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Amnesty Rewards Illegal Immigrants and Encourages More Illegal Immigration - The end of the legislative calendar is traditionally a time when a lot of special interest legislation gets quietly attached to spending measures. Legislating through the appropriations process, though officially frowned upon, is a time-honored way for Congress to get pet projects or unpopular bills enacted, without exposing them to too much public scrutiny. The contentious 106th Congress, which required a post-election lame duck session in order to complete its business, was no exception. Among the many eleventh hour attempts to slip special interest provisions through the legislative backdoor was an amendment to a key spending bill that would have granted amnesty to a million or more illegal aliens living in the U.S. The amendment, which was pushed by the outgoing Clinton Administration, ultimately failed as congressional Democrats blinked first in a game of legislative chicken. Amnesty may have failed, in part because many in Congress simply balked at the idea of such a blatant abuse of the appropriations process to enact such sweeping changes in immigration policy. While amnesty may have been defeated on procedural grounds, there are sound policy principles for why a massive legalization program should be rejected when it is proposed in the new Congress. In the first place, what advocates for illegal immigrants are arguing for is not really an amnesty from punishment for having violated the law, but a reward for having violated it. When the IRS, for example, offers an amnesty for people who have been delinquent in paying taxes, it is waiving the penalties for having violated the law, not the tax obligations themselves. What advocates for illegal aliens are asking for is not just that people not be punished for having violated immigration laws, but that they be rewarded for it by receiving green cards. One of the chief arguments offered by advocates of an illegal alien amnesty in the last Congress is that it is a matter of “fairness.” Having expanded the number of visas available for foreign high tech workers earlier in 2000, these advocates argue, it is only just that Congress grant some benefit to the largely unskilled illegal immigrant population. These are primarily people who did not meet the requirements of the 1986 program, or people who were granted temporary permission in the early 1990s to remain in this country due to wars in their homelands. In spite of the rhetoric, the United States has already been more than fair to these people by allowing them to remain here in spite of the fact they have violated our laws. If anything, the unfairness has been to millions of law-abiding immigrants who have waited (and continue to wait) their turns to come here legally. If trust has been violated, it has been with the American public, which was promised that the 1986 amnesty - which legalized some 3 million people - would never be repeated and that the government would make a serious effort to prevent further illegal immigration. Fifteen years later, with at least 6 million more illegal aliens residing it is clear that the promise was not kept. Moreover, as history has proven conclusively, amnesties do not solve the problem of illegal immigration; they encourage even more illegal immigration. The message that is disseminated loudly and clearly throughout the world is that it’s time to start lining up for the next amnesty program. Once a pattern of dealing with illegal immigration through amnesty programs is established, there will be no end to the number of people prepared to get in on the deal. |
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