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Officially at War, Officially in Recession, Officially Time to Kill Illegal Alien Amnesty Proposal - Last summer, when President Bush first floated the concept of a massive amnesty for an estimated 3 million illegal aliens from Mexico, it was already a bad idea. When the Democrats tried to one-up him by proposing that the amnesty include all illegal aliens, estimated to number between 8 and 11 million, it was an even worse idea. The amnesty drumbeat reached a crescendo in early September, during President Vicente Fox’s visit to the U.S, only to be silenced a week later by the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. As the evidence mounted that our lax immigration policies contributed to the massacre of some 4,000 people on September 11, the idea of rewarding millions of people who violated our immigration laws became a political anathema. But after a respectable hand-wringing period about the failures of our immigration policies and the perils of unsecured borders, the political establishment in Washington is reviving the amnesty idea. President Bush has stated publicly that along with wiping out the Taliban and the al-Qaeda networks, granting amnesty to illegal immigrants is still near the top of his to-do list. Similarly, Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt, the Democratic congressional leaders, made a pre-Thanksgiving pilgrimage to Mexico City promising that September 11 would be nothing more than a speed bump on the road to amnesty. The renewed calls for a sweeping illegal alien amnesty also come in the face of official acknowledgement that we are in a recession-a fact that everyone outside of Washington has been painfully aware of for quite some time. The justification that had initially been offered by both the White House and the Democrats, that illegal immigrants were providing vital manpower to keep our economy surging, has all but dissipated as unemployment figures have increased dramatically since last July. What we are left with in terms of justification for a massive illegal alien amnesty is nothing more than a naked political effort on the part of both parties to woo ethnic voting blocs considered vital to success at the polls. In other words, in spite of September 11 and a flagging economy, priorities in Washington have not changed. Moreover, as both parties have once again begun pushing for a legalization program that could number in the millions of people, they continue to call for the dismantling of the very agency that would be responsible for administering the amnesty. The INS, which has been deservedly bashed from both sides of the aisle for its astounding ineptitude, would find itself in charge of reviewing, investigating and processing millions of applications from people who are here illegally, when it can’t even track down people who have visas and whose whereabouts and activities they should presumably know. The logical alternative to amnesty is a crackdown on illegal immigration, which is favored by the overwhelming majority of Americans. A crackdown on illegal immigration need not entail military or police operations, but rather the adoption and implementation of common sense steps that would make it far more difficult for illegal immigrants to live and work in the United States. Central to this effort would be the adoption of the recommendation of a bipartisan commission, chaired by the late Barbara Jordan, that we establish secure, electronically verifiable identity documents that would allow us to differentiate between people who are here legally and those who are not. The ease with which people can obtain drivers’ licenses and other official IDs has made it incredibly effortless for illegal aliens (and even terrorists) to blend into the national scenery. Just as importantly, the effort to end massive illegal immigration must entail a clear and unequivocal renunciation of legalization programs for illegal aliens. Since September 11 and since the upsurge in unemployment, there have been countless media reports of illegal immigrants who would probably have left the country of their own volition, except that they fear that doing so will cause them to lose out on an opportunity for amnesty. Before any positive change to our immigration policy can be effectively implemented, however, the flow of immigrants into the country, now at historic levels of over one million every year, must be curtailed. We have seen in startling clarity that the U.S. government cannot even keep track of the people who come here legally-that alone is proof that immigration levels are beyond acceptable levels. An amnesty for illegal immigrants would completely overwhelm the already malfunctioning INS and make the immigration process even longer and more difficult for people who play by the rules. With the nation at war and people legitimately concerned about their safety, and with our economy in recession and millions of people legitimately concerned about their livelihoods, we cannot afford even the suggestion of a massive illegal alien amnesty. Under any circumstances, most Americans would oppose the idea of rewarding people who broke the law. Under current conditions, while the nation is confronting war and recession, the idea should be unthinkable. |
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