January 30, 2013
By
Michael Graham / Boston Herald

There is one question, and only one question, that you should ask President Obama or U.S. Sen. John McCain about their amnesty — sorry, their “pathway to citizenship” — immigration reform proposals:

If every illegal immigrant were granted instant citizenship this Monday, what would happen to the illegal immigrant who slips across the border on Tuesday?

We all know the answer already: Nothing.

Everything you’re hearing in both Obama and the Senate proposals about “heightened border security” and “unmanned drones” is three-card-Monte stuff. Obama, who helped kill an immigration reform deal in 2007 authored by U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, isn’t interested in enforcing immigration laws equally and fairly. He’s interested in winning political support from Hispanic voters — or more importantly, driving a wedge between those voters and the GOP. That’s it.

Yes, Obama is right that we’re doing a better job than ever catching would-be illegal aliens at the border. That’s not where the action is, and he knows it.

As long as there are employers willing to hire illegal immigrants, the desperate and poor of other countries will make their way here — or in some tragic cases, die trying. The enforcement that works is workplace enforcement: deporting undocumented workers and punishing the businesses who hire them.

Not surprisingly, this is the enforcement that Obama and other liberals adamantly oppose. Worse, it’s the kind of enforcement that amnesty advocates label as “racist.”

Remember the 2007 raid on the New Bedford factory where hundreds of illegal immigrants worked, in flagrant violation of the law? When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement finally acted, they were denounced by Gov. Deval Patrick and other advocates. Patrick called the enforcement — not the hundreds of Americans denied jobs, but the enforcement of the law — “a human tragedy.”

Is the belief that immigration enforcement is inherently racist going to go away after Obama and McCain work out their “cheaters win” amnesty deal? Of course not.

Political correctness is driving this entire debate. If Obama
really cared about low-income minorities in America, he would insist on immigration enforcement. Instead, unemployment among low-skill black and Hispanic Americans is more than twice the national average, in part because they’re forced to compete with illegal labor.

The line about “let’s turn illegal immigrants into taxpayers!” is great, until you realize that their income levels mean they pay little or no income taxes, regardless of their legal status. The one tax they do pay, the sales tax, Patrick is proposing to cut so he can shift $1 billion of the tax burden onto middle-class families who pay income taxes.

Higher unemployment, higher social welfare costs, and an open invitation to the next generation of illegal immigrants to come on over, steal a job and wait for your amnesty — that’s what the day after immigration reform looks like.

That’s why those of us who foolishly believe in those silly little principles like “equality before the law” and treating legal immigrants better than the illegal ones are so adamantly opposed. We know that every amnesty deal reached today will have the same outcome as the 1987 amnesty: more illegal immigration tomorrow. And another “one-time” amnesty deal soon to follow.

Want to see the future of America after Obama gets his amnesty? Ask Aunt Zeituni.

Amnesty eggs on illegals | Boston Herald