Posted on 01/24/2003 1:06:56 AM PST by hoosierskypilot
There is a quaint fact that tends to be forgotten in discussions of immigration policy: the law is the law. The law says that some persons have a legal right to be in the United States and some do not. This law is not arbitrary: it was made by a legitimate, democratically elected government expressing the will of the American people. Therefore, it is high time to get serious about enforcing it by deporting all of our illegal aliens. Fortunately, this is not as hard as it looks, as we already deport some of them and merely need to apply the same programs to a greater number of people. Politically, it may be hard; logistically, it’s no big deal.
The raw numbers are staggering. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) estimates there are currently more than eight million illegal aliens living within our borders, with more than a million more expected to be here by the end of 2003. It’s not like the public is unaware of the problem. Successive polling in recent years has consistently shown a clear – and thus far unanswered – mandate from the American electorate for its elected officials to faithfully enforce the laws they are sworn to uphold by removing the swelling illegal population. But key constituencies inside the governing class – principally the cheap labor lobby on the Republican side and the ethnic lobbies on the Democratic side – have successfully frustrated American democracy and the rule of law on this point.
Under pressure and in fits and starts, the federal government has been making token gestures of deportation, which prove that something could be done if the political decision were ever made to get serious. Between 1995 and 1998, funding for removing illegal aliens more than doubled, resulting in a rise in deportations from 50,400 to 171,000. Early INS estimates for Fiscal 2002 deportations come in at 147,345.
But with a pool of eight million potential deportees, appreciable progress will only be achieved through a general deportation policy, i.e., the principle that every person whose illegal status becomes known gets deported. The key thing to understand is that this would not require, as opponents would have us believe, some kind of fascistic police state out of a B-grade movie. All it would require is that well-established, existing programs for deportation operate on greater numbers of people.
Fundamentally, the politics of deportation may be heated, but actual deportation is quite boring.
It’s not as though it hasn’t been done before. In 1954, during the Eisenhower Administration, INS Commissioner Gen. Joseph May Swing instituted a mass search-and-removal operation targeting illegal aliens from Mexico scattered throughout the Southwest and Midwest. It coordinated the efforts of the U.S. Border Patrol, municipal, county, state and local police forces, along with the military. The coordinated and strategic use of resources and manpower soon produced positive results. In Texas, the nation’s second-largest state, the government needed only around 700 men to do the job, netting approximately 4,800 deportees on its first day and 1,100 daily thereafter. Deportees were shipped back to Mexico via rail and ship, often deep into the interior of the country to discourage recidivism. When funding for the initiative ran out that fall, the INS claimed some 2.1 million removals, including those who voluntarily returned to Mexico before and during the operation. Following the 1954 effort, illegal immigration dwindled until the mid-1960s.
This is the real benefit of deportation: it discourages illegal immigration in the first place, reducing both the enforcement burden and the social problems that immigration causes. Once would-be immigration criminals realize they will only be deported, their numbers drop within a range that can easily be contained. Ironically enough, this means that a laxer immigration policy, not a stricter one, requires more manpower to enforce the tatters of law that remain, and costs more money to run. Once would-be illegals get the message, there will be a lot fewer of them.
(Excerpt) Read more at frontpagemag.com ...
It wouldn't be difficult to find them at all. In most cities, the illegal immigrants live in certain neighborhoods, hang out on certain street corners or Home Depot lots looking for work, etc. Believe me, local law enforcement *knows* where the illegals are. They do nothing about it because it's a *federal* responsibility.
The laws need to be changed so that local law enforcement can pick up illegals & take them to federal offices, drop them off, and let the feds do the deportation. If Mexico doesn't like it, tough.
That's why this needs to be a two-pronged effort: deportation is the first element; the second is to *repeal the US Constitution* so that those born of illegal immigrants are not automatically citizens.
Nothing, but it's better to resolve 100%.
It doesn't have to be 100%
No, but it can be. So why not do it?
There are ways. Most illegals work for a business of some sort; there's only so many housekeeping jobs available. If you are a business owner and pay someone in cash off the books, you usually have to do some creative accounting. Basically, you have to engage in tax fraud. The IRS could detect most of this by doing more audits of businesses in idustries that tend to hire illegals. Most businesses only hire illegals if they have fraudulant papers so they don't have to engage in tax fraud. The INS can weed out close to 100% of these cases by more careful screening and verification of the documents.
They can be deported if and when they try to access government services or try to obtain free medical care.
There's more to it that that. It is already necessary to show a state or other government-issued ID, or have a social security number, in order to open bank accounts and engage in many every-day life activities. Prohibit all governments from granting of such IDs to illegals (currently illegals can get drivers' liscences in some states). Make it impossible to get a social security number if you are illegal (currently, it is not too difficult). Prohibit the use of the new matricula card. Stiffen the penalties for document fraud. Such measures would make the life of an illegal very difficult, and would likely encourage most of those who don't get caught to leave voluntarily.
Entry into this country—either as an immigrant or a visitor—is a privilege, not a right. The safety of our citizens must come before the comfort and convenience of foreigners. To prevent another September 11, tourism dollars, ethnic votes, diplomatic kowtowing, and political cronyism must once and for all take a back seat to national security.
There will be howling protestations from the usual suspects. But this is no moment to give in to the homegrown abettors of anti-Americanism. It's time to take out the trash, fix the holes in our fences, and defend Lady Liberty from all those who would trespass against her.
Just for the record:
Not the Democratic Party and Dick Gephardt (who promised amnesty to all illegals who vote and support the Dems in the 2002 elections).
............and also (I'm afraid to say) linguine-spined Republicans who are afraid (and rightly so) they will be labelled as racist by the Dems and every other special interest group from the Agricultural Lobby, to La Raza, to the idiots in the mainstream press.
I agree with all you said but I don't want to have to carry my government-issued ID at all times and be stopped for any reason to prove I can produce it.
All they have to do is drop or amend that Amendment that causes that problem. It's not applicable for the original reasons it was put into affect anyhow now-days.
That's why there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to the current situation. Non-citizens can easily bring in all their relatives but it seems that kind of thing should be limited to citizens. Intermarriage with Americans would be obviously good for assimilation but we're seeing complete foreign and welfare communities springing up because low-income foreigners can bring in all their relatives. Uneducated, unskilled unwed mothers can stay forever collecting welfare forever ---but like the case you mention, welfare woulld be avoided but they forbid that.
I agree. You cannot let them in. Afterward, it is very difficult and very costly to get them out. The government's efforts are such a waste. We dedicate so many billions to guard the border, but on the other hand grant tourist visas and border crossing cards by the hundreds of thousands, which are used in lieu of a coyote. It's sheer stupidity. Every morning, the INS lets people into the country who they know are violating the terms of their entry documents (i.e. they are going to work, but they don't have authorization to work). Instead of pulling their border crossing permits and making them stay in Mexico, they wave them through. You can witness this at www.telnor.com Look under garitas to see a web cam of border traffic and how it changes during morning and evening drive time.
That's the problem with any kind of legalization plan, it will make the current illegals obsolete. Management will still need new recruits from south of the border. The newly legalized who command a higher wage will no longer be in demand and will be laid off in greater numbers.
Those who are current illegals and employed are really shooting themselves in the foot by asking for amnesty. They'll see the error when another 10 million illegals come to take their place.
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