May 18 2007
Immigration reform compromise: Lighten up, it could be worse
Driving today I heard commentator after commentator screaming in outrage and gnashing their teeth over the immigration compromise bill announced today.
The one liberal station I tuned in on was whining about Bush lying about the war. That is so 2004. But I digress.
The bill was immediately dismissed as amnesty.
I looked around for a while tonight, and frankly I think I will have to remain somewhat guardedly neutral for now. The bill is not perfect, and if I am reading it right, is missing a crucial element, but honestly it is not terrible, and contains some good elements.
Captain Ed is grudgingly supportive:
As I wrote yesterday, this is about as good as we will get in this Congress. In fact, the Democrats probably had enough votes to pass something much more like a wide-open amnesty, given a few Republican votes in support of that and the relaxed attitude of the White House on immigration reform. The GOP did a pretty good job of holding the line and forcing the Democrats to include the border-first triggers, the reduction of the family interest, and the rest of what Kyl managed to retain.
It’s not great, and it’s not even very good. It’s not bad, though, and given our lack of strength in Congress and the White House on this issue, it’s a good deal that will strengthen our national security now rather than wait another two years to address it. To quote the Rolling Stones, you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need. This is one of those times. (via Hot Air)
Big Lizard gives it a thorough evaluation, and says:
You won’t be surprised — you who actually read Big Lizards attentively — that my least favorite part of this compromise is the guest-worker program. In fact, I hate the very idea of a guest-worker program.
I go along with Mark Steyn on this one… I think such programs in European countries have been prescriptions for disaster, bringing the great Moslem influx to Europe. Even here, I don’t like the idea of a huge chunk of people coming here to work, even in two-year bursts, when they have no desire to become Americans and no sense of “Americanness.”
But frankly, the rest of it doesn’t sound all that bad, depending on how it actually works in practice. There’s the rub, as John and Paul noted: They’re both skeptical that the federal government can actually enforce the border-security provisions and actually make the guest workers go home after two years… but they have no doubt of the government’s ability to regularize current illegals.
I concur in part and dissent in part: I agree it’s more difficult to get the feds to fulfill the enforcement part of the deal; that’s because Democrats are less trustworthy than Republicans, as a rule… the former are apt to decide that the Vision must be achieved by any means necessary. But “more difficult” is not equivalent to “impossible,” and Democrats don’t always get their way.
Reading their evaluations, I have to agree.
Michelle Malkin however does not. Her site has been a hardline home for strict reforms for a while now, and thats all good with me. But like many others in her camp I don’t think her position is realistic.
Yes, I know that Reagan tried amnesty and it failed. So what? The failure was not the amnesty, it was enforcement of immigrating laws the day after.
You can grant amnesty to as many people as you want, but that will not prevent new immigrants from sneaking in. So the Amnesty was fine and good, but we never had border control, and the workplace enforcement has always been a laughable mockery.
You want the Straight Up on fixing this?
-
Secure the borders
-
National ID card
-
Dry up the illegal job market with harsh enforcement
-
Grant what ever touchback amnesty or whatever you want
-
Give amnesty an expiration with consequences for failure to register
-
No tolerance for any new illegals. Immediate deportation
In other words, if you don’t register by the deadline, and you are picked up one day later, it is permanent blacklisting and immediate deportation. No one iIhave seen has really addressed that.
If you grant the path to the ones here now, you have to slam the door as hard as you can on the new ones.
Try that and see how it works.
Here is Big Lizards bill summary:
Immigration reform compromise package - original
Border security. The following provisions must be “implemented” before either regularization of illegal aliens or enactment of the temporary-worker program can occur:
I don’t know if “implemented” means completed, begun, funded, or what; presumably, this will be hashed out during the actual Senate debate [all from WaPo -- the Washington Post article];
In order to get a regular Z-visa, allowing the alien to begin the path to citizenship, he must meet several requirements:
Before Z-visas will be granted, the United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) has eight years to work through the backlog of already pending legal residency applications from those who are trying to immigrate here legally.
Only after those are granted will USCIS turn to illegal aliens who have applied for residency per the process delineated in (6) above; this will take up to five additional years.
After a green card is granted, citizenship requires an additional five years. Thus, from illegal status to citizenship requires a minimum of 13 years, possibly as long as 18 years. [WSJ1 -- the earlier WSJ article];
As I said, it aint perfect and it aint pretty.
But considering the democrat majority? It could be worse.
Granted I will continue to research it, and I may change my mind, but for now I am with Ed and Big Lizard.
Here is what conservatives need to do: Get it going fast and DEMAND it be funded and enforced. Tell congress to shit or get off the pot. Make it do something useful. And then if it fails, congress takes the blame for passing bad laws.
What conservatives cannot do is fracture their party over this bill and this one issue.
That would play straight into the democrat’s hands.
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, AZAMATTEROFACT, guerrilla radio, Right Truth, Webloggin, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Right Celebrity, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, stikNstein… has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
43 Responses to “Immigration reform compromise: Lighten up, it could be worse”
“What conservatives cannot do is fracture their party over this bill and this one issue. ”
Exactly - and thank you for the reminder we have to look at the big picture and not just the price tag on the frame.
Jo
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There are issues that I don’t like beyond just the ‘guest’ worker portion.
I don’t like surprise bills, that they work on in private, not allowing for anyone to know about or discuss, allow it to be seen over the weekend and allow a vote right afterwards…..it smells, and it makes me think they are trying to sneak something through. I don’t like how it was pushed, fast and furious and in secret.
Congress has a VERY bad track record with the American Public, we automatically do not trust what they are doing - and they way they went about this immigration business seems sneaky to me.
I doubt many even read through this proposed bill before they would have had to vote on it also - I don’t like our senators voting yes on something they haven’t read fully….and I believe probably the only one who has read it fully was Kyle.
Then for all this talk now, no one really has addressed how they plan to enforce this.
They talk of partial enforcement of the border, but we have cases where the border patrol has their own government turned against them in many cases for doing their jobs. Their hands are tied worse than the troops in Iraq.
Then there is the fact that imigration as it is now is already fully overloaded - and now they are going to throw some 12 million more into the INS inbox?
I see this as more pandering to a vote, a new class to exploit.
Illegal immigration is a hot button issue for republicans, and many feel betrayed.
Another one that has people barking mad is this Z Visa also. Most believe this is just another Amnesty bill - and it isn’t even done yet, LaRaza and other mexican coordinated groups want to get in and make it better for them.
Why should people who broke our laws, many using fake and fraudulent identities (Identity theft), go to the head of the line and get more concessions in dealing with them than normal law abiding immigrants who are trying to come to this country legally? This whole immigration issue revolves around illegal immigration, but not in FIXING the actual immigration process that is slower than molasses - all they plan to do is add more to the already slow moving and many times forgotten piles of immigrants coming in.
I have been listening to quite a few people and reading alot on the blogs about what is happening with this, and the majority do not discuss the fact that HOW do they plan to do it?
Suddenly they are gonna get tough on illegals and deport them if they do not sign on to this?
They will suddenly deport anyone who comes in afterwards?
We see in the news raids of ICE and rounding up alot of illegals - but what doesn’t get reported is after the interviews with the illegals, they give them a court summons and RELEASE THEM - hence the term catch and release.
Why don’ we start with all illegals who are criminals, and IMMEDIATELY deport them.
Then, how about we get serious about securing our borders, and allowing the border patrols to do their jobs and backing them up on that.
How about we increase the INS side also - massively! They are already so backlogged that this bill is going to swamp them and they are going to start rubber stamping without background investigations just to keep from drowning.
And they expect illegals to go back home and apply properly? Yeah, I see that happening….and how do they plan to enforce that?
I’m sorry, but the Governments intestinal fortitude when dealing with deporting illegals and enforcing the immigration laws is a joke and until they get serious about it, I see this as an extended joke that really isn’t that funny.
Hell, Mexico’s immigration laws are better than what we have here and they enforce theirs also. Sad thing is, maybe we need to start looking real hard at Mexico’s policy and adopting some of it as our own.
Civil Society Helps (civilsocietyhelps.org) helps perpetuate fraud against U.S. citizens. The courts in Minnesota are ill equipped and uninformed about the immigration fraud these kinds of groups promote. See http://www.marthasullivanlaw.com to learn about a common immigration fraud tactic.
With false accusations from an immigrant residency seeker and the help of VAWA laws, a stable American citizen can be reduced to living in poverty. All of your assets can be seized and given to the immigrant residency seeker even if you are not found guilty. You will immediately be forced to surrender a portion of your income to the immigrant residency seeker. The courts will order you to turn your motor vehicle over to the immigrant residency seeker even if the car is in your name and the residency seeker does not have a drivers license. Your illegal immigrant spouse becomes legal and you become illegal. The court system will abuse you and strip you of your rights while social programs that promote immigration fraud thrive.