How The GOP Can Survive The Immigration Debate

NewsMax ^ | March 29, 2006 | Dick Morris

[MaineVoter2002]

How The GOP Can Survive The Immigration Debate

Dick Morris Wednesday, March 29, 2006

The immigration bill pending in Congress poses as crucial a test for GOP efforts to reach out to Hispanic voters as the 1964 Civil Rights Act did in determining the future partisan preferences of America's African-Americans...

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/3/29/143533.shtml

[acapesket]

Dick Morris has rarely been correct on any issue...having said that, perhaps I will give him a pass this time.
I am so agitated I could "self explode"!!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Prepare yourself for a Donk takeover. Its gonna be bad.

[Racehorse]

Simply put, the fence must have a gate that swings open for immigrants we want and need. To avoid permanently antagonizing our southern neighbors and to keep the labor supply on which so much of American business and prosperity depend, we need a guest-worker program.

[. . .]

With a 4.7 percent unemployment rate, we will be slitting our own throats by denying our economy access to Mexican workers.

There you have it.

Democrats want a cause that'll bring in voters disposed to cast ballots their way.

Fat cat Republicans want cheap labor and don't care how badly they insult the "jobs Americans won't do" base.

Republicans will survive only because there is not a viable alternative.

[MaineVoter2002]

Are you anti-illegal immigrant? Or anti-immigrant? I dont understand where you see the problem in this article.

[Avenger]

"And it is also important for the Republicans to avoid symbolic acts like making it a felony to be here illegally or to employ someone who is. The same practical deterrence is quite possible through the fence, and merely upgrading the jail time from a misdemeanor to a felony won't make much practical difference."

This I agree with. We need to seal up the borders and mean serious business on that, but felonies for illegal immigrants is going overboard in my opinion. There should be very stiff fines/penalties for businesses that are actually enforced. People caught working illegally should be sent back post haste (no need to waste our money on keeping them in our prisons) and their employers should be given a heavy fines.

[MaineVoter2002]

If your rant is against illegals, then I'm on your side. But I dont see in this article where illegals should be allowed to continue to fill ou nation

[isthisnickcool]

I heard that in the long long ago, in the way way past, that there were elected representatives in Washington who actually did things because they were the right thing to for the people they represented. I wonder, could such stories of fantasy could actually be true. Nah....

[Lancey Howard]

I agree with Dick Morris on this. He notes that the Latino vote went to Gore by 65 - 35 in 2000, but only went to Kerry 54 - 46. That is a huge "swing" and the Republicans would be ill-advised to ignore it. Jump up and down and holler about illegal aliens all you want, but electoral politics is the bottom line.

Morris has some good ideas here - - control the border (with a BIG fence), ID all workers who come in from Mexico, and deport those who refuse to comply. Sounds okay to me.

[MaineVoter2002]

Yes to the fence - It should be the first priority

Yes to guest workers - We need to make illegal immigration more difficult and legal immigration easier.

Yes to greater criminalization for future illegals - They are lawbreakers!

A pro-american, hard-working, capitalist-loving vietnamese who applies for a visa to come to the USA is told up front that he has less than a 5% chance of being accepted because the US is trying to absorb the millions of illegal mexicans. It needs to be easier than this in order to be able to have more control. Right now, it's almost impossible to enter the US legally. This only encourages lawbreakers (though I don't justify it). And yes, we need to be tough on illegals here already. They are lawbreakers.

I wonder if we really should punish businesses for hiring illegals. In one way I say yes but in another...is'nt it OUR GOVERNMENT who is responsible for keeping out illegals? Why punnish businesses in the USA for our government's failures?

Face it! We have enough legal trouble trying to jail terrorists. You really think we will deport 12 million illegals?

LET'S BUILD A WALL NOW!

We have plenty of time to talk about what to do with those already here. Let's build the wall before we have 30 million illegals. This 20 year cycle must stop now. WE HAVE DONE THIS ALREADY IN 1986

http://jednet207.tripod.com/PoliticalLinks.html

[Tzimisce]

...why isn't anyone asking Vicente Fox why Mexicans are fleeing that nation??????????

[Old_Mil]

There is a viable alternative. The question is will this be the election cycle in which conservatives have finally had enough and find the courage to vote for it.

[Racehorse]

Are you anti-illegal immigrant? Or anti-immigrant?

Against illegal aliens.  A fairly hefty chunk of my family are legal immigrants.  They're all naturalized citizens.

I dont understand where you see the problem in this article.

Morris is a strategist looking for a political compromise which will keep the anti-illegal immigrant crowd in line without alienating the amnesty/open border crowd.

[MaineVoter2002]

Who cares about Fox. His only economic policy is "Go elswhere for a job". Once we build the wall and diversify our immigration through visas and not border crossings, he will then have hell to pay with his people. As for us, let's focus on our country. Let the mexicans deal with theirs.

[Hoosier-Daddy]

We do need the fence. We need a way of sending them home, and meaning it. If we have a fence and register everyone, then when they violate they get sent home on a one-way trip. The fence won't be perfect, but it will make getting here a lot more difficult and, more importantly, a lot more expensive.

[Racehorse]

If your rant is against illegals . . .

Actually, it only consisted of three semi-declarative statements of fact.  Not much of a rant.  :-)

[Irene Adler]

The vast majority of "guest workers" will never, ever go home. Why does anyone pretend differently? We are supposed to sign on to utter, pernicious nonsense by pretending to believe this. It's crazy.

[Avenger]

"I wonder if we really should punish businesses for hiring illegals. In one way I say yes but in another...is'nt it OUR GOVERNMENT who is responsible for keeping out illegals? Why punnish businesses in the USA for our government's failures?"

If you hit the bottom line of businesses then they will think twice or three times about hiring illegal immigrants. The failure of the government in part is that it is not enforcing the laws already on the books. We can't afford to jail all these people and we need to focus the resources of our prison systems for getting genuinely dangerous criminals out of the way. Hit the businesses hard with heavy fines and rigorous enforcement - that is the only way. Beefing up border security is fine, walls are fine, but people will always find a way around. We need to remove the incentive for businesses to hire these illegal workers. This will be achieved by a combination of heavy penalties and some sort of guest worker program.

[MaineVoter2002]

The vast majority of "guest workers" will never, ever go home. Why does anyone pretend differently? We are supposed to sign on to utter, pernicious nonsense by pretending to believe this. It's crazy Ok then. In other words. You are anti-immigration of any kind. You are against open borders and against controled immigration. That's where we part in our opinions. You basically want to close the borders to all.

[MaineVoter2002]

Once they have real social security numbers and it is a controled process, the government will be able to find them after they overstayed their visa as easily as they can find you when you decide not to pay your taxes.