The Immigration Dilemma



Jeremy Henggeler
NuGateway Contributor
nugateway.com

The Senate has passed their “comprehensive reform” (S. 744) and is currently awaiting the House of Representatives to put forth their own attempt. There has been much debate about this issue, filled with the usual political mudslinging. The Democrats claim that they just want to “bring people out of the shadows” and consider anyone who stands against them to be on a scale anywhere from simply uncaring to borderline racist. The Republicans (at least the ones that are putting up a fight) talk about border security and e-verify, while insisting that their counterparts are just pandering for votes. Many politicians on both sides of the aisle keep referring to the “broken” immigration system as their reason for tackling this issue, but there’s a glaring problem with that line of thinking. While the legal immigration system could use some streamlining, the system isn’t broken. Enforcement of the laws that are already on the books is almost non-existent, and has been for the better part of the last two administrations. Multiple amnesties since 1986 have encouraged countless millions to illegally enter the country in hopes that they would get to ride the next wave. While millions of people have broken the immigration laws in search of freedom, there are a growing number of individuals that figured out how to abuse the welfare system. There are others that wish to do the citizens of this country harm. These, like many of the problems that we face as a nation, have resulted from a laundry list of bipartisan failures.

Back in 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (the Simpson-Mazzoli Act) was signed into law by then President Ronald Reagan. Approximately 2.7 million illegal aliens were granted amnesty as part of what was referred to as a “three-legged stool” approach. The problem is that the other “two legs”, increased border security and employer sanctions, never materialized. Many, including Reagan himself, insinuate that he was duped into signing the bill [1]. While that point can be debated, the effects are hard to ignore. The law, which was promised to “solve” the illegal immigration issue permanently, simply set the stage for even further illegal border crossings. When you allow almost 3 million people to obtain legal status in your country even though they had broken the laws to enter in the first place, and essentially nothing else is changed, why wouldn’t more people take a chance? Just wait a few more years, and they might get the same opportunity. During the next decade, many of them would do just that.

Former President Bill Clinton, rather quietly, helped amnesty another 3 million illegal aliens with his actions between 1994 and 2000. In 1994, an amnesty provision was added 1995 Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations bill that gave 578,000 illegals legal status by 1997. The passage of the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) helped another 1 million illegals to be granted amnesty between 1998 and 2008 [2]. The Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA) helped pave the way for another 125,000 by 2008 [3]. In 2000 Clinton granted Late Amnesty [4] to 400,000 people who claimed they should have been amnestied by the 1986 bill, as well as another 900,000 through the Legal Immigration Family Equity (LIFE) Act [5]. Clinton seems to get little discussion during the current debate but with the job magnet still in place and still only limited border security, these actions only further encouraged illegal aliens to continue flooding over the border.

Starting with the Clinton administration and continuing into the current one, there has been an overreach of constitutional powers to allow people already involved in the deportation process to remain in the country for a variety of reasons [6]. The current administration claims to be deporting more illegal aliens than ever before, but what they fail to mention is that they have altered how deportations are counted [7]. There is the DREAM Act, which failed passage in Congress but that hasn’t stopped this administration from acting as if it had [8]. The president of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) union, Chris Crane, was been quoted a numerous occasions as stating that the agents “hands have been tied” by regulations in even attempting to apprehend and deport illegal aliens [9}. All of this, while the outgoing head of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, has made the laughable statement that “Our borders have in fact never been stronger”.

The southern border is a sieve. Border agents are effectively being told to look the other way as people from all over the world pour into our country unchecked. Even if they apprehend an illegal border crosser, as long as the person in question claims they are a “Dreamer” or say they are seeking asylum (under threat from the Mexican drug cartels),the agents are forced to release the aliens with only the promise that they will return for a court date [10]. The overwhelming majority are never seen again. They simply disappear into the “shadows”. There is mounting evidence that the cartels are actually in control of portions of the border and a large number of illegal border crossers are now OTMs (other than Mexicans), not that you will hear that in the mainstream media. An independent film maker, Dennis Michael Lynch, has produced two documentaries, They Come to America and They Come to America II, telling the side of the immigration story that the politicians seemingly don’t want you to hear. I highly recommend that anyone who has not seen these films to do so in the near future. They just might make you look at this whole situation in a much different light.

The politicians, bureaucrats and special interest groups that are pushing “comprehensive immigration reform” want you to believe that the alleged 11 million illegal aliens currently in the country (based on chatter from border agents, and numerous conflicting reports, the number could be as high as 22 million) just want to be able to work and become American citizens. They push for a “path to citizenship”, ignoring how this is a slap-in-the-face of the 4 million people currently waiting to finish the legal immigration process [11}. They claim that granting legal status to untold millions will help the economy, and that these newly legalized individuals will not have access to the welfare system. There are people already abusing the system. Welfare fraud [12] and Income Tax fraud [13] are rampant. Those that are already taking advantage of the system have no reason to accept a new, legal status. They can collect more benefits staying in their current position. Those that choose to accept the proposed legalization will immediately be thrust into a workforce that cannot currently employee millions of American citizens that are either on unemployment, or are no longer counted because they are considered to be out of the workforce even though they are capable of working. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported that current spending is already “unsustainable” [14], and that’s without adding untold millions to an already decimated economy. Social Security has been on the verge of collapse for years, and now the government is looking to adding millions of people to the ranks that have not paid anything into the system until this point. These facts do not bode well for the future of our nation.

The legal immigration system may need to be tweaked. If we expect to remain a sovereign nation, we must enforce border security. If we want people to stop entering our country illegally, we must cut of the magnet of jobs and potential welfare/entitlement abuse. If we wish to protect national security, we must let the border agents do their jobs. All of these things can be accomplished but not in a “comprehensive” way, especially one that involved any type of amnesty. We’ve fallen for that gag before. Continuing to do so could ultimately cause the demise of our Republic.

[1} http://conservativetimes.org/?p=10638
[2] https://www.numbersusa.com/content/r...tive-ten-year- impact-nicaraguan-ad.html
[3] https://www.numbersusa.com/content/r...ian-refug.html
[4] http://amnestybill.com/2000-irca.html
[5] https://www.numbersusa.com/content/l...-congress.html
[6] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...on-enforcement
[7] https://www.numbersusa.com/content/n...tatistics.html
[8] http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/oba...am-act-passed/
[9] http://iceunion.org/news/ice-union-p...leaked-memo-ab
[10] http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/12...der-officials/
[11] http://blog.heritage.org/2013/04/18/...lowed-the-law/
[12] http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/20...llect-welfare/
[13] http://cnsnews.com/news/article/irs-...tlanta-address
[14} http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/651357.pdf

Picture: http://cis.org/Illegal

Jeremy Henggeler
NuGateway Contributor