The Republican Crossroads on Immigration

Real Clear Politics ^ | May 30, 2006 | John McIntyre

[OldPossum]

Loved your post 26. It was informative and reflected some of what I had understood was the case. Would appreciate it if you would Freep mail it to me, so that I can easily print it out for future reference.

[Americas Frontline]

If I hear the words "We are a nation of laws" from one more politician I am going to puke!!!!

What good are these laws if they are completely ignored?

Catch and release? Ignoring uttering of forged documents...a felony for any one else.

JUST ENFORCE THE EXISTING LAWS pertaining to this invasion and regarding the employment of illegals.

[kellynla]

According to J.D. Hayworth, Karl Rove says we "just have a problem with brown people."

[Americas Frontline]

I AM a legal immigrant.
I work at a port of entry on the Northern Border.
I dont see "brown people".

So much for Rove's argument. J.D. seems to hit the nail on the head whenever I see him.

[kellynla]

"So much for Rove's argument."

I think it's more than an argument. Rove is insinuating that anyone who is for enforcement of the immigration laws is a bigot!

Of course those of us who live in large Hispanic American areas know that the Hispanic Americans are some of the most outraged groups in America about illegals because the Hispanic Americans are the most affected by illegals.

Instead of "throwing out the baby with the bathwater" as some suggest. What needs to happen is to get some of these folks like Hayworth and Peter King into the Senate & WH.

Semper Fi,
Kelly

[Defiant]

As you wish.

[WOSG]

It is clear to most Americans that we need "ENFORCEMENT FIRST". Twenty years of amnesties
and lax enforcement has led us to our situation of millions of illegal immigrants in this country.
It won’t get fixed overnight, but when a boat has a leak and is sinking the first thing to do is to plug the leak.
Secure the border, and establish working employment verification systems to enforce immigration
laws in the workplace. Establish the rule of law in our immigration system
first before you do anything else.

The Senate bill is not the answer, it repeats errors of the 1986 massive
legalization/amnesty and contains far too many provisions that incite further illegal immigration
and undermine the rule of law in immigration.

This is where your points are well-taken. The Senate bill could be attacked as 'amnesty' (it is).
But in truth it is worse than mere amnesty, it's a mess of bad law.

All that aside, we are left still with a host of tawdry, dangerous and foolish provisions in the
Senate bill, many special-interest-written:
- Going beyond mere amnesty with giveways like providing benefits for social security taxes
made on fraudulently used social security numbers
- The invitations to fraud by forbidding the use of applications in investigations, and allowing
for "difficulties encountered by aliens in obtaining evidence of employment", a signal
for wink-and-nod fraud in applications
- The loophole that forbids local law enforcement to hold people for civil immigration infractions,
making the opportunistic detention of criminal aliens harder ( a terrorist loophole)
- Provisions tampering with the immigration appeals courts, so they are less effective and more litigious
- An AgsJobs section with pitifully weak job requirements
- Allowances for self-sponsorship and for conversion of temporary guest worker visas to
permanant residency status, that make a mockery of the "temporary guest worker" label
- Over-regulation of wage and employment contracts, with Davis-Bacon rules imposed for some workers,
to the point where it risks creating complex new regulations in industries currently not covered
- An odious requirement to advise Mexico prior to building any fencing
- AgJobs has 'no immigration lawyer left behind' provisions: Provides for taxpayer-funded lawyers for
filing alien adjudication appeals, and requires lawyers to write applications
- An employment verification system that is simply unworkable; Senator Cornyn explained it in Senate debate as a
"system that is designed to fail"; it creates Federal liabilities opposed by DHS Secretary Chertoff,
requires an impossible standard of accuracy to be mandatory, and that won't be operational for years

I could go on and on about how awful the Senate bill is. It has no redeeming merit at all.
There is a national consensus that we must secure our borders and enforce the immigration laws better.
While we should find a reasonable approach to handle illegal immigrants in the U.S. now, there is
no consensus on the answer. So the best policy and political answer is "enforcement first", leaving
legalization/amnesty and vias changes for the next Congress. Instead, stick to:

o Secure the border first
o Set up an employment verification system that works
0 Streamline deportation and immigration law to reduce litigation in deportations
0 Involve State and local law enforcement in immigration law enforcement

All of that is embodied in the House bill today, HR4437, and should be readily adopted by the
conference committee. Such a common-ground bill would be a good ‘down payment’ on
immigration reform that deals with the immediate immigration crisis and helps move us
forward to address remaining immigration issues.

"Republicans who are steadfast against "a pathway to citizenship" need to be realistic and open to compromise."

Let's turn that arugment around:
"Republicans who are steadfast against any bill that doesn't have "a pathway to citizenship"
need to be realistic and open to compromise."

Take it off the table and discuss the REAL ways to achieve the 4 points I mention above. HR4437 has
it already, so we can't do much better than to simply chuck the Senate bill entirely and go with HR4437 as
the solution for this Congress.

[WOSG]

Brilliant article.

Birthright citizenship is indeed an open constitutional question, and I believe you are right, we would get most if not all of the justice to agree to certain limits on it consistent with the 14th jurisprudence of 'under the jurisdiction of'.

The 1982 case that forced schools to cater to illegal aliens was pure judicial legislating. If/when we have 9 real judges on the courts, they will recognize that it is within the rights of states and local governments to decide how to spend their tax dollars on such things.

[reelfoot]

"Hispanics are a natural Dim constituency"

"What is your basis for that, the media?"

My basis for that is contained in my post #32: Hispanic immigrants, legal and illegal, are disproportionately on the welfare dole more than U.S. citizens.

What is your basis for thinking Hispanics are not a natural Dim constituency, Karl Rove?

[kenavi]

A higher percentage of hispanics in the U.S. work than do white Americans.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/indicators97/work1-5.htm

You would understand that if you had first-hand knowledge of hispanic individuals, most of whom have strong family and religious attachments. You could also check the roster of names of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A "natural Dim constituency", Howard Dean?

[reelfoot]

"Hispanic immigrants, legal and illegal, are disproportionately on the welfare dole more than U.S. citizens."

http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/indicators05/apb.htm

Other statistics proving the same point were brought out in the recent Senate debate.

I have first-hand of Hispanic individuals, most of them breakers of our immigration laws. They also like to mooch off our emergency room care, use our schools for free, and engage in a lot of non-immigration crime, like drug-dealing, rape, and murder. DUIs also seem to be a favorite past time with them.

Manifestly a natural Dim constituency, unless one is coming from the viewpoint of La Raza.

[kenavi]

The Hispanic percent on welfare is barely half that of American blacks. Considering that a high percentage of Hispanics are immigrants, you can expect that the percentage who are poor and dependent will decline over time, if we let our free economy do its mojo on them.

That is the fight. The Dems are attempting to freeze the Hispanic population in time, make them an interest group, and inculcate them with an entitlement mentality.

Yeah, there are slobs among the Hispanics here, how could there not be, when we don't have control of our borders or of immigrants inside our country.

You are walking into the Dems' trap by painting with a dark brush a population that in its main is as good or better than the immigrant waves that entered our country before.

You should also start hanging around with a better class of people, whether hispanic, black, or white.

[kenavi]

I have to defer to your first-hand experience, mine is different.

Do you know that in Santa Ana, CA, the most heavily Mexican city in the U.S., the voters overwhelmingly voted down bi-lingual education?

The Bible is something very deep, it is perhaps the last thing that people will give up in their native language. Think of it, who would give up the Shakespearian loftiness of our Bible to start with one written in a basic Spanish (or French or Italian) for foreigners.

And schooling is not equally revered in all cultures, it doesn't mean that people won't put in the effort to get ahead in other ways, or won't be responsible to their families.

P.S. Maybe they insist you pick them up in your van because they don't trust their DUI spouses!