This Immigration Bill is Built to Fail

The current immigration bill being considered by the Senate is so large, complex, and full of legalistic 'gotchas', that there is no telling what unintended consequences will flow from its passage. There is however one thing we can count on: It will not in way solve our immigration woes.

To critics of the immigration bill, this bill will irredeemably change America for the worse through the instant create of a new underclass. Whether it is called amnesty or another name, giving blanket legalization and citizenship to the 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants here in this country is the most significant part of this bill. This plus the further migration of these legalized immigrants' families may lead to 100 million more Americans in about a generation. This massive legalization will cost taxpayers $2.5 trillion, according to Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation; it will hasten Social Security and Medicare's demise by creating more future demands than will be commensurately paid in via taxes, and will constitute the largest unfunded mandate ever on state and local Governments. Today's largely impoverished illegal immigrant class will become tomorrow's citizen-clients of our expanded welfare state.

Proponents for this bill retort by waxing poetic about immigration and blurring the difference between legal and illegal immigration. It is said that today's immigration is like the waves of immigration from 1880 to 1920, when masses "yearning to breathe free" came to our shores, mostly from Europe. It's no wonder they want to confuse the legal versus illegal distinction. Legal immigration, especially high-skill immigration (e.g. under H1-B), has been a net plus for our economy. Illegal immigration, mostly low-wage and low-education, is decidedly not, when one accounts for the full social costs of supporting low wage families and compares it to their much smaller tax contributions such low-wage workers make. No doubt illlegal immigrants would like to be here, and that cheap-labor employers would like them so as well. However, neither low-wage employers nor low-wage migrant workers pay the full cost of health insurance, education, welfare and income subsidies that will be the entitlement of these future citizens. Even today, illegal immigrants are a fiscal drain; it will only be greater should they be given a legalization path.

The cost of this shift will be borne by taxpayers and by today's low-wage Americans, who will be under further wage pressure by the competition of so many low-skill immigrants. Median incomes have been stagnant for working men in this country, a wake-up call that the clear supply-and-demand consequence of large-scale illegal immigration has been to curb wage scales. Curiously, we harken back to the 'good old days' for 1945 to 1965, when family incomes rose as fast the economy; it was an era of much lower levels of immigration. Which trend should we prefer?

The losers in this bill are also today's legal immigrants, who played by the rules and who have had to jump through many hoops to stay legal, and pay much more in immigration fees than the $1,000 the illegal alien has to pay to get the Z-visa. They will face more delays as our bureaucracy will be swamped with millions of amnesty applications.

Illegal immigration has other social costs, Drug smuggling and human trafficking are rampant on our out-of-control southern border. Illegal immigrants make up more than a quarter of the prison population in California, commit a disproportionate number of crimes. As Heather MacDonald has shown, 'sanctuary cities' have, as a consequence of failing to enforce immigration laws, become incapable of enforcing other laws as well: "Sanctuary mandates create vast law-free zones where illegal immigrants know that they face virtually no risk of apprehension; the zones have notoriously protected criminals as well as itinerant roofers." Time and again, deportable criminal aliens have been let go due to lax immigration law enforcement, only to commit crime again.

What makes this bill truly horrific is that this bill is built to fail; it is deliberately constructed to fail to solve even the basic immigration issue at hand: Can we as Americans determine who comes here and who does not?

We have a border with Mexico where every day Federal law is violated thousands of times; yet despite a Federal budget of $2,800 billion, we cannot find the $1 billion it would take to build a secure barrier. We have tens of thousands of criminal aliens in America, yet we do not actively deport most of them, nor, thanks to our insecure border, can we assure that once deported they won't succeed in returning (many do). We have millions of fraudulent social security IDs in Government databases, many known to the IRS already, and yet nobody is bothering to cross-check and investigate these apparent law violations. Pitifully few employers are checked for immigration law violations.

In the recent Fort Dix terrorism case (the plot to attack an Army base that was foiled), three of the six terrorist plotters were illegal aliens. We've seen that script before: Several of the 9/11 plotters broke immigration law by over-staying visas; even after 9/11, the INS sent Mohammed Atta valid US visa six months to the day after he died. John Lee Malvo, co-conspirator in 2002 DC area sniper killing, was an illegal alien, a Jamaican stowaway, who was caught then released. The holes in our current system continue to be exploited by criminals.

The real crisis in immigration is this: Our country has lost control of immigration, and without control of immigration, we as Americans can't ensure that immigration is in our best interests. We can't be sure the people who are here are the ones we want to be here.

Solving the crisis is stymied by special interests who are more afraid of effective immigration law enforcement than they are afraid of the economic, social and national security costs of out-of-control system. To these special interests, the 'crisis' in effect is the scary possibility that someday we might end up with an immigration system that actually enforces the intent of our law. Then where would the agri-businesses and meatpackers be, without a ready source of illegal and therefore pliant fruit pickers and factory workers?

The proponents are saying there is a crisis, but do not identify the crisis nor the root cause. They believe that no amount of crisis would be sufficient to actually deport any significant number of illegal immigrants.

Can there be a system that is both 'in control' of immigration and at the same meets the needs of would-be immigrants, employers, and the rest of us? If there is a solution, it is probably the following: First, secure our borders. Second, enforce immigration law in the workplace far beyond the current pitiful levels. Third, replace our current immigration system, tilted too far in favor family-based migration (known as "chain migration" to some), with a system that leans more towards employment-based immigration. With 1-2 million jobs created each year, if our current legal level of immigration were mostly employment-based, it would be more than sufficient to meet any supposed labor needs.

The current Senate bill makes a few moves in the above direction, but they are only a garnish around the main entree of amnesty. The author of our current immigration misery is Senator Ted Kennedy, who pushed through the 1965 immigration bill that initiated waves of chain migration and incited illegal immigration. In 1986, Senator Kennedy helped author that year's amnesty program, while knocking the legs from under employer enforcement, actually making it a crime for employer's to question legalization status of employees except under restricted conditions. The one-two combo of amnesty plus a system designed to be unenforceable led to massive fraud in amnesty applications and fraud in employment documentation, and encouraged massive further illegal immigration. We went from two million illegal immigrants then to over twelve million today. The amnesty didn't curb illegal immigration, it multiplied it.

Having Senator Ted Kennedy author this bill is like asking an incompetent doctor who botched an operation to conduct the surgery to fix his own mistakes. In 1986, Senator Kennedy said "We will never again bring forward another Amnesty Bill like this." Today, he brings forward the 1986-redo bill, only bigger. Kennedy has joined with La Raza and cheap labor lobbies on the business side to ensure that American immigration stays as out-of-control as possible, and the result is predictably bad.

The bill continues to gut enforcement, not even funding border guard that were authorized years ago; it fails to properly put in play employer sanctions and make sure they are working before the 'amnesty' happens; they play shell games with border security, asking for only a portion of the much-needed fence to keep out human-trafficking and drug smuggling, a fence put into law last year but which has not been fully funded, with only a few miles of 700 miles built so far; it guts "English only" assimilation while claiming to support it; so-called triggers are undermined by language which allows them to be easily waived; a better way to handle legal immigration, a point system, is deferred for 8 years, sure to be abolished and undermined again before it becomes real. Even worse are provisions that allow even criminal aliens who have multiple convictions to become legal citizens. This list of abuses and errors in this bill goes on.

Perhaps this is why the bill was rushed to the Senate floor without getting vetted first by a committee hearing.

Those same forces who are against solving our real immigration problems have written this Senate bill. This bill ensures that more waves of illegal immigrants will continue to arrive, assured that deportation will never happen and another amnesty some day likely will. Cheap labor employers are happy to have cheap non-union labor; the Kennedy Democrats are happy to have new welfare-state clients and potential voters; and the 'immigrant rights' groups are happy to flex political muscle and grow their ranks and power. The rest of us - American-born citizens, legal immigrants, taxpayers - are the suckers who will pick up the tab and shoulder the burden.

But rest assured. This bill is built to fail; it will fail to control the border, it will fail to enforce immigration law, and it will fail to eliminate the massive numbers of illegal immigrants in our midst. More will come to await the next amnesty. The crises this bill creates will be far greater than anything it solves, and the immigration crisis will surely continue to be with us if we make the mistake of making this law.

As such, we can be sure that another grand compromise will be hammered out to 'fix' the problems this bill creates. I just hope Senator Kennedy won't be around to write the next bill when that happens. Three strikes and you're out, Senator.

it is gut-wrenching to see the RINOs and even our own Republican President falling over themselves to support this kennedy-written dreck.

What will be even sadder is to see liberal Democrats defeating these Republican Senators because the Republicans sold out, only to see the Democrat Senators spend the next 6 years do far far worse.

Case in point: Pro-full-amnesty Senators Casey of PA and Webb of VA, who defeated conservatives Santorum and Allen respectively.

Sad.

Unless we take out Lindsay Graham fo SC in the primaries, it is possible to have a choice in 2008 between a sellout and a liberal in one of the conservative states in the union. At a time when we need every single cosnervative vote in the too-liberal Senate. Really sad!!

One thing it will do is vastly increase the number of scofflaws in our country. This will complete the job begun by government programs like the IRS.

Most government activity is just irrational or incompetent but the American people will witness laws actually being passed to reward instead of punishing law breakers.

So a nation that used to bill itself as a nation of laws will become ungovernable. And the elites who created the situation will probably have theirs by then and won’t care.

Your proposals are impractical, extreme and unwise. The ‘deport them all immediately’ is an impossibility (and used as such by the pro-amnesty side as a strawmna argument). Excessive force is cruel, inhumane and unnecessary; a strong, guarded, secure fence is all that is needed, no more no less.

And you cannot get Mexico to agree to anything except taking back her own. We are better off simply working with Mexico via (a) strong secure border fence and (b) immigration vias rules that limit every country of origin to 10% of total visas.

So you are left with a choice. Go along with Kennedy’s citizenship for all or find a *reasonable* alternative.

This is a solution most can agree with:

“Can there be a system that is both ‘in control’ of immigration and at the same meets the needs of would-be immigrants, employers, and the rest of us? If there is a solution, it is probably the following: First, secure our borders. Second, enforce immigration law in the workplace far beyond the current pitiful levels. Third, replace our current immigration system, tilted too far in favor family-based migration (known as “chain migration” to some), with a system that leans more towards employment-based immigration. With 1-2 million jobs created each year, if our current legal level of immigration were mostly employment-based, it would be more than sufficient to meet any supposed labor needs.”

Here’s what REAL Immigration Reform will look like:
1: Deport ALL illegals IMMEDIATELY
2: Close the borders IMMEDIATELY. Use deadly force. Some may die but not many as word will get out.
3: PAYBACK TIME FOR MEXICO:
A: Demand repayment for all services and support payments issued to illegals from Mexico. This includes repayment for incarceration expenses of Mexican citizens.
B: Demand that taxes be paid on ALL money sent to Mexico, with penalties and interest. The IRS is really good at tracking down this type of thing, let them work on it.
4: LET MEXICO REPAY THE U.S. IN OIL. They have LOTS of oil, and the U.S. needs cheap oil.
5: There will be NO immigration from Mexico until the balance is paid.
6: The U.S. and it’s citizens will boycott Mexico and products made in Mexico until the repayment is complete.
7: Keep the borders closed. THERE WILL BE NO MORE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.

I like your style. You're a man among boys.

As long as conservatives believe there are only two choices, Republican or Democrat then they will not ever see any meaningful choice when it counts. I voted the Republican ticket without fail from ‘68 up until ‘96 when the Republican party shoved me aside and stopped representing me as a principled conservative. I now vote for the person that best represents my values and since at least 1992 that has not been the party that has come to represent bloated bigger and more intrusive government.

And until people wake up and start to see there isn’t really all that much difference between the two major parties then they will continue serve them as indentured slaves in mind and in deed. Republicans are proving to me with each passing day that they aren’t really much different than the Democraps. Both parties are selling us all out for a pocketful of gold.

I disagree emphatically with the phony notion that that “there isn’t really all that much difference between the two major parties” and could cite chapter and verse. But I’ll leave that argument aside, and just say it is best to put aside the party labels and look at each political leader and candidate as individuals, and see who are doing and saying the right things and follow them.

Almost all the Senators and Representatives saying the *right* things about what needs to be done - DeMint, Sessions, Grassley - and running for president, eg, Duncan Hunter, are Republicans.

Example: Rep John Boehner called the senate immigration bill a ‘piece of s888’

Immigration is a ‘wedge’ issue that splits the GOP base from many elites in both parties. We simply have to cull wheat from chaff and support *ONLY* those candidates who support the right position on immigration, whatever the party label.

You are mischaracterizing or misunderstanding Fred Thompson’s position on illegal immigration. He did say that deporting all of them is unrealistic, but that is hardly the end of his position.

He is for securing the border before we do anything. Then, he is for enforcing existing laws, so the illegals go home on their own. Turning the water off so to speak.

"You are mischaracterizing or misunderstanding Fred Thompson’s position on illegal immigration... Then, he is for enforcing existing laws, so the illegals go home on their own."

According to Thompson, I'm not "misunderstanding" him at all.

From his interview with Christ Wallace on Fox News, March 11, 2007...

WALLACE: Well, let me put up on the screen something that you said last year about illegals, and let's take a look at it. "You're going to have to, in some way, work out a deal where they can have some aspirations of citizenship but not make it so easy that it's unfair to the people waiting in line and abiding by the law."
Now, you said, "Look, it's just not realistic that we're going to round up 12 million people and ship them all out of the country."
THOMPSON: Well, that's true, as a general statement. We woke up one day after years of neglect and apparently discovered that we have somewhere between 12 million and 20 million illegal aliens in this country. So it became an impossible situation to deal with.
I mean, there's really no good solution. So what do you do? You have to start over. Well, I'm concerned about the next 12 million or 20 million. So that's why enforcement, and enforcement at the border, has to be primary.

On immigration, Thompson is a weak sister.

The way to get rid of these people is to shut down their biggest employers. That's right. Shut them down. Completely. One after another in quick succession. Serious prison time. Massive fines. At the same time, at least 20,000 troops on the border with shoot-to-kill orders.

That's how it's done.

Anything else is nonsense.

Well, now you're just flat out lying. Here is the entire section of that interview PROPERLY excerpted in an HONEST manner:

THOMPSON: Well, that's true, as a general statement. We woke up one day after years of neglect and apparently discovered that we have somewhere between 12 million and 20 million illegal aliens in this country. So it became an impossible situation to deal with.

I mean, there's really no good solution. So what do you do? You have to start over. Well, I'm concerned about the next 12 million or 20 million. So that's why enforcement, and enforcement at the border, has to be primary. I think most people feel disillusioned after 1986 when we had this deal offered to them before, and now we're insisting that, you know, we solve the security problem first, and then we'll talk about what to do with regard to other things — certainly no amnesty or nothing blanket like that.

But figure out some way to make some differentiation between the kind of people that we have here. You know, if you have the right kind of policies, and you're not encouraging people to come here and encouraging them to stay once they're here, they'll go back, many of them, of their own volition, instead of having to, you know, load up moving vans and rounding people up. That's not going to happen.

Thompson has since come out even stronger on this issue.

You are a liar and you should be ashamed of yourself.

I read the whole thing and understand very well what it means.

It means Thompson will do nothing about the 20 million or more illegals who are here.

Nothing.

Here's your boy Thompson...

I'm concerned about the next 12 million or 20 million.
... an impossible situation to deal with.

... you know, we solve the security problem first, and then we'll talk about what to do with regard to other things — certainly no amnesty or nothing blanket like that.

You see, what Thompson doesn't seem to understand is that many voters don't want a promise "to talk about what to do" about the 20 million illegals at some indefinite time in the future. We want a concrete plan -- not this vague, limp-wristed hogwash we're hearing from Thompson.

So go ahead and vote for him. You'll get business as usual -- the "fence" that never gets built and wouldn't keep out a butterfly even if it were built -- and 20 million illegals who stay right where they are, reproducing like flies -- when they're not murdering and raping Americans, bankrupting community resources and committing every kind of identity fraud.

You want to believe Thompson's got a plan? Be my guest but to me, he sounds just like another bullshiter on the next barstool.

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.