Congress failed to pass the immigration bill today. It failed because it did not take an holistic approach to the problem. The Republicans were only concerned about border security. The Democrats were only concerned about dealing with the illegal immigrants who are already here, and that is what the bill dealt with. Any attemt to successfully deal with the illegal immigration policy must do two things: it must seal off the southern border and it must give the 12 million illigal immigrants in the United States the opportunity to achieve legal status and become citizens. To resolve the first part of the problem, we must build a 700 mile fence or wall sealing off the border; we must make the nationality of a child born in the United States reflect the nationality of the mother; we must end the santuary policy that some cities have passed; illegal entry in the United States musts be made a federal felony offense punishable by deportation or prison, depending on the number of convictions. Special federal immigration courts in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California could be created to deal with the offenders. To solve the second part of the problem, anyone who could show proof that they had been in this country no later that the date of the passage of the immigration bill (they could do that with documents such as check stubs, employment records, ID cards, etc.) would have to go before one of the federal immigration courts and pay a fine. A criminal record check would be run on each person to make sure they had not been convicted of a felony, and that there were no outstanding felony warrents against them. At that point they would be entered into a citizenship program that would require they remain free of any felony or drug convictions, learn English, American government and American history. All this should take about 7 years which, if I am not mistaken, is the length of time it normally takes someone to become a citizen. They then disclaim any alliegance to any foreign power and take the oath of alligance. At that point they would become citizens.
At least one group is interested in border security. WE don't need any bills or new laws. We need to enforce the law already on the books and get tough with Illegals. Oh and they are called Illegal immigrants for a reason! This would never happen no matter what, the bill would be watered down. No one would have these people pay a fine, they are poor and it would be said that you would be taking food off of their table for their children. Some are against the felony check! Personally I don't know if the knuckleheads running the country will ever get anything right again? They seem to always come up with the wrong solution to problems.
We never learn. We had immigration reform in the 80s. We had immigration reform in the 90s. Neither legislation stopped the flow of illegal immigration. The priority of any legislation should be to stop illegals from coming in. It's going to require more security on the border and hammering employers who hire illegals. No need to talk about amnesty or anything else until this is done. Unfortunately, politicians want the hispanic vote. Therein lies the problem.
In case anyone missed it, immigration reform officially died yesterday. Doubtful anything will happen until after the '08 elections. For the life of me, I can't understand why we don't enforce the current law that allows us to hammer employers hiring illegals. That alone would slow down illegals coming here. There would be no reason to come here illegally if jobs weren't readily available to them.
The business lobby has the president by the short hairs apparently. Big Agribusiness, meat packing, landscaping, and construction industries don't want the cheap labor to stop. Their bottom line is more important to them than the good of the country. And clearly G.W. Bush and the party that slavishly supports him is working for business, not The People of the United States of America.
Can you name one dem wanting to enforce the current law and go after these businesses? Bush has lost his mind and is working with the dems and a handful of moderate rep on this issue. Thankfully, it was defeated by conservatives.
Both Louisiana Senators voted no the bill, including the Democratic one. http://landrieu.senate.gov/~landrieu/releases/07/2007607B35.html
I didn't say no dem voted against it, I said no dem has stepped up and called for us to hammer businesses as a way to control illegal immigration. Instead, they all favor some form of amnesty, which is not the answer. They just can't agree on the numbers and the procedures to make it work, which is why some voted no. Fortunately, we still have a few conservatives out there, like Jeff Sessions and Tom Tancredo, who continue to battle against amnesty and pushing for tougher border control and more penalties for businesses. That's what I want, too.
