Defining the Terms of “Immigration Reform”
Defining the Terms of “Immigration Reform”
Count
me as being pro comprehensive immigration reform, as long as I get to
weigh-in on rational national goals, as well as on the traps, such as
unwittingly allowing chain migration in the guise of some family
re-unification program under a de-facto amnesty.
It’s
not engineers, doctors and lawyers jumping our fences and sending
tribute back to some home country; in many cases, it’s semi-skilled
workers unable to make it in their own country of origin. Two of three,
in the case of Mexican border jumpers, end up on the dole of the
American safety net in some fashion.
You carry that cost, especially in Maryland, where the governor seeks to raise your taxes, including the gasoline tax.
A
comprehensive plan for how to handle normalization with any of the
20,000,000 illegals already present (the correct number, according to
the C.I.S. Center for Immigration Study) must be considered carefully.
Anti-illegals groups like Help Save Maryland
insist on a system including payment of back taxes after an accounting,
fines if any, criminal background tests, medical evaluation, proof of
ability to support themselves and an approved sponsor, English language
skills evaluation, classes in citizenship and American culture, and any
appropriate waiting period.
Some
of these should be put into place as requirement even before the issue
of a driver’s license, depending on reciprocal laws in neighboring
countries.
An automatic qualification for social safety net programs cannot be part of the deal.
Illegals advocacy groups are promoting the other vision, a tad closer to an amnesty.
From The Washington Post: “Citizenship question roils both parties,” by Peter Wallsten and Rosalind S. Helderman, Published: January 31:
“Immigration advocates close to the White House have vowed to pressure [Barack]
Obama if he agrees to what they consider unreasonable preconditions to
citizenship for illegal immigrants. Conservatives are either insisting
on strict contingencies or refusing to back the idea of citizenship.”
Some Republicans are having an identity crisis over this!
The article continues…
“[President]
Obama is under pressure to deliver on citizenship from supporters who
believe they made his re-election possible. Moreover, many Hispanic
leaders think that in his first term, Obama broke a promise to pursue an
immigration overhaul. Some advocates remain wary that the president and
Democratic lawmakers might be tempted to bargain away their best hope
for a clear citizenship path in their quest for a bipartisan deal.”
Are we confusing a “clear path” with an easy path here?
Citizenship, in order to have value, must include strings.
Democrats
seek to pay back a political chit from the Obama re-election,
continuing a steady stream of would-be party members. Republicans seem
ready to betray their previous platform positions, in part to mitigate
the above, in part out of their absolute failure to convey conservatism
on this issue.
In the old days, we used to call the above a “cop out.”
The
devil will be in the details. The president will claim his election
mandate to force a final end-product in new immigration policy to his
own liking. My guess is that this will end up looking like Obamacare, in
that he has no incentive to truly negotiate any position. He does not
need to run for the presidency ever again!
Please
note that this is not simply about the Hispanics. Asian, African, and
Middle-Eastern visas are violated at a record pace now. It is widely
known that overstaying a lawful visa is the easy way to “come to
America,” and it is equally well known that Homeland Security/ICE (U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement) does not have the resource to
follow up on even a small percentage of violators.
Advocates
for undocumented – or “illegal status – immigrants allow that there
should be some kind of squatters right to becoming automatically
American, and allowed to stay, unfettered and unencumbered after some
period of presence, yet undefined.
There
are currently between 16 and 21 million illegals present today; which
ones to keep, and which ones to deport? If you can prove you’ve been
here for two years, is that good enough? One month? Five years?… How is
this proven? Present an advantageous utility bill record to any ICE
office?
Hopefully we won’t be forced to “pass the bill in order to see what’s in it” again… You know how that one worked out!
srbmgr@gmail.com
[Editor’s Note: Mr. Berryman serves on the Board of Directors of the group Help Save Maryland. www.HelpSaveMaryland.com.]
posted by Steven R Berryman at 8:01 AM
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