A good deal for the illegals

The Senate amnesty treats them better than the law-abiding

Everyone has heard the phrase, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” That’s precisely the predicament that Congress is in today with the Senate’s immigration proposal. Though perhaps well-intentioned, the Senate proposal repeats the mistakes of the past.

The Senate amnesty proposal is flawed for many reasons, but three in particular.

First, the Senate bill legalizes almost everyone in the country illegally before the borders are secure. It provides legalization first and enforcement later, if ever.

In 1986, Congress gave amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants. It was agreed to with the promise of increased immigration enforcement and enhanced border security. Though the amnesty was enacted, the enforcement never occurred.

Now, more than 25 years later, there are 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Clearly, the 1986 amnesty didn’t solve the problem of illegal immigration; it made the situation worse.

No matter how they try to spin it, the Senate bill is amnesty for 11 million illegal immigrants. When you legalize someone who is in the country illegally, that is amnesty. The Senate bill gives legal status and, eventually, citizenship to millions of individuals who have disregarded our immigration laws.

The Senate plan makes promises of enforcement, but a closer look raises serious questions. For example, under the Senate bill, the Obama administration must come up with a way to achieve a 90 percent apprehension rate at “high-risk” areas of the border.

Why not secure 100 percent of the entire border? Of course, by limiting the focus to only high-risk areas, the Senate proposal will just push illegal immigration to other parts of the border.

In 2010, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found that only 6.5 percent of the southern border is under “full control” of the Border Patrol. Real border security would cover the entire border, not just high-risk areas that are determined by federal employees in Washington, D.C.

An administration that doesn’t want to enforce the law can easily game the system.

As we’ve seen in the past, amnesty without enforcement only leads to more illegal immigration. The Senate proposal issues an open invitation to enter the country illegally. Millions will do so before the border is secure.

Second, the Senate bill puts the interests of illegal immigrants ahead of American workers.

The proposal allows millions of illegal immigrants to work lawfully in the United States. That’s a great deal for those who came into the country illegally. It comes at a high price for American workers, though.

The proposal allows millions of illegal immigrants to compete with American workers for scarce jobs, displacing legal workers and depressing their wages. With millions of Americans and legal immigrants underemployed, why enable millions of others to compete with them?

Over the past few months, we’ve heard a great deal about what’s best for illegal immigrants. However, advocates of the Senate bill hardly ever mention two words: American workers.

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Assimilation ain't what it used to be

We don’t know all the details of the lives of the Boston bombers, but a portrait is starting to take shape.

Presuming what we have seen reported is accurate, this pair came to Kyrgyzstan in 2000-2001 as refugees, and from there into the United States a year later.

The life of an immigrant is rarely easy, but for these two, life seemed to go quite well. They go to good schools and get an education. One went to UMass-Dartmouth. They’re involved in intramural soccer, boxing competitions and tournaments, and the like. One gets U.S. citizenship, and the other becomes a permanent resident on the road to citizenship. At some point, they get registered to vote (illegally for one, or both, depending upon whether they registered to vote before September 11, 2012).

You’re hearing some folks cite these bastards in discussing the immigration bill. While it may be premature, it isn’t insane to look at this horror before us and ask how someone can come to this country, be offered citizenship and then turn around and murder their fellow citizens – a child, a foreign student, a young woman, a cop – in the coldest of blood. Here’s a pair of young men — and who knows, perhaps others — who have every opporunity to assimilate, to live the American dream, to see this country as a home to love…

… and somehow, instead of coming to love the country whose citizenship they sought, instead of appreciating the rare opportunity that luck, fate, and our kind nation has offered, they become the kind of ghouls capable of placing a bomb, filled with nails, next to an eight-year-old boy in the middle of a cheering crowd, and then smiling.

Some will say “Islam”, or its radical version, explains their transformation; we’ll know more as we learn more about them.

Of course, only a small fraction of the 11 million illegal immigrants in this country mean us harm (those with ties to gangs, drug cartels, people smugglers, and the like), and perhaps none as coldly and ruthlessly as this pair. But our government chose to give the privilege of citizenship to the man who has effectively shut down the city of Boston today. This week, we have reason for great doubts in our culture’s ability to assimilate those who come here into good Americans, and our government’s ability to examine potential citizens and weed out those who would seek to harm us.

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