Posted on 06/13/2006 12:43:39 PM PDT by Maynerd
It’s funny how every new “middle ground” on immigration is in the same place as the old ones.
The latest “middle ground” proposal comes from Rep. Mike Pence (R., Ind.). Pence, who has solid conservative credentials as head of the House Republican Study Committee, offered what he billed as “The Real Rational Middle Ground on Immigration Reform” at a Heritage Foundation speech last month. Since there’s no actual bill to look at, we have to judge from Rep. Pence’s speech and other materials what the program would be like.
It starts out well enough. In seeking an alternative to amnesty, on the one hand, and mass deportations, on the other, he laid out a four-step plan. The first step is securing the border, and he included the entire enforcement bill passed by the House in December (with two minor modifications) in his measure.
Step two is to reject amnesty. That also sounds good, until you remember that Senators Kennedy and McCain also deny their amnesty plan is an amnesty. As do Senators Hagel and Martinez. And President Bush. They all deny that they support amnesty because, as the president says, the only thing that constitutes amnesty is “automatic citizenship,” whatever that is.
Pence has a broader definition of amnesty:
Amnesty is allowing people whose first act in America was an illegal act to get right with the law without leaving the country. Allowing twelve million illegal aliens to stay in our country instead of leaving and coming back legally is amnesty, no matter if fines or back taxes are paid, or how it is otherwise dressed-up or spun by its proponents. The only way to deal with these twelve million people is to insist that they leave the country and come back legally if they have a job awaiting them.
This is exactly the same as the “touchback” gimmick in the Senate amnesty bill, which would require illegal aliens who have been here between two and five years to cross the border to be enrolled in the permanent “temporary” worker program and then immediately return to their homes and jobs.
That brings us to the third step: the guestworker amnesty. Yes, amnesty. Or, if you prefer, legalization. Or normalization. Or regularization. Or earned adjustment. Or whatever is the euphemism du jour. The fact remains that the guestworker program in the Pence plan is explicitly designed to allow all illegal aliens to keep their jobs and domiciles in the United States without interruption.
The congressman is quite explicit on this point. In explaining the need for speedy processing of the guestworkers, he says:
No employer in America wants to lose employees for an extended amount of time. No worker who is earning money to feed and clothe a family can afford to be off the job for long. … And, an illegal alien currently employed in America will be willing to take a quick trip across the border to come back outside of the shadows and in a job where he does not fear a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In fact, I envision employers working with placement agencies to make sure that their long-time illegal employees get their paperwork processed, background checks performed, and visas issued so that they will be back on the job quickly.
In the 1950s, this process was called — in official U.S. government publications — “drying out the wetbacks.” Whether it’s called an amnesty instead, or is given some other label, the point is to let all illegal aliens stay legally.
But maybe the amnesty is time-limited? And in fact, part of Pence’s “no amnesty” claim is that the guestworker visa would be limited to a total of six years. This would be an encouraging requirement, except that, in the congressman’s words, “At that point, the guest should decide whether to return home or enter the separate process of seeking citizenship.” If legal immigration quotas are to remain in force, then these formerly illegal, now “temporary,” workers will have to leave, en masse, six years from now, which is precisely the mass deportation the congressman said (correctly) is unworkable. On the other hand, if these workers will be able to receive permanent residency outside the current limits, as they would be under the Senate amnesty bill, then this plan is the very “path to citizenship” that Rep. Pence made a big show of condemning. It’s unclear which of these is true, but it’s undeniable that the plan is either dishonest or amateurish.
Step four really takes the cake: a promise — really, truly, cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die — to enforce the ban on hiring illegals in the future. Pence himself says that since every illegal alien will be legalized, employers wouldn’t need to hire illegals, but that enforcement will be phased in nonetheless. This is exactly the bait-and-switch Congress perpetrated in 1986 — legalization first, enforcement later (i.e., never). It is for this reason that the House, animated by a “fool me twice, shame on me” skepticism, has insisted on “Enforcement First.”
There are plenty of other reasons to dismiss the Pence plan as unserious: by not calling for an end to automatic citizenship at birth, it makes the “temporary” claim meaningless; his gimmick of having the private sector screen the workers misses the point that they will still need to use (and receive security clearances for access to) the very same databases that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security use now; and to get “temporary” workers, employers will merely have to attest that they tried to hire Americans, rather than using objective measures to determine need, like rising wages or low unemployment in the specific occupation in question.
In fact, I didn’t write about this plan when it was announced because I didn’t think it possible that anyone could take it seriously. I was wrong. Though the Pence amnesty plan hasn’t been widely covered, it has received support, or at a least respectful hearing, from insiders who will affect the final outcome of any bill. It’s no surprise, for instance, that amnesty supporters like Dick Armey, John Fund, and Michael Barone have had nice things to say about it (not to mention several newspaper editorial pages), but even supporters of Enforcement First, like Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner and Newt Gingrich, have been more receptive of the plan than a close reading of it would warrant. It’s also ironic that Pence’s speech was delivered at the Heritage Foundation, given that his plan appears to violate Heritage’s “permanent principles” on immigration; it will be interesting to see what Heritage has to say about the plan.
In the end, the Pence Amnesty wouldn’t go down with the public any better than the string of other amnesty plans that have been proposed over the past couple of years. As Peggy Noonan wrote last week about the public’s suspicions regarding immigration plans: “they think — they assume, at this point, reflexively — that slithery, slippery professional politicians are using and inventing complications to obfuscate and confuse. ... Americans don't trust ‘comprehensive plans,’ because they don't trust the comprehensive planners.”
There’s only one way Congress and the president can earn back the public’s trust on immigration: Enforce the law — comprehensively, confidently, unapologetically. Then, after several years have passed and enforcement mechanisms are in place and working, and the illegal population has shrunk through attrition, Washington will have proven that, this time, it’s not lying about immigration.
Until then, no deal.
— Mark Krikorian is executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies and an NRO contributor.
The illegal employers, at least in construction, will make sure your #6 & #7 will never happen. Cash wages save them over 100%.
Well, so much for conservative credentials.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
FReepers really need to read Pence's plan and stop with the disingenious comments about it. And learn how to play poker.
- Pence's plan is nearly identical to Tom Tancredo's own plan
- Pence's plan passes HR 4437 in its entirety and certifies the borders are secured BEFORE any guest-worker provision begins
- Senate isn't going to pass an enforcement-only bill, and the House will never accept the Senate's AMNESTY plan. Hence, the reason for conference calls and negotiations (which some FReepers don't understand in their black-and-white cocoons)
- Pence's plan calls the Senate/Bush administration's bluff and forces them, on record, to either back the guest-worker provision or reject the bill outright, in which case they'll look like fools and get PWN3D at the polls
- Pence's plan is NOT an amnesty, nope, nada, zilch path to citizenship for illegals. Guest-worker provision is strictly enforced with no guarantees of completing the full six-year term as outlined by Pence.
- Illegals have to go home and apply for guest-worker cards. Dept of Labor regulates the number of guest-workers per year. There won't be 12-20 million people applying for guest-worker permits.
FREEPERS NEED TO TAKE THE 90%, WHICH SEALS AND MANAGES THE BORDERS NOW AND STFU OR KEEP WHINING ABOUT NOT GETTING THEIR PRECIOUS 100% BORDER ENFORCEMENT-ONLY.
If Mark Krikorian say the Mike Pence bill is bllsht then it's bllsht. Mark is a very honest longtime critic of the immigration invasion
Borders are secured under Pence's plan. Interior enforcement is stepped up. Jobs will dry up. Illegals will go home to get a chance at obtaining a guest-worker permit.
Granted, they won't get a GW card. But, what will the feds do to those who don't sign onto the program?
Once they're apprehended they get deported without any chance of ever coming back into the country.
We can't round them up because they haven't registered.
Who says anything about "rounding up" illegals? Illegals will self-deport under the Pence plan. The hard-working illegals who just want to work will self-deport to get a crack at a guest-worker permit. The gang-banger MS-13 illegals will be rounded up and deported due to stricter interior enforcement.
Under Pence's proposal, how will we deal with these lawbreakers when they don't play the game according to Pence's rules? (Or, Bush's. Or, McCain's)
They get deported and barred from future contact with the U.S.
Private companies will have better security measures for guest-workers than the federal bureaucracy.
Pence's plan modernizes immigration laws and forces the administration to enforce them.
Just talking about Amnesty caused more illegals to run here.
There is no amnesty under the Pence plan, for the millionth time. The borders must be certified secured (HR 4437) before any guest-worker provision begins.
This would be the most costly thing ever undertaken in the history of the US.
It is the most cost-effective, common-sense immigration proposal put forth. Pence's plan seals the borders and simultaneously deals with the what-to-do-with-the-illegals already here problem. A master stroke.
It would be far better to Annex Mexico and use the money to rebuild their infrastructure and add the natural resources to the mix
Why don't we just annex Central and South America too while we're at it.
Dude, have you been drinking?
Hel-lo... Enforcement is what the executive branch says it is, not the legislative branch.
We've already got tough laws. They just aren't being enforced.
Perhaps you could explain the shortcomings in the existing immigration laws that needs reforming?
All they have to do is start punishing the employers, and the rest will happen automatically.
The Government can't even stop the millions of overstayed visas in this country, how can any new progam have any chance.
We already have laws, and they should be enforced first.
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