August 8, 2008

Exclusive: Why Don’t the Candidates Have a Solution for the Illegal Alien Problem?
George Weissinger, PhD


With regard to immigration, most pundits inside the blogosphere suggest little difference between the Presidential candidates. Both support the construction of a wall at the U.S. southern border. Both want to deal humanely with the twelve million (I think it is closer to twenty million) illegal aliens already in the U.S., insisting on a path to citizenship (amnesty).

Senator Obama has no problem with illegal aliens having driver’s licenses issued to them, would include them in universal health care, and fully supports the Dream Act giving benefits to illegal alien students. He also wants to increase the legal immigration quotas and speed up background checks for naturalization applicants. Senator McCain opposes the Dream Act, does not want illegal aliens to get driver’s licenses, and prefers tax credits supported with federal aid to make health insurance affordable. These appear to be differences, yet both candidates seem to be moving toward moderate positions and at this time not really discussing the issues at all.

In 1981, the Select Commission On Immigration chaired by Rev. Hesburgh, made final recommendations to President Reagan on the immigration problem. Then Attorney General Edwin Meese III points out that today President Reagan would not make the amnesty mistake again. It was estimated that there were between 1.5 and 4.0 million illegal aliens in the U.S. at that time but signing the IRCA 1986 law paved the way for the huge increase in illegal immigration to the astounding levels with which we are now dealing.

More importantly, Meese points out that “…there was a failure of political will to enforce new laws against employersâ€