The 12 Million Dollar Question
What Will Happen with Illegal Immigrants?
Heavy says:
This is a legitimate question and there are many layers to this problem. However, it has been my humble opinion since day one (after 9-11) that we needed to tackle the border problem immediately. That was, in my estimation, the first step. It was not done obviously, and still has not been addressed.
I was able to ascertain (with half my brain tied behind my back) that with so many layers to this problem, you must priortize your actions. Treat it like a dike springing a leak. The first thing you do is plug the hole. You don't assemble commitees and spend the next 10 years having hearings and investigations to find why the dike sprung a leak and checking material requisitions to see if inferior materials were used or if there were bribes and payoffs without plugging the hole first.
What we have, is a bunch of people on capitol hill that have no real desire to tackle this problem. Anything said by them is hollow rhetoric. What's more, any talk of amnesty or potential clamping down on borders haggled over, kicked around like a political football and dragged out over a long period of time only causes a more fevered dash to the borders.
Our fearless leaders in D.C. take no responsibility in this fight and only want to point their fingers at their "enemies" across the aisle and to blame the administration, of course, because that is the patriotic duty of the day.
Term limits, anyone?
"The immigration debate is in the spotlight again this week as lawmakers are trying to carve out their own distinguishing brand of reform. Proposals range from nearly exclusive law enforcement (Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner) to guest workers with an added citizenship path (Sens. Ted Kennedy and John McCain).Read it all.
But just as important as which bill will prevail in Congress is the question of what will happen with the roughly 12 million illegal immigrants already in this country. Most likely, they'll stay. The real question is how fast they'll be able to integrate and become Americans.
The status of currently illegal immigrants is a particularly contentious point. Everyone seems to agree that reforming the system is necessary, that a blind eye toward illegal residents erodes the rule of law and that increased border security is a matter of national interest."
Heavy says:
This is a legitimate question and there are many layers to this problem. However, it has been my humble opinion since day one (after 9-11) that we needed to tackle the border problem immediately. That was, in my estimation, the first step. It was not done obviously, and still has not been addressed.
I was able to ascertain (with half my brain tied behind my back) that with so many layers to this problem, you must priortize your actions. Treat it like a dike springing a leak. The first thing you do is plug the hole. You don't assemble commitees and spend the next 10 years having hearings and investigations to find why the dike sprung a leak and checking material requisitions to see if inferior materials were used or if there were bribes and payoffs without plugging the hole first.
What we have, is a bunch of people on capitol hill that have no real desire to tackle this problem. Anything said by them is hollow rhetoric. What's more, any talk of amnesty or potential clamping down on borders haggled over, kicked around like a political football and dragged out over a long period of time only causes a more fevered dash to the borders.
Our fearless leaders in D.C. take no responsibility in this fight and only want to point their fingers at their "enemies" across the aisle and to blame the administration, of course, because that is the patriotic duty of the day.
Term limits, anyone?
posted by HeavyHanded at
10:13 PM
1 Comments:
Absolutely right H-H, on both counts.
Term limits are the only way, short of stopping the enormous flow of money through Washington, to curtail the inevitable corruption that such cash flow induces. Congress will not do that to itself, as evidenced by it being the very first thing from the Contract With America on which the Republicans reneged. It will have to come from a grass roots effort.
As for illegal immigration, the first thing that should be done is to stop it, period. No clear thinking person could reasonably think otherwise. If a good case can be made that we need immigrant labor, then the legal immigration limits should be raised. Why have legal immigration limits at all if we turn a blind eye to illegal immigration? It just ignores an obvious security breach and enforces disrespect for the rule of law.
The argument is that only the illegal immigrant labor force is willing to do some manual unskilled jobs for the pay level those jobs offer. That may be true as far as it goes but the other solution to that issue is to make those jobs more attractive by allowing their pay rates to increase in accord with the market forces of supply and demand. True, that cost will then be passed on to the consumer but either those higher costs or doing without those products is the price we must pay for security in these troubled times.
It is not as though those cost can otherwise be avoided. Lord knows we are already paying far more through our tax dollars for less effective security measures not to mention the potential cost of another 9/11. That, in addition to the incalculable long term costs to a culture that does not enforce its own laws
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