Thread: NY Times OP/ED immigration reform

At least they are again acknowledging the problem. There will be no reform without enhanced enforcement. The NY Slimes need to get a clue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/20/opini ... nted=print

August 20, 2005

United States of Emergency
Anyone who has been to the border areas in Arizona and New Mexico knows about some of the horrible things that are happening at America's edge. The news is so alarming and the hope for relief from Washington is so dim that the governors of New Mexico and Arizona have finally declared states of emergency in those areas. It is as if those counties bordering on Mexico had been hit by floods or hurricanes or any other natural disaster, except that this is not a natural disaster. The scenes of death, drug smuggling, kidnapping and more are manmade, a security emergency that should be fixed, soon, by politicians in Washington and Mexico City.
Both governors, Bill Richardson in New Mexico and Janet Napolitano in Arizona, are Democrats - a fact that has led to some suggestions that they are using this issue to grandstand or to embarrass the Bush administration. But these are the people on the front lines. They are pushing for the security that comes with humane and realistic immigration reform. Anything that sends a flare from the borderlands up to Congress is worth the effort.
Short term, the administration simply has to beef up its border surveillance and control. Although patrols have increased and equipment is more sophisticated, other border areas have been closed off in California and Texas, making New Mexico and Arizona the preferred routes for thousands of illegal immigrants over the last few years. Many are simply aiming north to get jobs so they can feed their families back in Mexico. But too many are interested in shadier pursuits.
Almost everybody who thinks hard about the immigration problem knows that the solution is not simply to build a better fence. That won't work as long as there are low-level jobs that need doing and no American citizens willing to do them. Throwing as many as 11 million illegal immigrants out of the country is simply not going to happen.
At present, Congress has two important bills covering reform. One comes from two Republicans, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona and Senator John Cornyn of Texas. The Kyl-Cornyn bill is heavy on security - which would be a good thing as long as it included a true guest worker program, but so far, it does not. The other bill, from Senator John McCain of Arizona and Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, has a far better guest worker program, but not as much security. It's possible to see a way to combine these bills to make an immigration system that's better for everybody.
President Bush has been promising immigration reform since he took office, and he promised once again this week that immigration would be a top priority. Through all these years, Mr. Bush, as a Texan, has made it clear that he understands this complex problem. But some of those in his party prefer to inflame the issue with anti-immigrant tirades - an embarrassment as old as America itself. The president will have to tame his own party before we can all move forward.

That won't work as long as there are low-level jobs that need doing and no American citizens willing to do them.

Sad to say that these so called Low-level Jobs, American Citizens will do. The sad thing is that these so called traitors American companies. Are not going to hire an American as long as they can get away with hiring a low paid illegal. These companies benefit in every way. They don't have to pay health insurance, there profits are enormous, There not having to pay there part in Federal, State, local And Social Security taxes. This so called Low-Level Jobs, was good paying construction jobs, and other well paying jobs. Not anymore.

Through all these years, Mr. Bush, as a Texan, has made it clear that he understands this complex problem.

I sincerely doubt that.

All he has done is show that his solution is to keep the borders wide open to any and all comers, and make the rest of us pay for the consequences.

That's not what I'd call a solution to a complex problem.

Throwing as many as 11 million illegal immigrants out of the country is simply not going to happen.

We can always hope.