Capitulation, from A------ to Z (Mark Steyn)

Chicago Sun Times ^ | May 20, 2007 | Mark Steyn

[Zakeet]

Are you a fine upstanding member of the Undocumented-American community? That's to say, are you (if you'll forgive the expression) an illegal immigrant?

Great news! Being illegal is now perfectly legal! Just for being one of the circa 12 million people who shouldn't be here, you can now be here indefinitely! If you were living and working in America illegally before Jan. 1, 2007, you're now entitled to one of the new Z-1 "probationary" visas. And your parents and spouses are entitled to one of the new Z-2 visas, and your children to the new Z-3 visas.

Don't worry: It's not an "amnesty." Every politician in America is opposed to amnesty -- if not the concept, then at least the word.

[Snip]

As for the notion that dumping a population the size of four mid-size European Union nations into the lap of America's arthritic "legal immigration" (please, no tittering; apparently, there is still such a thing) bureaucracy will lead to tougher enforcement and rigorous scrutiny and lots of other butch-sounding stuff, well, if that were the case, there wouldn't be a problem in the first place. You can declare that "illegal" now mean "legal" very easily; to mandate that "incompetent" now means "competent" is a tougher proposition.

But, as John McCain declared, "This is what the legislative process is all about" -- and in the sense that it's a sloppily drafted bottomless pit of unintended consequences on a potentially cosmic scale whose sweeping "reforms" will inevitably require even more sweeping reforms of the reforms in a year or two's time, he's quite right. Also, as Senator McCain says, "This is what bipartisanship is all about."

[driveserve]

There’s nothing wrong in using sarcasm as way of getting one’s point across. In fact, it cuts keenly to the heart of the matter. A very “unglib” result. Lastly, there is likely a provision that punishes employers of illegals (like there is already). But every illegal becomes legal the moment the bill is signed by the prez. So who’s to get punished?

driveserve

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

>>They do need this employer verification system, tamper proof Soical Security cards, and provisions in the billl that lets enforcement officials use the social Security payment records and laws enforcement records.<<

Use of the system is optional for employers, and they probably won't want to use it. Their "employer verification system" doesn't even work inside the House Immigration Subcommittee system. From Lou Dobbs Tonight:

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Lou, the big question is, will employers have the tools they need to verify that their workers are here legally? (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice over): Traci Hong was 10 years old when her family immigrated from South Korea. She has been a U.S. citizen for 15 years. But when a new employer used a government pilot program to check her employment eligibility, they were told she couldn't work in the U.S. legally. Ironically, her new job was with the House of Representatives Immigration Subcommittee.

TRACI HONG, ATTORNEY, HOUSE IMMIGRATION SUBCOMMITTEE: So I had to take my passport, first go to the House Judiciary Committee's personnel office, then to the House Personnel Office, then to the Social Security Administration. And then sort of round and round and round again.

MESERVE: Hong's case got straightened out. But critics say the electronic verification program called Basic Pilot isn't ready for widespread use. Right now with 16,000 employers signed up to use it, critics say it has an error rate of about 11 percent.

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D), CALIFORNIA: Maybe that doesn't sound like that much, but if it's 11 percent of all the people employed in the United States, it's over 20 million people who are Americans who would be told you're not allowed to work.

MESERVE: A more fundamental flaw, Basic Pilot cannot detect when a worker is using documents and information that belong to someone else. Case in point, although Swift & Company meat packing participated in Basic Pilot, recent immigration raids of to their plants netted more than 1,000 illegal workers. The program is being upgraded to give employers photos to help with verification. President Bush got a look this week. But critics are unimpressed. They say Basic Pilot cannot do the job. JAMES CARAFANO, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: It's just like taking a -- taking a local baseball team and saying, OK, go to the World Series. It's just not going to work.

[Pokey78]

Thanks!

Steyn ping!

[goldstategop]

Our bipartisan criminal class does NOT believe in American nationhood. If you don't believe in it, why have immigration laws - or for that matter, a particular citizenship and a sense of attachment to soil? The new legislation goes well beyond amnesty - it sweeps away the old idea of America forever.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Cringing Negativism Network]

I WANT MY DAMN COUNTRY BACK!

I’ll second that.

-

The time has come to walk away from the Bush administration, and concentrate on electing Duncan Hunter in 2008.

Let Gonzalez get fired. Let Bush be impeached. Let it go.

Just elect Duncan Hunter.

It’s very important now.

[Paul Ross]

Classic Steyn...skewering those who pompously claim they are for securing the border but then put in a billion more loopholes....as he notes:

After all, it's not such a stretch to regard every single person on the planet as a Z-1-in-waiting. This being America, pretty soon -- a court decision here, a court decision there -- the presumption of every school district and hospital and welfare administrator will be that they're obliged to treat everyone who walks in through the door as if they were a Z-1. You zee one, you've zeen 'em all.

[Colonel_Flagg]

From the full article:

...when the political class is in lockstep bipartisan mode, that's sufficiently unusual all by itself. When it's in bipartisan mode on an issue on which the public is diametrically opposed, that looks less like bipartisanship and more like the lockstep myopia of an out-of-touch one-party state.

This kind of writing is why, with no disrespect to Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin or anyone else, there is NO ONE better than Mark Steyn.

[Paul Ross]

Steyn has written a very glib article about a very serious problem. We must get control of our borders. Our country is being flooded with drugs which are coming from an increasingly violent and lawless Mexico. The unassimilated young latinos in our country are increasingly joining gangs that threaten our cities. We cannot continue this march toward a bi-lingual country. There must be one language if we hope to move toward a homogeneous society.

All true. But Steyn's glibness did not diminish the very seriousness with the subject, or that he intends to treat it with. But rather, his wit is aimed squarely at the disenguous slogans, excuses, pretexts, outright lies and concoctions masquerading under euphemism ....where "border security" is always held hostage to those wishing an Open Border.

[Cuttnhorse]

Bump for later

[maica]

And we all should take this problem seriously — Steyn included.

******

Steyn takes this problem extremely seriously! He is a legal immigrant who has been through all the hoops that the system puts in front of those who desire to be here legally.

He is a guest on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show every Thursday, and this past Thursday, he was steamed in his commentary.

[Paul Ross]

...see the different between window dressing and reality

The fact that the border security measures, such as the Fence, already mandated by law, will be cut back by two-thirds, should say it all about the "seriousness" of the Senate bill and the President on this issue.

They are not now, and likely never were serious about doing anything but pushing through their continued Open Border.

Fake measures to secure the Border will always be held hostage to some other issues and concerns, such as cheap hotel maids and landscapers, and taco shop employees.

If they were sincere about enforcing the more-than-sufficient existing laws...they wouldn't be

(1) Prohibiting Enforcement right now. They appear to fail the sincerity test from the get-go.

(2) Using Rhetorical Subterfuge: lying about needing a "comprehensive" bill...one that addresses every thing except the border issues....and the lack of political will to enforce. Their bill reverses and undermines legislative progress already accomplished in last year's session.

The much-derided Fence that Duncan Hunter architected is apparently sufficiently effective in their minds ...that they have to make sure it never gets built.

[Paul Ross]

I WANT MY DAMN COUNTRY BACK!

Bump!

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl

[pissant]

Hunter required the fence AND an increase in Border Patrol agents. No other legilsation of any kind matters until/unless they secure the border first, and start enforcing the current laws.

If they do that, and do it well for the next 5 years, then we can talk about the other crap.

[B-Chan]

"CONTROL THE BORDER. That means a fence. Build it."

Expensive. Congress won't authorize it. The People won't pay for it.

"Prosecute employers who hire illegals. Prosecute those who help illegals enter and provide them with fake documents. Prosecute those who knowingly shelter and aid illegals. Remove all federal funds from state and local governments that harbor and aid illegals."

Will never happen. Legislators will never bite the corporate and union hands that feed them.

"Begin deporting the worst offenders. Those in prison who are being released. Those who have had felony convictions who we can find. Those picked up for offenses like DWI, no drivers license etc etc."

If the government tried this, the media would have a field day. Imagine turning on CNN and seeing lines of weeping, cute children, mothers with babies, and handsome men in cowboy hats being marched onto buses under guard by armed federal agents. Imagine the TIME Magazine cover of a little Mexican girl looking forlornly through the barbed wire at a "Federal concentration camp". Imagine a million people in the streets of LA, smahing and burning beneath a sea of Mexican flags.

"Pass a law that states that anyone caught in this country illegally is forever barred from legal residence or citizenship."

This law could be titled "The Civil Rights Attorney Permanent Employment Act".

"Remove the 'anchor baby' provision."

Would require a constitutional amendment — a dicey proposition at best.

Look, the bastards have won. We are going to get an amnesty whether we want one or not; the forces pushing for it from behind the scenes are too strong. Our only option now is to think in terms of damage control.

Sorry to be so negative.

[Yaelle]

If Steyn had left off the last sentence, everyone I know, including all the L.A. libs, would agree with every word. I kind of wish he had not connected it with the WOT for that reason alone (though I agree with Steyn of course). There is no one I know in SoCal who doesn’t think this is a serious problem.

[Yaelle]

Before we get control of our borders, we must get control of our government because the existing government will not control the borders!!!

Yeah!

What was that old "by the people, for the people" crap again??

[ClaireSolt]

Thanks, I had not seen any of that. The Feds are hopeless with comp;uters.

[AuntB]

Our only option now is to think in terms of damage control.

That's what we've been doing for the last how many years?

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

>>Thanks, I had not seen any of that. The Feds are hopeless with comp;uters.<<

So you see my problem with entrusting the “triggers” for “immigration reform” to a bunch of bunglers who can’t find their *** with both hands. Plus, the bill itself is full of loopholes that allow the feds, in effect, to say, “OK, that’s good enough for the trigger.”

Given time, I hope we do have an employer verification system that works, but why the rush for amnesty now, before we know if they will even do any significant enforcement? They believe that by 2008, our outrage will lessen. Mine won’t.