The new amnesty: Immigration bill opens floodgates

May 19, 2007

It was a given that the immigration bill agreed to last week by the White House and the Senate would not provide for the deportation of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. But couldn't we deport some of them?

Instead of cracking down on illegal immigration, the 380-page bill gives almost all illegals a Get Into America Free card and opens the floodgates for millions of their friends.

The bill does contain some useful changes. It would replace the existing family-based immigration policy with a point system based on an immigrant's value to the U.S. economy. It also creates an employer-based system for verifying employees' legal status.

The border control provisions, however, are a joke. The bill mandates that 370 miles of border fence be completed and more border agents be hired before its pro-immigrant provisions kick in. But last year's Secure Fence Act already mandates 700 miles of border fence. Only two miles of that fence have been built, National Review Editor Rich Lowry reported on Friday. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says the bill's enforcement provisions (including 368 miles of border fence) could be completed in 18 months.

And pigs fly.

What does the pro-illegal camp get for accepting those weak border control provisions? Immediate amnesty for all illegal aliens who arrived prior to this year. That is, instant probationary legal status with the option of obtaining renewable four-year visas. Becoming a legal citizen would require a fine and a brief trip back to the home country.

If this bill passes, the blanket amnesty will encourage more immigrants to slip over and buy forged documents showing that they arrived before Jan. 1, 2007. We're talking potentially millions more illegals coming over the borders to claim that grand prize -- instant legal resident status and a quick path to citizenship -- before the fence is up.

The American people deserve better than this. We need real immigration reform and serious border control, not an amnesty for 12 million law-breakers.

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