiot through the TV screen, I would have strangled him. They want welfare, food stamps and free medical/dental care. Riiiiight....don't we all.
Imagine: Free Republic was championing some of those responsible for this bill, and the one who will sign it, just a few scant years ago.
Never again.
Build the wall. Fine.
But no politician is going to oversee deportation of millions of illegals. It would be political suicide.
Face it. It's not going to happen.
I need to educate myself on surrender??
LMAO!!
Quit being a tool
That is correct. And your argument is?
Someday it may be political suicide not to have supported deportation.
Tool this.
DNC hypocrisy: Many talk of the billion$ spent daily in Iraq, yet few talk of the billion$ to be spent daily in the U.S. by allowing 12M non-Americans the right to live and work here under our laws??
I bet we don't live to see that day.
WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! TILL YOU RUN OUT OF INK IN YOUR PEN!
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