Posted on 01/08/2004 10:06:57 AM PST by Spiff
The Tres Amigos - Kolbe, Flake, McCain
NOTE TO READERS: I wrote this column before President Bush's immigration policy announcement on Wednesday. Based on that announcement, the Tres Amigos bill is probably dead in the water and will be supplanted by a similar one from the White House. However, the arguments remain the same. The flaws in the president's immigration proposals will be the subject of my next column.
You all remember the movie "The Tres Amigos." In it, three bumbling Americans stumble their way around Mexico trying to solve problems.
In a way it reminds me of congressmen Jim Kolbe and Jeff Flake and Sen. John McCain. They have introduced a bill called "Border Security and Improvement Act" (HR2899), which they hope will solve Mexico's problems and our own. Of course it won't, but more about that later.
What piques me about this bill is the dishonesty of its title, "Border Security and Improvement." It has nothing to do with border security and improvement. It should be entitled "The Guest Worker and Amnesty Act," not border security. While this bill was written with Mexico in mind, it allows people from all around the world to come to the United States to work. It has nothing to do with actually securing our border as the title implies.
Of course, if you follow their ill-founded logic it might. They say by opening our borders to workers who want to cross legally, people will stop coming across illegally. That is pure poppy cock. Why should immigrants stand in line at our embassies, wait months for their paperwork to be approved when all they have to do is join millions of other illegals who walk across our porous border any place they choose. Two million a year cross illegally right now, right here in the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. Heaven only knows how many more cross in California, New Mexico and Texas.
Why should they stand in line? It just doesn't make sense.
And who would hire them with 20 million illegals already here willing to work without health insurance and the payment of taxes. This legislation simply won't work. You know it and I know it, but the Tres Amigos don't.
I would not worry about this bill, which I call the Tres Amigos Bill, passing in the U.S. Congress. For this bill to pass, all the other congressmen would have to know and understand that we have a problem. After all, the purpose of the Tres Amigos Bill is to solve a problem -- the border problem.
But have the Tres Amigos done their homework? Have they been telling the other congressmen that we have a problem? I think the answer to that question is no. Oh sure, they fly over our border at 3,000 feet in a helicopter once a year and yell down to the embattled ranchers below, "I feel your pain." But when they get back to Washington do they tell others of our cut fences, feces laden trails, trampled riparian areas and bankrupt hospitals? If so, I haven't heard about it. How many times have they spoken on the floor of the House such as U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., does on this subject. How many times have they called the president to complain or how many colleagues have they taken to lunch to enumerate our problems? I mean, who of you believe these three legislators are really doing anything to secure our border. I don't!
And if they haven't been telling their fellow congressmen day after day that we have a problem, why should their fellow congressmen vote for a bill that is supposed to fix a problem they have heard nothing about from the very congressmen who represent these districts. No, this bill won't fly.
Sen. Jon Kyl, who opposes this bill, is right when he says, "If we are not enforcing current immigration laws, the question naturally arises: Why would we be any more likely to enforce new laws?" He should be called "Senator Muy Sabio." (Senator Very Wise)
And that begs another question: Since this bill applies to people from all over the world, who will investigate to see if we are allowing criminals, terrorists, mental patients released from hospitals or carriers of infectious diseases to enter our country? Don't tell me the nation's immigration and naturalization service will do it. They are swamped right now. Well you might say, that could be done by the country sending them here. If you support that idea, you might as well put the fox in charge of the chicken coop. Most of the illegals come from very corrupt countries. You can bribe the police or government to say you are an honest citizen for $100. If you think that is an exaggeration, ask any Drug Enforcement Administration agent or missionary who works in these countries. And who will keep track of these legal workers once they are here? Again, don't tell me INS will do it. We have 20 million illegals in this country now, and INS has no idea who and where they are. And by the way, with unemployment hovering around 6 percent, we don't need more workers. We need more jobs. Please don't tell me that they are coming to only do farm labor or jobs Americans won't do. The construction trade is flooded with illegals. In Los Angeles it's safe to say "U.S. citizens need not apply." Many jobs, traditionally held by Americans, are now sewn up by illegals and lost to tax-paying Americans. No, we don't need HR 2899 and more foreign workers. We need congressmen who will fight for the sanctity of our border and the working men and women of this country.
Let's hope that by post election time next November, we will be able to call these Tres Amigos the "Tres Retirados." (The Three Retirees)
JIM BEHNKE is a Sierra Vista resident who retired as an Army lieutenant colonel.
He can be contacted by e-mail at wethepeople33@juno.com. His column appears every other Thursday in the Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review.
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