Posted on 05/21/2007 3:27:02 PM PDT by AuntB
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) today once again introduced his immigration legislation aimed at addressing the ever-increasing influx of illegal immigrants to the United States and its strain on society. Inhofe’s ENFORCE - Engaging the Nation to Fight for Our Right to Control Entry -Act (S.1269) increases U.S. border security, emphasizes greater enforcement of existing immigration laws and prevents amnesty and other shortcuts for illegal immigrants.
“Illegal immigrants continue to cross our country’s borders, strain our economy and exploit our resources,” Inhofe said. “The gravity of this situation warrants that Americans of all political stripes come together to address this problem immediately. I will not stand idly by and watch our great nation collapse under the pressures of uncontrolled illegal immigration; this is a crisis and one that must be addressed aggressively.
“Simply granting citizenship to immigrants, who are currently in our country illegally, is not the answer. We must enhance our border security, hold those accountable who encourage illegal immigration and ensure that those who violate our laws by entering our country illegally do not have this illegal activity easily forgiven and even rewarded with permanent residence or citizenship. Our nation’s future rests on Congress’ actions of today, and the ENFORCE Act is a strong step in the right direction to help solve our growing problem of illegal immigration.”
Major Provisions in Inhofe’s ENFORCE Act:
· Establishes the National Border Neighborhood Watch (NBNW) Program allowing retired law enforcement officers to assist Border Patrol agents by reporting illegal border crossings. · Makes unlawful-presence in the United States a felony. · Establishes an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. · Authorizes funding for online immigration training for state and local law enforcement officers. · Eliminates the practice of granting automatic U.S. citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants in an effort to reduce ‘anchor babies.’ · Establishes an independent verification system for Social Security numbers; also mandates that immigrant’s Social Security numbers expire when visa runs out. · Establishes electronic birth & death registries to fight fraudulent Social Security cards · Helps reduce Individual Taxpayer Identification Number abuse. · Empowers state & local law enforcement to carryout immigration laws (but does not make it mandatory). · Establishes penalties for most flagrant employer tax violations—i.e. if an employer willfully files incorrect tax returns, they will be assessed the maximum penalties available. · Makes it illegal to operate day laborer centers for illegal aliens and to give them unemployment assistance. · Eliminates in-state tuition benefits for illegal aliens.
Take the poll on his website: http://inhofe.senate.gov/public/
Do you think that English should be the official language of the United States?
Yes: 88%
No: 13%
Sorry, hit the wrong button before I got it formatted!!
THIS is ‘comprehensive reform’!
Major Provisions in Inhofe’s ENFORCE Act:
· Establishes the National Border Neighborhood Watch (NBNW) Program allowing retired law enforcement officers to assist Border Patrol agents by reporting illegal border crossings.
· Makes unlawful-presence in the United States a felony.
· Establishes an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
· Authorizes funding for online immigration training for state and local law enforcement officers.
· **** Eliminates the practice of granting automatic U.S. citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants in an effort to reduce ‘anchor babies.’******
· Establishes an independent verification system for Social Security numbers; also mandates that immigrant’s Social Security numbers expire when visa runs out.
· Establishes electronic birth & death registries to fight fraudulent Social Security cards
· Helps reduce Individual Taxpayer Identification Number abuse.
· Empowers state & local law enforcement to carryout immigration laws (but does not make it mandatory).
· Establishes penalties for most flagrant employer tax violations—i.e. if an employer willfully files incorrect tax returns, they will be assessed the maximum penalties available.
· Makes it illegal to operate day laborer centers for illegal aliens and to give them unemployment assistance.
· Eliminates in-state tuition benefits for illegal aliens.
###
He seems to have a glimmer of the future if amnesty passes.
There Inhofe goes again, making sense. He knows that there’s huge difference between English as an offical language and English as a common language.
I have always liked Senator Inhofe. It appears that he is the only one not drinking Kool Aid these days.
ENFORCE - Engaging the Nation to Fight for Our Right to Control Entry -Act
I love those bill names.
A bill is just not a bill without a little pork.
We as a nation already have the right to control entry, we're just not exercising it.
I agree 100% with what Inhofe is trying to do. Nevertheless, the anchor baby issue will need to be dealt with as a Constitutional Amendment. To read the 14th Amendment like we “want” it to be read, and not as it is actually written puts those of us on the political right on the same intellectual and legal plane as those on the left who like to loosely read the 2nd Amendment.
He gives a very good explanation of that when he introduced this legislation last year. There is no fed immigration control in that area at all and they are overrun.
There is substantial evidence that the Fourteenth Amendment was never intended by its authors to justify 'anchor babies', but nonetheless it may be tough to get around.
On the other hand, one might make an argument that illegal aliens by their action seek to deny that the U.S. has jurisdiction over them; they should not be allowed to claim themselves to be subject to U.S. jurisdiction while refusing to acknowledge it.
Still, a constitutional amendment would be the right approach, if there weren't so many people in Congress (Dem and RINO) who rely upon the Democrats' ability to create votes. Actually, the RINOs probably rely upon the Democrats' behavior in this regard more than do the Democrats themselves.
If we can send Americans to the moon, we can send Mexicans back to Mexico.
The Duncan Hunter of the Senate.
Regarding the 14th amendment, we’re reading it right, Joe.
14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868) Passed by Congress June 13, 1866, and ratified July 9, 1868, the 14th amendment extended liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to former slaves.
http://www.historicaldocuments.com/14thAmendment.htm
The bill was authored by Sen. Jacob Howard.
As a Senator, Howard is credited with working closely with Abraham Lincoln in drafting and passing the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery.
During Reconstruction Howard participated in debate over the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, arguing for including the phrase and subject to the jurisdiction thereof specifically because he wanted to make clear that the simple accident of birth in the United States was not sufficient to justify citizenship. Howard said: [The 14th amendment] will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the government of the United States, but will include very other class of person
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_M._Howard
I agree that anchor babies are an abuse of the Fourteenth, and that it was never intended to be used as such, but primarily to recognize the citizen status of emancipated slaves who had been born in US territory. Nevertheless, there continue to be those who like to make their claims about certain amendments and what they were "intended" to do vs. what they actually say...and it's the verbiage that must bear the weight. It's why the founders included a procedure for amending it, and to try to circumvent that procedure is, I would argue, illegal and borderline treasonous.
More:
Alien Birthright Citizenship: A Fable That Lives Through Ignorance
http://federalistblog.us/2005/12/birthright_citizenship_fable.html
[snip]
The author of the Fourteenth Amendment, Rep. John A Bingham (OH), responded to the above declaration as follows: “I find no fault with the introductory clause, which is simply declaratory of what is written in the Constitution, that every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution itself, a natural born citizen.”
The opinion of US Attorney General Edward Bates in 1862 said: “The Constitution does not make the citizen, it is in fact made by them.” If so, how then does a alien make a citizen of the United States?
GO INHOFE GO!
THIS IS A COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL!
Yep. Did you ever hear how Inhofe did away with the secret ‘discharge petition’in the house of Reps? It was so great!
Someone else posted it on a thread the other day, but I can’t remember who!
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