No Blood for Lettuce!
Click here and here for lists of crimes committed by illegal aliens.
Posted on 01/13/2004 7:12:33 AM PST by philosofy123
The dictionary defines amnesty as a general pardon for offenders by a government, and the Bush administration’s new proposal to grant legal status to millions of illegal aliens surely meets that definition. Millions of people who broke the law by entering, staying, and working in our country will not be punished, but rather rewarded with a visa. This is amnesty, plain and simple. Lawbreakers are given legal status, while those seeking to immigrate legally face years of paperwork and long waits for a visa.
The president claims that America lacks the political will to deport the eight to twelve million illegal aliens already here, so we have no choice but to grant them visas. But what message does this send to the rest of the world? If we reward millions who came here illegally, surely millions more will follow suit. Ten years from now we will be in the same position, with a whole new generation of lawbreakers seeking amnesty. The Bush administration proposal does not provide a coherent immigration policy, nor does it address the urgent need for stricter control of our borders. The overwhelming majority of Americans – including legal immigrants – want immigration reduced, not expanded.
The immigration problem fundamentally is a welfare state problem. Some illegal immigrants – certainly not all – receive housing subsidies, food stamps, free medical care, and other forms of welfare. This alienates taxpayers and breeds suspicion of immigrants, even though the majority of them work very hard. Without a welfare state, we would know that everyone coming to America wanted to work hard and support himself. Since we have accepted a permanent welfare state, however, we cannot be surprised when some freeloaders and criminals are attracted to our shores. Welfare muddies the question of why immigrants want to come here.
Illegal immigrants also threaten to place a tremendous strain on federal social entitlement programs. Under the Bush proposal, millions of illegal immigrants will qualify for Social Security and other programs – programs that already threaten financial ruin for America in the coming decades. Adding millions of foreign citizens to the Social Security, Medicare, and disability rolls will only hasten the inevitable day of reckoning. Social Security is in serious trouble already, and sending benefits abroad to millions of illegal aliens who once worked here will cost hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. Every American who hopes to collect Social Security someday should stridently oppose the President’s proposal. Financial considerations aside, we cannot continue to ignore the cultural aspects of immigration. The vast majority of Americans welcome immigrants who want to come here, work hard, and build a better life. This is a basic human desire that Americans understand, especially when so many immigrants are born into hopeless poverty in their own nations. But we rightfully expect immigrants to show a sincere desire to become American citizens, speak English, and assimilate themselves culturally. More importantly, we expect immigrants to respect our political and legal traditions, which are rooted in liberty and constitutionally limited government. After all, a lack of respect for the rule of law causes much of the poverty around the world that immigrants seek to escape.
Problems arise when immigrants refuse to assimilate and show little interest in becoming American citizens. 100 years ago, immigrants arrived in America after dangerous journeys fully prepared to embrace their new country. In most cases, returning home was not an option. Most led very hard lives, took pride in American citizenship, and asked for nothing but the opportunity to work. Today, however, some immigrants travel between countries frequently, enjoying the benefits of America but showing no desire to become Americans. Some even display hostility toward America and our ideals, joining the chorus of voices demanding that the United States become a multicultural society that rejects our own history. It is this cultural conflict that soon must be addressed, and the president’s amnesty proposal simply turns a blind eye to the problem.
Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.
Based on the above, the current immigrants, legal and illegal will not join the melting pot of our main culture like other immigrants did fifty years ago. Therefore, our society will always have many pockets of different cultures that are here only by their body, but their hearts is always in their home lands. They are here only to suck some money out of this rich land, and go back to their native lands. The only problem with this picture is the dragging of our wages to the third world wage, thus creating a huge underclass in America.
Can someone please show me where Bush's plan says we will do this?
As far as allowing temporary workers to take Social Security savings with them when they leave America and return home, what is the problem with that? First of all, it is part of the incentive to make them want to leave again rather than overstay their status. Second, if it is part of their salary that they earned and it was withheld and set aside.... I'm amazed that a conservative or libertarian would think the government would have a right to keep those funds.
With respect to La Raza (The Race) a Mexican org., that is an understatement. They blatantly proclaim that one of their goals is to return CA to Mexico. Also, CA voting ballets are already available in five different languages. Anyone see anything wrong with that? I'm not a world traveler but I don't think that kind of thing exists in too many other countries around this globe.
A poor analogy, but characteristic of some of the fuzzy logic in the national "debate" on illegal immigration. How about this: Jean Valjean steals a loaf of bread to feed his family and is sentenced to ten years in prison? There are criminals and drug traffickers among the illegal immigrants, but most of them are doing exactly what you would do if the you were born in "Mexico (not so) Lindo". Politics is the art of the possible, and while you and I and every other dispassionate conservative might volunteer to form a national posse to go after the illegal aliens already in our midst, most of our fellow Americans will not support an intrusive, socially and economically disruptive mass national effort to locate and deport 8-12 million undocumented border violators.
The President's proposal is flawed in that it's all carrot and little stick (i.e. scant attention to better border protection or penalties for those who choose not to accept the 3-year visas), but at it's a darn sight better than the blanket amnesty the Democrats want. Maybe the Tom Tancredos in Congress will work to correct the flaws in the President's plan, or propose their own politically practical solutions.
Probably not, you don't want to see it. I'm amazed that a conservative or libertarian would think the government would have a right to keep those funds.
Under current law, if you die the government keeps all your "contributions," because that is exactly what they are.
Federal Isurance Contribution Act
And like any good insurance program there is a death benefit, currently $250.00, but only if you qualify.
This President is not anywhere close to knowing how we feel about illegal immigration.
He needs to sit down with some common folks from Cochise County, Arizona to discuss what's happening in their communities. Then talk with the Border Patrol Agents MINUS all supervisors who do not drive a 4X4 every day in the dirt arresting the illegals and explain to them why he won't promote enforcement of our immigration laws by ALL LEO's. Local backup of the BP is necessary to catch these crimnals.
"According to a RoperASW poll from last year, 83 percent of Americans support mandatory detention and forfeiture of property for illegal immigrants, followed by deportation."
I'm one of the 83%.
If the President Bush or Tom Ridge would announce that in six months they will be paying a $50 per head bounty for each illegal alien on American soil there would be a mad rush for the borders.
A policeman in a car costs the average city about $200 an hour. Helicopters cost at least $2000 an hour with the ground crews. What is the full cost of a teacher per hour? $140.00 or there about.
If we could get illegal aliens to turn each other in, just the ones trying to slip through the net, (I know thousands would attempt it) we would save billions in law enforcement, welfare programs, unemployment, medical care, job training and schools the first year.
Do all this under Executive Order and tell the Courts to back off. This is national security!
Just announce that we will be dividing the country up into various sized quadrants depending on population per square mile.
Any employer who has employed an illegal alien five months from the announcement date will be fined $5000 per employee. One month later enforcement begins. This will give employers 5 months to shed the illegals and hire legally papered actual American citizens.
Then on the announced date, start in a state such as Oklahoma. Well centered, not overly populated and clean the state out. This would give Homeland, INS and Border Patrol time to install their co-agents in various court houses around the country to verify a persons paperwork, i.e.. birth certificates, hospital records, etc.
Get caught and the result would be every foreign national who is not in America legally would forfeit their belongings and be shipped out within 24 hours. These forfeited belongings would then be given to local churches for distribution to the needy. Another cost saver!
Go state to state from the epicenter sweeping out the criminals who have successfully avoided suspicion. They already had 5 months to get out, hanging around to test the system carries a SEVERE penalty. They won't be able to say they weren't warned.
This enforcement would apply to illegals from every country in the world, not just Mexico.
Imagine the number of Chinese who would be taking the ship home with everything in the house, new cars, you name it would be on those ships. The thousands of Canadians who decided the USA was better than Canada would be headed North.
How many schools could be closed? How many hospitals and state paid housing tracts? How many welfare offices?
How many state and federal employees would find out that they have the time to actually give good service to their American customers?
Oh yes, it would be an economic shocker in the amount of taxes that could be reduced or used to actually improve something needed for American citizens, instead of illegal foreigners.
Want an approximate number of the population drop? Try 50 million+ with the majority over 30 years of age, having been illegal residents of America for over ten years.
Just imagine the frantic squealing from our politicians thinking of the lost votes and contributions. That would be a sideshow worth watching!
Scan the whole page for good reading!
Conservative Debate Handbook
Two flaws in that argument:
The measure of good legislation is not taken by comparison to bad legislation. Blatant "blanket amnesty" doesn't have a prayer in hades of passing, given public opposition to illegal immigration, whereas an amnesty by another name has a chance, as long as it can be sold under the cover of "compassion" to the vast majority of uninformed voters.
Congress, and the White House, is currently controlled by Republicans. It therefore takes a majority of the Republican vote to pass legislation.
Would you accept a large tax cut to endure this for two years?
Please read #14
Does your answer mean that Bush's plan outlines this somewhere and you won't point to it or that you don't know where this claim is coming from?
I never said there was a Social Security "Fund". I still think we should allow legal guest workers to withdraw the money that they "contributed" to our Social Security when they leave our country and don't take part in the program. It's incentive for them to LEAVE when their legal status expires... I thought that was what we conservatives wanted after all? :-)
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