Posted by
Craig Freeborn on Saturday, June 09, 2007 1:45:35 AM
As was the case with the Harriet Myers nomination, the Dubai Ports World deal, and The Secure Fence Act of 2006, politicians in Washington have heard the “voice of the people” and they have reacted. The McCain/Kennedy Immigration Bill is dead – withdrawn yesterday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid when it became obvious there weren’t 60 votes for closure. It was killed – at least for now – by the hundreds, the thousands, perhaps even millions of phone calls, e-mails, and faxes that inundated the Senate.
“The people” had had enough…
We’ve had amnesty – with the promise that it was to be a one time deal, that the borders would be secure, and that it would stop any further illegal immigration. We were lied to on all accounts.
Eight months ago, President Bush signed a bill authorizing the construction of a 700 mile border fence. With less than a mile built, is it any wonder the country is beginning to feel that we were lied to again?
When some of the details of the McCain/Kennedy “compromise” finally leaked out, freeborn Americans across the country – Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike – could smell a rat. This was confirmed when Harry Reid and company rejected amendment after amendment that reasonable Americans wanted included. Amendments like the one submitted by my Senator John Cornyn of Texas that would have exempted from amnesty illegals who have been convicted of felonies.
Other provisions in the bill belied the claim that it would be good for the country – provisions like the 24 hour limit that law enforcement would have to run security checks on applicants for the Z-Visas before their records would forever be expunged. Or the provision that allowed instant legalization of those previously deported. Or the one that Z-Visa applicants be forgiven unpaid back income and Social Security taxes – try asking for that sweet deal as an American citizen!
This bill that rewarded criminal behavior might be dead, but there are some Senators who still haven’t got the memo. We all know that nothing is ever final in politics. Like the “Equal Rights Amendment” that died in 1979 and then again in 1982, but is now once again rising up from the dead, this fight will not just go away. Ted Kennedy has vowed “We are not giving up!”… fair warning for us all to never give up, never fail to keep watch over those we elect to office, and never turn your backs on Washington D.C. We must all keep applying the heat that our Senators have been feeling over the last few weeks.
John McCain – another one of the walking dead – not realizing that his presidential aspirations were buried along with the bill, asks “Where’s your plan?”
Well here, Senator, is our plan…
Separate the major provision into discrete stand-alone bills and stand-alone laws. No more catch-all bills cobbled together in secret.
1.) Number one priority is national security. Secure the border. Build the fence. Hire more Border Patrol Agents. Track legal emigrants, guests, and visitors. We can do it, we have the technology!
2.) Increase workplace compliance. Strengthen employment verification. Increase the fines and enforcement of employers hiring illegals. Follow up – every year the IRS kicks out millions of phony Social Security numbers along with names and employers. Create a tamper-proof Social Security card and minimum security requirements for state ID/drivers licenses.
3.) Deport the illegals you find. End sanctuary. We withhold federal funds for speed limits, seatbelt compliance, emissions etc. – but when a city comes out in open defiance of national immigration laws and declares itself a “sanctuary city” there are no consequences.
4.) Eliminate this nonsense of “anchor babies”. The fourteenth Amendment states that…“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Illegal aliens and their babies are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and therefore ought not to be considered automatic citizens. Congress needs to clarify this outrageous miscarriage and abuse of the constitution.
5.) Then, and only then, should Congress separately consider and separately debate if and under what circumstances and for what length of time guest workers will be allowed in the country.
Congress ought to borrow a page from the medical profession and its Hippocratic Oath – “Do your country no harm.” Or in the case of the late McCain/Kennedy Immigration bill, “Don’t make the problem any worse than it is!”