Thread: Senate bill would permit illegal immigrants to keep benefits

http://www.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... 22/OPINION

Senate bill would permit illegal immigrants to keep illegally accrued benefits
Published July 24, 2006


As Congress remains deadlocked over immigration reform, much of the divisiveness has been fueled by stipulations in Senate reform legislation that would not only forgive but actually reward illegal behavior.

Such stipulations are a sad commentary on our American system and even our culture.

A current popular Internet blogging and e-mail campaign reflects some of the outrage generated by this propensity to reward illegal behavior that results in ill-gotten gains. And unlike much that is found among the Web's commentary on politics and national issues, key aspects of this effort are legitimate.

This online campaign has surfaced in reaction to the Senate stifling a measure that would have removed a reward system from the Senate's new reform bill. As it stands, the Senate bill would allow illegal aliens to receive credit for Social Security benefits they previously built up under illegal circumstances. This Internet attention has helped expose a much-overlooked -- and abhorrent -- action that was taken by the Senate.

As the Senate prepared to pass its reform legislation, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., proposed an amendment to the bill. His concern: It stipulates that previous illegally accrued Social Security benefits obtained through false identities would still be credited to those illegal immigrants committing the fraud.

Ensign's amendment was not addressing future Social Security benefits that may be accrued legally, should the Senate's reform bill become law, but only those benefits that had been falsely obtained by illegal immigrants through identity theft.

Although online commentary on this issue often misstates that the Senate voted down Ensign's amendment, in actuality the Senate voted to permanently table it without further debate. But it amounts to the same thing.

This is but one example of rewarding illegal behavior within immigration reform legislation that has caused such a volatile divide in this nation -- and rightly so.

Amnesty opponents argue that amnesty simply forgives lawbreakers and encourages more of the same illegal activity in the future, and they are correct. Those who argue that it's impractical or even impossible to deport the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants also may be correct.

But finding a viable compromise over illegal

immigration is unlikely so long as Senate legislation continues to propose rewarding criminal behavior. And it will only encourage more of the same type of behavior from future illegal immigrants, who would be confident that someday for them, too, all would be forgiven.

Odd how the PENCE POISON PLAN isn't mentioned since that's what's on the table at this very moment.

Are they throwing more disinformation out so as to direct our attention away from the dealing going on? Must be since the senate garbage is old news and PENCE is front and center.

Congress is not DEADLOCKED.