Thread: THIS IS THE IMMIGRATION BILL THAT WORKS - AND AMERICANS WANT

Who is this IDIOT and who appointed him Immigration Thought Master???
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THIS IS THE IMMIGRATION BILL THAT WORKS - AND AMERICANS WANT IT

by Joe Shea
American Reporter Editor-in-Chief
Bradenton, Fla.

http://www.american-reporter.com/3,239/86.html

There's a big problem for both the Left and Right in the proposed new immigration law: it's a damned good one, and the great majority of Americans think so, too. That latter observation is based on a groundbreaking poll released in Friday's editions of the New York Times, which found that by large margins Americans decidedly favor guest workers, giving a path to citizenship - albeit a long one - for illegals, and do not believe undocumented people already here should be deported.

Don't get them wrong - Americans dislike illegal immigraiion intensely, and they want it stopped, and they believe it's harmful. But they don't believe in making people who came here to work, and who work so hard, should suffer even more.

That's going to come as something of a shock to extremists in Congress who want to tear the bill apart with their bare hands, and would, if it wasn't substantially thicker than a phone book. The poll, started last Friday and completed on Wednesday, shows widespread support for the new bill's well-balanced provisions.

My own feeling - and I have been involved in the immigration debate at several levels since 1976, when I first put out a press release calling for an amnesty that could turn lawbreakers into taxpayers - is that despite some obvious hardships to people I love, the bill is strong, fair and intelligent in the way it seeks to solve the universe of issues surrounding immigration. Moreover, I believe it will be a tremendous boon to the American economy - a greater boon, even, than the discovery and propagation of the Internet and World Wide Web.

Simply put, and probably because it was crafted by people with a bipartisan spirit who represented all sides of the issue, it is the best thing the Senate has done in a long, long time. Those who hope President Bush will fail in everything single thing he does, and believe that bipartisanship in Congress is somehow evil, will be deeply disappointed by the New York Times poll.

By a margin of 67 percent to 27 percent, Americans favored "allowing legal immigrants who came into the country before January to apply for a four-year visa that could be renewed, as long as they pay a $5,000 fine, a fee, show a clean work record and pass a criminal background check."

By 62 percent to 33 percent, American believe that most illegal immigrants who have lived in the country for two years "should be given a chance to keep their jobs and eventually apply for legal status."

While 34 percent think an ID card for all who want to work in America is a good idea, 49 percent said they don't know enough about it; 15 percent think it is a bad idea. The poll also showed that by a narrow 49 percent to 45 percent margin, more Americans don't want every worker's name to be entered into a government database, as the national ID plan would require. It was interesting that the same number who said they "don't know enough" about a worker ID also thought the database idea was a bad one. If they are the same people, that idea is in trouble.

Americans by a small margin do disagree with one of the bill's provisions: by a margin of 28 percent to 33 percent, they oppose "requiring them to return to their home country before applying for U.S. citizenship." Obviously, hundreds of thousands of Americn businesses and millions of families would suffer if that provision is enacted; nonetheless, we do not believe it is necessarily unfair; we don't think it is pragmatic.

And by a huge margin, 75 percent to 8 percent, Americans polled by the Times favored "higher fines and increased enforcement of employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants."

The $5,000 fine and $2,000 in fees that illegals must pay under the proposed bill to get onto the track of citizenship is a very hefty amount for people who bus dishes, sweep floors, pick tomatoes, pluck chickens and muck out septic pools for a living, usually at or below the minimum wage. But the hundreds of undocumented people I have known over the past 20 years have always demonstrated an ability to wield their family units as a cohesive force to solve huge financial problems that more solitary American households might not resolve.

In fact, I believe that in their strong family ties, their deep loyalty to the vision of their parents, and their raw, simple courage in making what is often a 4,000-mile trip under very, very difficult conditions, they do have something very important to contribute to American society. The Times poll - which asks dozens of difficult, painful questions - demonstrates that most Americans know it. Maybe the most honest thing respondents to the poll told the newspapers in six days of interviews - and in all the earlier polls cited by the Times - is that they believe these immigrants work harder than Americans do, and take jobs Americans won't take.

It's a sorry fact of America's political life that some elected officials are so far out of touch with the realities of illegal immigration - and so in touch with their narrow right- and left-wing supporters - that they are steadfastly digging their own graves by defying what the broad American public clearly says it wants and needs: a comprehensive immigration reform bill that reads just about exactly like the one the Senate and the White House sat down for months and laboriously crafted.

This bill is the law that will work, and will be the one that's passed, because like real Americans, most of our elected officials believe in the American Dream and the people who pursue it.

Joe Shea is Editor-in-Chief of The American Reporter.

I quit reading this propaganda piece, when I read the words "New York Times poll", on the quite sensible ground that any poll conducted by that liberal rag is suspect, and most likely intended to serve that paper's far-left agenda. The Times is good for lining birdcages, or cleaning fish on; otherwise, it's worthless.

Since there's no comment section, Mr. Shea can be emailed at editor@american-reporter.com or called at 941-753-1136.

The web site is http://american-reporter.com/ not much there, but there is a presidential poll that one can vote in that has Tancredo doing exceptionally well.

By 62 percent to 33 percent, American believe that most illegal immigrants who have lived in the country for two years "should be given a chance to keep their jobs and eventually apply for legal status."

Hell no!

If your in a bank and someone jumps to the head of the line, you don't serve that person you make him get to the back of the line period. It would be unfair to those waiting in line to do anything different.

Best case scenario everyone who resides in the US illegally should be kicked out and not allowed to EVER return.

Compromise. Illegals in the US should be forced to leave but allowed to get in the back of existing legal immigration lines. If we really need more immigrants then quotas for legals should be increased and laws altered to make it easier to legally entered. YOU STILL DON'T REWARD ILLEGAL ALIENS!

And we shouldn't simply allow anyone who wants to, to come into this country. Only those who have the means to support themselves, who have the potential to improve America should be given priority access to legal imigration. For the rest it's a first come first serve, but only if you have a job skill for a slot that isn't being filled by someone already a legal American citizen.

If we allowed everyone who wanted to come to America to come here, we will soon become a third world country. And I'm sorry but I don't want to live 16 people to a 3 bedroom house. I don't want to stand in line for an hour for a galloon of milk. Thus, we need to protect our borders and our citizens by maintaining controls of immigration so as to not disrupt our own citizens level of lifestyle just to accomadate a non-citizen.

Period.

This guy is losing it. He kind of has his polls backwards doesn't he? At the time this last bill was being voted on, nearly 80% were against legalizing the illegals who are here. This jerk needs to get his info straight.

Make all Illegals fight in the Gulf War like, I did and then think about giving them a chance to become an American! If, we continue to let these illegals in at this rate, we will have to build a school everyday just to keep up. Do, you know what that would cost alone? There are so many ways that over population hurts us. Prices go up on everything because, of increased demand. It's, simple, put the terminator on the borders and have the illegals tap their heels and like magic get on a plane and go home! It, really pisses me off when all illegals think that some how they all have rights as if, the constitution fairy came along and granted them rights! For all that I can tell, all illegals are to be considered terrorist if entering this country illegaly and should be shot while, in time of war! You have a right to take a bullet in the head, terrorist! Peace. U.S. Special Ops. Retired

It, really pisses me off when all illegals think that some how they all have rights as if, the constitution fairy came along and granted them rights!

Good way to put it, sealper...and welcome to ALIPAC.