Although you might not believe it, ILLEGAL immigration is one of the largest problems we have in America. How is that? Consider:
1 Illegals lower wages by $200 BILLION every year from Americans, both to native-born and legal immigrants. These wages are lowered in "blue-collar" jobs like construction, light manufacturing, and trucking.
2 Illegals are a net COST to taxpayers: this is no surprise given their low wages and the fact that a good % of them get paid in cash "under the table".
3 Illegals raise health care costs: also a no-brainer given their low wages, yet hospitals are obligated to treat them for "emergency" care.
4 Illegals currently work 20% of construction jobs; jobs supposedly "Americans won't do".
Illegal immigrants function like OUTSOURCING to business: they are used as cheap labor, plain and simple. The difference between outsourcing and illegal immigration is that American taxpayers don't PAY FOR the schooling and medical care of those working in Chinese factories. Americans DO PAY for the schooling of the children of illegals, medical care, increased car insurance, increased health insurance, etc. In both cases, the BUSINESS OWNER can pocket the profit.
Given that illegal immigrants are such a huge burden on the State and Federal governments, why would any politician support them?
Both Dems and Repubs support them because they both want to pander to Hispanic voters. They think (incorrectly) that Hispanics will not vote for a party that doesn't give amnesty, so they are both falling all over themselves to look Hispanic-friendly.
In addition, Republican business owners like to see an endless supply of cheap labor, and Democrats want instant Democratic voters/union members with amnesty. The fact that working-class Americans suffer with lower wages, and middle-class Americans suffer with higher taxes, and everyone experiences social services at the breaking point, it apparently not on the radar of politicians.
What people have to make clear is that Amnesty is not acceptable. Any process where current illegal immigrants are given citizenship without going through the legal process of immigration is amnesty. A fine is useless: are you telling me they will deport 100% of illegals that can't pay the fine? Of course they won't.
Are illegals going to "the back of the line"? No. The current "line" from Mexico (source of most of our illegals) right now is 13 YEARS. Meaning TODAY immigrants from Mexico are being let in to the country from application 13 YEARS ago. Anything less than 13 years would mean they are not going to the back of the line, they are cutting in line.
The whole concept of amnesty in response to deportation is just ridiculous. Can you imagine a police chief saying "we can't catch all carjackers, so we're just going to legalize all carjackers". It's the same thing as saying "we can't deport 12 million illegals, so let's make them legal". If they broke the law by coming here, and we still have a border, then they should be deported. Just because we can't deport ALL of them doesn't mean we shouldn't make an effort to deport as many as POSSIBLE. If they want to come to this country, then they should apply in the LEGAL fashion.
I am not for closing America off to immigration. Our nation is a nation of immigrants, and immigrants provide a spirit of hope that all immigrants feel. After all, immigrants, legal and illegal, left their home country to a foreign land (America) to find better opportunity. But America still has a right (and duty) to decide HOW MANY immigrants are let into the country. No country in the world just lets in unlimited numbers of illegal immigrants.
So what do we do? Not only should we police the interior for illegals, what we do is enforce immigration where it SHOULD BE enforced: with the employer. In 1999, there were 2849 worksite arrests for immigration violations. How many in 2004? 159. Don't believe, me, read it yourself in the GAO report page 35-36: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05813.pdfObviously the Bush Administration is going easy on employers that hire illegals, yet saying he wants a strong border. With strong enforcement of employers, there will be fewer jobs in America for illegal workers, and less reason for them to come here.
As to securing the border, we obviously have to have some physical barrier: fence, wall, or both. A fence/wall is not 100% foolproof, it just SLOWS the RATE of illegal immigration, which helps. The amount of manpower needed to police a fenced area vs. an open area is a lot less. Fences also don't sleep or subject to budget cuts, and they aren't hamstrung by administration and paperwork. Dedicated smugglers and illegals will find ways around almost any barrier, but a fence/wall will REDUCE the number of illegals.
We tried an Amnesty Bill in 1986, it didn't work. We legalized 3 million illegals, but didn't secure the border. So the DAY AFTER amnesty was signed, MORE illegals starting to come across the border. So, in 20 years, we just got 12 million MORE illegals. Did wages rise for working class Americans after 1986? No.
So Amnesty without securing the border is ridiculous: it will just lead to more illegals in an endless cycle, with wages falling every year for working-class Americans, and burden on Government and citizens growing every year. When they have reached a certain number of millions of people, illegals will feel no pressure to assimilate, and will live their entire lives without learning English or feeling they are American at all. Already a great many illegals feel that way; as their numbers grow, so will their boldness grow to declare they are citizens of their home country and not Americans.
House and Senate will soon go into conference to discuss immigration reform. Of course, Senate went as far as possible in the opposite direction of the House in order to land somewhere in the middle out of conference.
Americans, both Democrat and Republican, MUST UNITE to defeat the Senate provisions. Amnesty without border security is foolish and will just lead to MORE problems in the future. What problems? Wages will CONTINUE to lower for working class Americans; health care costs will CONTINUE to increase; and taxes will CONTINUE to rise to pay for education/medical expenses/other programs for illegals. Border security is the FIRST thing that needs to be done: after that, we can adjust legal immigration as it is necessary. At least with 100% of immigration being legal, American voters can KNOW how many immigrants are coming into the country and vote IN/OUT politicians that let in too many or not enough. If politicians want to let in more immigrants, then they can sell that to the American people that will end up apying the TAXES for these illegals.
Americans, stand with the House GOP and get border security in place. Your future as well as the future of your children and the quality of life in America will depend on it.
