Will Americans support another amnesty?

www.townhall.com ^ | January 5, 2004 | Phyllis Schlafly

[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.

[Alberta's Child]

I don't see a massive influx of criminals as doing anything but driving the last nails into the coffin of the Republic.

Maybe so. But I think it's terribly naive to complain about the last nail in the coffin while ignoring the other 99 that got us here.

[JamesA]

quote me: "HELL NO"

[Alberta's Child]

And the rub is that they will be paying for it with your's and my money through taxes.

Then deal with it. Work a cash business, shelter your money overseas, etc. No reason to lose any sleep over it.

[God is good]

If a Democrat or anyone from anywhere would promise to secure the borders and fight the war on terrorism, I would support him. Our national survival supersedes any other social issue at this time. Does this make sense to anyone? Why should I die at the hands of socialism? Why should I die at the hands of "conservatism" for that matter?

[Alberta's Child]

Let's look at this from a practical business sense . . .

I'm a retailer doing business in a market area where the average American-born family has 1.8 children. What the hell are my future prospects in this market if my customer base is projected to decline by 10% every generation?

[God is good]

I'm sorry. Did you need your hand held?

[jgrubbs]

I'd vote for Hillary Clinton before I'd support GWB.

Don't do that!!

I voted for Howard Phillips in 2000, but supported GW Bush over Al Gore, and helped organize a rally to support him. Here is a picture of me with one of the directors from the Seminole County Republican Executive Committee on one side and one of the directors from the Orange County Constitution Party on the other.

While Bush may not be as conservative as I would like him to be, he is still more conservative that Hillary would ever be.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm starting to see an America where the citizens would do better to disappear and come back as illegals.

I'm starting to see an America where the 7th-generation American who simply pretends he just arrived here last week and treats it as a foreign country has the best attitude of them all.

[TigersEye]

"The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals, afford them some kind of legal status some way, but also as a country decide what our immigration policy is and then enforce it," Ridge said in a Dec. 9 forum in Miami.

TheDon: The whole point of her article is destroyed by viewing the complete quote.

But she did address the whole quote -

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.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Then deal with it. Work a cash business, shelter your money overseas, etc. No reason to lose any sleep over it.

I figure by then, those in government will declare that government owns everything and we will have a civil war.

[jgrubbs]

Here are the other photos from that rally in 2000

http://screc.netfirms.com/RALLY_112500/

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Well, I've called and written my congress critters, the White house, I've protested, called talk shows and badgered family friends and neighbors to vote about everything else, but I haven't noticed anything come of it.

Well, my congressman's office knows my voice and hangs up, if that's an accomplishment.

Patches "the Dunce" Kennedy.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I know about California, Colorado, Arizona and other states, but:

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A SIMULTANEOUS NATIONAL REFERENDUM?

I have been wondering about this with respect to ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION that is way out of control and the two damned major political parties, the Republicrats, won't lift a finger about it.

Not to mention:

a) In such a national issue referendum, it will pass at least by 75% as anti-illegal alien (if the question is, amnesty and social services for illegal border crossers vs. respect for the legal border crossers)

b) Immigration Law is primarily Federal, and thus the need for a National Referendum

c) Waffling and pandering politicians from BOTH PARTIES will finally be flushed out in all 435 congressional seats and 100 senate seats to take a clear stand, aye or nay, on this critical national security and quality of life issue and it will become one major national debate that we must have, rather than shadowy amnesty deals in the background by the Executive with nary a peep nor gas passed by the Legislative.

Again,

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A SIMULTANEOUS NATIONAL REFERENDUM?

This issue, more than any single one I can think of, which will NOT be addressed in the 2004 Presidential Elections, really really needs to be put before the entire nation in the next year or so.

Any and all brainstorming welcomed here.

[riri]

I'm starting to see an America where the 7th-generation American who simply pretends he just arrived here last week and treats it as a foreign country has the best attitude of them all

Is he the guy who boos when the American flag is waved a the soccer game or would it be one of the construction workers I could spot down the street flying the Mexican flag of his back view mirror?

[webstersII]

Is that Alberta, as in Alberta, Canada?

[jpl]

A nation that aborts a million of its own children every year while at the same time allowing unfettered access to this country for a million immigrants every year does not need "immigration reform" -- it needs a large-scale psychiatric examination.

What it really boils down to is that our elite upper class that rules America can be neatly boiled down into two camps: one camp is a bunch of cheap penny-pinchers, and the other camp is rooting for the total destruction of the America of the founders. This endless mass invasion satisfies the needs of both.

[rbessenger]

While Bush may not be as conservative as I would like him to be, he is still more conservative that Hillary would ever be.

So its better that a Republican president practices liberal left wing policies?!?!?!

Maybe the president will give the State of the Union in Spanish so his new constituency can know how things are going.

[God is good]

It's becoming a foreign country anyway.

[jgrubbs]

Here is an excerpt from the Constitution Party's Platform in regards to Immigration:

We affirm the integrity of the international borders of the United States and the Constitutional authority and right of the federal government to guard and to protect those borders, including the regulation of the numbers and of the qualifications of immigrants into the country.

Each year some 972,000 legal immigrants and hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens enter the United States. These immigrants — including illegal aliens — have been made eligible for various kinds of public assistance, including housing, education, Social Security, and legal services. This

unconstitutional drain on the federal Treasury is having a severe and adverse impact on our economy, increasing the cost of government at federal, state, and local levels, adding to the tax burden, and stressing the fabric of society. The mass importation of people with low standards of living threatens the wage structure of the American worker and the labor balance in our country.

We favor a moratorium on immigration to the United States, except in individual hardship cases or in other individual special circumstances, until the availability of all federal subsidies and assistance be discontinued.

We also insist that every individual group and/or private agency which requests the admission of an immigrant to the U.S., on whatever basis, be required to commit legally to provide housing and sustenance for such immigrants, bear full responsibility for the economic independence of the immigrants, and post appropriate bonds to seal such covenants.

The Constitution Party demands that the federal government restore immigration policies based on the practice that potential immigrants will be disqualified from admission to the U.S. if, on the grounds of health, criminality, morals, or financial dependence, they would impose an improper burden on the United States, any state, or any citizen of the United States.

We oppose the provision of welfare subsidies and other taxpayer-supported benefits to illegal aliens, and reject the practice of bestowing U.S. citizenship on children born to illegal alien parents while in this country.

We oppose any extension of amnesty to illegal aliens.

We oppose bilingual ballots. We insist that those who wish to take part in the electoral process and governance of this nation be required to read and comprehend basic English as a precondition of citizenship. We support English as the official language for all governmental business by the United States.

[Alberta's Child]

Well, I've called and written my congress critters, the White house, I've protested, called talk shows and badgered family friends and neighbors to vote about everything else, but I haven't noticed anything come of it.

Well, then there you go. Either you are no longer an American, or they are no longer Americans. Either way, it's probably time to face the fact that you now live in a foreign land. On a positive note, it's easier to ignore your government in this country than almost anywhere else in the world.