Senator Wayne Allard Speaks Out.

Amnesty for illegal aliens is an insult to
law-abiding citizens, immigrants
alike
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/2005 ... 1/TRIBEDIT

June 29, 2005



LET'S SAY THE police catch someone driving 80 mph
on a stretch of highway
where the speed limit is 65. Few people in this
country would vote for the
government to buy that driver a faster car in
order to discourage other
lawbreakers from speeding.

But that is exactly what the McCain-Kennedy bill,
which offers amnesty to
the estimated 11 million-12 million illegal
aliens in our country, proposes
to do: reward those whose first act on American
soil is to break our laws.
By the same logic, we should offer amnesty to car
thieves and call them
"undocumented drivers."

Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants is an
insult to law-abiding citizens
and to law-abiding immigrants alike. We don't
open express offices to give
titles and licenses to car thieves, and then make
legitimate owners jump
through bureaucratic hoops and stand in line.

The McCain-Kennedy proposal is a bad one:
Rewarding illegal activity not
only encourages more of that activity, fostering
even more law-breaking, but
it punishes those who have waited in line and
followed the law. And it
teaches the world that it is OK to disrespect and
ignore our laws, when the
Rule of Law is one of the foundation stones on
which our free and prosperous
society is built. How can we uphold the Rule of
Law if we reward those who
break it?

After the 1986 amnesty, illegal immigration
increased significantly. Census
Bureau 2000 data indicate that 700,000-800,000
illegal aliens sneak into the
U.S. each year, with at least 10 million and
quite possibly 12 million
illegal aliens now living in the United States,
according to former
Department of Homeland Security Director Tom
Ridge. This is not the outcome
promised the American people at the time, who
were told that the 1986
amnesty bill would put an end once and for all to
illegal entry.

I would like to clarify one item: A May 27
Greeley Tribune article quoted me
as saying, "They are all the same bad character,"
implying that I said all
illegal immigrants are bad characters. My
comments were taken out of their
actual context. What I did say is people who
smuggle illegal immigrants into
our country, often involving them in drug
trafficking, prostitution and
human slavery, are all bad actors. I did not
characterize all illegal
immigrants as bad actors.

Almost a million people continue to cross U.S.
borders illegally each year.

We don't know much about them, other than that
they chose to break our laws,
but we do know something about the consequences
of their arrival: gang
murders, record-high auto thefts, drug
trafficking, human smuggling, D.C.
sniper Lee Malvo, money laundering, prostitution,
child molestation (In
Operation Predator sweeps, from July 9,
2003-March 3, 2005, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement agents arrested more than
4,250 foreign national sexual
predators in the United States) and even
modern-day slavery. An estimated
85,000 state prison inmates are aliens.

There are many good reasons for the United States
to have and enforce
immigration laws: safety and national security,
national sovereignty, and
the protection of the health of our citizens, to
name a few. Many people who
wish to immigrate legally are waiting patiently,
and have been waiting
patiently in line for many years. We must not
break faith with the hundreds
of thousands of hopeful immigrants who respect
and obey our law, in order to
reward millions of those who have shown for it,
and for us, nothing but
their contempt.

U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard is a Republican from
Loveland.
CONTACT

n SEN. WAYNE ALLARD

* In Colorado: 5401 Stone Creek Circle, Suite 203
, Loveland 80538; call
(970) 461-3530; fax: (970) 461-3658

* In Washington: 521 Dirksen Senate Office
Building, Washington, DC 20510 ;
call (202) 224-5941; fax: 202-224-6471

* Web site: http://allard.senate.gov