Interested in all views...
For the purist - from what I'm reading - Newts views aren't much different from Cain's or Palin's
Palin's: http://mothersagainstillegalamnesty.com/?page_id=15
My view as I posted elsewhere:
An idealistic view: Collect them all up, put them in buses and send them home.
Realistic view: That’s just never going to happen.
Better to close the border, enforce the laws already on the books, remove the incentives for coming here, and allow the numbers to fall via attrition.
Sign your life over.
Rush Limbaugh solution: 11 m illegals- let’s try deporting 1m and see how that goes. The other 10m or most of them will self-deport.
Simply bringing back the bracero program would probably be a good move.
Cain listed the most important point first - secure the borders first.
So, I guess Newt and others are saying they'd try to ram their plans down the throat of Congress and the nation that does want want their plan, just as Jorge did in 2006 and 2007.
All that would do is weaken the party, plus these plans will cost Republican presidential candidates votes in the primaries and in the general election - votes from the base. And the plans won't win any Hispanic votes.
1. Newt stated tonight about the amnesty of 1986: “We thought there were 300,000 and it tuned out there were 3 million.” Does anyone think the current number is actually 12 million?
2. The idea of determining winners and losers (who gets deported and who stays)is nothing more than a wet dream. If Republicans and Democrats can't agree on a budget, how can they agree on this? It's going to end up either everyone goes or everyone stays.
Newt realizes this (I am not sure Cain does) and, if elected President, I am as sure Newt will push for a blanket amnesty as I am that the Colts aren't going to the Super Bowl this year.
Newt has betrayed conservatives before and, given the opportunity, he will do it again.
Ask anybody with a home to take down the fence in their back yard. Bet you get no takers.....
It's all so bogus. Everyone already knows the solution to the illegal alien Mexican invasion problem - target the employers and the benefits.
Arrest and fine the employers.
Cut off all the government benefits, including anchor baby status.
Problem solved - they'll rush back to Mexico.
“Collect them all up, put them in buses and send them home.”
Consider the logistics. Let’s say 50 people per bus. Perhaps a little more.. For 1,000,000 people that would be 20,000 buses. Then gathering them someplace, feeding and sleeping, sending them where? To Mexico, first need permission of the Mexican Government. Guatemala, El Salvador and points south. Again, need permission of Mexican government. It is several days to Central and Southern Mexico where many Mexicans come from. Feeding and sleeping along the way. For 10 million they would need at least 200,000 trips. How much would each deportation cost, collecting with law enforcers, legal proceedings to prove illegality, housing, transport, etc. Let us guess $5,000. So $5 billion for the first 1 million. How many others come from other places. South America, Europe, Asia, etc. Cost a lot more to send them back. No buses—ships, airplanes, etc. “It’s just never going to happen.”
A county in the greater DC area, Prince William Co., had a strong crackdown on immigrants who fled to nearby counties. Ruined the economy of the county. Housing worse than anywhere in the area, many businesses folded, tax base shrank bigtime, etc.
How much clearer does he have to be?
You also miss two IMPORTANT points of Cain’s immigration plan.
Enforce the laws on the books (what do the laws call for - deportation)
Empower the states to do what the Federal government won’t do (and Cain supports Arizona SB1070)
It is clear how Cain wants to handle illegal immigrants.
You are trying to hide Newt’s CLEAR support of amnesty tonight, by trying to lump him with Cain.
Oh my, these Anti-Cain articles are getting so tiresome, yawn...
It is clear that Gov. Perry tanked based on the perception of his stance on immigration.
The sole question is- will Newt tank? Myself, I think he will fall in the polls- because he came across as Bushian/McCain-like-— the compassionate conservative- and that fact transcends the mere matter of immigration.
People were hoping for the conservative Newt— tonight he suggested that he, at any point, might decide to sit back on the Washington couch with Pelosi.
Imo, that's the real significance of this issue- he opened up the question as to whether or not he can be trusted as a true conservative. Why he opened up this can of worms is beyond me.
If I understand Palin’s position, which is always a questionable thing because she hasn’t spoken in detail or written a policy paper on the subject, she isn’t supporting “amnesty” per see. Her suggestion was to give them 3 months to register for a new type of card (I wonder if that was like Gingrich’s “red card”), which would then get them in the system. Palin’s position was a lot like Perry’s recent position that was castigated here, and it is much like Cain’s position although the Cain folks trashed Perry, and my guess is they’ll trash Gingrich.
What would be useful would be if each candidate would explain what the “long-term” treatment would be for these illegals.
My preference, since we aren’t going to deport them, would be a Palin-like strategy. Give them a few months to sign up for a temporary work visa. They’d have to prove they had been here working for at least 2 years, maybe as long as 5 years. Then they would get to stay for 1 year, after which they would be re-evaluted for another 1-year green card. This should then be the program for ALL green cards — short-term, re-evaluted.
Then throw in the Perry plan on top of that — use advanced tracking on these green-card holders. Make sure we know WHERE they are, so if they don’t renew and don’t leave, we can track them down and kick them out. Fix the computer system, keep the database, contact busineses employing them.
And make sure that the businesses are advertising the jobs to americans, and only give the jobs back to the immigrants if there are no americans willing and able to do the jobs.
Of the plans that have been offered, I “like” the Perry plan the best mostly because it has more details and seems best for solving one of the BIG illegal problems — those people who come in legally, but then stay too long. Fences don’t stop these people, but a good guest worker program would, by tracking, by ensuring americans get offered the jobs first, and by bringing the illegals out into the open, so companies can’t exploit them.
BTW, I also don’t fault Gingrich for calling me “inhumane”. It’s just a political argument, and it’s absurd for people to get worked up over it like it’s a personal attack. Every time someone here says their position is the “conservative” position, you could say they were calling everybody who disagrees with them liberals.