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.
Lets encourage both to commit suicide and spare the nation their idiocy.
Borders, language, culture.
Considering the caliber and credibility, or the lack thereof among too many of those in Washington that we presently depend upon to protect our interests, I will not bet against you.
What this legislation is is a legislated plea bargain. The penalty for prior breaking of US law is a $5,000 fine. In terms of the US criminal justice system that is a pretty hefty fine for a first offense. [I am not sure if the offense is a felony or not.]
Now you might respond that the person copping the plea will not have a criminal record. Since the US has tons of diversion programs where first offenders who commit serious misdemeanors end up without a criminal record, I don’t see such a big difference.
Should people who get caught embezzling be allowed to buy for $5,000 plenary indulgences which would permit them to continue embezzling with no further penalty?
What the government's peddling isn't actually amnesty, but if anything indulgences are far worse.
Well the problem with your analogy is that illegals are not embezzling. You seem to think their is a finite pool of money for wages in a country. That is not true.
It’s too bad; they won’t deport them all because it can be done and they know it.
Don’t worry. The America that offends you so much is being dismantled.
Almost everything printable I can think of is in the keywords.
Your B.S. smells worse the longer you toss it around. Just look at the number of illegals now versus when Reagan signed amnesty.
With your point of view, I'm sure you could borrow one from Ted Kennedy and his Harvard education.
Bears repeating. And culture, including rule of law.
My point is that their illegal presence here represents an ongoing crime, rather than a one-time event. There is no reason why their crimes should be rewarded with more rights than are received by people who file paperwork to come here legally.
Besides, some hospital emergency rooms and other facilities might very rightly regard the illegals as stealing funds from citizens and legal residents.
Once a ticket is paid, what act of illegality is ongoing?
This "not-amnesty" program would be equivalent to telling people who have received parking tickets and not paid them that if they pay the tickets they will be allowed to park in the no-parking zones with impunity.
Of course not, you could let them die or remain sick or etc. Don't blame someone else if you or really we the American public are not willing to let illegals die rather than treat them in our emergency rooms. THAT IS OUR CHOICE.
The choice of the vast majority of Americans is to not have them get sick in this country by not having them enter this country in the first place.
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