Republican Debate and Immigration

In watching the debate that aired on MSNBC I found many issues that concerned me.

As you will see at the end of this commentary, both Mayor Giuliani and Senator McCain make it clear that they want "tamper-proof" identity documents to be issued to illegal aliens whose true identities and, in fact, even their nationalities, cannot be ascertained. As you will see, this makes absolutely no sense because the challenge is not to create tamper-proof identity cards but to create a system that has integrity so that our government knows what names and other identifiers including nationality should go on those cards in the first place. But I am getting ahead of myself...

Let me start out by talking about the news media. The phrase, "Don't ask; don't tell," describes the military's policy towards homosexuals. It can also describe a critical problem that we have where debates for public office are concerned. The reporters who question candidates for public office including the candidates for the Presidency of the United States decide what questions they will ask the candidates and what questions they will not ask. By not asking certain questions, the candidates will not have to discuss their goals and beliefs. In watching the debate I was disappointed that once again the immigration issue was virtually glossed over with a couple of exceptions. If the journalists "out there" are to live up to their crucial responsibilities, they have to ask the tough questions so that "We the people" can really know what the candidates for the highest elected office of our nation stand for.

Immigration is arguably the most significant issue confronting our country because it impacts so many other aspects of the United States today. It impacts everything from the economy, education, health care, the environment to criminal justice and national security. There is no other single issue that impacts so many other issues. How our nation deals with, or refuses to deal with immigration will shape the future of our nation. Immigration cannot be seen as comic relief nor should it be seen as something that must be somehow ignored because corporate interests don't want an honest and open discussion about it. I have attached a copy of the transcript of the debate that appeared in the New York Times. You can also read the transcript by clicking on the link below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/us/politics/04transcript.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Mayor Giuliani first mentioned immigration during his response to the first question he was asked By Chris Mathews, the moderator of the debate but mostly, immigration was apparently being relegated to a topic to provide comic relief to the discussions of terrorism and the loss of the lives of thousands of soldiers. Consider that Senator McCain was, at one point asked:

Senator McCain, Sarah (sp) from Arlington, Virginia, wants to know if you would comfortable with Tom Tancredo, a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, as head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. (Laughter.)

Congressman Tom Tancredo is well known for being opposed to illegal immigration and it appeared that the entire topic of immigration would be reduced to little more than comic relief for this debate. But, I remained optimistic that because immigration, especially illegal immigration impacts so many other issues, that we would hear some serious questions about immigration because it impacts everything from the economy, education, the environment and health care to criminal justice and national security.

Senator McCain then went on to finish his answer about appointing Rep. Tancredo by going off on a totally different direction by saying:

"On the subject of Osama bin Laden, he’s responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans.

He is now orchestrating other attacks on the United States of America. We will do whatever’s necessary. We will track him down. We will capture -- we will bring him to justice, and I’ll follow him to the gates of hell."

Next; Chris Mathews finally began asking what I thought would be a serious immigration question:

MR. MATTHEWS: Okay. Let me ask you a question regarding immigration. One of prized guests here today, Governor Schwarzenegger. Looking this man in the eye, answer this question. I’m going to go down the line starting with Governor Romney.

Should we change our Constitution which we believe is divinely inspired -- (laughter) -- to allow men like Mel Martinez, the chairman of your party, born in Cuba, great patriot, senator from Florida, and Arnold Schwarzenegger to stand here some night?

It began to appear that the critical immigration would be relegated to relatively inconsequential questions. Then finally, Editor-in chief of Politico.com, John Harris asked:

MR. HARRIS: Gentlemen, let’s talk a bit about the future of your party. Congressman Hunter, Governor Schwarzenegger -- who is here tonight -- has won the state twice by downplaying partisanship and taking centrist positions on the environment, immigration, abortion. Is that the way to win for Republicans?

Congressman Hunter finally raised the issue of the critical need to secure our nation's border.

REP. HUNTER: You know, it’s a way to win, but we need to win the right way. And you know, about a hundred miles south of here is the -- in my town of San Diego we built the border fence. When we built that fence, we had a border out of control, and we built that fence. And it’s a double fence, it’s not that little straggly fence you see on CNN with everybody getting over it.

We had massive murders on the border, massive illegal immigration, massive importation of drugs. I built that border fence. We brought down the smuggling of people and narcotics by more than 90 percent.

I think that there’s an implication in your immigration statement that the Hispanic community of California wants to have a secure border. And I wrote that law that extends the San Diego fence for 854 miles, across Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, that the president signed in October.

One way to bring down crime in the state of California and every state in the union is to have an enforceable border.

That means let’s build that border fence. When people want to come into this country, let’s ask them to knock on the front door.

Congressman Tancredo was finally able to force the topic of immigration and had to go off the question he was asked in order to wedge that issue into the discussion. Consider how he responded to the question below:

MR. VANDEHEI: Congressman Tancredo, David Kim (sp) from here in California wants to know, beside yourself, who do you think should be the Republican nominee for president of the United States, and why?

REP. TANCREDO: Well, of course, if I thought there should be another one, I wouldn’t be here. I think that I serve the purpose. I think that we -- good men all here, don’t get me wrong. But I am telling you this; that there are issues that I believe have not been addressed tonight, not in full, and I believe that they do separate us, and I certainly believe the issue of immigration and immigration reform and what’s going to happen to this country unless we deal with this forthrightly.

No more platitudes. No more obfuscating with using words like, "Well, I am not for amnesty but I’m for letting them stay." That kind of stuff has got to be taken away from the political debate, as far as I’m concerned, so people can understand exactly who is where on this incredibly important issue. And when they see that, I think, frankly, I’m --

Anyone have a follow-up with that? Anyone with disagree with the strong anti-illegal immigration position? Take a strong view? Senator McCain.

SEN. MCCAIN: Well, I’m happy to say that we’ve been working very hard for a couple of months with Democrats and Republicans, led by the president and his Cabinet, to come up with a comprehensive solution and resolution of this terrible problem.

One thing we would all agree on: the status quo is not acceptable. We have to secure our borders, but we also need a temporary worker program, and we have to dispose of the issue of 12 million people who are in this country illegally.

This issue is a(n) important and compelling one, and it begins with national security. But we also need to address it comprehensively, and I’m proud to work with the president of the United States on this issue.

So now we know that Senator McCain is still in favor "Comprehensive immigration reform" a codeword for the "Guestworker Amnesty Program."

Finally, towards the end of the debate, the issue of a national identity card came up. Interestingly, neither the reporters nor the candidates thought to talk about the Real ID Act which was enacted last year. For the United States, while there is no national identity document, we all know that the driver's license suffices as a de facto national identity document. We are expected to produce them whenever we attempt to pay for expensive items at a department store with either a personal check or even a credit card. We are asked to produce a driver's license when we board airliners or trains or enter government buildings. Yet the issue of the Real ID Act was never raised. What did come up, however, was one of the key reasons I am adamantly opposed to any sort of Guest Worker Amnesty Program, the inability to know the true identities of the millions of illegal and undocumented aliens. If you think I am wrong, I want you to consider a simple question. If you meet someone for the first time that you don't know how do you know his(her) true name? If you ask to see an identity document and the person says he doesn't have one, how would you then know if the name he claims is his is truly his name?

Now I want you to imagine that you are an employee of USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). I want you to imagine that it is your responsibility to provide official identity documents to aliens seeking to participate in a guest worker program. Suppose you had access to a computer that could tell you if the person's name is on a series of lists of known terrorists and criminals and had an electronic fingerprint machine that would similarly enable you to run fingerprints to see if the fingerprints of an applicant are on file indicating that the person has a criminal record. To make you job a bit more interesting, suppose I told you that you had to make a decision in less than 5 minutes as to whether or not to approve the application for each alien applicant seeking to participate in the guest worker amnesty program. Incidentally, you have also been warned that among the millions of aliens who undoubtedly would be seeking to participate in this program are members of various terrorist groups including Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and other virulent terrorist and criminal organizations who know that if they can obtain the type of cards you are responsible for issuing under a false name that they would then be able to obtain driver's licenses, Social Security Cards and a host of other official documents to create false identities for themselves.

It is interesting that a number of these candidates including both former Mayor Giuliani and Senator McCain, both of whom are advocates of creating a Guestworker Amnesty Program for God knows how many millions of illegal aliens who have absolutely no documentary evidence to establish their true identities. This program would require that they would be issued official identity documents that they insist must be "tamper-proof." It would have been interesting to ask these candidates why they want to have these millions of illegal aliens with no verifiable identities to be issued tamper-proof identity documents. Obviously they have concerns that any such identity documents should be secure to make certain that they can not be altered to change the names and other relevant information contained on these cards. As was properly pointed out by Senator McCain, such secure documents were recommended by none other than the President's Commission on the Attacks of 9/11.

Now here is the critical issue; how can you even have an honest discussion about issuing secure identity documents to millions of illegal aliens whose identities cannot be verified? To simply run a name an alien applicant for such a card claims is his name through a computer to compare against various databases is worthless if the name is fictitious. Running fingerprints of an alien who was smart enough to not get arrested for any reason in the United States will simply indicate that the person who provided the fingerprints has no criminal history. What good would any of this do if the alien we are dealing with is a terrorist who lies about his true name and even his date of birth and nationality? Such an alien terrorist who succeeds in getting an identity document through the fatally flawed Guestworker Amnesty Program would not want to tamper with his identity document, the process itself caused a card to be improperly issued! The terrorists who would avail themselves the opportunity to game the system this way would easily use such identity documents as so-called "breeder document" and obtain driver's licenses, Social Security cards, credit cards and other such documents to create new "clean" identities that would enable them to travel freely around out country, across our nation's borders and have access to trains and airliners. They thus easily embed themselves in communities around the United States, hiding in plain sight among us as "sleeper agents" as they await instructions for their terrorist organizations to initiate an attack against our country and our people.

As you read the questions and responses, below concerning the question about whether or not such tamper-proof identity documents should be issued to aliens it is important to know that all aliens are already required to carry proof of alien registration.

Section 264(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) requires every alien 18 years of age and over to be in possession of his or her�"evidence of registration document" (such as Form I-94) "at all times." That same provision also establishes rather severe penalties for not carrying the registration document:

Every alien, eighteen years of age and over, shall at all times carry with him and have in his personal possession any certificate of alien registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him pursuant to subsection (d). Any alien who fails to comply with the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall upon conviction for each offense be fined not to exceed $100 or be imprisoned not more than thirty days, or both. (INA § 264(e))

The problem is that illegal aliens who entered our country without being inspected by our CBP inspectors have no such documents because they evaded the inspections process. If our politicians who insist on creating a Guestworker Amnesty Program for millions of undocumented aliens whose identities are unknown and unknowable, then our nation would be creating a false sense of security for itself and our citizens. As I have stated on many occasions, the only thing worse than no security is false security. This program would beyond any doubt, create false security.

Finally, as you read the questions and answers below, please also consider the basic fact that USCIS is the agency that would be responsible for administering this program. There have been many reports written by the GAO, OIG and other official government agencies that have oversight authority and responsibility that have been extremely critical of USCIS for lacking integrity and resources to carry out its missions as of right now. The creation of a Guestworker Amnesty Program would create a nightmare situation for that inept agency by creating an additional workload that would cause that beleaguered agency to absolutely implode. This is, I would remind you, the same agency that last year claimed to have "lost" more than 111,000 immigration alien files relating to aliens seeking a variety of immigration benefits including the conferring of resident alien status and even United States citizenship upon alien applicants. Of the 111,000 plus files, 30,000 files related to aliens seeking to be naturalized and become United States citizens. Incredibly those 30,000 applications for United States citizenship were adjudicated without the relating files! This is nothing short of a national security disaster!

MR. MATTHEWS: We’re at the last round. It’s going to be 30- second responses.

I want to start with Mayor Giuliani, something you’ve come out for, I believe. I want you to explain it and defend it: a national tamper-proof ID card.

MR. GIULIANI: Yeah, I think that’s critical to having immigration security. Every single person in this country who comes in from a foreign country should be identified, should be in a database. It should be a tamper-proof card.

I probably have the most experience in dealing with security. I had to take a city that was -- had an outlandish amount of crime and reduce it.

So the very, very best way to sensibly create security is to have a tamper-proof card, a database. And then kind of back up from that, well how do we get there? That would allow for a fence, a technological fence, Border Patrol. Having people come forward, people who are paying taxes -- or who want to pay taxes --

Of course this really seemed bizarre! We are discussing national security and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 to which then Mayor Giuliani had a ringside seat and he now makes it seem as though his focus is to get illegal aliens to pay taxes! What is really his priority?

MR. MATTHEWS: Governor Romney, I think -- are you with him on that, a tamper-proof ID card?

MR. ROMNEY: Absolutely. I had occasion, as you know, following the great disaster on 9/11 to help organize the Olympic Winter Games, bring people from all over the world together in Salt Lake City, organize the first national special security event following that tragedy, and brought together law enforcement from all over the country, coordinated them in a way that we could communicate with each other.

There’s no question as we deal with the issue of immigration, having a national special card that indicates a person’s name, date -- birth date, biographic information, and an indication of their work status will allow us to know who’s here legally, who’s not, who can work and who cannot.

MR. MATTHEWS: Is someone against this on libertarian grounds, the idea of a national ID card?

SEN. BROWNBACK: I don’t think this is the way to go, and I don’t think we need to go this way. And I’ve been serving on Judiciary Committee and working on these immigration issues. What we need to do is secure the border with a fence. And then interior-wise, we need to make sure that that Social Security number means something. We already have a Social Security number.

SEN. BROWNBACK: Because we don’t need a new system and we don’t need a new ID card.

SEN. MCCAIN: That’s one of the recommendations of the 9/11 commission. And absolutely, if someone wants to work, they have to have a document that’s tamper proof.

And any employer who employs someone else with any other document, like a bogus Social Security card or birth certificate, should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

REP. PAUL: I am absolutely opposed to a national ID card. This is a total contradiction of what a free society is all about. The purpose of government is to protect the secrecy and the privacy of all individuals, not the secrecy of government. We don’t need a national ID card.

MR. MATTHEWS: Mr. Tancredo, do you agree with the need of a national tamper-proof ID card?

REP. TANCREDO: We do not need a national ID -- I do not think we need a national ID card, much for the reasons that Dr. Paul said. We absolutely need a verifiable Social Security card. They are two separate things. I believe that we can accomplish the former without jeopardizing individual liberties --

MR. TANCREDO: That is absolutely what I’m saying. It’s got to be verifiable. Absolutely.

Let me go to a question that’s more ephemeral and it is passing, and it will be decided in the next several months. We’ll go down the line again. This isn’t as much fun as cutting taxes.

GOV. ROMNEY: I don’t think somebody who’s running for president, let alone someone who is president, should make that decision until the judicial process is complete.

I can tell you that I think it was outrageous for the prosecutor, knowing that Scooter Libby was not the source of the leak, to go ahead and begin interviewing him, gathering information, setting up a case against him. I think it was prosecutorial indiscretion.

GOV. ROMNEY: No. It’s for -- it’s for those that come here outside the country.

MR. GIULIANI: No, no. I’m talking about it for people who come into the United States, foreigners, people who come in as immigrants into the United States.

The debate that I have discussed in this commentary is one of the first of many to come. We need to see these debates as "job interviews" for applicants who are all competing for one job, that of the President of the United States. I challenge the journalists who will moderate future debates and conduct interviews of the candidates to provide the insight that is absolutely essential to the electorate of this great nation. "We the People" had better be paying attention! Democracy is not a spectator sport! Nothing less than the future of our nation hangs in the balance!

Congressman Hunter finally raised the issue of the critical need to secure our nation’s border.

REP. HUNTER: You know, it’s a way to win, but we need to win the right way. And you know, about a hundred miles south of here is the — in my town of San Diego we built the border fence. When we built that fence, we had a border out of control, and we built that fence. And it’s a double fence, it’s not that little straggly fence you see on CNN with everybody getting over it.

One way to bring down crime in the state of California and every state in the union is to have an enforceable border.

That means let’s build that border fence. When people want to come into this country, let’s ask them to knock on the front door.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.