Some Thoughts on Immigration Reform

We are being told that this is a “fair” bill and that this is the best we can do. Conservative and traditional Americans who wish to preserve the values and institutions that made this country great must understand that one-worlders and secular-progressives, like Senators Kennedy, Reid and Durbin, and also Americans who hate America, have taken over our educational system and our information and entertainment media and have great influence within our political system.

The new immigration bill, as it now stands, contains amnesty for illegals now here, a guest worker program and stronger measures to control our borders. It also provides that the amnesty and guest-worker provisions would not kick in until the border control measures are in place and certified to be working.

Somewhere in this great country, there is probably someone who believes this. One of the biggest problems that the Republican leadership has now is that the Republican rank and file don’t believe them. On immigration, we don’t believe President Bush, and we don’t believe Senator McCain that illegal immigration will be substantially ended before the amnesty and guest worker provisions kick in. If nothing else, the ability of the affected agency, CIS, to carry out these provisions is laughable.

The Immigration Bill: Comprehensive or Incomprehensible?
By Fred Thompson, May 19, 2007, RealClearPolitics

Most Americans know that we have an illegal immigration problem in this country, with perhaps as many as 20 million people residing here unlawfully. And I think most Americans have a pretty good idea about how to at least start solving the problem - secure our nation's borders.

But there's an old saying in Washington that, in dealing with any tough issue, half the politicians hope that citizens don't understand it while the other half fear that people actually do. This kind of thinking was apparent with the "comprehensive" immigration reform bill that the U.S. Senate and the White House negotiated yesterday.

I'd tell you what was in the legislation, but 24 hours after the politicians agreed the bill looked good, the Senate lawyers were still writing what may turn out to be a one thousand page document. In fact, a final version of the bill most likely will not be made available to the public until after the legislation is passed. That may come five days from now. That's like trying to digest an eight-course meal on a fifteen-minute lunch break.

We've tried the "comprehensive" route before to solve the illegal immigration problem with a bit more care and deliberation, and the results haven't been good. Back in May 1985, Congress promised us that it would come up with a comprehensive plan to solve the problem of illegal immigration and our porous borders. Eighteen months later, in November 1986, that comprehensive plan was signed into law.

Twenty-two years and millions of illegal immigrants later, that comprehensive plan hasn't done what most Americans wanted it to do -- secure America's borders. Now Washington says the new "comprehensive" plan will solve the problem that the last comprehensive plan didn't.

The fact is our border and immigration systems are still badly broken. We were reminded of this when Newsweek reported that the family of three of the men, arrested last week for allegedly plotting to kill American military personnel at Fort Dix, New Jersey, entered the U.S. illegally more than 20 years ago; filed for asylum back in 1989, but fell off the government's radar screen when federal bureaucrats essentially lost track of the paperwork. Wonder how many times that's been replicated?

Is it any wonder that a lot of folks today feel like they're being sold a phony bill of goods on border security? A "comprehensive" plan doesn't mean much if the government can't accomplish one of its most basic responsibilities for its citizens -- securing its borders. A nation without secure borders will not long be a sovereign nation.

No matter how much lipstick Washington tries to slap onto this legislative pig, it's not going to win any beauty contests. In fact, given Congress's track record, the bill will probably get a lot uglier -- at least from the public's point of view. And agreeing to policies before actually seeing what the policies are is a heck of a way to do business.

We should scrap this "comprehensive" immigration bill and the whole debate until the government can show the American people that we have secured the borders -- or at least made great headway. That would give proponents of the bill a chance to explain why putting illegals in a more favorable position than those who play by the rules is not really amnesty. Fred Thompson

We know that we do not have the ability or the ruthlessness to round up the 12 or 20 million illegals now here and deport them. These people are now taxing our social structure and resources; if they and their families are given amnesty and become legal, this will destroy our Medicare and Social Security Systems, and mean the end of the Republican Party.

I do not see what is wrong with shutting down illegal immigration, putting in place a guest worker program and a more liberal “legal” immigration policy and continuing to deport illegals on a case by case basis as we are supposed to be doing now. Please get in touch with your senator and representative and demand that amnesty be removed from this bill.

Added note: The U.S. has now constructed 3/10ths of one percent (2 miles) of the 700 miles of fencing on the southern border provided for in 2006's Secure Fence Act.