Thread: Odd cast boosts immigration reform

McCain-Kennedy bill is a solid launching pad for Congress' immigration debate. The subject carries social, economic and security implications.




With an estimated 11 million or more illegal immigrants in the United States, it's clear that existing border policies have become a joke. They too often ignore the labor needs of the economy and, well, where do we begin about the lack of enforcement? The laws against illegal immigration and hiring undocumented workers are poorly enforced, when they are enforced at all.

Past efforts to update U.S. immigration laws have taken years. The task is among the most ticklish and difficult facing Congress, with social and economic ramifications along with diplomatic and domestic security impacts.

Some weeks ago, a serious effort to tackle the immigration headache was launched by Sens. John McCain, a border state Republicans, and Ted Kennedy, a Northeast liberal. This odd duck authorship represents the need to forge a broad consensus. Indeed, McCain-Kennedy is a rational approach that holds much promise if calm heads can prevail over demagoguery.

The McCain-Kennedy bill is in synch with many of President Bush's immigration-reform ideas, which increases the likelihood of success. (Also, the word out of Washington is the president now supports concepts he once opposed, such as not requiring illegal immigrants to return home to gain legal status.)

"It's certainly the most ambitious formulation that we've seen," said Doris Meissner of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, "and it really does take on the broad sweep of the issues." Meissner, director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service under President Clinton, said McCain- Kennedy will "help focus the discussion. It creates something specific against which to really have a debate" and "probably will go through several iterations" before reaching the Senate floor. She also observed the White House was "amazingly mum about McCain-Kennedy when it was introduced."

In contrast, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, gave the
bill both barrels. He ripped border security provisions as "little more than commissioning of a few more government reports and working groups," and said, "The rest of the bill is dedicated to things like providing taxpayer-funded health care and instant amnesty for millions of illegal aliens who have broken our laws."
True, the bill proposes legitimizing the status of illegal workers currently in the U.S. They would have to pay $2,000 in fines, as well as back taxes, and pass criminal background checks and medical exams. These immigrants could then apply for three-year guest-worker visas, renewable once. After six years, the workers would be eligible to apply for permanent resident status for themselves and their families, and, after five more years, U.S. citizenship.

The bill would allow U.S. employers to hire up to 400,000 foreign workers the first year on a showing that no residents would take the jobs. These workers also eventually could become permanent residents.

Other provisions include electronically verifiable identity cards for the guest workers and doubled fines for employers who knowingly hire newly arrived illegal immigrants.

Despite its bipartisan support, McCain- Kennedy faces an uphill fight on both sides of the aisle: from Republicans opposed to any form of amnesty and from Democrats who fear cheap foreign labor will depress domestic wages.

McCain-Kennedy is a reasonable springboard to debate the many tough issues that are raised by U.S. immigration policy.

McCain-Kennedy is an outrageous slap in the face of the American People. It spits on US Immigration Law. It rewards all the lawbreakers who have deflated wages and salaries of US Citizens by $200 Billion a year. It provides amnesties to all illegal employers; all illegal employees; all illegal aliens presently in the US, but for the handful that are already in American Prisons....who I'm sure after "serving their time" will then be eligible to remain in the US.

This 150 page document Legalizes the Illegal and is a scam against the American People, the American Worker, the United States, and the future of all.

There are not 10,000,000 illegals in the US, there are 50,000,000.

Pass this bill and you have just said FAREWELL TO THE UNITED STATES as it will no longer exist.

When you say Farewell to the USA, you have condemned the world to a One World Government, because no one but the Americans can fight it and win. We have always been the ones keeping it a bay and a bad dream of some very bad people.

Unfortunately, a few of them got into the White House during the past 16 years....and we didn't know it until now.

BUT now we do, so their crappy little sick dream is over.

We have work to do and defeating McCain Kennedy is just one of the many tasks at hand.

Front Page

http://www.alipac.us/article-466--0-0.html

I'm embarrassed to have John McCain as my Senator from Arizona. Jon Kyl is much better (but I hear he may be picked as a Supreme Court Justice). Apparently the Republican party won't run anyone against McCain, and the Democrat who ran against him in the last election didn't even buy any campaign commercials or signs. So he's reelected for the forseeable future. I hope he never becomes President, because he is definitely a RINO (Republican In Name Only).

McCain is often lauded by the news media because he is a "maverick." I believe we don't need a maverick so much as we need solidarity in the party to combat the entitlement programs and pork barrel legislation that the Democrats live by.

Well anyway, hello to everyone with my first post, and please take a look at the blog linked in my signature. If anyone would like to post news articles in the blog, please send me a PM and I'll set you up. So far there are only two of us posting news items, so the more the merrier. Apparently there are very few blogs online that discuss immigration issues, so you could "get in on the ground floor" so to speak.

It's a good thing the newspapers have no influence anymore, otherwise some people might take that Denver Post article seriously.

I get a kick out of that statement that McCain Kennedy is a "serious" proposal.

The proposal is a frigging joke!

The only political impact is that McCain can forget about a run for President in 2008, and McKennedy is such a ridiculous bill that it paints the open borders advocates as a bunch of kooks, thus reducing their ability to get any legislation in their favor, including Cornyn Kyl, which is also a bad bill, but not a joke like McKennedy.


The most absurd thing about McKennedy is that at its best you could consider it one of these "phony compromise" bills like the 1986 amnesty, give amnesty now and promise enforcement later.

However, my understanding is that the enforcement provisions of their bill actually WEAKEN enforcement. For example transfering authority from Justice Dept to Labor Dept.

McKennedy (cool, I like that)....is a fraud. The Kyl bill is very bad too.

The Truth is....we need no bill....we need no legislation dealing with the illegals other than:

1) a law to require our government to enforce the law

Who would have EVER thought THAT would be necessary in the United States?

Twilight Zone? Oh yeah.....we've been drawn into a very dark place....

The world of the Skull and Bones...sicko-wackos.