Who wants Shamnesty? (1) Trade associations (aka "lobbyists") who want cheap peasant labor; (2) "advocate" groups who need more clients on the rolls to obtain state and federal grant money; (3) declining unions which need more monthly member fees to survive; and (4) immigration lawyers looking for illiterate and uneducated cients whom they might fleece in order to prepare simple Z visa and other CIS applications.
The big secret (or so it seems) is that it is the Federal Government, more than anyone else, who wants illegal immigration. People think that employers are engaging illegals to get out from under the payroll tax burden, nothing could be further from the truth. The employers are not stupid, liabilities for evading payroll taxes are huge. They are not looking to avoid taxes, they are simply looking for lower wages. Since the government has (deliberately) not given employers a means to confirm the identities and legality of employees, all an illegal alien needs to do is find or make up a social security number, give it to the employer, and the employer is covered. They then take out the taxes, pay the medicare/medicaid, pay the social security, all of which is tied to an incorrect account or nonexistent account. This is money that comes to the Federal Government with no strings — no need to issue tax refund, no need to pay social security, no obligations. The money is in the billion's and billions. Meanwhile, us, the citizens, are forced to pay for the health care, the welfare, the crime, and perhaps worse, we are forced to place our kids in private schools if we want to have a prayer that they be properly educated. The illegal alien children flock into the schools, with no English or English as a second language, causing huge local school tax increases as we attempt to build facilities, and simultaneously dragging down the quality of education our children receive. So, we pay more for less. In effect, we have a huge wealth transfer from our pockets to the federal government — we pay the cost, the government receives the cash benefits. THAT is what this is all about. The Federal Government has grown beyond the limits of our current tax base, and they are looking for new sources of revenue.
We do not live in a dictatorship. Individual politicians do not get to pick and choose which laws we will enforce and which we will not, but unfortunately, that’s what they are doing today. This is criminal in my view, and is proper justification for impeachment. Personally, as someone who has voted for Bush four times, I believe he has betrayed us on this issue, and that the cost is so high and the arrogance so extreme that it is worthy of impeachment.
If the government wants to open our borders, let them make a case for it and change the law. Let those who make those changes then face the voters. Of course, they have not had the courage to do that, so, they simply change the laws in practice — refusing to enforce immigration laws, and in fact even going after border agents who do attempt to enforce those laws.
And for those who say it is “impractical” or impossible to deport 12 million (really 20-30 million), I say WHY??? It is not impractical. We do not have to do it overnight. Simply cut off the benefits, punish employers severely and give them a verification system, cut off funds to any city who declares itself a sanctuary city, and deport the illegal aliens as we encounter them in day to day law enforcement events. the problem will fix itself.
To be fair, go ahead and create a temporary worker program, but make it TEMPORARY, and prohibit government benefits and chain migration. Require that applications be filed at offices OUTSIDE our borders, which requires legal entry. Also, increase the number of people being allowed to go through the process legally to become citizens, but this must remain difficult, as it should always require a certain amount of dedication and desire to become a real, loyal, assimilated American.