Posted on 01/17/2004 6:54:51 PM PST by Reaganwuzthebest
President Bush's immigration initiative has sparked a great deal of discussion across the country. Perhaps the most interesting debate centers on whether the president, in announcing the initiative, has embraced conservative principles or abandoned them. I believe a temporary worker program is consistent with conservative principles, and here's why.
First, conservatives value national security, and the status quo encourages anything but national security. The presence of 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens within the confines of our borders should prompt the type of reform the president has suggested.
President Bush's proposal will ensure smarter border enforcement by redirecting resources for border security and the war on terrorism away from the dishwashers and landscapers who are trying to cross the border illegally and toward the smugglers and terrorists who are attempting to cross the border for purposes far more nefarious than filling jobs that American workers are not taking.
We can try to tighten up border enforcement even more than we already have (we've already increased spending on border enforcement six-fold over the past 20 years), but as long as the United States offers foreign workers more opportunity for work than their home countries do, people will risk their lives to cross the border.
According to Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, "A real effort to control the border with Mexico would require perhaps 20,000 agents and the development of a system of formidable fences and other barriers along those parts of the border used for illegal crossings."
It should also be noted that some 40 percent of those illegally in the United States first entered the country legally and then overstayed their visas. Even if we did manage to seal the border from illegal crossings, the problem would still be with us. Clearly, we can't solve this problem through border enforcement alone.
A temporary worker program, coupled with serious workplace enforcement, would bring those who are in the shadows out into the open. Temporary workers would be registered. We would finally know who they are, how long they've been here, and when they must return to their home country or change their status.
Again, the "carrot" of a temporary worker program must be coupled with the "stick" of workplace enforcement. With a reasonable legal avenue available, workers should have no excuse for not utilizing it and employers should have no excuse for hiring those who do not.
The latter point is important. Conservatives respect the law. Our current immigration laws, everyone will agree, are so convoluted and out of touch with how people actually organize their lives that it does not foster respect for the law. If we want the law to be enforced, we need to have a law that can realistically be enforced given our labor needs. Which brings me to another point.
Conservatives recognize that America has a need for labor that Americans are unable or unwilling to fill. This is the case today, and will increasingly be the case in years to come as our workforce becomes older and better educated. Now, some will dispute this, noting that "there are some 10 million unemployed in this country, and some 10 million illegal aliens - do the math!"
This math adds up only if you accept that it is the federal government's role, for example, to persuade an unemployed fisherman in Maine to take a job as a landscaper in Phoenix. Or to move an unemployed schoolteacher in Indiana to the lettuce fields in Yuma. The former Soviet Union tried and failed with this type of economic planning for decades. Cuba is still trying. Neither are examples that conservatives should seek to emulate.
Third, conservatives are compassionate, despite what liberals will tell you. The fact that hundreds of illegal aliens, many of whom are women and children, die in the desert each year should compel us to action. Because a temporary worker program would allow workers to enter and exit the country through border checkpoints, the incentive to risk one's life in the desert would be diminished considerably. Under the current situation, those illegally crossing the border in search of work must make the calculation of whether to endure long periods, even years, without seeing their families, or to attempt to bring their families with them. The latter choice often leads to deadly consequences.
Finally, we conservatives are called conservatives because we want to "conserve" practices and principles that have withstood the test of time. There is little about the status quo in immigration policy that is worth conserving. Bush recognizes this. We conservatives, whether we agree with every detail of his plan or not, should applaud him for it.
One that thus far has never materialized, so I'll take the opportunity that this President has put on the table, and start addressing the issue, while you wait to see whether Jesus or your ideal president shows up first.
"in the meantime, I think the House Conservatives can keep Rove from making the situation any worse than it already is."
You wait on a President that's never materialized, and can't seem to get the current president's name straight...the primary reason why people like yourself never get anything done is because you can't accept reality.
Tantrum Tom's best showing thus far, is a bill with 9 co-sponsors that died a slow death and never made it to the floor, yet you think that he'll stop an incumbent President leading his Party.
You can throw your little "Rove is really running things" tantrum all you want, it only makes you look foolishly naive.
C ya!
No, actually, YOU don't get it.
Instead of voting against this "plan", these people should be seizing the opportunity, and crafting a viable plan.
You, like them, are too shallow to actually see the opportunity that's been laid out for those courageous enough to take action. There was no need for Bush to put this issue on the table, it's a non-starter, but he did anyway, and the idiots that fail to jump on the chance to make some headway, and instead make the choice of voting in favor of a status quo that sees this problem growing more and more out of control each day are, well, they are idiots who lack sight, and leadership qualities.
The Bush proposal was real simple, it's an order for Congress to act, your idea of acting is voting to take NO action.
Brilliant.
Yes and a congressman at that. Looks like he forgot who his constituents are.
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