Posted on 05/05/2004 8:36:50 PM PDT by NewRomeTacitus
Democrats Tuesday unveiled an immigration reform bill that would give illegal entrants working in the United States a chance for legal residency, establishing the parameters for a national debate on the issue.
Tuesday's legislation, supported by Rep. Raúl Grijalva, differs significantly from what some Republicans, including President Bush, would like to see: immigrants working in the United States for a specific period, then returning home.
Experts say Tuesday's plan is a thinly veiled amnesty program meant to get around a national sense that it's wrong for the government to grant sweeping citizenship offers to people who broke the law to get into the United States.
"It's an amazing American thing not to call a spade a spade because the word amnesty is dirty," said Demetrios Papademetriou, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think-tank.
"They've just rung now the beginning of a 15-round fight between Republican ideas and Democrat ideas," he said.
A compromise will likely be reached as both parties try to get a working proposal accepted, he said.
"And meantime, people will continue to die down in Arizona," Papademetriou said.
So far this fiscal year, 61 people are known to have died in the deserts around Tucson, significantly more than the 21 known dead at the same time last year.
A group that included labor leaders and human rights activities gathered in Tucson to show their support for the new bill.
"Some legislation is going to have to pass soon," said the Rev. John Fife, who was among those gathered locally. "Before November, there's probably not going to be any meaningful legislation passed."
The Democrats' proposal, introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Reps. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill, was also co-sponsored by Grijalva. "It's not amnesty, but it questions the immigration policy that we have in place now," Grijalva said. "The SOLVE Act interjects a huge dose of realism into the immigration debate."
The bill, the SOLVE (Safe, Orderly Legal Visas and Enforcement) Act of 2004, would:
° Give illegal entrants who can prove they've been here five years with two years of steady work, demonstrated a willingness to enter American society, and passed a criminal and medical background check the opportunity to apply for legal permanent status.
° Support legislation giving states the right to decide who can apply for higher education benefits and give immigrant students lawful permanent resident status, as well as access to federal financial aid.
° Give temporary status to workers here less than five years.
° Reduce the waiting time for workers to bring their families to live in the United States.
The bill conflicts with the guest worker legislation Sen. John McCain and Reps. Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe proposed last summer. The three Republicans' proposal would provide a legal framework for workers to come to the United States and then return home after a certain time period.
Kolbe disagrees with the proposed legislation, "but looks forward to holding hearings and debating this issue further and hopes that the proper policy will prevail," said Davey Kong, his spokeswoman.
"I just don't think it's workable politically, and it's quite unfair as well. It's a shortcut to a green card" for those who entered the country illegally, Flake said.
An amnesty proposal for ILLEGAL ALIENS is a slap in the face to the US Border Patrol regardless whether it's proposed by the Democrats or a Republican president.
Of course this legislation is supported by Rep. Raúl Grijalva, because he's always looking for ways to help his fellow Latinos.
The state government of New Mexico has been taken over by nominally Democrat Party Hispanic radicals of the MeCha and La Raza variety, in wildly rigged “touch screen” elections. Needless to say, anybody (living dead or an invention) is qualified to vote. There is no distinction between legal and illegal voters, the franchise is given to virtually all comers. The NM electoral vote helps to put the ‘rat President over the top, so as you can imagine, no election fraud investigation is forthcoming.
One of the new radical state government’s top agenda items is “land reform.” Large mainly Anglo-owned properties will be confiscated on the pretext that their original deeds and titles are invalid, under the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo, dating from the 1840s. In order to enforce this “land reform” the governor creates a new force, the “Milicia de Nuevo Mexico,” and arms them with surplus M-16A1 rifles from the state guard armories. (The actual NM National Guard is all deployed to the war in East Slambamistan.) The stage is set for a bloody showdown between mainly Anglo ranchers who refuse to leave their ancestral lands, and the Milicia de Nuevo Mexico.
The state government passes “Solo Espanol” laws, in reaction after some other US states pass English-only laws. Police and other government employees who cannot pass difficult oral and written Spanish proficiency tests are fired. Milicia-manned checkpoints are pervasive, searching the cars of Anglos for illegal firearms. The checkpoints are a form of ethnic harassment, part of the new government’s unspoken plan for the ethnic cleansing of “Nuevo Mexico.” (The Indian tribes were bought off as part of the rigged state elections.)
"Voluntarios" from Mexico and Central and South America (as well as left-wing radical gringos of the DU type) are streaming into NM for the promise of free land and a chance to poke a sharp stick in Uncle Sam’s eye.
Armed volunteers of the Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett stripe are also heading to Nuevo Mexico to support the threatened ranchers; some of these "right wing militia" patriot types will be incorporated into the plot. But I'm not going to make it totally black and white, i.e., "Anglos good, Hispanics bad." I'm going to strive to include many of motives, pure and base, on both sides.
One major character will be a demoralized and disgusted FBI agent in Albuquerque. He's getting all of this incredible information on Chinese subversion ops money and communist infiltrators from Peru to Cuba, but Washington FBI HQ does NOT want to hear about it. DC is in full PC reality denial mode. As long as the govt of NM mouths the right USA words, DC will ignore the revolution going on in NM at the street and ranch level. The fedgov is too busy trying to keep the major US cities from exploding in riots and urban warfare to pay any attention to the backwater state Nuevo Mexico.
Plus, to make it worse, HQ keeps sending nonsensical orders for the FBI agents in Albuquerque to investigate who else but....the armed right wing ranchers and others, who are resisting the NM govt’s "land reform" (confiscation) efforts! Don't mind the Chinese and other communist agents; go after the right wing "domestic terrorists" who are violating the strict federal gun prohibition laws and other new federal laws! The frustrated FBI agent lives in this insane PC world, where his DC masters are totally out of touch with reality. (Sort of like today.)
And for the billions of dollars that Americans are forced to pay in order to support the bloodsuckers.
Where do we begin? Those crooks have wrapped themselves in "immunity" - I'd love nothing more than to help rise against them...
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