Posted on 01/14/2005 6:32:48 AM PST by shortstop
Dear Congressman,
This column was sent to you by a constituent who voted for President Bush, but who thinks he’s wrong about illegal immigrants. The person who sent you this hopes you’ll stop his amnesty plan.
He’s not calling it that, but that’s what it is.
And there’s no way that an amnesty for illegal aliens is good for America.
For too long, protecting America’s borders has gotten nothing but lip service. We’ve gone through the motions, but not solved the problem. While the politicians have pranced and posed, thousands and millions of illegals have streamed into our country.
And the impact has been ruinous.
The burden on government services has been suffocating and the cultural dissolution has dangerous ramifications.
Something needs to be done, but this isn’t it.
And you need to stop the president.
Let him spend his political capital on the war and Social Security—where he’s right – but not on illegal immigration – where he’s wrong.
The problem with the president’s “guest worker” program is that it rewards lawbreaking. It says to some 10 million people whose first act on American soil was a felony crime that they did the right thing.
It shows our nation and its commitment to our laws to be weak. It gives the direction of our national security and immigration policy to anybody willing to walk across the Arizona desert.
And that’s no good.
Those who have broken our laws should be punished, not rewarded. And if we are to give them a chance to do things right, they should have to go back to their home country to start the process. Legal residence in this country comes at a price that begins with compliance with our laws.
Granted, the problem is largely of our own creation. Aliens – mostly from Mexico – have streamed across our borders in response to our dumb laws and unwillingness to defend ourselves. We have sent incredibly mixed messages, calling these people illegals but treating them like honored guests.
What we need to do is pass good laws and enforce them. We need to determine, in our Congress, how many people from which nations we are going to accept under what circumstances. And we need to establish a realistic system that lets those people come here.
The way things are now, we force people to sneak in the back door, dishonorably. We need a law that allows them to walk in the front door, honorably.
And if anybody tries to skirt that law we need to come down on them like a ton of bricks. We need to secure the border, at any cost, and aggressively find and deport those who are here illegally.
And we need to truly punish those who employ illegal aliens. They need to face the prospect of bankrupting fines and imprisonment. The law must be taken seriously by everyone – the government, the employers, the immigrants.
Yes, we need immigration reform.
But it must not include the easy amnesty the president is suggesting. To merely hand out renewable permits, with an eventual trail to citizenship, to some 10 million invaders is foolish at best and suicidal at worst. It serves the interests of Mexico, but it devastates the interests of America.
Our laws must protect our country, society and culture. They must not be bastardized to appease another country or to provide cheap labor for companies who won’t pay wages that attract Americans or legal migrants. We must pass an immigration package that puts America first, and which brings useful and law-abiding new Americans to our country in an orderly and enforced fashion.
So don’t do it the president’s way.
Create a guest-worker program with an optional path to citizenship. Put a cap – set by Congress – on the annual number and country of origin of immigrants. Create high standards for continued residence in the United States – no arrests and no public assistance – and insist that Mexico and other nations build their economies and societies in order to provide prosperity for their citizens in their own countries.
Immigration – done right – is a continuing strength for our country. But immigration done wrong – as it has been for the last many years – dangerously weakens our country.
The president is a good man, and the person who sent you this column supports him.
But not on this issue. On immigration, the president is wrong. No amnesty for illegals – not now and not ever.
Kindly,
A Constituent
Sent to Boxer & Feinstein.
Read later.
Interesting comments from Lonsberry's readers: http://www.boblonsberry.com/readcomments.cfm?story=1570
The problem with the author's premise is that President Bush's plan was already DOA and that the author has apparently forgotten a basic fact I learned in elementary school...the President proposes, Congress disposes. Secondly, Bush made it clear that Congress was to hammer out the details. There are several bills in the Congress, one of which is Tom Tancredo's. If these people spent even half as much time supporting Tancredo's bill as they do bashing Bush, we'd all be better off.
Sources:
Mar 2004 - LOS ANGELES -- President George W. Bush's plan to ease immigration laws is dead on arrival in Congress, doomed by opposition from Republicans who say it goes too far and Democrats who say it doesn't go far enough.
Nov 2004 - The leader in Congress on this issue is Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who characterized Bush's plan for what it is:
An amnesty by any other name is still an amnesty, regardless of what the White House wants to call it. Their amnesty plan was dead on arrival when they sent it to the Congress in January, and if they send the same pig with lipstick back to Congress next January, it will suffer the same fate.
H.R. 3534 (introduced by Rep. Tom Tancredo)
As a final note, I do commend President Bush for at least putting the issue on the table as a priority.
Cut and paste-google congress- enter zip code- paste message into e-mail to your elected officials. Easy.
Please Just Do It!!! Your opinion does matter. Encourage relatives and friends to do the same.
Yup...they brought up a very important point...
The second thing we need to do is jail all local public officials who have defied the Federal Immigration Statutes by declaring their cities and towns to be havens for this illegal activity.
I don't know about jailing them, but something needs to be done with these stonewallers. In his defense, Ashcroft adopted a new policy that allowed state and local police to arrest and detain immigrants who are believed to be in violation of non-criminal provisions of the federal immigration laws. Of course the ACLU, immigration groups and police associations balked and have refused to follow Ashcroft's policy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.