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Immigration bill defies core American values
By Liz Egan
Friday, June 1st, 2007

Illegal immigration into this country has gotten out of hand, and smothering the problem with a bill hundreds of pages in length, as congressmen are currently attempting to do, is not going to bring us any closer to finding a solution. Appalling as it was that this immigration bill went up for a vote before many of the legislators had even had a chance to read it, it’s probably just as well. Washington has consistently demonstrated its inability to address immigration problems, so what’s another several hundred pages to throw onto the pile of failed ideas that have come before?

Amnesty—excuse me, the granting of temporary work visas—is not the solution, but then again, neither is building a giant fence. President Reagan’s attempt to grant amnesty in 1986 did not reduce the number of illegal aliens in this country (rather, that number has quadrupled), and 20 years later, 2006’s Secure Fence Act is pretty much as stupid as it sounds. Anyone who’s ever had an ant problem, small children, or flood damage knows that walls do little to keep unwanted visitors out.

The purported strength of the immigration bill passed by the Senate last week was its requisites for strengthened border protection and stringent measures to deport illegal aliens—both of which were also promised by Reagan’s failed 1986 immigration reform. But it’s not just our porous border that is the problem. The mixed messages immigrants receive when they get here must also be addressed in any immigration plan that intends to be successful. Bilingual materials are all too often used as a crutch instead of a stepping stone, crippling the intent of any aspirant immigrant to adapt to American life and enabling immigrants who come here for the free ride to coast right along.

Aside from the injustice that amnesty deals to those who have endured the arduous process of obtaining visas or citizenship legally, temporary work visas should also be opposed out of non-skilled immigrants’ best interests. When their visas expire and the renewals are maxed out, what are they supposed to do? What home is it, exactly, that we will be sending them back to? (Assuming, of course, that the government actually ever finds them again and miraculously has the resources necessary to deport them as promised.)

To switch gears for a second, think about the points liberals make against personal retirement accounts—an alternative to the current Social Security slush fund that would allow taxpayers to manage their own retirements. Liberals argue against personal retirement accounts because they give individuals too much responsibility. People are probably going to mess it up, they say, so just let the government take care of it. Yet the same liberal logic that doesn’t trust American citizens with their own retirement accounts also thinks illegal immigrants are going to have the foresight to plan well enough for their futures to be ready to return home after just a few years of work here.

If we don’t want “temporaryâ€