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Senate immigration bill ignores current law
05/31/2006

Perhaps it’s too much to ask the people sent to Washington, D.C., to represent the legal citizens of these United States to show leadership on a hot-button issue. It seems few elected officials have grasped the mood of the American public when it comes to immigration.

Just before heading home to participate in Memorial Day events, the Senate passed its immigration bill. Voting in lockstep with the wishes of President George W. Bush, 39 Democrats and 23 Republicans passed legislation that waves the "Automatic American Citizenship" wand over those who entered this nation illegally.

One of the more upsetting byproducts of the Senate’s pro-amnesty for illegal aliens vote was the indication voiced on the Senate floor that anyone who opposes the bill is a racist. This is an easy guilty-until-innocent ploy, since the citizenship rights granted in the Senate bill will go to about 10 million to 20 million Mexican illegal aliens.

So, if you oppose a measure that justifies breaking current United States law, a measure that ignores the years of effort put in by those who decided to enter the country legally, you do so because you sneer at the people south of our borders.

If there is a reason for not supporting this flagrant attempt to ignore current law, interested legislators might look at ballooning social-service costs. Or out-of-sight school property taxes. Or a falling wage structure that can be, partially, placed at the feet of those taking away jobs at cut-rate salaries, which had previously been held by better-paid legal U.S. citizens.

Employers whose profit margins are soaring as a result of hiring lower-skilled, poorly paid, happy-to-work-without benefits illegal aliens will suffer no consequences in the new Senate bill.

Another byproduct of a bill that ignores illegal behavior is the impetus it gives more illegals to cross the border into the United States. Why shouldn’t millions more come to a country which will hire you, not require you to pay taxes, allow your family to use every social service American taxpayers support and, then, say, "Well, since you’re here and work so hard at ‘jobs no American citizen wants,’ we’ll teach you English, make you pay some back taxes and grant you citizenship?"

The immigration issue shows a divide becoming all too frequent in this nation. Those at the bottom or the middle of the social structure realize the cost to them in taxes and job loss brought about by millions of people crossing our border and tapping out our reserves with no fear of reprisal.

Those who own the businesses that benefit from illegal help and the congressmen and senators they support see higher profits and continued donations to campaign war chests.

Elected officials should not decide which of our laws are worth enforcing. They should not call the people who do support them names. There is either a right or wrong way to become a citizen or it disparages the process for everyone who claims the title of United States citizen.