Enforcement before amnesty

Drew Ryun and Daniel Horowitz 8:03 p.m. EST February 3, 2014

House speaker's immigration plan will repeat failure of 1986 bill.

There are simple solutions to ending illegal immigration, yet the power brokers in both political parties are uninterested in implementing them.

The broad consensus on enforcement includes the need for a border fence, a workable visa-tracking system, better interior enforcement, and an elimination of the magnets that attract illegal immigrants, such as blocking access to American jobs and welfare programs.

Yet, the House Republican leaders who supposedly support these policies insist that we must grant amnesty before we implement enforcement.

Washington already tried this approach in 1986, and it failed. If the politicians want to earn our trust on the issue of immigration, they should implement the agreed-upon enforcement measures before discussing any status for those already here illegally.

While couching his proposal in ambiguous language, Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has already indicated that the House will push for some sort of immediate amnesty even before the promise of enforcement comes to fruition. Moreover, Congress plans to grant broad amnesty and citizenship to a large group of illegal immigrants who came to this country as children.

This plan is yet another recipe for disaster and will repeat the perennial cycle of open borders and amnesty engendered by the 1986 bill.

Even if illegals receive only temporary legal status, there will be no incentive for recalcitrant politicians to push for enforcement. There will be no political will to revoke that status in the likely event that the security measures are not properly implemented, if at all.

Furthermore, promising broad amnesty, long before the fence is built and visa-tracking is implemented, will encourage millions more to flow over the border and overstay their visas to benefit from the inevitable suspension of deportations.

An amnesty-first approach with promises of enforcement later has already been tried. It failed. Now it's time for Washington to put the American worker and taxpayer before lawbreakers and special interests. Don't just talk about securing our borders. Do it!

Drew Ryun is political director and Daniel Horowitz is policy director of the Madison Project, which supports national conservative candidates.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...bates/5192799/