Thread: Plan won't stop illegals from coming

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Plan won't stop illegals from coming

We had experience with an amnesty law in 1986, and it didn't work then, either.



Jonette Christian

June 8, 2007


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jonette Christian (e-mail: jonette@acadia.net) of Holden heads Mainers for a Sensible Immigration Policy.

Many people could accept the Senate's plan to legalize 12 million illegal immigrants if we believed it would really end future illegal migration.

But it won't. In fact, its 300-plus pages are stuffed with goodies for special interests and big business, including guarantees of a continued supply of cheap foreign labor.

One would think that legislation as important and complex as immigration policy, contained in a bill as massive as this one, would merit extensive discussion. Nope.

They want to rush it through as quickly as they can before the real details are known and before the next election.

Neither party wants a forthright debate on immigration. The cozy collaboration between Bush and Democratic leadership on immigration serves their interests, not ours.

The editorial claiming this bill isn't an "amnesty" because illegal immigrants will pay a $3,000 fine doesn't pass the straight-face test. Of course it's an amnesty.

A $3,000 fine is a laughable price to pay for American citizenship. Do we really expect this little slap on the wrist to deter future illegal migration?

Illegal aliens from China pay more than $30,000 to be smuggled here and Central Americans pay as much as $7,000.

Considering the fact that low- wage illegal immigrant households cost taxpayers around $2,000 more than they pay in yearly taxes, a one-time $3,000 fine doesn't begin to cover what their lawbreaking has cost us.

But our problem is not simply with the 12 million who are already here. Each of them has extended family members who will naturally want to join their amnestied relatives.

No matter where we draw the line, someone is left out, and those numbers are massively increased with each amnesty.

In 1986, faced with the then "inconceivable" number of 3 million illegal residents, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act.

Billed as a "one-time-only" amnesty and combined with enforcement, it was supposed to solve illegal immigration once and for all. The enforcement got watered down, but the amnesty was granted.

Congress has subsequently passed six more amnesties, and illegal migrants keep coming. No surprise there.

It's beyond stupid to reward people who get past the border with citizenship every few years, and then claim the border is "out of control."

What's out of control is Washington.

There are fundamentally two ways to "solve" illegal migration, but you can't do both.

Either we enforce our laws and take away the jobs and benefits, encouraging people to leave -- or we give everyone citizenship yet again, throw the door wider by expanding new work visas, and then make it virtually impossible to determine who's legal and who isn't.

If you can't enforce the law, then no one is illegal anymore. Presto! Problem solved. And this is essentially what the Senate bill does. But since this "solution" is widely unpopular, Senate leadership is hoping to win over public approval by promising to spend money on border enforcement.

Don't jump for that bait. Only 60 percent of illegals sneak across our borders; 40 percent arrive on visas.

President Clinton's U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform made it clear: Work-site enforcement is the linchpin of stopping illegal migration, not walls and guards at the border.

Dry up the jobs and benefits, and stop rewarding people for breaking the law, and they will stop coming here. It's not complex.

The current immigration bill is no more likely to stop illegal migration than the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

If creating a borderless North American Community between Canada, Mexico and the United States is the real plan, then let's force politicians to speak honestly with us instead of making a charade of immigration laws.



— Special to the Press HeraldDry up the jobs and benefits, and stop rewarding people for breaking the law, and they will stop coming here.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story ... 3&ac=PHedi

If creating a borderless North American Community between Canada, Mexico and the United States is the real plan, then let's force politicians to speak honestly with us instead of making a charade of immigration laws.

I believe this is what it is all about!