Thread: All talk, no action on immigration

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All talk, no action on immigration
By Boston Herald editorial staff
Thursday, August 17, 2006

Members of Congress will parachute into Concord, N.H., next week for the latest stop on their immigration road show. Remember, instead of negotiating with the Senate on a comprehensive immigration reform bill, the hard-liners in the House are vamping for time before the November elections.

Here’s hoping the police chiefs from Hudson and New Ipswich, N.H., stop by the Concord hearing to tell their tales - how they arrested several illegal immigrants in their communities for trespassing, but later saw the charges dismissed. The stories are instructive, but not for the reasons you might think.

Sure, the “no amnesty” crowd will hoot and holler and blame judges for failing to recognize the growing problem of illegal immigration in the Granite State and everywhere else, and they’ll lament the growing number of illegal immigrants who are forcing local officials’ hands.

But if members of the House are looking for someone to blame, they need only look in the mirror. Their unwillingness to pass a reform bill that both toughens enforcement at the borders - and provides a realistic path to citizenship for millions of immigrants already living here - is the only remaining roadblock to immigration reform.

It’s difficult to blame local officials for trying to solve the problem on their own, since they’re getting little help from Washington. The House passed an unworkable “enforcement-only” bill last year, while the Senate offered a bipartisan compromise that toughens enforcement, while also allowing illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States longer than two years the opportunity to gain legal residency. Instead of doing what their constituents sent them to Washington to do - negotiating a compromise - the House decamped to red states to rabble-rouse.

The House may want to wish this problem away, but it’s downright impossible to ignore the growing presence of immigrants in our country, legal and otherwise. Figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau this week indicate that the number of foreign-born residents living in American households grew by 16 percent from 2000 to 2005. In Massachusetts, the immigrant population grew by 15.4 percent and may be offsetting the flight of U.S.-born residents out of our state. The notion of deporting every illegal immigrant grows more and more preposterous by the day.

House members can talk from now until Nov. 9. But Americans want action.

This is pro-amnesty trash talking. Make sure it includes a taxpayer saftey fund, so the middle classes arent stuck paying for it. Didnt hear a thing about that.

and may be offsetting the flight of U.S.-born residents out of our state.

And I WONDER why they are fleeing???? Maybe they are sick of you wacko politics!!