Thread: Specter wants to re-open legalizing illegal aliens

A Less Ambitious Approach to Immigration

By Arlen Specter
Monday, August 6, 2007; Page A17

The charge of amnesty defeated comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate this summer. It is too important, and there has been too much legislative investment, not to try again. The time to do so is now.

Certainly the government should implement the provisions it has already enacted to improve border security and crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. But the important additions on those subjects contained in the bill defeated in June will not be enacted without also dealing with the 12 million-plus undocumented immigrants and the guest worker program.

So let's take a fresh look and try a narrower approach.

There is a consensus in Congress on most objectives and many remedies for immigration reform: more border patrols, additional fencing, drones and some form of a guest worker program. Modern technological advances provide foolproof identification so employers can -- justifiably -- be severely sanctioned if they don't verify IDs and act to eliminate the magnet attracting illegals to penetrate the border. Yet Congress is unlikely to appropriate $3 billion for border security without dealing simultaneously with the illegal immigrants already here.

The main objective in legalizing the 12 million was to eliminate their fugitive status, allowing them to live in the United States without fear of being detected and deported or being abused by unscrupulous employers. We should consider a revised status for those 12 million people. Let them hold the status of those with green cards -- without the automatic path to citizenship that was the core component of critics' argument that reform efforts were really amnesty. Give these people the company of their spouses and minor children and consider other indicators of citizenship short of the right to vote (which was always the dealbreaker).

This approach may be attacked as creating an "underclass" inconsistent with American values, which have always been to give refuge to the "huddled masses." But such a compromise is clearly better than leaving these people a fugitive class. People with a lesser status are frequently referred to as second-class citizens. Congress has adamantly refused to make the 12 million people already here full citizens, but isn't it better for them to at least be secure aliens than hunted and exploited?

Giving these people green-card status leaves open the opportunity for them to return to their native lands and seek citizenship through regular channels. Or, after our borders are secured and tough employer sanctions have been put in place, Congress can revisit the issue and possibly find a more hospitable America.

Some of the other refinements of the defeated bill can await another day and the regular process of Judiciary Committee hearings and markups. Changing the law on family unification with a point system can also be considered later. Now, perhaps, we could add green cards for highly skilled workers and tinker at the edges of immigration law, providing we don't get bogged down in endless debate and defeated cloture motions.

It would be refreshing if Congress, and the country, could come together in a bipartisan way to at least partially solve one of the big domestic issues of the day.

It is time to instate fugitive status for Specter. Drive him into the shadows and abuse him in a burger joint as he flips paddies for a living by calling him what he is.

A smudge on the soul of America and a traitor to our nation, a insulting anti American NAU SPP boot licker.

Originally Posted by buffalododger

It is time to instate fugitive status for Specter. Drive him into the shadows and abuse him in a burger joint as he flips paddies for a living by calling him what he is.

A smudge on the soul of America and a traitor to our nation, a insulting anti American NAU SPP boot licker.

What round are we on now? I've lost count.

These folks just do not give up!

Spector is a brown-nosed globalist who can't get enough of Bush. This jerk will risk his career to please the powers that be rather than doing his job representing the citizens of PA. What a friggin TRAITOR! He hasn't got what it takes to be a true Senator..he's only good for cleaning bathrooms.

Originally Posted by saveourcountry

What round are we on now? I've lost count.

These folks just do not give up!

Multiply the national dept by the circumference of Mexico and you will find your answer.

Good answer, Buffalo.

Most of you probably know Sen. Specter was a Democrat Senator before he was a Republican one, don't you? He still frequently sides with the Democrats in ideology and votes. Let's face it, the man is still a Democrat in his heart!

Excerpt:

Specter has heard Republican complaining before, particularly after he broke ranks in 1987 and voted with Democrats to defeat Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, the choice of another Republican president, Ronald Reagan.

A senator from a state where registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by more than 580,000, Specter often sides with the opposing party.

Complaining to Reporters

While Republican at times grouse that Specter isn't always loyal, Democrats wish he were more independent.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid complained to reporters in March that Specter votes with Democrats ``whenever you don't need him.''

Specter replied that Reid ``has a selectively short memory.''

``They needed my vote on Bork,'' he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... htlal99Jns

Shame on him,not only for how this would hurt citizens but it is giving illegals hope which keeps them here and causes others to migrate in hopes of getting in on the amnesty deal.

Enforcing our laws and stop giving them hope for amnesty would cause a mass exodous.

I hope his constituents give him an ear full while he is home !!!!!!!!

Hi MW,

Originally Posted by MW

Most of you probably know Sen. Specter was a Democrat Senator before he was a Republican one, don't you? He still frequently sides with the Democrats in ideology and votes. Let's face it, the man is still a Democrat in his heart!

What Specter and his fellow Democrats (ie Hillary, Osama Obama, Kennedy, etc) are doing is trying to wear the voters down. They want us to become complacent and to shut up. Watch for John Cornyn, Kay Baily Hutchinson and others to jump in and vote amnesty when they think they can do it quietly.