When politicians use this term they mean amnesty for illegals that are here now plus their immediate families even if those relatives are now in another country. Many politicians and others are convinced that we must give citizenship to all illegals living here now- because they do not believe there is another solution. Some know there are other solutions and just support illegal immigration and open borders.
Amnesty has been given in the past- and it was to be a one time only deal- with strict enforcement of the border and strict enforcement of all immigration laws. The problem is the government did not live up to that, they did not secure the border and have refused to enforce the laws we have now. This is why the border is such a mess now, and why illegal immigration is so far out of hand. It is a disaster and at this point there is no quick fix. Anything we do will cost money- lots of it.
Politicians and many others are trying to sell "comprehensive immigration reform" as a quick, painless fix. It is not- they claim only worthy illegals will be given citizenship after they comply with certain requirements. Someone would have to be able to sort out all of the illegals in this country in order to do that. In order to even attempt to do that tons of money will have to be spent to either add budget, facilities, and manpower to agencies we already have or in our usual government wisdom create some new entity to do that. Either way it would be a very costly proposition and one that is guaranteed to fail. Amnesty of any kind is also very unfair to anyone who has gone through the process legally- if we do amnesty we are rewarding illegal behaviour- which to me is never a good idea.
The reason it will not work is because many criminal illegals will not apply for amnesty- they know they will not qualify so they will continue to be here illegally doing illegal things. Illegals are also masters of fake documents and identities so many will get through the system when they should not qualify. Some will use a fake ID to get amnesty in spite of a criminal record and some will use fake documents to show they have been here, working here however long the requirement will be or fake documents to meet other requirements.
The other part of the problem of giving amnesty is employers hire illegals because they are willing to work for less money, little or no benefits, and will tolerate unsafe or otherwise bad working conditions. If you make all the illegals here now citizens with some stroke of a pen- then those new citizens will be getting better jobs and the employers of illegals now will need more illegals to fill the jobs. It happened when amnesty was done before- the new citizens moved into better jobs and businesses "needed" more illegals. Another side of that coin is there are businesses in every industry that do not and never have hired illegals. Those businesses find it hard or impossible to compete with businesses that do and many U.S. businesses have failed for that reason alone. Again it is unfair competition.
Illegals have taken jobs from citizens, even in good economic times many jobs that citizens wanted and needed have gone to illegals. It is nearly impossible for a citizen to compete with an illegal for a job, and when illegals are hired in large numbers in any industry the wages for that job become artifically low and citizens cannot work that cheap. The dirty little secret of illegal workers is they cannot work that cheap either- which is why they are such a burden on social services and medical care. With illegal labor the business makes a larger profit- but the taxpayers have the burden of the extra expenses of dealing with the fallout of the illegals.
Right now our economy is weak, and many are unemployed. If we move right now to remove illegals from the country those jobs can go to citizens who need them. If we secure the border and enforce immigration laws already on the books it will remove large numbers of illegals- many will self deport and others will be deported through enforcement. Arizona's new law is a step in the right direction to enforcement. After the border is secure and many illegals are out of the country, if we truly don't have enough citizens to do the jobs we need done- then we may need to change some of our immigration laws to allow more LEGAL foreign workers into this country. In my opinion we should never condone or allow illegal workers in any circumstance.
It will cost money to secure the border and enforce immigration laws, but whatever we do to solve these issues will cost money. I support securing the border because no matter what else we do the border must be secured as a matter of security. Terrorists can and do cross our open border- the Cartel War in Mexico is creeping across our border- there are many border issues other than illegal immigration so the border needs to be secure no matter what. I support enforcing all immigration laws as a process to remove most of the illegals that are now here. I believe our money would be better spent securing the border and using our current immigration laws to deal with the problem.
I know this was long-winded, but so many times people only see a small part of the problem and then it is hard to come up with a workable solution. Many who don't live on the border do not see the whole picture so it is impossible for them to make good choices for solutions.
Excellent analysis. Unfortunately, I agree completely.