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A Less Ambitious Approach to Immigration

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August 6, 2007 06:42 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
February 8, 2007
By Arlen Specter
Monday, August 6, 2007; Page A17

The charge of amnesty defeated comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate this summer. It is too important, and there has been too much legislative investment, not to try again. The time to do so is now.

Certainly the government should implement the provisions it has already enacted to improve border security and crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. But the important additions on those subjects contained in the bill defeated in June will not be enacted without also dealing with the 12 million-plus undocumented immigrants and the guest worker program.

So let's take a fresh look and try a narrower approach.

There is a consensus in Congress on most objectives and many remedies for immigration reform: more border patrols, additional fencing, drones and some form of a guest worker program. Modern technological advances provide foolproof identification so employers can -- justifiably -- be severely sanctioned if they don't verify IDs and act to eliminate the magnet attracting illegals to penetrate the border. Yet Congress is unlikely to appropriate $3 billion for border security without dealing simultaneously with the illegal immigrants already here.

The main objective in legalizing the 12 million was to eliminate their fugitive status, allowing them to live in the United States without fear of being detected and deported or being abused by unscrupulous employers. We should consider a revised status for those 12 million people. Let them hold the status of those with green cards -- without the automatic path to citizenship that was the core component of critics' argument that reform efforts were really amnesty. Give these people the company of their spouses and minor children and consider other indicators of citizenship short of the right to vote (which was always the dealbreaker).

This approach may be attacked as creating an "underclass" inconsistent with American values, which have always been to give refuge to the "huddled masses." But such a compromise is clearly better than leaving these people a fugitive class. People with a lesser status are frequently referred to as second-class citizens. Congress has adamantly refused to make the 12 million people already here full citizens, but isn't it better for them to at least be secure aliens than hunted and exploited?

Giving these people green-card status leaves open the opportunity for them to return to their native lands and seek citizenship through regular channels. Or, after our borders are secured and tough employer sanctions have been put in place, Congress can revisit the issue and possibly find a more hospitable America.

Some of the other refinements of the defeated bill can await another day and the regular process of Judiciary Committee hearings and markups. Changing the law on family unification with a point system can also be considered later. Now, perhaps, we could add green cards for highly skilled workers and tinker at the edges of immigration law, providing we don't get bogged down in endless debate and defeated cloture motions.

It would be refreshing if Congress, and the country, could come together in a bipartisan way to at least partially solve one of the big domestic issues of the day.
August 6, 2007 09:06 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
May 25, 2007

Graciela,

 Here is what I just sent my representatives:

Dear Senator Feinstein,  (also sent to Senator Boxer)

After reading the below report from our government on crime and illegal aliens, I would ask you to re-consider backing any "amnesty" programs for any illegals and instead to support current Federal Laws requiring strict enforcement and deportation back to their home country.

Also I woul rather see laws holding the "home countries" like Mexico accountable for their actions with sanctions against any trading or help we currently give this country.

Like a kid with bad behavior, Mexico needs to understand that there are consequences for it's actions.

Illegal Immigration - Crime
Statistics point to significantly higher crime rates in the illegal immigrant population. Document forgery, identity theft, and illegal use of stolen Social Security Numbers are nearly universal among illegals. But consider this data regarding hard crime: In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens.

Illegals kill 9,000 people annually

According to US Representative Steve King (R-IA), illegal aliens commit 12 murders every day in the U.S. and kill another 13 daily through drunk driving incidents.

That's more than 9,000 people killed every year by illegal aliens.

As World Net Daily's Joseph Farah points out, that means more people are murdered by illegal aliens in one year
than have been killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars since their inception.

Rep. King also notes that on average eight children are sexually abused by illegal aliens every day -- that's over 2,920 annually. And that's just a small portion of the illegal alien crime wave.

4.1 million crimes committed by illegal aliens

As reported in Grassfire's booklet, "The Truth About The Illegal Invasion," some 325,000 criminal illegal aliens will be incarcerated in state and federal prisons this fiscal year. A GAO study found that illegal aliens commit, on average, 12.6 criminal offenses.

This means incarcerated illegal aliens have committed over 4.1 million crimes -- and that does not include illegal alien criminals who are not incarcerated. And we learned from Rep. Tom Tancredo that thousands of illegals are coming from terrorist and suspect nations.

Labels: illegal immigration, INS/FBI statistics, Multiculturalism

Regards,

Feel free to copy and send to your local Senators / Congressmen!

 

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

After reading the below report from our government on crime and illegal aliens, I would ask you to support California State programs prohibiting illegals and instead to support current Federal Laws requiring strict enforcement and deportation back to their home country.

Also I woul rather see California laws holding the "home countries" like Mexico accountable for their actions with sanctions against any trading or help we currently give this country.

If California is as a State the 7th largest nation on the planet, then we need to begin to act like one.  You on your own went to London and meet with the Prime Minister in regards to Global Warming.  Well you need to let the President of Mexico know that you have NO INTENTIONS of giving California away without a fight.

Like a kid with bad behavior, Mexico needs to understand that there are consequences for it's actions.

Illegal Immigration - Crime
Statistics point to significantly higher crime rates in the illegal immigrant population. Document forgery, identity theft, and illegal use of stolen Social Security Numbers are nearly universal among illegals. But consider this data regarding hard crime: In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens.

Illegals kill 9,000 people annually

According to US Representative Steve King (R-IA), illegal aliens commit 12 murders every day in the U.S. and kill another 13 daily through drunk driving incidents.

That's more than 9,000 people killed every year by illegal aliens.

As World Net Daily's Joseph Farah points out, that means more people are murdered by illegal aliens in one year than have been killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars since their inception.

Rep. King also notes that on average eight children are sexually abused by illegal aliens every day -- that's over 2,920 annually. And that's just a small portion of the illegal alien crime wave.

4.1 million crimes committed by illegal aliens

As reported in Grassfire's booklet, "The Truth About The Illegal Invasion," some 325,000 criminal illegal aliens will be incarcerated in state and federal prisons this fiscal year. A GAO study found that illegal aliens commit, on average, 12.6 criminal offenses.

This means incarcerated illegal aliens have committed over 4.1 million crimes -- and that does not include illegal alien criminals who are not incarcerated. And we learned from Rep. Tom Tancredo that thousands of illegals are coming from terrorist and suspect nations.

Labels: illegal immigration, INS/FBI statistics, Multiculturalism

Regards,

Again, feel free to change / copy and send to who ever needs a reminder of which country/ citizens they work for.
August 6, 2007 09:47 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
April 16, 2007
No On Immigration. What part of that NO do they not understand!. NO Immigration. 

Hello everyone
August 6, 2007 10:26 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
May 21, 2007
If we really need low productivity jobs performed, then pay a living wage so that Americans not working now will do them. There is no such thing as cheap labor, especilly not with the highly fertile cheap labor we have now.

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