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Immigration Half-Baked
PBS Tavis Smiley Young Voices Blog ^ | June 15, 2007 | Rose Capozzi

Posted on 06/19/2007 12:27:56 PM PDT by politicodc

In America today there are an estimated 7 million illegal immigrants. Many say that these immigrants drive down wages for hard working Americans. Others say that they introduce new problems into our education system and drain resources from our entitlement programs.

Though the problems are [somewhat] clearly defined, the solution is not.

While I do not generally support the idea of giving special privileges to certain groups of people, especially ones who purposely and knowingly break the law, in this situation there is no other logical or practical solution. America is like a baker that has left a window open and put our irresistibly delicious American apple pie on the ledge to cool. And now that the attractive odor has caught the attention of the rest of the world, the sick, tired, poor and hungry are here and want to have a piece.

It might seem enticing to simply search for the illegals and send them packing, but the resources, time, and effort it would require is too great. The ball has already been dropped and now it is time to cut our losses and come up with a plan to prevent greater and continual abuse.

Though President Bush's bill is a step in the right direction, by rejecting business as usual, it needs to focus more on containing the problem - and preventing further illegals from breaking our laws. Now, if only Congress could find a way to have their pie and eat it, too...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: aliens; bush; immigrantlist; immigraton; ins
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To: politicodc

Put a reply in the comments area.

Here is mine:
This essay itself is half-baked, asking the right questions but what is the answer?

First, let us start by pointing out that the cornerstone of the ‘comprehensive’ immigration ‘reform’ is turning today’s illegal aliens into tomorrows citizens, aka amnesty. We know from bitter experience that it is not a solution at all, but a surrender to illegal immigration that will only make it worse. it was tried in 1986 and we turned a smaller illegal immigration problem into a huge illegal immigration problem. Legalizing the illegal immigrants undermines the rule of law, is slap in the face to legal immigrants, and creates further incentive for lawbreaking and ‘open borders’. We have the breakdown in law-and-order in our immigration system partly because of prior amnesties. It is insantify to repeat the same mistake again and again.

Now there are real solutions to the problem. They involve deciding clearly who should be a legal immigrant and then enforcing laws sufficiently to make our chosen policy stick. As far as enforcing the laws there are 4 critical elements:
1. Building a border fence so we reduce border crossing s by 95%.
2. having real and secure employee verification and enforcing immigration law in the workplace, fining employers and removing illegal employees.
3. Working with local law enforcement to deport all criminal aliens. There are tens of thousands of aliens in jail or convicted of crimes from DUI to murder who should have been deported but have not been. It also means actually removing the 600,000 illegal aliens subject to current deportation orders.
4. Creating a system where we track entry *and* exits to the US (US VISIT) program, to keep track of the visa ‘overstay’ illegal aliens.
If we had these 4 elements in place, the amount

We fail to enforce the law adequately because there are special interest groups from cheap labor employers to immigration lawyers, who have a vested interest in a broken system. Not to mention would-be immigrants themselves. But with more than 1 million legal immigrants each year, our country is more than fair to those who want to come here, and a bit unfair to the American workers and taxpayers who pay the burdens of immigrants. We could and should replace our unbalanced ‘chain migration’ immigration system that gives too much weight to families with a point system that would give more weight to bringing in the ‘best and brightest’ from around the world. Our best immigrants are highly educated, employed in high wage jobs, speak English already, and present no burden on taxpayers. The solution therefore is to avoid amensty but shift immigration to higher skill and employment based immigration.

If we make all the fixes I propose, within 5 years we will have a real handle on the immigration system. Illegal immigration would be way down and legal immigration would be more economically beneficial.


41 posted on 06/19/2007 7:39:09 PM PDT by WOSG (Stop Z-visa amnesty!! Call the Senators, tell them to vote "NO": 202-224-3121, 1-866-340-9281)
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To: darkwing104

Yes, this is my blog. I am trying to get some feedback on what I am writing. Apparently, this article is NOT one of my most popular. Lol! I really debated writing at all, but I thought it would stir up a conversation. Hopefully congress will do SOMETHING this time and not just let the problem get worse!


42 posted on 06/19/2007 7:39:13 PM PDT by politicodc
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To: dynachrome

Doing ANYTHING at this point is a step in the right direction!


43 posted on 06/19/2007 7:42:18 PM PDT by politicodc
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To: Vn_survivor_67-68

Sorry if the link didn’t show up, it wasn’t meant to be disingenuous.


44 posted on 06/19/2007 7:45:12 PM PDT by politicodc
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To: politicodc
Yea! You understand!

For some reason the judge I had to go before just didn't get it!

I wasn't the one that put all that money in that safe!

It was the people in the Bank that put it all in there. They're the ones that left the door open during their lunch break.

They're the ones that should be in jail! Not Me!

I'm just the completely innocent guy that was tricked into taking the money by those evil people in the bank! They should be severely punished! And I should get amnesty!

You Understand! Explain it to that judge for me. After all, I'd be willing to give half of it back! That's more than fair!

45 posted on 06/19/2007 7:47:26 PM PDT by Nova
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To: ruination

you’re right. good point.


46 posted on 06/19/2007 7:49:03 PM PDT by politicodc
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To: politicodc

I’m surprised Tavis Smiley is taking this position on illegal immigration, as he is a black man, and many of the jobs illegals are taking impact the black community more than others. But, he is also a liberal, and is probably counting up those new votes for the Dems in future elections. Of course, lower paid U.S. workers will suffer, and a lot of blacks will be impacted, but so be it.


47 posted on 06/19/2007 7:52:21 PM PDT by flaglady47 (Thinking out loud while grinding teeth in political frustration)
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To: politicodc
Ummm, I'd be happy if there were only 7 million illegals here, as opposed to the 12-20 million number most other experts throw out there.
48 posted on 06/19/2007 7:58:59 PM PDT by DesScorp
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To: politicodc
Oops, didn't mean to imply that you're among the idiots that argue it's our fault that illegal's violate our laws.

Re my post #45

49 posted on 06/19/2007 8:04:32 PM PDT by Nova
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To: politicodc

Do we really need more reasons to call our representatives in Washington, D.C.?

Just say NO to Illegal Alien Amnesty!! Keep calling!! It’s NOT OVER!!

U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121

U.S. House switchboard: (202) 225-3121

White House comments: (202) 456-1111

Find your House Rep.: http://www.house.gov/writerep

Find your US Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm


50 posted on 06/19/2007 9:27:14 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Fred Thompson/John Bolton 2008)
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To: politicodc
America is like a baker that has left a window open and put our irresistibly delicious American apple pie on the ledge to cool. And now that the attractive odor has caught the attention of the rest of the world, the sick, tired, poor and hungry are here and want to have a piece.

Gee, when that happens at my house, I don't build a new bedroom for the vermin - I reach for a can of Raid. ;)

51 posted on 06/20/2007 5:19:05 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ("Wise men don't need to debate; men who need to debate are not wise." -- Tao Te Ching)
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To: claudiustg
Yeah, I screwed up and left my garage door open over night. Now I’ve got to get busy adding on and furnishing rooms to house the poor that got into my house. Should I buy a car for each one, too? And should I use my childrens’ college fund to educate them?

Great analogy.

If you saw Hannity & Colmes last night, you'd have seen videos of illegals throwing rocks (some at very close range) and Molotov cocktails at border agents, ambushing border agents, and 'gang rushing' across the border.

So, fitting into your analogy, those 'poor that got into your garage' want their friends in too. And if you try to evict one of them, they'll have their friends on the outside throw rocks at you until you relent.

52 posted on 06/20/2007 5:35:04 AM PDT by Swordfished
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