Posted on 03/06/2007 6:23:57 PM PST by AuntB
Stephen Dinan reported Friday in The Washington Times that Senator Ted Kennedy claims he is reaching across the political aisle to include Republicans in his effort to create a “comprehensive immigration bill.” On Wednesday, Dinan had reported that Senator Arlen Specter had accused Kennedy of being secretive regarding the drafting of the bill. Of course, this “comprehensive immigration bill,” which includes a 1986-like Guest Worker Amnesty program, compromises our national security and provides incredible incentives for millions more illegal aliens to come streaming across our nation's borders to receive life-long Social Security benefits, will require bi-partisan support to pass the Senate.
The Guest Worker program would provide official identity documents to millions of illegal aliens whose true identities cannot be verified. These aliens would be able to “jump the line” in front of other would-be immigrants who have gone about the process the proper way. They would be able to bring in their family members and travel freely in and out of our country while they wait for United States citizenship. Of course, that’s if they even want to naturalize, while so many other aliens patiently wait in their home countries to join their family members who are living in the United States legally.
Dinan lists several high-profile Republicans to whom Kennedy says he has reached out include such luminaries as John McCain, the would-be Republican nominee for President in 2008, who is as great a champion of Kennedy's wacky and outrageous amnesty program as you are likely to find. Kennedy has also included George W. Bush for the obvious reasons. In fact, these Republicans are all of the same mind-set as is Kennedy himself.
Immigration is a highly contentious issue with far-reaching implications for the future of our nation. There are members of both political parties who are absolutely ecstatic that our highly porous borders have enabled millions of illegal aliens to enter our country. The Democrats are happy because they see millions of potential new voters that they believe will, for the most part, vote for Democrats. Several Republicans, on the other hand, want these illegal aliens to provide their constituents with an inexhaustible supply of cheap and compliant labor. That is, I suspect, why George W. Bush wants these aliens to participate in a "Temporary Worker Program." Under Bush's plan, these aliens would not be entitled to United States citizenship and would be unable to vote.
Of course the term "Temporary" is extremely disingenuous. If this nation is unable to arrest and deport millions of illegal aliens, how would the President make certain that these "Temporary" workers leave when their authorized period of employment expires? What would prevent more crafty illegal "temporary" aliens from engaging in fraud schemes, such as marriage fraud, to gain resident alien status and be put on the path to United States citizenship? These “guests” would be “temporary” only in as much as no one lives forever.
The Government Accountability Office has issued report after report about the abysmal situation at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is incapable of properly adjudicating millions of applications for various immigration benefits, such as the conference of resident alien status. Last year USCIS "lost" more than 111,000 alien immigration files, including 30,000 files related to aliens seeking to naturalize. Yet even without potentially derogatory information those files could have contained, USCIS approved those aliens’ applications. And now that the USCIS has rammed those applications through in an effort to “improve” customer service and clear their backlog, it’s unlikely anyone’s doing any further investigating of these new resident aliens.
The USCIS is the same agency that would be pressed into service to administer the Guest Worker Amnesty Program. This would be akin to NASA recruiting mathematicians for the space program without knowing who flunked algebra.
Senator Kennedy has been the Democratic Party's most visible proponent for providing lawful status to millions of illegal aliens to whom he refers as simply, "The Undocumented." George W. Bush wishes to "legalize immigrants" and insists that since we are a "nation of immigrants" we must "honor immigrants." Open borders advocates have been framing the debate by using this same language, which is deceptive and inaccurate. For example, these people have demonized the use of the term "Alien," even though the immigration laws of our nation define an alien as simply being "Any person who is not a citizen or national of the United States."
Those who express a desire to identify properly aliens who seek to enter our country are branded "racists or xenophobes." In this politically correct atmosphere, such accusations have impact. If you want to know what it feels like to be an alien or a foreigner, all you need to do is travel to Mexico, Canada or any other country on our planet. When we, as Americans travel to other countries, we are referred to as aliens or foreigners. Many of those countries, especially Mexico, from whence a large percentage of illegal aliens in America have come, also make it clear that you must abide by their laws or face imprisonment or expulsion.
The term alien is not a pejorative but rather a term that properly describes the status of a non-citizen who is present in our country. Immigrants should be honored. They entered our country in accordance with law to share the American dream and in so doing built our nation and provided still more opportunities for more immigrants. Among those immigrants were members of my own family. The difference between an immigrant and an illegal alien is the difference between a houseguest and a burglar.
The amazing thing about this desire to reward illegal immigration is that a program that would legalize this human tidal wave flies in the face of both parties’ basic principles. The Republican Party has always presented itself as being the party on the side of strong national security and effective law enforcement. Common sense makes it clear that open borders endanger our nation's security, so this position contradicts the objectives and priorities of the Republican Party.
As for the Democrats, they traditionally were seen to represent blue collar, middle class America. Yet, the onslaught of these millions of illegal aliens would undercut wages and working conditions in the United States. The President claims often and vociferously that these illegal aliens "Do the work Americans don't want to do," and the Democrats refuse to speak out and challenge this infuriating assertion.
The men who perished in the coal mine disaster at the Sago Mines in West Virginia less than two years ago were all citizens of the United States. Americans will toil in dark, filthy and potentially deadly coal mines in which they may well contract dreaded "Black Lung Disease" from inhaling coal dust; Americans will work in hellish steel foundries; Americans will work as "sandhogs" and perform hard, back-breaking, dangerous work digging tunnels; Americans will drive filthy garbage trucks; Americans will work as firefighters, racing into burning buildings at great risk to their own safety to rescue total strangers. I submit that there is, in fact, no job an American won't take as long as he or she receives a paycheck at week's end.
Yet, when was the last time you heard of a Democrat having the decency or chutzpah to stand up for working men and women, who are supposedly their constituents? I am a life-long Democrat. My dad was a construction worker and a plumber. I spent many wonderful days with my dad as a teenager visiting his construction site and meeting his construction worker buddies. They embodied the "Can do" spirit that built this nation. My parents were members of the Democratic Party because in their day, that party was most likely to represent the best interests of union members such as my dad. How things have changed!
My dad died of cancer when I was 19 years old. I suspect that the lung cancer that caused his demise at the age of 57 was caused by his exposure to asbestos during his many years in the construction trades, exacerbated by his having been a three-pack-a-day cigarette smoker. During WWII, he attempted to enlist in the military but was found to be physically unfit for military duty. Additionally, his brother was already in the Army Air Corps. After the terrible tragedy in which the five Sullivan Brothers perished on the same U.S. Navy warship, the military was reluctant to take my dad because he would be the only surviving male member of the family should his brother die.
My dad was so upset he could not fight for the United States that he decided to use his skills as a journeyman plumber to help repair war-ravaged naval warships that had returned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He also traveled all the way to Louisiana to work on warships down there. Those ships were laden with asbestos, which also probably contributed to his exposure to that deadly toxin. Shortly before he passed away, he told me that he did not regret being ill, if it was because of his work on those warships. He said he hoped only that his work had helped our nation at a desperate time in its history.
My dad and his buddies will always be my heroes. They were a bunch of proud men who, I assure you, would be outraged to listen to the President of this country talking about jobs Americans won't do.
Thus far, the immigration debate has been about illusions and accusations. It needs to be about law, facts and the will of the American people. And the fact is, these aliens are breaking the law, and the American people do not want another amnesty program. There simply is no justification for Kennedy’s and McCain’s “Guest Worker Program.”
Lead, follow or get out of the way!
When the pro amnesty politicians are through with this it will be too late for a third party. Consider the fact that Republicans just barely won the presidency in the last two elections with a united political base. This amnesty could bring in tens of millions of additional voters of which 75% will doubtlessly vote democrat. More than enough to tip the balance in the closely divided political environment we have now. This will be the end of the republican party and the conservative movement as a political force in this country, and it won't take long. If all of this happens the way it looks like it's going to, The USA will be a shadow of its former self within 20 years.
This train has left the station and the pro amnesty side are in the diver's seat. The libs in congress along with Bush will see this done. The best we could hope for will be a filibuster to delay the inevitable. With the borders left open it will happen anyway, only slower. God help us.
In 1958, then-Senator John F. Kennedy wrote an essay entitled A Nation of Immigrants, in an effort to highlight what immigrants have done for America - and what America has done for its immigrant communities. The Anti-Defamation League published in book form a revised and expanded version of that essay in 1964, with a new introduction written by the President's brother, Robert F. Kennedy. Source
And this:
It was a freshly minted young Massachusetts senator named Edward Kennedy who 40 years ago, in what he called "my maiden effort in the Senate," managed the landmark Immigration Act of 1965 -- at the time a minor coda to the Civil Rights Act. Today, Kennedy is the lead Democratic sponsor of the Senate's bipartisan bill.
The 1965 act eliminated the national origins quotas of the 1920s that favored northern Europe. It established visa preferences, still in place today, based on family unification and labor skills. It imposed the first numeric limits on Latin American immigration. And it forever changed the face of the United States. Source
Are you familiar With Mike Cutler, former INS agent? He's done more to try to educate us and congress on immigration than anyone I can think of. He's on the right side and I don't care if he has a "Z" next to his name. He rails against the 'D's all the time over this.
AuntB, I simply pointed out a FACT which the author himself attests to in the article. Pointed. It. Out.
Oh yea, riiight. Sure they will. If that dem candidate is brown, has the proper surname and used to (or currently) belongs to La Raza or Mecha...
The US was doomed from the get-go. In a system of winners & losers, losers always outnumber the winners. Given the right to vote, losers will always vote for the very benefits they feel they were denied.
Even worse than class envy however are identity politics. It's no wonder a Kennedy pushed through the '65 immigration act which completely altered the make-up of a country comprised of people he despises.
The cruel bottom line is that stasis does not exist in nature. A group/nation/culture is either ascendant or is descendant. The Spanish & English had their way with natives for over 400 years; now is the time for payback.
As I've told my senators: Our government has more concern for illegals, than the progeny of those buried at Arlington.
Kennedy “Reaches Out” to Secure the bush legacy
Just in case ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
He's too late.
All of this will be a done deal before the next election..
And yes, I blame Bush..
sw
You really know how to make a young man like myself want to just go either live in the woods or find a deserted island somewhere.
I'm young too(around 30). Looking at what's going on and where things are headed, I just don't have a very good outlook regarding things to come. I'm just preparing for the worst of times while working for and praying for the best of times. My children are who I really fear for. If I find a nice deserted island or a good spot in the woods I'll FReepmail you. :p
I still hold out hope that the people will have "enough" before it's too late, and allow someone to "sneak" through the political process who can do something about the problem.
AG Gonzales is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Govt. of Mexico!
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.