Real Message of The Bush Amnesty

The American Conservative ^ | 1/12/2004 | PAT BUCHANAN

[kellynla]

If George Bush’s amnesty for between 8 million and 14 million illegal aliens is enacted, you can kiss the old America goodbye.

Consider what the president is saying with his amnesty. He is telling us that he cannot or will not do his constitutional duty to defend the states from invasion. He is saying that he simply cannot or will not protect our borders or enforce our immigration laws. He is saying he will no longer send illegal aliens back.

Not long ago, this would have produced calls for impeachment and cries that, “If Bush won’t enforce our laws, let’s elect a president who will.”

By offering amnesty and residency to millions who broke in line, broke our laws and broke into our country, Bush is not only rewarding wholesale criminality, he proposes to legalize it.

His amnesty will send this message to the world: the candy store is open, and the Americans cannot protect it. Now is the time to bust in.

As there must be billions of people willing to come and work for a fraction of our minimum wage—and exploit our social safety net—the number who could come under the Bush guest-worker program is almost infinite.

Imagine a car wash that employs 40 African-American, Latino, and white working-class folks at $8 an hour each. A new car wash down the street opens up, offering 40 new jobs at $5.15 an hour. No Americans apply. Under Bush’s proposal, that employer would be free to go to Asia, Africa, and Latin America, round up workers, and bring them in.

The new car wash with its foreign workers then drives the old car wash with its American workers out of business. Taxpayers are then forced to subsidize the newly unemployed—and pay for the medical care, food stamps, rent supplements, welfare, and schooling of all the new immigrants and their families, provide legal services when they get in trouble and pay for more cops to police their neighborhoods.

And every child born of a guest worker would, under our 14th Amendment, become an American citizen, automatically entitled to all the benefits of citizenship. Meanwhile, Bush’s amnesty will do nothing to halt the illegal invasion that continues to this hour. If you would know what America’s social, cultural, and fiscal future will look like, take a ride through Los Angeles, capital of Mexifornia.

But why did President Bush pick now to propose as explosive an idea as amnesty, when it seemed he was holding a winning hand on the issues of taxes, national security, the economy, and gay marriages?

One sees here the cynical ploy of “Boy Genius” Karl Rove. With the filing deadlines for the Republican primaries having passed and no GOP opponent, with no Third Party challenger from the Right, and with Dean the likely Democratic nominee, Rove knows conservatives are boxed in. In the old cliché, “The conservatives have nowhere else to go.”

So Rove is executing an “apertura a sinistra,” an opening to the Left, pandering to Hispanics and Mexican President Vicente Fox, to whom Bush is to pay a visit.

But Rove may be too clever for the president’s good. For there is no hard evidence that Hispanics, other than those militants who detest Republicans, are demanding amnesty. And with Bush’s spending on foreign aid soaring, his deficits rising, and the White House refusing to veto a single spending bill, Rove & Co. may have stretched conservative loyalty to the breaking point.

For some conservatives, this amnesty will snap it. They may just get on their hind legs and fight, for huge majorities have repeatedly registered opposition to any amnesty for illegal aliens. How is the president helped by a bloody battle with his political base in an election year?

Half a century ago, Dwight Eisenhower, informed there were a million illegals in the United States, most of them from Mexico, ordered them sent back. The project was called “Operation Wetback.”

Ike was a strong president. But in George W. Bush, we have a leader unwilling to pay the political price of doing his duty and enforcing the immigration laws of his country because he fears the reaction from the media elite and Mexican-Americans.

When it comes to standing up to truly powerful ethnic lobbies—the Hispanic Lobby, the Cuban-American Lobby, the Israeli Lobby—Bush wilts and folds every time. Nor is it a healthy sign for the future of our republic when its president offers an amnesty to law-breakers, rather than doing his painful duty to protect his country from what has now become an unstoppable foreign invasion.

The real threats to America’s survival do not come from the Sunni Triangle. They come from within, and unfortunately we have a president who either does not understand them or will not look them in the face.

[AbsoluteJustice]

I agree back up the border patrol with the military and shoot those that enter illegally. I bet after 2 months the message will be sent to Mexico to keep your own and illegal immigration would abruptly stop.

Now this is a simplistic approach as well and would never fly but hell isn't this defending out country from invaders? Isn't this the PRIMARY responsibility from the "Commander in chief?"

[liberallarry]

Ha! You badly in need new psychic.

[Cardini]

No dissent here!

[liberallarry]

It is going to be a higher price if we don't pay it now. Besides, the scenario you envision is way off the mark. It would not be one tenth of that

This problem is not new.
We've been dealing with it for a long time.
Others have had to face it for at least several thousand years.

Bush is not an idiot nor is he willing to sell out his country for a few shekels and a bit of power. So why is he doing this?

My guess is he's gambling that the benefits outweigh the negatives...and that we'll be able to integrate the entire North American economy, or even form one big country, before anything blows.

[WOSG]

Dittos on that. This is far different from the blanket amnesty that the Democrats support, it is even more narrow than the McCain/Kolbe proposals. But such distinctions are lost on Buchanan. That IMHO cheapens the debate. and I am far from happy with Bush's/Cornyn's proposals BTW.
Check my posts.

[riri]

If we started some actual interior enforcement with stiff penalties for employers who hire illegal aliens, the jobs would disappear and most of the illegals would go home voluntarily

Common sense. They would start packing it after the first ten thousand were sent back.

[liberallarry]

Read post #60. I made the weasel comment because you seemed unwilling to face a (likely) worst-case scenario.

[citizen]

...Rove & Co. may have stretched conservative loyalty to the breaking point.

Yep, that describes me to a tee.

I'm not voting for the RINO-in-Chief. I'm going write-in [Tom Tancredo] or 3rd party if there is a candidate I like.

[WOSG]

"I'd make language proficiency a pre-requisite for hiring. It can't be faked so the INS job would be much simpler. Of course, illegals would then take the trouble to learn English and would still come here...but they'd be much easier to integrate into our society."

If this wasnt coming from liberallarry, ther'd be allegations you were a paleo-euro-centric xenophobe! :-)
It does have the merit though that our illegals would at least be bilingual, which is quite a neat skill, especially in the restaurant biz. :-)

Nevertheless, we dont need to go there to gain control of our labor situation. Check my posts on this topic, I have a number of ideas on fixing immigration. One is a simple matter of verifying documentation and enforcing employer sanctions would try up the market for illegal immigrant labor substantially. What is enraging is that (a) we have a documentation system, (b) it works, (c) it is VOLUNTARY not mandatory. HUH?!?

The illegal aliens are here because we dont enforce the laws that say they cant stay here and cant work here without valid visas. Methods to enforce the law are out there, but the pro-immigration lobbies are too politically powerful that our reps lack the political will to put effort into enforcement.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

...Are you willing to pay the price?...

The price of rolling over and doing nothing is the death of this nation.

[UCANSEE2]

Half a century ago, Dwight Eisenhower, informed there were a million illegals in the United States, most of them from Mexico, ordered them sent back. The project was called “Operation Wetback.”

And did it solve the problem? The statement is made as if to suggest it was successful. It obviously wasn't.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

...My guess is he's gambling that the benefits outweigh the negatives...and that we'll be able to integrate the entire North American economy, or even form one big country, before anything blows...

Then the race to the bottom would be complete.
And we would be finished.

[88keys]

My guess is he's gambling that the benefits outweigh the negatives...and that we'll be able to integrate the entire North American economy, or even form one big country, before anything blows.

What???!! I was with you up to that one! What do you mean, "one big country"?!

[Spiff]

Aztlan freedom fighters!? We got them right here in SouthEast Arizona. It is no coincidence that Aztlan.net sides with the Palestinians and considers themselves America's palestinians.

From an October 2002 Pro-Reconquista Rally in Nogales, AZ (40 miles from my house):

Notice the Aztlan warriors and the dead white woman behind them. Is that the white woman's heart in that jar she's holding there? Hmmmm.

Aztlan. Mask. Weapon. Child wrapped in Mexican flag. Get the picture?

[sauropod]

At what point does Bush do something that you would criticize?

[WOSG]

IMHO, 'deportation of 10 million' is a strawman.

First, understand that with our borders, about 750,000 illegal crossers come in each year, or overstay visas.
Fix the enforcement and the incentives and new arrivals will stop arriving.

1. End the market in labor for illegals. Make document verification mandatory, and start enfocing employer sanctions. (Not enforced because businesses lean on chamber of commerce which leans on our pols; well, that's got to stop.)
2. End the incentive for illegals to get any form of Govt aid (a la 187, I like it, Bush doesnt).
3. Stop giving citizenship to babies born of illegal alien mothers who cross over and show up at our emergency rooms.
4. Abolish the EOIR and end the maze of loopholes and rolling amnesties that keeps criminal aliens in the US.
5. Pass the CLEAR Act, to encourage local law enforcement to assist in immigration law enforcement.
6. Protect the border better with whatever fencing, technology, UAVs, and manpower needed to curtail the porous border.

After a while, the message will get back that we are serious about enforcing the law. Over time, would-be illegal aliens will stop attempting, some here who cant get jobs anymore will voluntarily go back home, others will be found and deported ... and the swamp will be drained.

I see Bush's proposal as a possible carrot to the above stick of enforcement that allows those here and in our economy to remain if they can get sponsored by employers. As per Buchanan, it a form of quasi-amnesty.
Without enforcement, the Bush plan will fail miserably. With it, the carrot and stick could work together to drain the swamp of illegal immigration. We will also need to curtial 'chain migration' too though or this plan is an invitation to huge mass migration that Americans dont want. JMHO.

[liberallarry]

Then the race to the bottom would be complete. And we would be finished

It's much more subtle than a simple union. Timing, pace, and legal conditions are everything. I'm more opitimistic than you about the strength of our society and its ability to influence Mexicans...and their ability to learn.

Anyway, we invented television programming and advertising without their help. How much lower can you go?

[liberallarry]

Absolutely sensational observation!

[sauropod]

What happened was that I was contacted by the Board of Elections and my party affiliation was changed to "independent" from "Constitution Party" because they had lost standing. Early 2003.

If they are still a viable party in Nov. 2004, this is good news. I will have to check on this.

[sauropod]

I went and read the blurb at your link. Disagree w/ Peroutka on one point. He said that we went into Iraq w/o a formal declaration of war. Congress gave the current president great latitude to act (tantamount to a declaration of war.).