Posted Online: Posted online: September 7, 2007 3:04 PM
Print publication date: 09/08/2007
Needed: Common sense on immigration

By Dave Shaver

I few weeks ago II quoted Thomas Payne in his 1776 pamphlet Common Sense: "the responsibility of the patriot is to defend his country from its government." Many of you responded, and I appreciate your comments.

Very recently the Gallup Poll reported that the Congress has tied the lowest level of job approval rating since Gallup started intruding into our fixed political ideologies back in the 1970s. We have to protect ourselves from this government.

Two major issues are driving American public opinion today:

-- The war in Iraq and

-- Illegal immigration.

Clearly the newly installed Democrat majority has missed its opportunities to resolve these issues. We have to wait for a thorough look at how the "surge" in Iraq is doing, but we don't have to wait to analyze illegal immigration. By trying to rush a very bad, so-called comprehensive through the Senate, without sufficient time for all members of Congress to read and analyze the bill and without public hearings on the legislation, the Democrats have now spoiled their new-found leadership advantage and soiled themselves, as well.

Most of us think that to succeed in Congress one probably has to lie, accept bribes, steal money, or cheat to stay in power. This newspaper has published numerous accounts of malfeasance in office by "holier than thou," "do you know who I am?" honorable men and women in Congress. So beware, America. Sneaky politicians in the Senate are again trying to slide bad legislation behind our backs. I used to think conspiracy theorists were a little kooky, but now I understand why they are so skeptical of our government.

According to Roy Beck, president of Numbers USA. In a below-the-horizon move, members of the Senate are reintroducing three components of the failed legislation this fall: "the DREAM ACT amnesty for illegal aliens who graduate from high school and want to attend college; the AG JOBS amnesty for all illegal aliens who are working in agriculture (or who can fraudulently claim to be doing so); and a major increase in H-1B temporary visas primarily for foreign high-tech workers to enable more businesses to pay the lower wages of younger foreign workers and avoid higher-cost, older American workers."

[b]Did you know that there are nine "Guest Worker" programs now in existence (according to CNN's Lou Dobbs) through which more than two million LEGAL immigrants are processed each year? No? Then please ask yourself and your congressman why be so adamant about starting up more programs when all that needs to happen is to raise the current quotas, based on need?

Answer: amnesty, leading to power. Lie. Cheat. Steal. I'm tired of the same old deal from these political parties. Even though term limits were determined unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, we really don't need a formal system to limit Congressional terms of office. We must just band together and vote everyone out of office a few times and watch the rats scatter.

Common sense should tell us that to resolve our illegal immigration problems, we need to enforce our existing laws; establish secure borders and ports; adjust quotas in our nine existing Guest Worker authorizations to reflect actual need; and install a national identification system which is criminal-proof. Only the last one is a tough challenge. The others are no-brainers, except in the Congress, of course.

Col. Dave Shaver, a retired U.S. Army officer, is a former tenured faculty member of the U.S. Army War College; dshaver630@aol.com

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