Immigration Pitfall Why 'Legalization Only' Won't Fly

Washington Post ^ | July 21, 2009 | Jorge G. Castaneda and Tamar Jacoby

[La Lydia]

...unlike in 2006, when Democratic and Republican reformers agreed on what was needed in an immigration law overhaul, this year there's a new fault line. It surfaced when Obama called lawmakers to the White House to discuss immigration...Obama had said little about what he wants in a bill -- in fact, he has been studiously vague. But McCain knew enough about what has (and has not) been said recently by immigration experts close to the White House and those pushing Obama to take up reform that he felt it necessary to launch a preemptive strike.

This year, organized labor and many Latino advocates are thinking about slicing up the reform package and moving forward with a piecemeal approach: a bill that legalizes the unauthorized immigrants already in the United States but makes no provision for those who will want to work north of the border in years ahead...

The reasoning is clear: With unemployment edging toward 10 percent, it's hard to argue that the United States needs foreign workers. And organized labor, particularly the AFL-CIO, has seized on the opportunity to graft its larger agenda onto the immigration debate.

But this view is shortsighted. Just as it would have been a mistake in a Republican era to pass an expanded temporary worker program but leave out legalization and a path to citizenship, so, too, would it be a mistake now to legalize immigrants who are here without creating a way for future workers to enter the United States legally...

Then there is Mexican politics...the United States can't hope to implement an immigration overhaul without help from Mexico -- help administering legalization and dissuading future illegal immigration. And no Mexican government can afford to cooperate with Washington unless the reform includes a significant increase in temporary worker visas...

[La Lydia]

Jorge Castaneda, former foreign secretary of Mexico, is a Marxist who has abandoned his native land to live in the United States and teach at New York University; Tamar Jacoby has been an open-borders advocate for a couple of decades now. Their message is, relax and enjoy it, there is nothing we can do, and anything we try to do is depends on Mexico, not the will of the American people.

[EagleUSA]

All Obama wants is to legalize illegal Mexicans so they can vote for him. He cares about NOTHING else. He does not care how America is being raped to support the Mexican welfare state in America. It is all about POWER AND CONTROL with Obama and he does not care about who or what he hurts in the process. Witness the payback spending/pork of Stimulus, witness the AUTO INDUSTRY and the unions, witness the horror story that is the elderly-killing so-called health plan, witness CAP-AND-TAX to steal EVEN MORE money form the private sector to support his socialist takeover of America......

[La Lydia]

Yup. Command economy. Open borders. Welfare and benefits for the entire world on our tab. Spread the wealth. Control people’s lives. Overlords know best.

[AuntB]

“Tamar Jacoby has been an open-borders advocate for a couple of decades now”

And don’t forget that Newt Gingrich has been right along side her, as in their letter to the WSJ proclaiming Bush’s amnesty was the only way to go.

http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=+Newt+Gingrich%2C+Conservative%3F+NOT+on+immigration%21

[norton]

"they will find ways to enter illegally, no matter how much border and work-site enforcement is in place...
Hoping that people will stop coming is as illusory as thinking that those already in the United States will pack up and go home.
...the only way to stop illegal outflows from Mexico is to legalize them, adapting the law to reality, not the other way around."

Followed by:
"When I snap my fingers you will wake up and remember nothing.
You will feel warm and safe.
Your government is nice and all its laws are for your own good.
You will immediately have your lawn mowed and you will pay in cash."

"Oh, yeah; you'll want tacos for lunch"...SNAP

[org.whodat]

Jorge G. Castaneda and Tamar Jacoby

Both need to be working in the coal mines of china. Where they would be used as mining props for a short time.

[spectre]

All Obama wants is to legalize illegal Mexicans so they can vote for him.

You could say the same thing about John McCain.

sw

[EagleUSA]

You could say the same thing about John McCain.
:::::::
You could say it, but he would NEVER GET THEIR VOTE. Not with an “R” after his name....the stumbling Repubs keep trying to pander to the illegals, but they will ALWAYS vote for the crooked libs and the Mexicans know that the libs are their facilitators.

[Ben Ficklin]

Castenada's premise of two left wings in Latin America is widely accepted in the foreign service.

First are the modern day socialists, such as himself, who are no different from the social democrats in Europe and believe strongly in a market economy.

Second are the Latin American populists masquerading as socialists.

Zalaya in Honduras is an example of a true socialist who has converted to a populist.

We have a similar situation in the US, except on the right. There are conservatives, and there are populists masquerading as conservatives.

[La Lydia]

I have read much of what Castenada has written in the original Spanish, starting before there was an Internet. To call him a European Socialist is a huge stretch. His stated hero is Che Guevara. He is a Marxist, make no mistake, who was (by his own admission) cast adrift when the Soviet Union fell and has been looking for a new raft to climb on ever since. He has gone so far as to identify the “right left” and the “wrong left” in Latin America (doesn’t like Lula, etc.). But as far as I am concerned, his constant demands over a period of more than 20 years for the U.S. to open its borders to any and all Mexican nationals who want to come here, and for the American people to provide them with every possible benefit, is the worst of his deeds. He is a one-man fifth column.