Real immigration reform will vault over border fence

[Brian503a]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_o ... 4724c.html


Real immigration reform will vault over border fence



BY TAMAR JACOBY

The TV news clips said it all - or seemed to. First the camera panned along a few yards of existing border fence. Then came a shot of the Senate debating whether to build 700 miles more of it, followed by the final vote 80-19 in favor of the fence.
No wonder many people concluded that the immigration hard-liners in the House, where the fence bill originated, had won the debate.

But they're wrong. For most members of Congress, this was little more than an election-year charade. The truth is, one mug-for-the-camera vote will not reverse the progress made in the past two years toward comprehensive immigration reform, which is still the only way to solve the problem.

By now, the two competing visions are clear to everyone: simply cracking down harder with fencing and other measures, or combining more effective enforcement with more realistic laws - laws that recognize our labor needs, current and future, and offer some long-term path to legal citizenship for the illegal immigrants already here.

Lopsided fence votes in the House and Senate belie growing support for that broader vision. It's not just that the President and many senators support balanced reform. Poll after poll shows that between two-thirds and three-quarters of the public believes that the best answer combines tougher enforcement with earned citizenship for the illegal immigrants already here. The 20% to 25% who feel differently have an outsized influence in this midterm election year. But even if that tail can wag the dog for now, it can't prevent the majority from expressing its will eventually.

And make no mistake: The problem isn't going away. Unlike with, say, Social Security, Congress will be under pressure to get back to the issue and solve it, if not in November, then next year.

The hard-liners are right about one thing - we do need to get control of the border. But its symbolic value aside, an old-fashioned metal fence is far from the best way to do that. What's needed on the border is the combination package of sophisticated technology - sensors, drones, electronic trip wires and high-tech coordination - already contracted out to the defense firm Boeing.

And the most important place for a crackdown isn't on the border at all: It's in the workplace, where we need a national electronic verification system to help employers tell the difference between who's authorized to work and who isn't.

Combine all that with more realistic laws - as is, some half a million foreigners enter the country a year to do unskilled jobs, yet we issue only 5,000 year-round visas for that kind of work - and we might have a chance of honestly confronting the problem.

But the members of Congress voting for the fence weren't thinking about that. They were thinking about the campaign ads they'll be making next week. And, right now, either they don't trust themselves or they don't trust voters enough to try to make the case for a truly workable solution.

Jacoby is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Originally published on October 1, 2006

[Judy]

Oh you creeps at the Manhattan Institute just can't stand it can ya?

Well, suck it in, because:

We're just getting started and the fence is just the beginning of what the American People are going to require to secure our borders, enforce US Immigration Law as it is, and stop illegal immigration dead in its tracks.

So..Jacoby if your job depends on illegal immigration...then you better start doing some stretching exercises and get yourself ready to do something useful like PICK SOME FRUIT!!





:P :P :P :P :P :P



That "image" of Jacoby and all that other pro-illegal pond scum on a 12 foot ladder pickin' fruit just kept gettin' better and better!

I think Kennedy and McCain would look good on a ladder too don't you?

[2ndamendsis]

So..Jacoby if your job depends on illegal immigration...then you better start doing some stretching exercises and get yourself ready to do something useful like PICK SOME FRUIT!!

JUDY
I declare this the BEST LINE of the DAY

[CountFloyd]

But its symbolic value aside, an old-fashioned metal fence is far from the best way to do that.

Well, for once in her open-borders loving life, Tamar actually gets something right.

We don't need an old-fashioned metal fence. We need one of these:



But then, in the very next sentence, Tamar goes back to form and gets it all wrong again.

What's needed on the border is the combination package of sophisticated technology - sensors, drones, electronic trip wires and high-tech coordination - already contracted out to the defense firm Boeing.

No, Tamar, this outrageously expensive system has already been tried and has failed miserably - multiple times. Perhaps that's why she likes it.

[2ndamendsis]

AHHHHH

That's about the best freakin FENCE I've ever seen!!

COUNT, you are hired!!!

[Judy]

It'a in Israel I think. Right Count?



Glad you liked my line on Jacoby, 2ndamendsis!!

I can STILL see her on that ladder.

[2ndamendsis]

It'a in Israel I think. Right Count?



Glad you liked my line on Jacoby, 2ndamendsis!!

I can STILL see her on that ladder.

LOL, I see her with one of those cloth fruit holder thingies hanging off her waist UP ON THE LADDER.

Fence: never saw a fence like that in Israel but I didn't see the entire country. Doesn't look Israeli

[Judy]

Yeah, it's something someone found a while back and if memory serves me right it was in Israel. Something new. Maybe Count will know. It's in our Pictures Worth A Thousand Words archive.

[CountFloyd]

Israel is where that fence is located, all right.

If they can do it, why not us?

[Judy]

Absolutely!! And I ESPECIALLY love the Guard Towers. That is the most beautiful perfect fence barrier for a border that I've ever seen and hope and pray that ours is something of comparable stature and quality.