Posted on 09/27/2011 7:57:53 PM PDT by Clairity
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a radical who encourages illegal immigration.
Really?
That incendiary line of attack in the free-for-all among Republican presidential hopefuls begs for a deep breath and a dose of rational reflection.
Since 2001, Texas has allowed students to qualify for in-state college tuition if they've lived in the state for three years leading to high school graduation, completed their studies for a diploma or a GED, and enrolled at a public higher education institution.
Citizens, legal residents and other immigrants can get lower rates under the law. Students who meet the criteria but aren't U.S. citizens yet must file a statement that they intend to seek legal status.
The policy, which won widespread support in the Legislature before getting Perry's signature, has moral, practical and financial dimensions.
Support has come from the influential Texas Association of Business and chambers of commerce, as well as educators, the Texas Catholic Conference and civil libertarians.
In 2009, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott upheld the law. This summer, the U.S. Supreme Court also rejected a challenge to a similar law in California.
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
I’ve not written Perry off, because of all of them up on that debate stage— he is the one candidate that I believe will make shutting down that border one of his first priorities.
He absolutely knows what an emergency that border is. I want that border closed and I don’t care how it is done—so long as it is done and is effective!
If more boots on the ground, aviation assets and targeted fencing doesn’t work, then they start on a full fence. I don’t care HOW...just DO IT and do it yesterday!
I don’t want years of congress up there fussin’ over the hows of a fence, the environment blah blah blah. I had thought a fence was the best but I’m willing to try any idea, and if that idea isn’t working, then adjust the plan.
The Bush Plan, written by the late Tony Snow..Myths and Facts on Illegal Immigration.
1. MYTH: This is amnesty.
•
FACT: Amnesty is the forgiveness of an offense without penalty. This proposal is not amnesty because illegal workers must acknowledge that they broke the law, pay a $1,000 fine, and undergo criminal background checks to obtain a Z visa granting temporary legal status.
• FACT: To apply for a green card at a date years into the future, Z visa workers must wait in line behind those who applied lawfully, pay an additional $4,000 fine, complete accelerated English requirements, leave the U.S. and file their application in their home country, and demonstrate merit based on the skills and attributes they will bring to the United States.
• FACT: Workers approved for Z visas will be given a temporary legal status, but they will not enjoy the full privileges of citizens or Legal Permanent Residents, such as welfare benefits and the ability to sponsor relatives abroad as immigrants.
2. MYTH: This proposal repeats the mistakes of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. •
FACT: The 1986 Act failed because it provided amnesty for 3 million immigrants, did not adequately secure borders, did not include a workable employer verification system, and created no legal avenue to meet the labor needs of the American economy.
• FACT: This proposal addresses every one of the shortcomings from 1986: •
No Amnesty: Illegal workers must acknowledge that they broke the law and pay a fine to be eligible for a Z visa.
• Border Security: Border security benchmarks must be met before the Z visa and temporary worker programs go into effect. These triggers include: constructing 370 miles of fencing and 200 miles of vehicle barriers at the border and increasing the size of the Border Patrol to 18,000 agents.
• Employer Verification System: An Employment Eligibility Verification System must be ready to process new hires before the Z visa and temporary worker programs go into effect.
• Temporary Worker Program: A temporary worker program will relieve pressure on the border and provide a lawful way to meet the needs of our economy.
• FACT: The 1986 Act offered green cards after just 18 months, but under this proposal, green card applicants must meet a number of responsibilities – something which will take most candidates more than a decade.
3. MYTH: The government will not and cannot meet its promise to crack down on the hiring of illegal workers. •
FACT: Before the Z visa and temporary worker programs go into effect, an Employment Eligibility Verification System (EEVS) must be in place and ready to prevent unauthorized workers from obtaining jobs in the United States.
• FACT: Employers will be required to verify the work eligibility of all employees using the EEVS, and all workers will be required to present stronger and more readily verifiable identification documents. Tough new anti-fraud measures will be implemented to restrict fraud and identity theft.
• FACT: Employers who hire illegal workers will face stiff new criminal and civil penalties. For example, the maximum criminal penalty for a pattern or practice of hiring illegals will increase 25-fold, from $3,000 per alien to $75,000 per alien.
4. MYTH: This proposal would cut in half the amount of fence authorized by the Secure Fence Act of 2006. •
FACT: The Secure Fence Act of 2006 – which authorized the construction of hundreds of miles of additional fencing; more vehicle barriers, checkpoints, and lighting; and increased use of advanced technology – will remain unchanged.
• FACT: At least half of the additional fencing authorized by the Secure Fence Act must be built before the temporary worker program and Z visa could go into effect.
5. MYTH: The trigger period will cause a rush to the border. •
FACT: To be eligible to apply for a Z visa, illegal immigrants must prove they were in the country prior to January 1, 2007.
• FACT: Anyone caught crossing the border after the new law passes will be fingerprinted and permanently barred from receiving work or tourist visas from the U.S., creating a strong disincentive to illegal immigration.
6. MYTH: By providing an opportunity for citizenship to illegal immigrants already here, the bill will exponentially increase extended-family chain migration. •
FACT: The proposal reforms our immigration system to create a new balance between family connections and our national interests and economic needs.
• FACT: Visas for parents of U.S. citizens are being capped, while visas for siblings and adult children are eliminated.
• FACT: To help keep our economy competitive, a new merit-based system similar to those used by other countries will give preference to attributes that further our national interest such as: job offers in high-demand fields, ability to speak English, and education.
7. MYTH: The temporary worker program is bad for American workers. •
FACT: The temporary worker program relieves pressure on the border and meets our economic needs by allowing workers to enter the country to fill jobs that Americans are not doing.
• FACT: The program protects American workers by requiring U.S. employers to advertise the job in the United States at a competitive wage before hiring a temporary worker.
• FACT: To ensure “temporary” means “temporary,” workers are limited to three two-year terms, with at least a year spent outside the United States between each term.
• FACT: A cap of 400,000 is set on the program, which can be adjusted up or down in the future depending on demand.
8. MYTH: Illegal immigrants will come out of the shadows and on to the welfare rolls. •
FACT: Z visa workers are not entitled to welfare, Food Stamps, SSI, non-emergency Medicaid, or other programs and privileges enjoyed by U.S. citizens and some Legal Permanent Residents.
• FACT: In order to apply for and maintain Z visa status, workers must remain employed.
9. MYTH: Government agencies will not be able to share information to pursue immigration violators. •
FACT: Under this proposal, there will be unprecedented information sharing between Federal, State, and local agencies to ensure that immigration laws are respected and enforced.
• FACT: The new Employment Eligibility Verification System, which employers will be required to use for all employees, will rely on unprecedented information sharing across Federal and State databases, including Social Security records, passport and visa records, and State driver’s licenses.
• FACT: For Z visa applicants, DHS has authority to share information with law enforcement about terrorist aliens, security risks, and criminal aliens, including aliens who lie on their applications and aliens who commit fraud.
• FACT: Under this proposal, DHS will receive Social Security Administration “no match” information on individuals and information on multiple uses of the same social security number by more than one individual.
10. MYTH: Senators are being asked to vote Monday on a lengthy bill that they will not have time to read. •
FACT: Monday’s vote is only a procedural vote to bring the bill to the floor for debate, not a vote on the bill itself.
• FACT: This bill is the product of months of extraordinary negotiations between Senators from both parties and Cabinet-level officials.
There is no punishment here. They have been given a free high schools education, which ought to enable them to get by. In justice they must take their places behind legal residents and American citizens.
We have a different situation in Texas. There are Hispanics whose families have been here for generations. These act as a kind of cultural buffer between anglos and the new arrivals. Many of them are not happy to seer THEIR children pushed aside to benefit people who are often not even from northern Mexico, where many Tejanos have family.
You forgot to include one element in your comment, which I will highlight in bold: Texas under liberal, open borders Perry and the citizens of Texas, was the first in the nation to pass in-state tuition for illegals.
Do you think the citizens of Texas passed the bill for no good reason? The problem, my friend, is not because of the citizens of Texas. It is the problem of the federal government. It is the federal government's failure to control the border. It is the responsibility of the Obama Regime to seal that border; not the citizens of the state of Texas. The citizens of Texas can only deal with the results of the federal government's irresponsibility the best they can. Of course, it is no skin off your hide that the Obama Regime has failed the people of Texas. The only thing you want to do is blame Governor Rick Perry for something he has not caused.
Now you are calling me a leftist? Call me all the names in the book. Let’s let a barrage of name calling and political bias cloud the truth.
*******************
Yes, call names of people you disagree with but never and I mean NEVER...call someone heartless. :p
The Bush Plan, written by the late Tony Snow..Myths and Facts on Illegal Immigration. 1. MYTH: This is amnesty. • FACT: Amnesty is the forgiveness of an offense without penalty. This proposal is not amnesty because illegal workers must acknowledge that they broke the law, pay a $1,000 fine, and undergo criminal background checks to obtain a Z visa granting temporary legal status.
In other words, it's amnesty.
Is legal residence in the USA worth $1000? What would this deal go for if we put it up for bids, anywhere in the world?
Phooie!
With all due respect, you just don't know what you're talking about. The fences built on the border now are 16 feet deep to discourage tunnels. You're equating that to building a dirt patrol road?
The interest of the security of 300 million Americans and the survivability of our country has to outweigh the interests of some cattle ranchers. And there can be wells or pumps or some other way to address their needs.
I'm sure the land owners along the river will be happy to know that all they have to do is dig a well and put in some pumps.
Assuming they can get the permits (and that's a big assumption). How deep will they have to drill? How many dry holes before finding water if there IS water to be found? And how many gallons per minutes will a well provide if they DO find water and that water has an acceptable saline content
And if you're a big grower, how many wells and how many miles of pipe will you have to lay to get the water from those wells to your crops. Any idea how much one of those big diesel pumps cost? Any idea how much if cost to run one for a month? Do you have any idea what ANY of that cost?
Not all land joining the river belongs to cattle ranchers.
But in general the cost of fencing is NOT astronomical.
Yes, the cost of that kind of fencing and especially the labor IS astronomical.
The newer, modern anti-climb fencing systems that have been recently installed work well.
Well, AZ has built some new fences that are 30' high and they're still getting over. There's an article on FR about it. Seems that 3 illegals have broken a leg dropping over. My question is how many got over w/o getting hurt.
What we can do is reduce a flood to something much smaller and more manageable.
You provided the answer yourself....boots, technology.
BTW, the "flood" is already smaller. The numbers from March 2007 to March 2009 (300,000) are almost half of what they were from 2005 to 2007 and much less than the five years from 2000 to 2005 which is a great deal less than the two decades prior to that.
Who instigated this march? (drum roll) The Democrats and their Marxist operatives. In fact, they were working to register voters during that demonstration. And, the Obama Regime is counting on those votes for his reelection.
It is the Obama Regime that has failed in its Constitutional responsibility to control the border. I also blame President Bush in this failure. But, let’s start pointing the finger where it should: The Obama Regime’s encouragement of illegals through an insecure border. It is the citizens of Texas, and the other border states, that have had to deal with the federal government’s failure. To blame them for what they have had to do is wrong.
You may not be confident, but I am. And hopefully, I can be confident regardless of who the nominee turns out to be.
In hilly areas and adjacent to rivers the road is always the more difficult part because of the required excavation, fill, drainage, erosion control and grading. But there have been such roads built all over the country, it is a task we know well how to do.
You can whine all you want about the cost of fencing and security measures on the border, but the fact is these costs are MINUSCULE compared to the costs of the illegals.
At the last go around with the Bush immigration bill to legalize the illegals the Heritage Foundation estimated the cost IN THE TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS!!!
We should place the interests of the relatively small number of landowners adjacent to the border ahead of our very survivability as a free constitutional republic?
Um, no.
I agree with your excellent border control solution 100%. It puts it in a concise set of objectives that we all could support. I only hope the cost is under $30 billion to implement. The emphasis is to control the border, which is the key to our immigration problem.
I have posted several times on this thread the need to point the finger at the Obama Regime and their Constitutionally mandated responsibility to control our border. They should be putting every resource at work to seal that border. They have not. All the things you have cited as necessary to control our border should be happening now. It is not happening and I am mad as hell that it is not.
Thanks, except I forgot to add a monitoring system for the visa overstays to my list.
The visa overstays are a huge part of the problem of illegals and we will never get a handle on it without solving the visa overstays problem.
The federal government offers financial aid under Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Anyone can apply for it if they have a Social Security number. I have seen a Mexican applying for Social Security with an state interpreter on one hand and a California driver’s license in the other.
We do make monthly payments for the loan we get through FAFSA. The bottom line is that illegal parents can get the student aid for their children if they jump through the same hoops other parents do.
If the objective can be accomplished by manpower and technology (and commonsense says it can) then WHY build a fence which WON'T accomplish the objective (as you've admitted) but WILL cause the problems I've outlined and other legal and human problems I haven't even thought of?
Way past my bedtime. Enjoyed the discussion. Even though I haven't convinced you, maybe I have someone else. Or at least made them think. :-)
Need to make a hole? No problemo:
"After masked men blew a series of huge holes in the border fence late last night, thousands of Palestinians streamed through the holes and swarmed the streets of the Egyptian border town of Rafah, clearing local shops of whatever they could manage to buy and carry off: milk, powdered detergent, the occasional motorcycle."
The idea of “” (which is an excellent word) has crossed my mind. However, I think it was the will of the Texas people that got all those state representative to vote overwhelmingly to put the bill through. I think it was an easy sell that struck a chord of fairness. The “Hispandering” may have gave the creme de la creme as an incentive.
Your idea of the federal government’s Dream Act and the citizens of Texas’ idea of the Dream Act are two different things. The one that the citizens of Texas passed by an overwhelming vote (it should be noted that it passed the Texas Senate with NO “no” votes) was this: The Texas version relates to higher education only whereas the federal act would facilitate giving legal status to children who entered the U.S. illegally with their parents.
No. They should be applying for legal status.
I agree with you 100%. As these students are going through high school, they should also be going through the process of citizenship. By the time they are 18, they should be taking that oath of citizenship. I say make it happen if it is not happening.
Make it happen for the parents too.
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.