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Whether called amnesty or guest worker, it is still immoral
TownHall ^ | 12/12/05 | Phyllis Schlafly

Posted on 12/12/2005 10:14:29 PM PST by AZ_Cowboy

President George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and several others are promoting new laws that would grant amnesty or guest-worker status to millions of illegal immigrants living in the United States and to an indefinite number of foreign workers. All these bills should be rejected on moral grounds.

Inviting foreigners to come to America as guest workers is like saying: You people are only fit to work the menial jobs that Americans think they are too good to work. We will let you come into the United States for a few years to work low-paid jobs, but you have no hope of rising up the economic and social ladder.

The various bills differ in whether or when the guest workers will be expelled back to the poverty they came from, but the bottom line is to create a subordinate underclass of unassimilated foreign workers, like serfs or peasants in corrupt countries. That's not the kind of economy that made America great.

America welcomes immigrants who want to be American, who come to the United States legally, obey the laws and the Constitution, and learn to speak English. Most start with entry-level jobs, but they get the opportunity to rise up and realize the American dream.

France and Germany have demonstrated the folly of guest-worker economies. In France and Germany, foreigners were admitted to toil at low-wage jobs. Now, both countries host thousands of foreign residents who fail to assimilate, burden the social welfare system, and become more disgruntled and dangerous every year.

Amnesty or guest-worker programs in the United States would help to perpetuate Mexico's corrupt economic system, a system which makes a few people very rich, but a system that traps most Mexicans in abject poverty. Mexico's enormous oil reserves are state-owned, yet proceeds from their sale don't benefit the general population. And some wealthy Mexicans are glad when their unemployed countrymen can find work elsewhere.

An amnesty or guest-worker plan would reward lawbreakers. The guest workers would be exempted from punishment for breaking U.S. immigration laws by entering our country illegally, or by using fraudulent documents. And employers would be exempted from punishment for hiring them.

Some U.S. employers commit a double offense when they choose to pay illegal workers in cash to evade payroll taxes yet provide benefits to those same illegal workers. Government tolerance of this vast underground economy is unjust to honest businessmen and law-abiding taxpayers.

An amnesty or guest-worker program is unjust to the millions of people who complied with U.S. immigration laws, stood in line, and patiently waited their turn to win legal residence in the United States.

Some people argue that it is compassionate and Christian to welcome the immigrants who illegally cross into the United States. On the contrary, it is uncaring and immoral to close our eyes to the crime on our southern border.

Failing to close our border to illegal immigration also means giving up the war on drugs. It is a fact that most illegal drugs entering the United States are smuggled in along the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican drug cartels are even running illegal marijuana farms inside U.S. national parks, protected by booby traps and machine gun-carrying guards.

Human smuggling across U.S. borders is an organized criminal racket that ought to be stopped. The number of illegal crossings has significantly increased since Bush began talking about his guest-worker plan. That's no surprise; the amnesty granted in 1986 quadrupled the number of illegal immigrants.

Smugglers charge thousands of dollars for the promise to smuggle illegal immigrants across the border, and then often hold them for ransom until additional payments are made. Hundreds of border crossers die from thirst and dehydration when crossing the desert on foot, or in locked trucks without air or water.

How many people must die before the government seizes control of its borders and finally convinces smugglers and their clients that entering the United States illegally is not worth the risk?

Legal immigrants must be healthy to be admitted, but nobody is giving health examinations to the people smuggled across the border. Consequently, illegal immigrants are carrying in diseases that were formerly unknown in the United States. They are also reintroducing diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria and leprosy, that had been eradicated in the United States decades ago.

Failure to control the U.S. border means that Arizonans live in fear of illegal immigrants who cross their land every night, tearing down fences and killing their livestock and pets. Many U.S. citizens believe they cannot go outside their own homes without a gun and a cell phone.

The most moral and humanitarian thing we can do is to erect a fence and double our border agents in order to stop the drugs, the smuggling racket, the diseases, and the crimes.

President Theodore Roosevelt left words that are relevant today about the folly of valuing people only for the low-paid work they do. "Never under any condition should this nation look at an immigrant as primarily a labor unit," he said. "We cannot afford to continue to use hundreds of thousands of immigrants merely as industrial assets while they remain social outcasts and menaces any more than 50 years ago we could afford to keep the black man merely as an industrial asset and not as a human being."


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; US: Arizona; US: California; US: New Mexico; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: aliens; amnesty; border; borders; bush; guestworker; illegalailens; illegalimmigration; immigrantlist; immigration; immigrationplan; presidentbush; schlafly
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I'm surprised this one wasn't posted here yet. There's a lot of interesting information in here. The T.R. quotes bear repeating, too.
1 posted on 12/12/2005 10:14:30 PM PST by AZ_Cowboy
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To: AZ_Cowboy

This is a great article.


2 posted on 12/12/2005 10:30:55 PM PST by Old Seadog (Inside every old person is a young person saying "WTF happened?".)
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To: AZ_Cowboy; HiJinx

Excellent! Thank you for posting!


3 posted on 12/12/2005 10:39:08 PM PST by ShuShu
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To: gubamyster

Ping!


4 posted on 12/12/2005 10:41:41 PM PST by ShuShu
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To: 1_Inch_Group; 2sheep; 2Trievers; 3AngelaD; 4Freedom; 4ourprogeny; 7.62 x 51mm; A CA Guy; ...

ping


5 posted on 12/12/2005 11:13:16 PM PST by gubamyster
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To: AZ_Cowboy

1.5 million guest workers for agriculture and food industries. Otherwise build an Israel style border fence and institute-enforce real employer sanctions. Make it law that all employees must be verified via an SS# database that Visa or MasterCard could set up in two weeks


6 posted on 12/12/2005 11:34:41 PM PST by dennisw (You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you - Bob Dylan)
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To: dennisw

You've got exactly the right idea. If you crack down on the employers they will go home. The Israeli fence is or Texas fence is good. The San Diego fence is just a difficult ladder for them to climb over, but has some effect.

We have to keep the pressure up!


7 posted on 12/12/2005 11:39:29 PM PST by ShuShu
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To: ShuShu
More evidence of Mexico's plot to dump it's masses here. Mexico sure likes the US dollars they send to Mexico. WE NEED A FENCE!

Israel's very effective border fence

Above: Jayyus, Qalqiliya, February 2003
Above: Falamya, Qalqiliya, June 2003

8 posted on 12/12/2005 11:49:57 PM PST by dennisw (You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you - Bob Dylan)
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To: ShuShu
The San Diego fence is just a difficult ladder for them to climb over, but has some effect.

Actuality a strong see through fence is much better. This allows you to see into Mexico for approaching invaders. This fence will have patrol roads for fast response, motion sensors, high mounted surveillance cameras and plenty of barbed wire
9 posted on 12/12/2005 11:53:16 PM PST by dennisw (You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you - Bob Dylan)
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To: AZ_Cowboy
Now, both countries host thousands of foreign residents who fail to assimilate, burden the social welfare system, and become more disgruntled and dangerous every year.

​We are now one of the largest Spanish-speaking nations in the world. We're a major source of Latin music, journalism and culture.

Just go to Miami, or San Antonio, Los Angeles, Chicago or West New York, New Jersey ... and close your eyes and listen. You could just as easily be in Santo Domingo or Santiago, or San Miguel de Allende.

For years our nation has debated this change -- some have praised it and others have resented it. By nominating me, my party has made a choice to welcome the new America.

George Bush from a campaign speech in Miami, August 2000.

Assimilate? There is no need to assimilate in the "new America". What make anyone think Bush wants them to assimilate?

10 posted on 12/13/2005 4:50:02 AM PST by raybbr
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To: AZ_Cowboy

Interesting article.


11 posted on 12/13/2005 5:13:10 AM PST by Dante3
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To: AZ_Cowboy; A. Pole

Excellent article.


12 posted on 12/13/2005 5:14:48 AM PST by meadsjn
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To: Willie Green; Wolfie; ex-snook; Jhoffa_; FITZ; arete; FreedomPoster; Red Jones; Pyro7480; ...
President Theodore Roosevelt left words that are relevant today about the folly of valuing people only for the low-paid work they do. "Never under any condition should this nation look at an immigrant as primarily a labor unit," he said. "We cannot afford to continue to use hundreds of thousands of immigrants merely as industrial assets while they remain social outcasts and menaces any more than 50 years ago we could afford to keep the black man merely as an industrial asset and not as a human being."

The road to serfdom bump!

13 posted on 12/13/2005 6:00:18 AM PST by A. Pole (" There is no other god but Free Market, and Adam Smith is his prophet ! Bazaar Akbar! ")
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To: dennisw

I would add one more condition: The ONLY offices where applications would be accepted would be located IN Mexico.


14 posted on 12/13/2005 6:05:24 AM PST by Warren_Piece (Three-toed sloth)
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To: AZ_Cowboy

Of course it's immoral, and I'm glad she said it. Big BUMP for a great commentary.


15 posted on 12/13/2005 6:31:13 AM PST by truthkeeper (It's the borders, stupid.)
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To: raybbr

GWB to me has turned into Damien Thorn on this issue.


16 posted on 12/13/2005 6:36:59 AM PST by chris1
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To: dennisw

BTTT!


17 posted on 12/13/2005 7:30:05 AM PST by afnamvet
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To: AZ_Cowboy
the bottom line is to create a subordinate underclass of unassimilated foreign workers, like serfs or peasants in corrupt countries

Eggsactly!

Finally someone gets it. Empires have fallen this way. How long will it be before our "guest workers" begin agitating for full and equal citizenship? About the length of time it took for the World Trade Center to fall.

18 posted on 12/13/2005 8:03:07 AM PST by Dan Evans
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To: AZ_Cowboy; gubamyster; HiJinx


U.S. Constitution Article 4 Section 4:

"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,

and shall protect each of them against Invasion;"


Invasion: \In*va"sion\, n. [L. invasio: cf. F. invasion. See Invade.] [1913 Webster]

1. The act of invading; the act of encroaching upon the rights or possessions of another; encroachment; trespass.


19 posted on 12/13/2005 8:04:19 AM PST by Travis McGee
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To: Dan Evans
"How long will it be before our "guest workers" begin agitating for full and equal citizenship?"

Here is my fictional guess.

Fernando Ortiz was a ‘landscape engineer’ on Long Island who had demanded to be able to vote, on the basis that he had been paying state and federal taxes for ten years. Actually, he had been stopped from casting a ballot by a poll watcher who had suspected his citizenship status, and (illegally, as it turned out) demanded proof of his identity and legal qualification to vote. Ortiz had won a multi-million dollar settlement against the Republican Party of New York in the subsequent “racial profiling and ethnic intimidation” civil suit, but he did not stop there.

Instead, with massive support from the ACLU and various Hispanic “immigrants rights” foundations, he had pressed his demand to be allowed to vote all the way to the Supreme Court…and he won. The Supreme Court, in its famous 5-4 decision, ruled that negligence in securing America’s borders against illegal immigration on the part of the federal government, could not be held against “undocumented workers who played by the rules and paid their taxes,” once they were established in America—legally or not. The federal government had not taken reasonable efforts to secure the border, and had not pursued "undocumented workers" in the USA. Instead, it openly permitted them most of the benefits of citizenship, and it collected their taxes. "No taxation without representation!" was the cry heard all the way to the Supreme Court. The State of New York had then sleep-walked through an aimless and desultory case for denying the vote—and citizenship—to “undocumented workers.”

Following Ortiz v. New York, a stunned America woke up to discover that there were not only an amazing twenty-two million illegal aliens hiding in plain sight across the land, but that eight million of them immediately qualified to vote. In a nation split 50-50 down party and ideological lines, these eight million new voters were recognized to be the certain majority-makers in future elections, and both parties set record lows for cravenness in pandering to their “needs.” Chief among their “needs” were liberal new family reunification laws, and these instant citizens—illegal aliens only a year before—began bringing the remainders of their families to the USA. Legally.

Overnight, wavering Democrat states became locks, and swing states with large Hispanic populations went solidly “blue.” The result was the recent election which had brought Gobernador Deleon to power in Nuevo Mexico, and had also brought radical Democrats to power in the White House and both houses of congress.

Thus had come the political tsunami which swept all before it, a tidal wave triggered by an undocumented lawn maintenance worker named Fernando Ortiz.

20 posted on 12/13/2005 8:06:00 AM PST by Travis McGee
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