Immigration History Lesson and Where to Go from Here
Jun 29, 2007 Immigration, Political
Many in our country see immigration amnesty as a natural good for this country. The well-to-do [from both parties] require domestic workers to keep their lawns looking good and to watch their offspring while mom and dad attend their country club meetings. Many Americans, especially those born in the last few decades, do not understand the history of immigration, especially amnesty packages that usually accompany them.
There are many arguments against the immigration amnesty bill. It rewards lawbreakers, it dilutes our nation, it allows unskilled or low skilled workers to take jobs from Americans at lower wages and as a result suppresses wages. Republicans want it because big business likes the cheap labor to pad the profit margin and Democrats want it because they want the cheap domestic labor and the increased voter block (that votes heavily Democratic). Supporters of this bill say that it provides for the security of this nation and it will secure our borders. The amnesty bill that just died its second death is thicker than the Bible and contains so much legal mumbo jumbo that it would be hard to enforce and Americans have no real reason to trust Congress to uphold their end of the deal. Supporters talk a good talk but once they get these ILLEGALS on board and have waved the amnesty wand they will find a number of reasons not to secure the borders. We will be told that it is now unnecessary because we have absorbed the ILLEGALS. Ted Kennedy is the sponsor of this bill and he is pushing hard for it. In defeat he asked what we are to do now. During the debate he told us that the border was a jungle and border patrol agents wasted time catching landscapers rather than terrorists. NOTE: If the border is a jungle and agents are catching landscapers, why not put them to work landscaping the jungle?
Kennedy has been through all this before and each time Americans have been promised that the amnesty would have no impact on us, that it would not take jobs from Americans and even, that there would be no further amnesty. For those who were not around and for those who have not read about it, I present the history of Kennedy immigration amnesty through his quotes:
1965: “The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs.”
1986: “This amnesty will give citizenship to only 1.1 to 1.3 million illegal aliens. We will secure the borders henceforth. We will never again bring forward another amnesty bill like this.”
2007: “Now it is time for action. 2007 is the year we must fix our broken system.” NRO
Conservatives know that you get more of what you pay for, therefore it was absolutely incorrect when Kennedy said in 1965 that we would not be flooded with immigrants or that our ethnic mix would not be upset or even that the standards would not be relaxed. We have an entire southwest that is changing into a Hispanic country within a country and the ethnic mix in California is quite pronounced. We have gone from the under 200 thousand a year that were allowed here in 1965 to 12 to 20 million living here illegally, so we were flooded with immigrants. The legal Hispanic population has increased greatly since that time so that Hispanics make up a larger portion of the population than blacks (and only second to European whites). We see that the government failed to secure the borders or enforce the laws which certainly relaxed the standards and, there can be no doubt, that Kennedy’s last sentence about taking American jobs was dead wrong.
In 1986 Kennedy told us that we would only be giving citizenship to under 1.5 million people and that there would be no further amnesty bills [like this]. Since 1986 the number of ILLEGALS in this country went from 4 million to 12-20 million and the newest Kennedy fiasco seeks to give them a path to citizenship. Perhaps Kennedy was drunk or hungover when they taught math in school but this number far exceeds the number he touted a mere 21 years ago. Additionally, the newest attempt to legalize immigrants is an amnesty bill and while Teddy might argue that he escaped with the “like this” clause, the fact is the previous amnesty bills came with promises that were not kept.
Those who oppose this new bill are labeled as racists, xenophobes, and (as I was) nativists. The fact of the matter is, this is our country and we have a right to say who gets to come here and under what circumstances they get to do so. Americans, who overwhelmingly do not support this bill, want other measures taken before we deal with those who are here ILLEGALLY. We want a moratorium placed on immigration so that we can get a handle on the people who are here. We want tough penalties and fines for employers who have ILLEGALS on their payrolls and we want the border secure. By cracking down on employers the market for jobs will dry up and ILLEGALS will go elsewhere as evidenced by the crackdown in Panama City Florida. The sheriff has been showing up at construction sites with 5 or 6 cars and watching for people to run. They then pick them up for trespassing or speeding (as they ran through someone’s property or sped off) and report them to Immigration. The result is that ILLEGALS are leaving because employers are not hiring them. This can work across the country if we just enforce the law.
Once we have a cooling period where we have secured the border (with a fence or a wall as San Diego did), once we have weeded out the ILLEGALS from the job market by cracking down on employers and once we have a handle on what we have in this country (which should reduce through attrition as ILLEGALS find it more difficult to get work) then we can get to work on a truly comprehensive bill that would allow seasonal and guest workers to do some of the work we do not have enough people to accomplish. During that down time we can also clear the nearly 4 million person backlog of those waiting to get here legally.
One very important thing that needs to be done with regard to immigration is for Congress to revisit the 14th Amendment. I have written before discussing the 14th and how it was designed to confer Citizenship upon former slaves and their natural born children. The authors of the Amendment never intended it to confer Citizenship on children born to people who were here ILLEGALLY or to parents who are not citizens of our country. This has been discussed at length and the author’s own words clearly spell this out. However, the statement “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” has been misinterpreted and misapplied. It means you must be a subject of the state (and therefore the country) and have an allegiance to the US as in being a citizen or emancipated slave. We can clear this up if Congress passes a law that says one must be born to citizens to be a citizen and then invoke Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution to exempt the law from judicial review. This would allow the stated intent of the 14th to be carried out without activist judges interpreting it to fit their points of view and keep people from having “jackpot” or “anchor” babies to game the system.
America is not a nation of immigrants. We are a nation that came from immigrants but the majority of us came from families of people who, for generations, were born here. We welcome immigrants who come here legally with open arms and expect them to assimilate into our society, just as our founders intended. The melting pot took people from all places and molded them into Americans. This is an absolute must if we are to maintain our identity and our sovereignty as a nation.
Americans do not trust Congress to do what is right. They [Congress] have demonstrated that they can not so what is right and have failed miserably the other two times they had the chance. Now, instead of lumping everything in one bill, we want them to take baby steps. Do the right things that are needed first and then we can figure out how to handle the issue of the people involved.
That, Senator Kennedy, is where we go from here.
As an aside, does anyone see it as wrong that Ted Kennedy was involved in the first amnesty and 42 years later he is still at it? If ever there was a poster child for term limits, Kennedy would be it.
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway ♦ Blog @ MoreWhat.com ♦ Right Truth ♦ Stuck On Stupid ♦ Webloggin ♦ Leaning Straight Up ♦ ♦ Diary of the Mad Pigeon ♦ third world county, Allie Is Wired ♦ Woman Honor Thyself ♦ The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns ♦ The World According to Carl ♦ Nuke’s news and views ♦ Pirate’s Cove ♦ The Pink Flamingo ♦ Dumb Ox Daily News ♦ Church and State and Gone Hollywood
Thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
Mission Accomplished – For Now – As Amnesty Bill Dies
Jun 28, 2007 Immigration
We have accomplished our mission of stopping immigration amnesty from becoming law, for the time being. Today the Democratic Party and the President suffered a stinging defeat when they failed to muster the votes needed to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. They could only get 46 yes votes even though the Democrats hold 48 seats and have two Independents who caucus with them (one member is out on sick leave). Since some Republicans voted for this, so more than a few Democrats passed on this one.
We have been putting pressure on them and we have spoken loudly. We want to keep this pressure up and they need to know we intend to get rid of any person who voted for any of this. They fear losing their jobs more than anything else and they will not like the electorate fired up in full attack mode. Look at how we have been portrayed because of our resistance to this amnesty bill. We have been called racists, xenophobes, nativists and many other things but they have not broken our will. They finally figured that we were not going to bend no matter what they said about us. We stuck to our guns and our mission has been accomplished, for now. This will be back again. They will keep ramming this down our throats until they get what they want, America be damned.
Notice I was careful how to portray our mission accomplished. George Bush has been creamed for the Mission Accomplished banner. Though he never uttered those words they have stuck to him and haunted him since that day. A picture is worth a thousand words and the picture of that banner has been worth a gold mine to the left. I know better but the President has not learned his lesson. He told people this past week that he was confident of Senate passage and went so far as to say, “See you at the signing.”
I am not saying that this bill is dead but I will say that he will not see us at the signing anytime soon.
Others blogging:
Gribbit’s Word
Captain’s Quarters
Joust the Facts
The American Mind
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway ♦ The Virtuous Republic ♦ Perri Nelson’s Website ♦ AZAMATTEROFACT ♦ DeMediacratic Nation ♦ Right Truth ♦ Stuck On Stupid ♦ Webloggin ♦ Leaning Straight Up ♦ The Amboy Times ♦ Conservative Cat ♦ Pursuing Holiness ♦ Right Celebrity ♦ Wake Up America ♦ stikNstein… has no mercy ♦ Blue Star Chronicles ♦ Pirate’s Cove ♦ The Pink Flamingo ♦ High Desert Wanderer and Right Voices
Thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
Tags: Link Fest
Vote These People Out of Office, Traitors!
Jun 26, 2007 Immigration, Political
The following list contains the names of those Senators who voted to continue ramming immigration amnesty down our throats. Their yes votes moved us closer to a weakened position and loss of our sovereignty. Print this list and remember the names. If they are in your state and they are up for reelection in 2008 then you need to vote against them. We need to put all of them who are up for reelection out of office regardless of what party they are and regardless of what party replaces them. They are a disgrace to this country and they should not be in elected office. There are several on this list who want to be the next president. Biden, Clinton, Obama and McCain (he will never get the nomination because Republicans will not stand for this) all voted yes to weaken this country. Are any of these people the kind we want leading us. We already have a president who is selling us out. They keep telling us how they are different than George W. Bush but they are really no different, at least in this respect.
YEAs —64
Akaka (D-HI)
Bennett (R-UT)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Bond (R-MO)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Brownback (R-KS)
Burr (R-NC)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Craig (R-ID)
Dodd (D-CT)
Domenici (R-NM)
Durbin (D-IL)
Ensign (R-NV)Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Schumer (D-NY)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
Also Blogging
Webloggin
Michelle Malkin
Tags: Political
When ILLEGALS Sneak In, What Comes With Them?
Jun 22, 2007 Immigration
There was a time when all immigrants came into this country through Ellis Island and they were checked to ensure they had the correct shots and were not carrying diseases. With all the ILLEGALS crossing the border unchecked we have no way of knowing what they are bringing with them. The CDC reports there are 30,000 new untreatable cases of TB in the US. The incidence of TB in general seems to be on the rise and there might just be other nasty little bugs sneaking in.
There is just no way of knowing if ILLEGALS are bringing in really bad diseases that could spread all over this country. When they get here they put a bunch of families in one house so they have large numbers of people living in close quarters which makes it real easy for disease to spread. Then they go out and get jobs where they handle food and interact with the public. This sets the table for the spread of disease. Imagine some ILLEGAL coming here, unchecked, and getting a job handling food. Doesn’t sound too bad but what if he has Hepatitis A? He will spread it to a lot of people who will ingest the disease with their food.
These ILLEGALS can also be exploited by terrorists. Suppose some terrorists got together and became coyotes and promised to get ILLEGALS in for a low amount of money. The, while all the ILLEGALS were together the terrorists could infect them with smallpox or some other disease (like bird flu) and get them into the US where they could go around spreading the disease like wildfire.
Just remember when Pedro comes into the US and says “Say hello to my little friend” he might have little friends that could make a lot of people very sick. Courtesy of your government’s inability to secure the border and deport ILLEGALS.
Tags: Commentary
These People Would Have Been Given Amnesty
Jun 22, 2007 Immigration
Though the Senate and the President keep telling us that the immigration bill is not amnesty and that it would be good for this country there is no doubt that a bill nearly 1000 pages in length contains items that will end up hurting us in the end. For instance, the bill has unintended consequences. It is unlikely that any German Nazis still reside in America and if they did they would be near death, but the immigration bill would grant them amnesty and possibly reparations. That just just one of the gems written into this amnesty package.
But Big Dog, how can this be relevant? There are few of these people around and they will all be dead soon. This bill is designed to help those hard working immigrants who are decent people (except when they broke the law to get here). I can not possibly see how this is a bad thing.
Well, what about all the gang members and various other thugs who are here ILLEGALLY? Since our government can not keep track of the 12-20 million ILLEGALS who are here it is no stretch to say they will not be able to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad ones. They will be granting amnesty (make no mistake, this is amnesty) to people who have no regard for the law in the first place and to others who are terrible people in addition to being invaders.
Really Big Dog, you exaggerate! Even if there are a few bad apples here they will certainly be small in number and our government will find them and then deal with them. Just because we could not keep them from breaking in does not mean we can not find out who the bad ones are.
Immigration raids this week hauled in a number of ILLEGALS who were wanted for various crimes such as murder, child molestation, and other crimes including ignoring deportation orders. There are over 600,000 fugitive ILLEGALS in this country and those are just the ones we know about. What about the 10,000 or so members of MS 13? They are here and running the new mob with drug rackets all over the country. They are committing crimes each and every day and there are others who have yet to be caught.
The immigration amnesty bill would make these people legal. We are aware that the Senate promises that they will do background checks on all of them. Right, and if anyone believes that they are on crack. Even if the government could check on all of them, who is to say Mexico or any other country would give us the information on them. One thing is certain, if they are here ILLEGALLY, they have already committed a felony. That should be enough to send them packing but our Senate and the President are hell bent on providing these law breakers with greater opportunities then citizens of this country. I am sure there are quite a few people in jail for minor crimes who would like a deal like the ILLEGALS are being offered. The government has shown us time and again that they do things half way and that once they get what they want they do not care if the rest is ever completed. For Republicans this is cheap labor and for Democrats it is more votes. Throw in the Catholic Church and their desire to pick up the huge population of Catholics from Mexico and it is easy to see why everyone is so determined to push this through regardless of American opinion.
We need to put an end to this thing and ensure that it is never resurrected again. We need to make sure that those who pushed it and those who vote for it are removed from office in the next election regardless of what party they belong to and regardless of what party they are replaced by.
Be sure to sign the petition! We need to keep the pressure on Congress and the President.
Tags: Commentary