Posted on 01/14/2004 5:51:45 AM PST by Theodore R.
President's Immigration Plan Unworkable Edward I. Koch Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2004
President Bush is proposing legislation to legalize the status of an estimated 8 to 11 million foreigners who now live and work illegally in the United States. The president’s idea is to turn these undocumented aliens into legal, tax-paying guest workers, with a right to participate in the Social Security system and to travel to their home countries on temporary visits. At the end of three years and a possible three-year extension, these guest workers would be required to return to their countries of origin and would be barred from admittance to the U.S. as permanent residents unless they met the strict standards of the laws.
In my view, the president’s proposal is deficient in several respects. First, it unrealistically assumes that the aliens covered by the program will depart voluntarily when their guest worker period ends.
The aliens who now live illegally in the U.S. either sneaked into the country or entered legally and overstayed their visas. They have successfully avoided arrest to date. Based on their prior successful evasion of the immigration authorities, it is virtually certain that they will continue to remain in the U.S. in violation of our immigration laws.
Second, I believe the president's plan, if implemented, would increase the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. over the long term. To the extent it rewards illegal aliens for violating our laws, it sends the wrong message to others that violating our immigration laws might pay off in the end.
The resulting surge in illegal immigration will undermine American workers, who will face increased competition from guest workers willing to accept minimum wages. Employers will love the fact that they can hire cheap labor that will never strike or demand higher wages for fear of losing the jobs that allow them to stay in the U.S.
The president and his aides refuse to concede the obvious – that the Bush proposal is nothing more than a form of amnesty. The last amnesty program in the U.S. was implemented in 1986 under President Ronald Reagan.
The beneficiaries of the current amnesty proposal would be unskilled workers willing to take jobs that most Americans won't – jobs that pay minimum wages. The administration acknowledges that it expects the beneficiaries to overwhelmingly be Latinos, the largest number coming from Mexico.
Why is President Bush advocating this ridiculous and totally unworkable program? Plain and simple, it is a political effort to increase his support in the Hispanic sector of the electorate during this election year.
Some may ask how I can oppose the president’s amnesty proposal when I, as mayor of New York City, put into effect three controversial provisions protecting illegal aliens.
The first provision barred the arrest of any undocumented alien who reported being a victim of a crime, unless he or she had committed a crime other than being an undocumented alien. The second provision permitted the treatment of poor undocumented aliens at city-operated hospitals without fear of being reported to the INS. My third directive allowed undocumented aliens to place their children in the city’s public schools without fear of being reported to the immigration authorities.
The reasons for my actions and their being continued by my successors, David Dinkins, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, were totally humanitarian and in the joint interest of the individual alien and all other New Yorkers.
In the first situation, I wanted to encourage illegal aliens to report crimes committed against them, which would deter crimes against others. In the second, I wished to prevent the spread of infection. And in the third, I sought to protect children from predators and keep them off the streets and possibly becoming involved in crime themselves.
What would I suggest in place of the president’s proposal?
First, we need to expand compassionate responses to categories of illegal aliens. For example, if an illegal alien marries a lawful U.S. resident or citizen, we should legalize his or her status more expeditiously. If the children of illegals are born in this country, the parents’ status should be legalized. If illegals enlist in the U.S. armed forces – and they should not be barred from doing so – their status should be legalized. We should entertain other compassionate responses, as well.
Second, we should make a real effort to locate and deport illegal aliens. We should impose much severer penalties on employers who hire them. Current penalties are ridiculously light, and enforcement is sporadic. The effect is that employers do not fear sanctions. In addition, we should erect border fences and increase patrols that protect U.S. borders from being illegally crossed.
We have a generous immigration policy that currently allows 750,000 legal, permanent immigrants annually and 250,000 refugees to enter the U.S. However, it is not compassionate or intelligent to take the position that our borders should be open to all. No country has such a policy.
To take such a position makes us not more humane, but simply uncaring with respect to the current population, which is suffering from an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent, a figure that does not include many Americans who have simply given up looking for work.
Edward I. Koch is the former mayor of New York City. His commentary for Bloomberg radio is republished here. You can hear his weekly radio show by clicking here.
Please answer my question. American men are some of the largest contributors to illegal international sex trade of minors. Does that make us all pedophiles? Every immigrant I know is happens to family loving and Good fearing conservatives. Your post is insulting.
oops.
Twenty years ago a high school drop out could get a job in construction, trucking, or manufacturing, and still do pretty well for himself. Well enough to own a car and afford some type of housing, by the age of twenty.
One by one these jobs have been outsourced, or filled by a wage suppressing immigrant, lowering the expectation and living standard of many Americans. Such is not suppose to be the case. In raising the boat of third world nations we have sunk the boats of many average Americans. Meanwhile those that stick it out through college are finding their jobs outsourced and their options limited.
You are merely parroting the propaganda of the enemy like a good little public school student. There are not that many white collar jobs and in fact all jobs have been artificially manipulated out of the country, or by immigrants in country all due to deadly socialist government policies and freedom robbing Free Trade.
52 posted on 01/14/2004 5:15:38 AM PST by MissAmericanPie
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Conservative Debate Handbook
"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!
Any employer who has employed an illegal alien more than 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.
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.
Divide a state into quadrants depending on population per square mile., First arrest those whose names were turn in for the bounty. Then others suspected by local law agencies. When arrests slow down, open an adjoining quadrant.
Get caught after the selected dated and the result would be every foreign national who is not in America legally would forfeit all their belongings (houses, cars, bank accounts, etc.) and be deported within 24 hours. These forfeited belongings would then be given to local churches for distribution to the needy in that community. Another cost saver!
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 again headed North.
How many schools could be closed? How many hospitals and state paid housing tracts? How many welfare offices? How many planned jail enlargements could be stopped for lack of need?
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.
I've always wondered how many folks are on Medicare that don't deserve it. I'll bet that would save a big chuink of money that could be used for American war veterans and citizens health problems.
Just imagine the frantic squealing from our politicians thinking of the lost votes and contributions. That would be a sideshow worth watching!
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Conservative Debate Handbook
The first step is to identify those illegal immigrants who just want to make some money and go back home. Identify them and offer some monetary incentive for them to return to their country of origin at the end of some period, say three years. In addition, insure that they are paid minimum wages and receive benefits equal to the benefits received by American workers. What this would do is reduce the difference in cost between illegal and American workers and therefore reduce the incentive for business to hire illegal workers. Sounds like Bush’s plan to me. However, this is only the first step.
The second step is targeting those illegal immigrants who are criminals. The deportation process must be streamlined with more judges, lawyers, holding cells, and INS workers. Instead of taking ten years to deport a criminal, it should take only a few months. Lock them up until the deportation process is complete, then put them on an airplane back to their country of origin. We haven’t been able to do this yet because of the pressure from businesses that need cheap labor and the social activities who think all immigrants will be targeted. Most of that pressure will have been eliminated by step one.
Step three is to eliminate welfare benefits for illegal immigrants. We haven’t been able to do this yet because of all the pressure from social activists who think that all immigrants will be targeted. These social activists are usually folks that are employing an illegal immigrant as a domestic servant and since step one makes that servant “legal” much of this pressure will be eliminated.
The first three steps would eliminate the majority of our illegal immigration problem. Those folks who want to stay here permanently might be induced into the temporary worker status if there was a mechanism to eventually obtain citizenship. I am not opposed to eventual citizenship for temporary workers provided that the requirements for citizenship are strengthened, including an English language requirement.
Step four involves the sensitive question of “anchor babies.” If a person is born in the U.S., they are an American citizen regardless of whom or what their parents are. Although I don’t think we can or should change the constitution on this issue, how much of an “anchor” the baby is can be changed by immigration policy.
Far from offering amnesty to illegal immigrants, I think Bush’s plan would be a good first step in solving our very real illegal immigration problem.
You want to identify the illegal aliens who are already here. The ones who ignored our immigration laws.
Okay, what about the people who have remained in their own country and are attempting to follow our laws for legal entry. Should these people be pushed aside in favor of the criminals? That is what the Presidents plan does!
We have illegals already working here. These criminals have taken the position away from the ones who wish to immigrate to America legally. Why do you want to reward them?
Identify them and offer some monetary incentive for them to return to their country of origin at the end of some period, say three years.
How long do you think it is going to take before someone in Washington understands that "I " have been working in America for three years. I have a much nicer apartment than "I" would ever get in my home country. "I" want to bring my family to America because of the medical care, the schooling, the individual safety here, the food and water quality, the availability of just about anything I want to buy, etc., etc. Oh, yes, originally "I" was wanting to make some cash and go home but I have realized that America iss the better place to raise a family. Now "I" have decided "I" to stay here.
Instead of taking ten years to deport a criminal, it should take only a few months.
Try something like 72 hours MAXIMUM!
QUIT BEING SO DAMNED COMPASSIONATE TO THESE CRIMINALS.
Step three is to eliminate welfare benefits for illegal immigrants.
All it would take is to declare it to be a national security issue by Tom Ridge or the President and bang, it's done!
Step four involves the sensitive question of “anchor babies.” If a person is born in the U.S., they are an American citizen regardless of whom or what their parents are. Although I don’t think we can or should change the constitution on this issue, how much of an “anchor” the baby is can be changed by immigration policy.
Do you have any idea what the term "anchor baby" implies? I was born here, now I want my brothers and sister with my parents to be with me IN AMERICA!
"anchor baby" is something that needs to be abolished immediately.
Mexican women in Brownsville, Texas come by ambulance to have their babies delivered in the US on the word of a Mexican doctor who says the delivery is "life threatening". Every birth can be life threatening".
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Conservative Debate Handbook
Yes, all illegal immigrants are criminals who are breaking the law. There would also be a lot less vioent crime and terrorism if there weren't any illegal immigrants.
Sorry if you're "insulted".
You're "compassionate conservative" according to your profile, which means that you're an easily insulted liberal who believes that because you're a liberal on certain issue you're somehow better than the rest of us non-compassionate types.
You insult yourself with your inability to think critically.
Meet a couple who are NOT "family loving and Good fearing conservatives". Is killing a step-son "family loving and Good fearing" indicators to you?
In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens."
And Bush wants to give these criminals visa's!!!
This should be read out loud with a prominent Mexican accent spoken.
Mucho gracias El Presidente Bush.
I really like your new plan.
Senor, I have SEVEN different Mexican matricular card identifications that you guys know about. I won't tell you how many more I have. That's my secret, ssh!
Mucho gracias El Presidente Bush.
I ain't never leaving the US of A. on my temporary work visas,
Mucho gracias El Presidente Bush
nor will my live-in girlfriend, because she has three different Mexican matricular card ID's.
Mucho gracias El Presidente Bush.
Edgar Espinosa-Dorentes, Mucho gracias El Presidente Bush
Edgar Espinoza-Dorantes, Mucho gracias El Presidente Bush
Edgar Espinosa Dorantes, Mucho gracias El Presidente Bush
Edgar Durantes Espinoza, Mucho gracias El Presidente Bush
Edgar Dorantes, Mucho gracias El Presidente Bush
Javier Edgardo Espinosa, Mucho gracias El Presidente Bush
Genaro Espinoza Dorantes, Mucho gracias El Presidente Bush
Genaro Espinosa Dorantes, Mucho gracias El Presidente Bush
Si, I answer to all of these names, Amigo El Presidente.
I REALLY DO LIKE YOU FOR NOT ENFORCING THEM IMMIGRATION BORDER LAWS. Again, Mucho gracias El Presidente Bush
My real name is GENERO ESPINOSA DORANTES. I'm wanted by your FBI for allegedly burning and beating and torturing and then killing my 4 year old step-son in Nashville. Tenn in February 22, 2003
My live-in girlfriend, is lazy. She only has three other matricular card identifications,
Martha Leticia Cano Patlan,
Martha Leticia Patlan,
Martha L. Patlan-Cano
Si, it was her boy who was found dead in the public park in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 22, 2003. The local arrest warrants were issued for both of us charging us with criminal homicide.
More Federal arrest warrants were issued for us on February 25, 2003, in the United States District Court, Nashville, Tennessee, charging us with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution!
Patlan and Dorantes are believed to be traveling with her eight-year-old daughter, Mariana Cisneros, and a 15-month-old boy. Both of these children are thought to be in danger of serious bodily injury or death. They may be traveling in a white, 1995 Chevrolet AstroVan with tinted windows.
The FBI is offering rewards for information leading to the apprehension of Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Check each fugitive page for the specific amount.
Notice: The official FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list is maintained on the FBI World Wide Web Site. This information may be copied and distributed, however, any unauthorized alteration of any portion of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives posters is a violation of federal law (18 U.S.C., Section 709). Persons who make or reproduce these alterations are subject to prosecution and, if convicted, shall be fined or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.<
Oh, you're insulted are you? Here's some more insulted people:
Every immigrant I know, and I know many, who are green carded professionals at a teaching medical university. I’m talking physicians of every level from faculty to intern, from every corner of the world; South America, Indian Sub-Continent, Asians, Middle Easterners. The majority who are political lean to the Left.
Being legal, and easily locatable, every one of them is constantly occupied with INS red tape and other miscellaneous Federal harassment.
These people are uniformly incensed that Bush is granting Amnesty to all these illlegals when they have to put all the BS that they do.
Again, some I’m speaking of are medical university professors who have been in the U.S. for years saving lives.
So the ILLEGAL ALIENS WHO HAVE VIOLATED AT LEAST FOUR LAWS TO EVEN BE HERE are offended, are they?
Well so are the LEGAL ones.
I am unable to speak for victims on the lists I provided the links to, but I would assume that the surviving ones are offended that their government knowingly left laws unenforced which would have protected them.
Ain’t that wonderful? At least everyone can agree on one thing, we are all offended and/or insulted.
Wrong...
President Bush does not support amnesty because individuals who violate America's laws should not be rewarded for illegal behavior and because amnesty perpetuates illegal immigration. Fair and Meaningful Citizenship Process: Some temporary workers will want to remain in America and pursue citizenship. They should not receive an unfair advantage over those who have followed the law, and will need to be placed in line for citizenship behind those who are already in line. Those who choose the path of citizenship will have an obligation to learn the facts and ideals that have shaped America's history.I think you need to read the Fact Sheet. More:
Border Patrol has increased from a strength of 9,788 on September 11, 2001 to 10,835 on December 1, 2003. Between ports of entry on the northern border, the size of the Border Patrol has tripled to more than 1,000 agents. In addition, the Border Patrol is continuing installation of monitoring devices along the borders to detect illegal activity.
The Bush Administration's Operation Tarmac was launched to investigate businesses and workers in the secure areas of domestic airports and ensure immigration law compliance. Since 9/11, DHS has audited 3,640 businesses, examined 259,037 employee records, arrested 1,030 unauthorized workers, and participated in the criminal indictment of 774 individuals.
President Bush announced the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), an internet-based system that is improving America's ability to track and monitor foreign students and exchange visitors. Over 870,000 students are registered in SEVIS. Of 285 completed field investigations, 71 aliens were arrested.
This week, the US-VISIT program began to digitally collect biometric identifiers to record the entry and exit of aliens who travel into the U.S on a visa. Together with the standard information, this new program will confirm compliance with visa and immigration policies.
President Bush does not support fining employers of illegal aliens, nor will he support local law enfrocement rounding up illegals in their community. The Border Patrol isn't staffed to transport or detain illegal aliens outside of a couple of border stations.
I am not impressed that the Border Patrol is still short about 5000 personel. Nor am I impressed that overtime is forbidden. On and on and on.
If the President wants to impress me all he has to do is budget for and demand full enforcement of the immigration laws, which would include removing the existing ones from our soil to allow properly papered ones to enter our country.
These are the people I will welcome as neighbors and friends. These are the people who are joining our military services in defense of America. Temporary workers don't give a damn about America and I don't want anyone here who has that sorry assed attitude.
Rememember the words "border sovernignty". They mean that a country has control over and of their borders. The numbers of illegals that the Border Patrol are capturing every night are impressive.
However, by their own admission, they can only capture and process 20% of the illegal aliens who cross our borders every night. Capture and process 100 means 400 escaped detection and or detention.
Those are the people moving into our communities. Most "Hit and Runs" are committed by illegals. They are filling 36% of our jails. On and on and on.
I'm sorry but this is one issue where our President has failed miserably!
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