The Illogical & Unlawful Comprehensive Immigration Solution

The disgraceful actions of our federal government seem to approach unprecedented levels with each new Congress. The latest example of this indignity is the effort to push a “comprehensive” immigration reform bill through the Senate. Not only do these so-called reforms not reflect what a large majority of Americans want, the negotiations between Senators and the White House were apparently done in secrecy to avoid any public debate. Despite the efforts to keep this proposal from the public, The Heritage Foundation obtained a copy and published the 347-page document on their website over the weekend.

Our federal government is really pushing its limits on the illegal immigration issue. Much of the public is infuriated by their inability to perform the most basic function of national security. One of the reasons our Constitution was established was to “provide for the common defence” of the people in this country. With the stated objective of Islamic terrorists desiring to kill as many Americans as possible, it is mystifying to witness the refusal of our government to support this basic principle of our law. We cannot provide security for this nation if we cannot identify who crosses our borders, how many people do it, or when they come and go.

Supporters of these “comprehensive” immigration bills love to tell us how beneficial the proposals are and how we should be grateful for them. But if we dissect their arguments, we can plainly see that most of the proposed actions are smoke and mirrors and the proponents’ rhetorical attacks on anyone who disagrees are brimming with hyperbole. And this issue appears to have bipartisan support for different reasons. On one side of the aisle we have a party that wants to placate business owners by allowing extremely cheap labor and on the other, we have a party who salivates over the possibility of securing a wealth of new voters. But both parties ignore the fundamental issue of illegal immigration: The blatant disregard of our federal laws.

So, what are the reasons for not upholding the law and what do the advocates of this lawlessness say about their opposition? What is the solution proposed by the politicians? And why are so many people upset with the incompetence of our Congress? I think now is the time for a comprehensive review of this matter.

First of all, the borders need to be secured. This is not merely a suggestion, it must be done. A poll conducted last week by Pulse Opinion Research shows that 79% of the public wants increased enforcement of our borders. As for a border fence, 51% of the public wanted one to cover the entire U.S.-Mexican border, and an additional 7% wanted at least 700 miles of it built. Of the 700-mile fence that was authorized by Congress just last year, only two miles have been constructed. The security of our borders is an absolute joke and everyone in the world knows it.

The most basic function of our federal government is national security. This is not an opinion, this is their duty. It is why we pay our taxes and it is why we have borders and agents that are supposed to be patrolling them. And at a time of an unconventional war where it only takes one man to cause severe damage to the welfare of our nation, a rodent should not be able to cross our border without us knowing what species it is. No new legislation should even be proposed until we have the ability to do this.

Once the borders are completely secured, we can then move on to the other issues. What do we do with the 12 million or more illegal immigrants already here in the United States? Now this is the issue that seems to divide people into many different factions…or does it?

According to the Pulse poll, over 64% of the population at least somewhat supports mass-deportation of illegal immigrants (40% strongly support it) and only 31% at least somewhat oppose it (14% strongly). So the public supports deportation, which is the penalty for breaking immigration laws, but most of our politicians and the media claim it is not feasible to accomplish. But according to the Arizona Republic, I think Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials would disagree. An article by Daniel Gonzalez about the ICE deportation program says, “They carried more than 116,000 passengers last fiscal year, enough to rival some small U.S. airlines.” These passengers were either transported directly out of the country, or to border regions where they took a bus back to their country of origin.

We know what industries hire a majority of the illegal workers in this country and many of these workers are identified by the Social Security Administration each year because of their use of fake Social Security numbers. Most employers will know when they have hired illegal aliens because they either do not have the proper identification that proves they are eligible to work, or they are notified by the government that the employees they hired used fraudulent documentation. However, most of these situations result in little or no enforcement of the law.

So if efforts were increased to detain these illegal workers once they are identified, the number of deportations would increase dramatically. Hence, it is exceedingly practicable to deport large amounts of illegal aliens. I don’t think anyone believes that this can be done overnight, but after several years of enforcement it will unquestionably make a huge difference. Not only will it help eliminate the actual number of illegal aliens already here, but potential criminals will realize that we are taking our laws seriously and that they have a much smaller chance of successfully breaking them.

In addition to identifying and deporting the illegal aliens who violate our federal laws, strict and severe punishment must be imposed on the businesses that hire them. By hiring illegal workers they not only give themselves an unfair business advantage over employers who follow the law, they also participate in either tax fraud or identity theft. This is partly why it is illegal to hire such workers. Also, these laws are in place - believe it or not - to protect workers. Illegal aliens have no rights in the workplace and that is why we have laws preventing them from being hired.

Why do people believe that by paying illegal workers half of a legal worker’s wage that it is doing them some great service? And why do so many people, who claim they are trying to help these illegal workers, want them to continue to be mistreated? This is also the great contradiction about a guest-worker program. If we allow foreign workers to come here and work for below the minimum wage, does that not create a permanent underclass? And if we grant them all the rights of a full citizen, how long will it take before they demand proper wages under the law? At that point, there is no benefit of having a guest-worker program. So where exactly is the compassion from the advocates of such an agenda?

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” – The Constitution of the United States, 14th Amendment

Now, one would assume that people who are not born or naturalized in the United States are not citizens and therefore are not granted equal treatment under the law as legal citizens. If this is true, then illegal aliens should not be entitled to any social benefits that are funded by the taxpaying citizens of our country. According to a study by The Heritage Foundation, the fiscal cost of low-skilled immigrant households (which include legal and illegal immigrant workers) totaled over $89 billion to the U.S. taxpayer in 2004. These households contained about 16 million people and 40% were headed by illegal aliens.

This does not reflect the total cost of illegal immigration. Because of the integration of legal and illegal households in the study, only about $35 billion can be attributed to illegal households. But this only reflects the social benefits provided by taxpayers, and the newly proposed legislation would significantly increase the amount of low-skilled workers entering our country, thus creating a massive burden on taxpayers. Many regions in the Southwest already suffer from overcrowded schools and many hospitals have been closed due to the increased costs of illegal aliens abusing the use of emergency services.

Despite all of these facts, the advocates of “comprehensive” legislation claim that low-skilled labor is exactly what we need to keep our economy moving. They say Americans are not willing to work low-skilled jobs or that businesses can’t afford to pay workers decent wages to do them.

There’s a problem with each one of those assertions. First, Americans aren’t willing to work for artificially low wages. It has nothing to do with the type of job. The politicians and media-types ought to get out into the real world sometime and see what kind of work legal American citizens do, including the work of the military, then tell us what we are or aren’t willing to do. Second, if businesses can’t afford to pay their employees fair wages, they should close their doors. There is no right to own a profitable business in this country, so save us the sob story. Wanting to maintain an otherwise failing business does not justify breaking the law.

And for those people, who are advocating for legalizing these criminals, please show us an example of an industry where legal Americans are not a dominant majority of the work force. I’ll save you the trouble: There isn’t one.

Another bewildering and illogical example of the ignorance that exists in the promoters of the reform bill is that cheap labor is what makes this nation what it is. They think cheap, un-skilled labor drives our economy and without it, we will be in serious trouble. Surely they don’t think the American public is that stupid, do they? If that was the case, then every Third World nation would be experiencing economic booms. The illegal immigrants that are trying to escape the conditions in their countries right now would not need to. Promoting this idea is nothing more than pandering to the illegal aliens that infest our nation, probably with the hope to earn their vote once they’re legalized.

The most irritating claims by the illegal immigration advocates are the following two. They say this bill is not amnesty and that the opponents of this reform are against all immigration, not just the illegal kind.

The idea that this is not amnesty is absurd. The proponents say that it is not because the criminals will pay a fine and they will have certain hoops to jump through. One problem with that is there is no mechanism at this time, and most likely there will not be, to enforce such rules. Another problem is the punishment does not fit the crime. As I said before, the proper punishment for illegally entering our country is deportation. Anything short of that, especially granting these criminals legal status and allowing them to invite their family members, is amnesty. You do not convict a first degree murderer and punish them with community service, or simply forgive them because you can’t catch every murderer. A dominant majority of the public agree that these illegal aliens need to go home.

The argument that everyone who opposes illegal immigration also opposes legal immigration is a weak attempt at rhetorically exaggerating their opponents’ position. Yes, there are some people who may believe that, but to dismiss the entire debate based on a false portrayal that somehow Americans are being racist towards Mexicans (which is what that argument is intended to be for the most part), is just utter stupidity and disingenuous. Most rational people understand that we do need legal immigration, largely due to the fact that we’ve lost over 40 million potential workers to abortion over the last few decades and that the baby-boomers are nearing retirement. What we don’t need is the combined amount of both legal immigration and illegal aliens. So if the illegal aspect will not be controlled, we do not want to increase the quantity of legal workers.

The information is out there. The statistics on all aspects of legal and illegal immigration is available. Our Congress knows it, and they either refuse to examine the data or they are simply ignoring it and the American people. They continue failing to fulfill their duty and they have all but lost the faith of the American citizenry. Continuing to ignore the people of whom they took an oath to serve and protect will only lead to the demise of both them and this nation.

Immigration reform is very simple and the American people have made it clear what is expected from our politicians. The only comprehensive reform that we want is this: enforce our existing laws. This includes securing our borders (all of them), prosecuting employers who hire illegal aliens, cutting off the taxpayer-funded social benefits to illegal aliens, and deportation. That is the only comprehensive reform that is necessary. Until our elected officials realize this and ensure those tasks are carried out, the legal citizens of the United States will continue to carry the burden for the criminals who continue to break our federal laws.

This new bill must not be allowed to pass and it is our responsibility to ensure our representatives get that message.

This is my message to Congress and to the President:

Stop making excuses. Stop pandering to business owners and illegal aliens who violate and disrespect the rule of law. If you continue to be accomplices to criminal actions, you will be held accountable by the People. The rule of law is superior to any one man, any single faction, or any collective group of society. The laws to deal with the specific issue of immigration already exist, so enforce them.

“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof…shall be the Supreme Law of the Land.” – Article VI, Section 2, the Constitution of the United States

“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation to support this Constitution...” – Article VI, Section 3, the Constitution of the United States

Your refusal to uphold the law makes you wholly unqualified and unfit for further duty as public servants. The violation of your oaths to respect and obey the laws of this country will not be tolerated. The People retain the power to remove you from office. The blatant disregard of their demands will undoubtedly have an adverse effect on your political well-being, either by the ballot or by revolution. Choose your actions wisely.

Related articles by this author:

http://www.xomba.com/illegal_aliens_a_simple_solution

http://www.xomba.com/illegal_aliens_secure_borders_deportation_guest_workers_amnesty

http://www.xomba.com/multiculturalism_and_you

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