Posted on 01/06/2004 8:18:02 AM PST by God is good
Were Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's Miami meanderings a gaffe, a trial balloon, an announcement of his department's policy, or an announcement of Bush administration policy?
We are entitled to know.
His shocking words were a broadside on current law: "We have to come to grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegal aliens, afford them some kind of legal status some way." He pointedly did not say we have to come to grips with 8 to 12 million people who have violated our laws by entering our country illegally, and further violated our laws by using fraudulent documents to get jobs and remain here.
Nor did he say we have to come to grips with the thousands of employers who are violating our laws by hiring illegal aliens, and violating additional laws by paying the illegal aliens in the underground economy in order to avoid our laws about minimum wage, overtime, workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, family leave, Americans with disabilities, payroll taxes, etc.
Ridge didn't elaborate on how he would award "some kind of legal status," nor explain how giving legal status is any different from granting amnesty. What part of illegal doesn't Ridge understand?
Continuing, Ridge said his plan is to "legalize their presence, then, as a country, you make a decision that from this day forward, this is the process of entry, and if you violate that process of entry we have the resources to cope with it."
But we've been there, done that. In 1986, the United States granted what was promised to be a one-time legalization - then honestly called amnesty. That sent a message to others to enter illegally and wait for the next amnesty.
The administrations of Presidents Bush I, Clinton and Bush II have flagrantly failed to use our resources "to cope with" those who afterward violated the "process of entry." And so the illegal-alien problem quadrupled.
Not only did the 1986 amnesty transform millions of illegal aliens into lawful permanent residents, but after they became U.S. citizens they could import their relatives. Congress never investigated how many additional millions entered the United States or the massive document fraud that was involved in the process.
The current President Bush was asked to clarify his policy. He responded: "I have constantly said that we need to have an immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any willing employee.
"It makes sense that that policy go forward. And we're in the process of working that through now."
No, that does not make sense. First, it's an all-out repudiation of current law, and second, up to 5 billion people in the world might want to be "willing employees" in the United States.
Bush didn't limit the number of "willing employees." An estimated 300,000 to 400,000 Mexicans every year cross illegally into the United States looking for work.
Thousands of these have died from thirst and dehydration in the desert or in locked vans, or from drowning, or from crimes committed by their smugglers. The Bush's administration's failure to close the border makes the payoff of getting into the United States worth the risk of death.
White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan repeated Bush's exact words and added, "Migration should be safe, orderly and humane." But Congress and the American people never authorized "migration." We only authorized immigration under certain laws.
Bush claims he is "against blanket amnesty," but "blanket" is his weasel word. He apparently is for amnesty for the 8 to 12 million illegal aliens already in this country.
Amnesty for illegal aliens comes disguised under various euphemisms. These include guest worker program, Mexican ID cards, the DREAM Act (to give in-state college tuition), driver's licenses, 245(i) visas, H-1B and L-1 visas, free hospital care, anchor babies, and "totalization," which is to give Social Security benefits.
Ridge says that illegal aliens in the United States should be given "some kind of legal status" because most are not a threat to national security. That's an irrelevancy. Most passengers who boarded those four fatal planes on Sept. 11, 2001, were not hijackers, but 19 of them were, and Ridge has no plan to separate the terrorists from the 300,000 or more who cross our borders illegally every year.
According to the Washington Post, Karl Rove is designing the White House plan and the president will present his proposal the second week of January, shortly before his trip to Monterrey, Mexico.
Asa Hutchinson, Homeland Security's undersecretary for border and transportation security, says the Bush and Ridge remarks simply reflect the ongoing debate in Congress over the immigration issue. If that's so, then it's time for Congress to hear loud and clear from the two-thirds of Americans, according to a Zogby International poll, who believe that foreigners residing illegally in the United States should not be allowed to stay.
I just emailed the White House and let my voice be heard.
Leni
Hi Jane, I'd like to nominate this for the "Quote of the Day." Thanks so much.
Yep agreed...but we need cheap labor to compete against the out-sourcing flood. We need cheap labor to compete.
Sucks but its a 'new global economy'.
We need to look at Mexico as a huge source of cheap labor, and then leverage the crap out of that.
Kick it up a notch...back at ya...
Lets use the worlds cheap labor to build cheap products to sell the to emerging markets of cheap labor consumers...
I am trying to find opportunity in this friggin mess...not some end of the union doom and gloom crap...
If one buys into the notion that American corporations exploit there workforces...then lets exploit the crap out of all these new workforce participants and make them build the crap they will buy.
Never lose site of the fact we kick butt at capitalism...nobody does it better than we do. To me thats the problem to be solved...or should I say...the solution is to exploit this windfall of cheap labor for all us Americans
Think that wealth might have something to do with our very generous One Way Industry Exporting trade policies?
If you look around the United States today, you'll find a curious phenomenon at work -- population density is increasing in existing metropolitan areas, while at the same time large areas of the country's interior are slowly de-populating. What drives the "tiny apartment" scenario you described is not overpopulation, but inexpensive public services in urban areas.
Do you really spend much time in this country? The suburban sprawl around nearly every city in America is spanning out further and further into the countryside year after year. In my neck of the woods, there has been an explosion of new home construction everywhere and we are 55 miles from Chicago! It's one continuous city now. Ditto for Milwaukee, Madison, Rockford, Belvidere, just about any town around here. It's happening all over the country.
The Main Driver? Mass immigration. Immigrants pour into the cities and inner suburbs, people move out to the outer burbs to escape deteriorating neighborhoods and rising crime, people in the outer burbs see their area becoming overcrowded and move out into the country. An endless cycle. But hey, the home developers, realtors and banks love it!
If they were to get in a car and drive from one end of the United States to the other, they'd be shocked to learn just how empty this country really is.
I do a lot of driving and it may seem that way sitting in a car but take a close look at a map of just about any state in the nation. The first thing will you notice is that one does not have to travel very many miles before you run into some kind of town, city or suburb. Large unbroken tracts of wildness and open spaces of any scale are increasingly disappearing. Hell where we live the Deer, Coyotes and Fox have lost their ranges and are now becoming a common sight in the neighborhoods! But hey, let's just keep on packing this country with more and more immigrants--it keeps those top line revenues growing.
Don't underestimate the power of your own voice...dont predicate your voice to an affirmation or response from Washington...ever never
What we say here matters...what you say matters...never lose site of that
Mexicans are going to annex "Aztlan" first.
Your model assumes that the market -- the "customer base" -- is restricted to domestic customers.
If that was the case in real-world situations, post-war Japan would not have flourished as it did, and China would not currently be eating our lunch.
There's no reason that we can't export our production.
The "migration" insanity is destroying us. A few vested interests are pushing for it, hard. And, they're not only vested in seeing it happen, but, they're very influential.
The Republicans who are deluded into thinking that it will somehow increase their voter base will be remembered in future textbooks as prime examples of the useful idiot.
Leni
They don't get it. This is a minor issue with legal resident Hispanics.
If that's the case, it's far less than a "minor issue", at least as far as Florida hispanics are concerned. There is a longstanding enmity between Cubans and Mexicans. If the Mexican "migration" is legitimized -- even while Cubans fleeing Castro's communist hellhole are fired upon at sea -- you can bet your bottom dollar that the only votes this insanity buys will be for Democrats, cast in protest by outraged Florida Cubans.
I can't say I blame them, either.
Yes and it's clear they don't work.
It's clear that the laws dont work when the govt rewards the law breakers instead of enforcing the law. If we treated robbery as we did illegal immigration you wouldnt be able to walk down the street without getting mugged.
Happy New Year!
No, not "foreigners". At least, not any foreigners.
Let's be accurate. We're talking about Mexicans. All other foreigners have to jump through all the hoops, and get no breaks at all.
This is nothing short of a massive hand-over to Mexico.
Mexico is a supremely racist society, split into two components: the "Spanish", and the "Mestizos". The "Spanish" are the ruling class, and the "Mestizos" are the underclass. In short, Mexico has decided to deal with its underclass by exporting it to the USA, and then condemning us for being "racist" if we resist the invasion.
It's a grand mixture of irony, hypocrisy, absurdity, and insanity. A cosmic joke, of sorts -- and we're the punchline.
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.