Or, we COULD just enforce the laws we already have.
Posted on 10/23/2007 7:49:12 AM PDT by blogsforthompson.com
Fred Thompson is set to announce today a major proposal that would take a huge bite out of the enormous illegal immigration problem in America. Fred will meet in Florida with the Collier County Sheriff, Don Hunter, and will then reportedly announce the details of his plan that would enforce our nation's borders and target cities and employers that harbor and hire illegal aliens. AP writer Brendan Farrington reports on the expected announcement:
Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson is choosing a county with a large farmworker population to announce an immigration policy Tuesday that will include stripping federal grant money from cities and states that don't report illegal immigrants.Thompson plans to meet with Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter before announcing details of his border security and immigration enforcement proposal.
A major part of the plan will be to reduce the number of illegal immigrants by increasing enforcement of existing law. Sanctuary cities, where city employees are not required to report illegal immigrants to federal authorities, would lose discretionary federal grants, said a campaign source who didn't want to be named because the plan hasn't been announced.
Thompson will also call for stronger laws to force employers to verify that workers aren't illegal immigrants, a more rigorous system to track who is coming in and out of the country and a plan to increase prosecution of "coyotes," smugglers who bring illegal immigrants across the Mexican border, the source said. He will also talk about border security.
Collier County has vast tomato farms that hire thousands of immigrants. Last year it was part of a two-county sweep with 163 illegal immigrants arrested in one weekend. The campaign plans to cite figures that 22 percent of the county's crime is committed by illegal immigrants and that 40 percent of county's arrest warrants are for illegal immigrants.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently trained 27 Collier sheriff's deputies to enforce immigration laws.
At a campaign stop in Georgia last week, Thompson accused rivals Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani of being soft on illegal immigration when Romney was Massachusetts' governor and Giuliani was New York's mayor.
“But if we start rounding up entire families, it will play on endless loop on the MSM. Then add the ACLU and activist challenging every single deportation through every court in the land. And that is before the cost of the LEO and facilities and logistical support. The general populace will not have the stomach for it after the first year, then where are we.”
Good points. But I say put the greatest onus on the employers through fines and penalties. That, more than anything will bring about the attrition Thompson says he desires. Give employers the option of notifying and obtaining verification from the Feds of those employees who they have reason to believe may be illegal. We can even save several billion on the fence and world condemnation that goes with it.
This will be about the attrition without breaking down doors which nobody will approve.
Go Fred!
OK I have not read the thread... Only the article... Fred to meet with Hunter about illegal immigration..... (Yes I know it is a different HUNTER) I can only imagine that Fred has been handed another Hunter’s work!!!!!
Many here won’t be able to grasp that sort of big-picture, goal-oriented thinking you know.....
Huck, whom I like, has been on the wrong side of this issue ... and it may cost him a chance at the nomination.
Fred, if his plan is substantive, sincere, and bold, may just put himself over the top.
I'm not picky, any of the globalists will do. Rudy Dalton McRomney?
Much as I want to see illegal immigration dealt with, I’d rather he announce a massive crackdown on taxes and regulation.
“Guys . . . this is silly:”
What’s silly is your entire post. Presidential candidates make many proposals and discuss many goals they’ll work toward if elected. Most all of those require some cooperation from Congress and the entrenched bureaucracy. This is understood by the moderately informed voter.
“Employers are caught in the middle.”
Not if they’ve been following the law. The only ones caught in the middle are those who’ve deliberately violated laws against hiring illegals so they can take advantage of cheaper labor. Few still make the silly claim that a flood of illegals does not reduce wages of American citizens.
And the Federal Judge who stopped the no match letters stopped something that had been done for years, on the grounds that actually using them to enforce immigration laws might cause undue hardship on employers, a bogus argument made up by a judge just to get the result desired: no enforcement of the law. And the courts have to be dealt with on most any law enforcement effort. Nothing new there.
Sounds as if you definitely do not want immigration laws enforced, for whatever reason.
There will be no need for camps, detainments, or any other ugly measures if only we put the onus on employers. The only need for on the ground enforcement and judicial follow through would be for the employer who just may be illegal himself.
Eisenhower rounded up close to 100,000 illegals and scared more than a million back across the border with ‘Operation Wetback’.
But Eisenhower did not have the technology to cause attrition. Today we have the tech.
Today we need not round up millions, we need only turn off the attractions to those that can’t prove they are here illegally.
I agree.. I have been undecided on to who I will support but if Fred starts to take a stance he might pull me into his circle.
“Much as I want to see illegal immigration dealt with, I’d rather he announce a massive crackdown on taxes and regulation.”
Good luck. Because as the ever increasing flow of entitlements continues to increasing #s of illegals who will eventually be given the vote, then you can kiss that hope goodbye
>> Big deal! Any announcement appearing as a new conecpt to address the illegal immigration problem is a farce. We don’t need more laws. There are already laws regarding illegal immigration.
Did you read the article?
“A major part of the plan will be to reduce the number of illegal immigrants by increasing enforcement of existing law.”
The part of the current law that needs to be changed is the part that allows local governments to ignore the current law without penalty (legal or financial). It seems that the vast majority of Thompson’s plan will be to force localities to enforce existing law by withholding federal money from sanctuary cities.
He does suggest new laws and penalties regarding the hiring of illegals and the activities of Coyotes ... but the article is clear that the vast majority of Thompson’s initiative will be to apply penalties to any lack of local enforcement.
Its a reasonably good idea.
H
Now think about these camps, with no real strong fencing. How many men/women and in how many shifts will it take. Evan if we could be somthing substantial quickly, the man power needed is cloassal.
I am not being obtuse, I have run this thing through more than a few times.
Two choices. Spend an obscene (past the cost of the war) amount to arrest and confine these people, something that wont happen because we don’t even have the national will to hire more police and build more jails for the native violent offenders we already have.
Or work it out in such a way we get rid of, with a minimum of cost and effort, the riff raff and dead beats, bypass the massive court challenges
FReepers who criticized Hunter and Tancredo (and Paul) for being in the race and screaming that they had “no chance” oughta be thanking them. Huckabee criticized the LOST treaty, Romney is criticizing the UN, and now Fred is tackling illegal immigration despite having a mediocre record on the issue. Conservative candidates CAN make a difference. We need the Congressional candidates to stay in the race as long as possible so that the GOP nominee (besides Rudy) can retain the base and attract independents.
“Fred Thompson Prepared to Announce Major Plan to Crack Down on Illegal Immigration”
But I thought that he was CFR and therefore would not be as tough on illegals as even the disastrous Bush admin?
No? Then I think that Rudy “sanctuary city” Guiliani is about to have problems on a series and hugh level.
Or, we COULD just enforce the laws we already have.
This is a massive undertaking. It took 20+ years to create.
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