Results 1 to 2 of 2

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

  1. #1
    Senior Member American-ized's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Monroe County, New York
    Posts
    3,530

    Immigration reform is a defining issue

    Immigration reform is a defining issue

    The Daily Astorian
    October 3, 2009
    The following editorial is from the Capital Press.

    Imagine a "legal" system in which someone who breaks the law is not seriously punished, but his employer is.

    That's what has happened to U.S. farmers as the federal government clamped down on illegal immigration.

    Those who do not possess the proper paperwork are sent home, but the farmers who hired them face stiff fines.

    Fair? Absolutely not.

    Effective? Not even close. For decades, the U.S. border has been wide open. In the 1990s, some illegal immigrants "commuted" from Mexico to construction jobs in Texas daily. They walked right past the border guards coming and going and were not stopped.

    With that sort of open border, it is no wonder that the number of illegal immigrants spiraled out of control. Today, despite the latest efforts to tighten border security, 11.2 million illegal immigrants live in the U.S., according to an estimate from the Center for Immigration Studies, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization.

    While the illegal immigration problem has grown, so too has the reticence of Congress to resolve it. Members of Congress know it would be difficult because it would take statesmanship, not posturing, to reconcile the many unfairnesses illegal immigration has wrought. It will also take courage to recognize the important role immigrants play in agriculture and other industries and take that into consideration.

    One thing is clear. Simply rounding up illegal immigrants and sending them home will not solve the problem.

    In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower tried that. He targeted an estimated 1 million illegal immigrants who crossed the border each year in the Southwest. He also cleaned out the "good old boy" U.S. Border Patrol bureaucracy that was beholden to political interests in the Southwest, according to a July 6, 2006, Christian Science Monitor article recounting the effort. Fearing that they would be next, an estimated 488,000 illegal immigrants left the country on their own.

    Veterans of that crackdown suggest that by sending illegal immigrants deep into Mexico and ending the so-called "catch-and-release" policy for non-Mexican illegal immigrants, the U.S. could stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. and reduce the number that live here.

    And, yes, they also recommend cracking down on employers as a means of taking jobs away from illegal immigrants and forcing them to return home.

    The Obama administration, however, appears committed only to the latter. It has targeted employers and levied fines to punish them, but the other key ingredients of reform are missing.

    Returning illegal immigrants deep into Mexico - instead of dropping them off at the border - would make it more difficult for them to return. And the "catch-and-release" policy may work for fisheries management, but not for immigration policy.

    Since the Eisenhower administration, no president or Congress has committed sufficient resources or political capital toward fixing the problem. Illegal immigration is, and will continue to be, a defining issue for the Obama administration - and every administration that follows. So far, the efforts have been less than effective.

    We as a nation must settle on a means of controlling our border. We must also find a just means of converting those long-term and law-abiding immigrants who are now in the country to a legal status. They are more than willing to do whatever is required to become legal residents. But members of Congress are more than willing to avoid this necessary step because of the political repercussions.

    But the administration's tactic of only punishing employers to bully them into enforcing federal immigration laws is half-baked, unfair and ineffective.

    Only Congress can adequately address this defining issue.

    http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp? ... eID=64473#

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    NC
    Posts
    11,242
    I have never understood why they refuse to do both. It is like speaking out of one side of the mouth, and then another, but never speaking with the entire mouth. Napolitano, you short-sightedness is an insult to the American people who are desperate for jobs that employers have filled with illegals. Your poor illegals can go their merry way while the job givers are punished. It should be equal punishment for all involved.
    We ain't that stupid.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •