Posted on 09/16/2008 7:50:10 AM PDT by BGHater
Speaking to a predominantly Hispanic audience considered crucial to winning Florida, Republican John McCain vowed Monday to make immigration one of his ''first priorities'' if elected president and accused Democrat Barack Obama of spiking reforms in Congress.
McCain spearheaded a bill in 2006 -- reviled by the right wing of his own party -- that would have allowed illegal immigrants to earn citizenship. Obama supported the overall goal but backed controversial amendments that would have limited a guest worker program.
''The fact is that Sen. Obama proposed amendments that would have killed the legislation. I fought for it,'' McCain told more than 350 people at a town hall meeting.
McCain leveled the same charge in ads running in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, which Obama called ''dishonest'' in an interview Sunday on Spanish-language television.
Once pummeled for backing what critics tarred as ''amnesty,'' McCain has talked little about immigration during the general election campaign. He did not raise the issue Monday in Jacksonville, reliably Republican turf where he began a two-day tour that wraps up Tuesday in Tampa.
But Orlando offered a different audience. Central Florida is home to a fast-growing Hispanic community coveted for its political independence, unlike the staunchly Republican Cuban-American voters who have dominated Miami-Dade politics.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
No I understand. It’s our LEGAL immigration laws that need reform. Start there.
And what do you do with the 12 to 20 million illegals already here?
It depends on which number is accurate. A lot of them won’t make muster. Some who would won’t enroll out of fear. I think you have to set the bar high. Immediate deportation of criminal aliens goes without saying. Anyone who falsely used a SSN, drivers license, license plates, or falsified documents should say goodbye. Need to have a steady job, a spotless record, pass an enhaustive civics and English course, fees, fines, penalties, and then of course back to the end of the line. And no chain migration.
That is part of the problem. We have no idea how many illegals are here. As I mentioned, in 1986, it was estimated that 1 million would apply for amnesty and the real number was 2.7 million. Estimates on the number of illegals ranges from 12 million to 30 million. How can you make good public policy without good data?
A lot of them won’t make muster. Some who would won’t enroll out of fear. I think you have to set the bar high.
Sounds good. If the bar is "set high," what is the motivation for illegals to turn themselves in and risk deportation?
Immediate deportation of criminal aliens goes without saying. Anyone who falsely used a SSN, drivers license, license plates, or falsified documents should say goodbye
That probably eliminates 90% of them. How do you get rid of them? And why should we allow anyone who entered this country illegally, i.e., violated our laws, remain here? Does the rule of law mean anything? As someone who has actually issued non-immigrtant visas, many of these illegals would not even be allowed to enter this country on a tourist visa.
Need to have a steady job, a spotless record, pass an enhaustive civics and English course, fees, fines, penalties, and then of course back to the end of the line.
This is amnesty. The back of the line starts in their home countries.
And no chain migration.
That just isn't going to happen. McCain favors family reunification and so do all the supporters of amnesty.
Attrition thru enforcment works. The first place to start is enforcing our existing laws. The biggest mistake we could make is to legalize the status of the illegal aliens already here. It didn't solve the problem in 1986 and won't solve it today by making the same mistake. All it does is encourage more illegal immigration.
Calm down folks. Let me splain some stuff. First of all most of the Cuban American community in Fl are solid consevatives...witness babalu.com and they are here legally.
“McCain courting Hispanics” is a BS title because most of the Cuban community is solid Republican...solid.
A little known fact and not spoken of is the Cubans are resented by the illegals and some other legal Hispanics. Considering the small size of the Cuban community with in the states they have excelled greatly compared to other Hispanic groups. Most Cubans do not get involved the Hispanic “events” which are mostly controlled by the Mexicans and the Mex. guv.
I strongly suggest FReepers stop by Babalu.com and learn for themselves...and give them support because we are on the same team.
I don’t disagree with you and I never said back of the line doesn’t mean in their home countries. The best we can hope for is secure borders and then any amnesty attempt fails. Then we can acheive attrition enforcement.
The problem is that John McCain does not favor that approach. He supports an amnesty, i.e., legalizing the status of those illegals already here and is bound and determined to get one. He is against deportation for most of the illegals here.
And what do you want me to do? There is no political will in DC for mass deportations. Look at all the enforcement the Clinton admin did and see how many still came. The border is the problem and McCain has promised to fix that. Otherwise I thin we have to work to prevent any amnesty. McCain has shifted some on this.
The following is something I wrote and distributed on the Hill and at various demonstrations:
THE ALTERNATIVE TO AMNESTY
The proponents of amnesty are wont to create the false choice between a blanket amnesty and mass deportation of 12 to 20 million illegal aliens conjuring up images of the Holocaust with a cruel, heartless government relentlessly tracking down and rounding up cowering, innocent men, women and children in the middle of the night and packing them into cattle cars for return to the hellholes they risked life and limb to escape. And the staggering numbers make it seem like an impossible task. Faced with such a stark choice, i.e., a blanket amnesty versus a mass deportation, amnesty is presented as the most humane and logical way to handle the millions who have entered the United States illegally. In reality, we have other choices and alternatives that don’t reward people who have broken our laws with the right to stay and work here and an eventual path to citizenship and don’t make it easier for alien terrorists to threaten our national security.
The 12 to 20 million illegal aliens did not enter this country overnight and they will not leave overnight. The 1986 amnesty permitted those aliens who had resided illegally in the United States continuously for five years to apply for a one-time amnesty. So, the 12 to 20 million illegal aliens have entered this country over the past 25 years. According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), “Since 2000, 10.3 million immigrants have arrived — the highest seven-year period of immigration in U.S. history. More than half of post-2000 arrivals (5.6 million) are estimated to be illegal aliens.”
This unprecedented, persistent wave of immigration will continue and probably increase due to existing pro-population growth legal immigration policies, the failure to secure our borders, including having a system to track and deport visa overstays, and the government’s unwillingness to enforce our existing immigration laws, particularly against employers. A blanket amnesty of 12 to 20 million illegal aliens would allow at least more than 65 million additional LEGAL immigrants to enter the United States through chain migration, i.e., family reunification. The 1986 amnesty projected one million would apply for amnesty, but the actual number turned out to be 2.7 million.
A massive blanket amnesty also creates a national security problem by providing new opportunities and advantages for alien terrorists currently operating on American soil. Inexplicably, supporters of the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill assume that its enactment will allow the federal government to identify these terrorists. On the contrary, the bill will make it easier for alien terrorists to operate in the United States by allowing them to create fraudulent identities with ease. The terrorists will have options: (1) continue to operate as an illegal alien; (2) obtain the amnesty using one’s own name; or (3) invent a clean identity with the help of the U.S. Government. With this newly minted identity backed up by an ID card, the alien terrorist will be armed with the perfect “breeder document,” allowing him to obtain driver’s licenses and just about any other form of identification that he desires. This is essentially what the nineteen 9/11 hijackers did: They used their passports and visas as “breeder documents” to obtain 63 driver’s licenses. The documents allowed them to travel openly and board airplanes easily. In fact, four of the hijackers were even registered to vote.
WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE TO BLANKET AMNESTY? ANSWER: ATTRITION THROUGH ENFORCEMENT.
First and foremost, we must secure our borders. When you have a water pipe break in the basement, the first thing you do is shut off the water. Then you can assess the water damage and decide what to do to address it. You cannot deal with those already here illegally without cutting off the endless supply of those wanting to enter illegally. Until the borders are secured, it is absurd to discuss additional guest worker programs and amnesty.
The pro-amnesty supporters have held border security hostage to comprehensive immigration reform. Border security is not an immigration issue; it is a national security issue. It has been over six years since 9/11 yet the Border Patrol continues to apprehend more than a million people a year trying to enter our country illegally. Hundreds of thou-sands of illegal aliens enter successfully annually. In March 2006 FBI Director Robert Mueller said that his agency busted a smuggling ring organized by the terrorist group Hezbollah that had operatives cross the Mexican border to carry out possible terrorist attacks inside the U.S. “This was an occasion in which Hezbollah operatives were assisting others with some association with Hezbollah in coming to the United States.”
The Secure Fence Act of 2006 (PL-109-367) was passed by an overwhelming vote in Congress, including 80-19 in the Senate with Presidential candidates Clinton, McCain, and Obama supporting the bill, and enacted on October 26, 2006 with President Bush’s signature. Yet, the actual construction of the fence has been painfully slow with the political landscape littered with land mines slowing down funding and construction. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) reported that as of September 30, 2007 only 155 miles of fence have been built.
Fully implement the US-Visit Program. There are over 4,000,000 aliens now in illegal status, i.e., people who entered legally as tourists or students or temporary workers but did not leave when their visa expired. We need a system that tracks who enters and leaves the country and deport those who overstay their visas.
Enforce existing laws against employers. Jobs are the magnets that attract illegal aliens. The government’s failure to enforce existing laws against employers and to create a proper employee verification program must end.
Implement 287[g] nationwide. The federal government must provide state and local law enforcement with the training and access to databases to coordinate and leverage existing assets to identify and deport illegal aliens.
State and local laws to discourage illegal settlement. Eliminate sanctuary cities.
We know attrition through enforcement works based on empirical data from states and local communities that have tried it, e.g., Oklahoma, Georgia, Arizona, Hazelton, PA, and Prince William County, VA. In the 1986 amnesty legislation, we tried amnesty without enforcement. It didn’t work. It’s time to try enforcement without amnesty.
So? If it nearly triples, that will be three times the good citizens - if people on FR stop hating them.
The US has aborted 43 million potential citizens since Roe vs Wade. If we didn’t have immigrants, we’d have negative population growth, just like Europe. We need immigrants, but we need those who want to be Americans. Latin Americans want to be US Americans; Muslims do not. The fact that Bush and the Dems are now importing thousands and thousands more Muslims to the US is the thing we should worry about. Well, that and doing better outreach to Latin American immigrants so they don’t fall into the clutches of the Dems.
Spare me the phony moralizing and pulling of the ethinicity card. The issue is whether we can assimilate and absorb the numbers of people and avoid Balkanization along culture and linguistic lines. Bty 2050, the Hispanic population of the US will have increased more than 60 times in the space of 85 years. There are consequences to such a rapid increase.
The Hispanic Challenge By Professor Samuel P. Huntington, Harvard University
The US has aborted 43 million potential citizens since Roe vs Wade. If we didn’t have immigrants, we’d have negative population growth, just like Europe
Wrong, the US fertility rate is 2.1, replacement level and we have the highest rate of annual population growth of any developed country on earth. By 2050, our population will be 439 million up from 200 million in 1970 and our current 305 million. Since 2000, we have added 23 million or the equivalent of the curent population of Texas. We are the third most populous country on the globe just after China and India. This increase in not an unalloyed good. It impacts every major challenge facing this country whether it is energy, health care, education, entitlement programs, infrastructure, etc.
. Latin Americans want to be US Americans; Muslims do not.
Where do you come up with that nonsense? Can you provide some basis for that assertion beyond feeling or emotion? And why do you compare religion against ethnicity? What about native born American muslims, e.g., black muslims. You castigate Freepers for hating Hispanics and then invoke religious bigotry.
Well, that and doing better outreach to Latin American immigrants so they don’t fall into the clutches of the Dems.
Hispancis vote overwhelmingly for the Democrats. The Republicans’ Hispanic Delusion Amnesty is not just wrong in principle, it’s bad politics.
bttt!
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