Jun 22 2006
Utter GOP Failure
*** Update: A reader from the rightward fringe has commented on all the scary things that might happen if the country allows an expanded guest worker program (one already exists today, as I pointed out – there are just more working workers than positions allowed by Congress’ made up number right now). The fear of an immigrant worker becoming a US citizen in 10 years is the silliest excuse I have ever seen for not doing anything to sift the simple workers from the potential terrorists. It shows how obsession can destroy credibility in a blinding instant. to defend this is pure wasted energy. There is no defense. The far right is afraid of the fact, under the current Bush-Senate Plan, that immigrants will be elligible for citizenship in 2016-2021, and that is why they gladly did nothing on this subject to meet the threat we face today. All the Chicken Little theories cannot avoid concluding how dumb a decision this was. We now have 12 million undocumented workers in which terrorists can hide, and no plans to change our borders or our laws. And all because someone may become a US citizen 10-15 years out, no way to sift through all these people and weed out the risks. Nothing. And these people wonder why America will now look outside the GOP for answers? If the Democrats ever give up on real amnesty program and pledge to do something now to increase our security, good-bye GOP majorities. This was a “one strike and your out” issue with me because it had to do with national security. The polls support for the Bush-Senate plan at 2 to 1 and sometimes 5 to 1, so don’t tell me this was popular. And no one will have any desire to hear all the lame fantasy excuses as to why the GOP decided to leave us exposed to terrorist. Game over, all credibility lost. ***
I am still without many editing features this morning so I will not be linking to other stories for this post – but I don’t have to. The hardline GOP has declared victory in their complete and utter failure to address immigration. In a clear sign they never had the votes to pass the ‘kick ’em out’ proposals (which have ranged from making it a felony to work for a living to starving people out of their jobs to force them back over our borders), the GOP leadership is pleased as punch they failed to do anything.
These supposedly concerned leaders (if I can stretch the term that far) have left us unsecured borders and a mass of undocumented workers inside which terrorists could roam undetected. Personally, any democrat who is ready to fix this problem ASAP has my backing. Because I will never let myopic party allegiance outweigh protecting people from harm.
There have been proposals, many I have made, to identify the truly criminal element in the immigration population and give them the boot while allowing those who work hard and support their communities to stay on as guest workers. The humane solution as opposed to a Gestop-lite solution where we spend the majority of our security assets for the next 5-10 years rounding up people who’s sin is not being under the mythical number Congress sets each year for immigrant work force size. Since Congress deals in mythical, silly numbers making it a felony to not be in sync with these numbers is the most socialistic insanity I have ever heard. But your supposedly small government GOP is willing to raise our taxes and spend like mad to do just that.
Because we do not have the security infrastructure to round up 12 million people and process them for deportation. It would take a massive build up and raising taxes across the board to do so. </p><br />
Those wedded to this simple minded solution have never once been called to explain all the ramifications – how they would execute and pay for this ‘cleansing’. And they never once explained what would happen if their was resistance (e.g., Elian Gonzales) by families and neighbors. There would be human shields surrounding these good people because THEY ARE GOOD PEOPLE! Not all immigrants are bad or do bad things.
But if you want to push them over the edge then cut off their jobs, dump them in the streets and simply pray they have the means to go home. That, by the way, is the on-the-cheap answer from those who do know the costs and total consumption of our security assets. Which illustrates the bankrupt ideas from the far right on this issue.
So where did they leave us in their pyrhhic victory? Possibly 80% of the country backs Bush’s guest worker program, 20% back serious punishment solutions. And that stubborn 20% left us wide open to more immigrants, more undocumented people here without background checks (the most important aspect of what we need is the background check), more people to hide human needles.
The guest worker program allowed all those who could show (a) having a job and (b) having good character (i.e., good background checks) to step forward and reduce our problem by a massive amount. If we could get 80% of the people to step forward we reduce the group we have to deal with from 12 million to 2.4 million. That means 1/5 the cost in terms of security resources.
But no. The only thing important to the hard right was getting their way. A seriously flawed and dangerous solution that had a higher probability of making us less safe and a very slim probability of making us even marginally safer. If we do not get buy-in from the immigrant and nationalized citizen base (which combined is very large in this country), if we create disharmony and and anger in the streets, if we divert all out security resources on this fool’s errand, we provide a multitude of fractures within our country and our society for Al Qaeda to take advantage of.
It is this short sightedness that illustrates why obsession is dangerous. The GOP leaders wanted to be right so bad, on such a wrong position, they have left us completely unsecure. And they are happy about it. Given the disasterous ramifications of their desires, I can see why some might assume we should be happy for the stale mate. But all we have is as bad as it is now, or much, much worse as our options from the GOP.
And that can mean only one thing. Get more options from someplace else. And when it comes to security – any place else which has a sane solution. The Democrats have excluded themselves in their version of insanity – complete amnesty and citizenship. Another solution that makes the status quo preferrable only because it too is so horrific.
America needs more than two choices more horrific than the mess we have today. So let’s just throw them all out. Senator Allen – I am now going to research Mr. Webb’s positions on this issue. And it will alone will determine my vote this fall. Hopefully you have not exposed yourself on this issue!
BTW, last time I checked Allen was not a hero of the hard right on this issue. But if he moves, I am staying put. I work for NASA so my position on this should be recongnizable. Failure was not an option. The GOP should never have convinced themselves it was. And please, no one give me excuses on why not. They are infinite reasons not to do something and none of them ever impress me. I am impressed by getting things done. Failure was not an option (or an excuse).
harold,
what particular part of what i posted scared you? the density of the hispanic population along the border or the fact that i want to legalize everyone here after building a fence across the border?
here’s the letter i sent out to most senators and leading columnists–eight of whom signed the petition i linked to above.
if i was king for a day…….
dear senator,
i commend you for taking the immigration issue head on. however, i must say, i think politicians complicate the issue by trying to cover too many constituent agendas. sometimes simplicity is actually the real solution. occam’s razor. in fact, the “rant†below that i left on a web site on march 17th is, i believe, the only remedy to a perplexing problem. in fact, if you analyze every provision of the house and senate bills they have no chance of enforcement without tearing this country apart. actually, they have no chance, whatever the penalties. from lyndon johson in 1965 to reagan’s 1986 amnesty to senator reid’s 1993 joke to Barbara Jordan’s 1990-1995 immigration report these are our lessons of failure. please remember that at the time this was written it was directed at other comment posters, not you sir. it follows below:
—– go after the companies that employ the illegals? send the illegals back? penalize the ones that stay?
we are all dreaming. i have lived in california for 30 years. thousands, and i mean thousands, of small businesses hire and use millions of illegals everyday. trust me, short of a new black booted gestapo they are staying employed. any law passed to enforce some sort of penalty will probably never make it out of the court system. think prop 187 etc. so stop pulling your own chain thinking some legislation out of washington is going to change anything on the ground. send them back? assuming we could get the authority to do it (this too will sit in the courts until we are the new, new mexico) the police, national guard or military etc will not do it short of becoming some new SS. even the criminals that we should be deporting will just walk back in, led by their favorite coyote for $3,000, unless we have a fence from san diego to brownsville. 10-15 million well organized people-and they are very organized, are staying. so get over it. part of the solution is to stop adding to the size of the group. we have to build a fence before we contemplate any other measures. don’t listen to anyone who says fences do not work. they have other agendas they are not willing to discuss. ie vincente fox, among others, is against the fence
.
15 million illegals are easy to assimilate over twenty years–and guess what, despite the headlines, they want to be assimilated. but it can only work if no more are added to the mix. the folks that think the 15 million illegals are going anywhere are simply delusional. we let them in and now they are here for good. there are no laws, past , current or in the future that are going to change that. no doubt, there will be folks who get on soapboxes and pretend to write new legislation to solve the problem. the sooner we all act like adults and realists the sooner this divisive issue can be put behind us. do any of you actually think that the illegals are going to be rounded up and sent back to mexico etc? do you think funding is going to be cut to cities who harbor them? you have to be kidding. the bong smoke is clouding your vision.
the absolute best that we can accomplish within current law is to build a fence so the problem doesn’t get any bigger. a fence is cheaper and more efficient than salaried border patrols in the long run. this fence will work.
http://www.weneedafence.com/images/Fence_Idea.jpg
after that, then we can deport the bad guys during a 10-year green card period on the way to their citizenship. that’s right, their citizenship. 15 million people are not going to continue to live here as second class illegals forever without bringing the whole country down. why? because as certain as the sun comes up in the morning, 15 million will be 30 million in 25 years without a fence. we need to get our arms around these kinds of numbers. when barbara jordon put her immigration committee together in 1990 there were two million illegals. we need to seal the border and make them citizens just like the irish, italians, germans, jews etc who came before them. the fact that they got here illegally is irrelevant. they are here, get over it. they are not going to sign up for any two step convoluted green card, maybe you will- maybe you won’t, get at the end of the line samba dance. we are not going to collect any back taxes based on real/imaginary cash transactions from folks who have barely two nickels to rub together. it will cost more to collect it. the hatred and resentment it will engender will be long lasting –not to mention the crime and violence. we might be able to get a very small citizenship fee. that will pay for the fence.
i’ll make a prediction. if a secure fence is not erected at this time we will have this cicrle jerk again in twenty years and the number then will be 30 million along with their 25 million children who will be citizens. then the problem will be this
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4786/105/1600/Aztlan.jpg
not because of some dark conspiracy but because of differing birthrates. we need to start seeing the world as it is, not as we hope it would be.
riddle me this……… you folks who hide behind the thin veneer of “but its illegalâ€â€¦..
who broke the bigger law? the folks who risked life and limb to get here or the politicians/bureaucrats who failed to enforce the state and federal laws to protect and seal the borders? conference after conference, committee after committee since the 70’s recommended closing the border with a fence. it was left open. we need to get past this “illegal†designation. they are here and they are staying. no amount of convoluted gestapo, stalinist, nativist jib jab from the left or the right is going to change that. remember, 15 million are really over 40 million when you throw in their supporters and the larger hispanic community in general. start getting serious. the idea that the newly unemployed “illegals†you would create, with these new ridiculous remedies, are going to go home in numbers is absurd. the part we are not getting is this– it’s their country now. millions of them already have their own small businesses, families, homes etc.
crack down on the people that hire them? again we are just not getting it. we are cutting our nose off to spite our face.
just remember this at all times–if you were them–young, poor and starving for a life– you would have crossed the border if it was left open. we caused this problem. we left the border wide open with a huge 2000-mile long honey-pot on the other side. i’m honest enough to admit it, i would have pushed you out of the way as i scrambled across!
here’s the real pathetic reality—virtually every congressman/woman and the president are against sealing the border. they are more worried about our image with the world, mexico and imaginary votes they may or may not get. they fudge the debate with economic/impact studies that look good but mean nothing. it is all props. read the fine print in the bills being considered.
so, you still think we are going to start solving the illegal immigrant problem inside the US while we can’t rally the consensus to close the border where the illegals enter? put down the bong, you’ve had one hit too many.
and finally to the race baiters……
the “fence†sole purpose for existence is to secure the border from illegal immigration from primarily latin america. the fact that latin america is hispanic is strictly a coincidence. if canada was a third world country i would propose the same fence. for two hundred years we controlled immigration with quotas per immigrant group. i believe jimmy carter was the moron who changed this. the chief reason for quotas was for assimilation purposes–language, culture etc…. mexico encourages illegal immigration as an outlet so as to avoid the hard choices that it should be making to rectify a pathetic economic model it inherited from the spanish. there is a reason that english speaking colonies/nations have done better than spanish or french. every time you seduce a young hispanic to flee his country you further enslave the tens of millions they leave behind.
we have to frame this discussion within the bounds of what we can do, not what you would like to do. modern america is a very complicated legal system etc…. using existing ‘green card’ laws that have already been vetted combined with our existing right to build the fence, will put an immediate end to most of the problem. the fact that it may aid and abet the war on terror is a bonus. after that we can go through the psychic trauma and emotional healing of all the why’s, wherefore’s and finger pointing that always comes when we recognize WE PERSONALLY CREATED THIS PROBLEM — the “illegals†are only the symptom!!!!!!!
enjoy your salad tonight and while you are eating think about these last several weeks–30,000 more illegals have come to say hello.
Enforcement:
No the hardliner plan is to scare the bejeezus out of everyone then say NEVER MIND and DO NOTHING.
Are people dense? This is how it works, we have filibuster rules in the Senate, that means there has to members of both parties vote for something for it to get out of the Senate and go to conference. The House only requires a majority. Which is why there has to be some kind of normalization provision in the Senate bill because without them the whole thing will die right there.
So instead of taking this to conference and saying, we will take out the felony provisions in our bill if you will take out all that stuff about social security benefits and if you will can any shamnesty provisions until after the money for the wall has been appropriated..and so on so forth and then take it from there.
But we got nothing other than a bunch of hardliners cherry picking things they do not like out of the Senate bill and treating anyone who disagrees with them like traitors or morons. Now come the rallies around the country where the hardliners and their supporters get together and bitch and moan etc. and act as if the mere possibility of hispanics coming to America is the end of the world.
But there will be no bill, no action, no change, no improvement.
I hear the Senate is going to have hearings of their own. I wonder if they will ask the hardliners to explain to the rest of us how they intend to carry out this little ethnic cleansing campaign of theirs?
Aj
I cannot support the arguments you make when all your arguments are based upon the fact that this entire debate is about ILLEGAL activity.
I’m done with people who continue to use emotional blackmail to justify lawlessness. This type of inntimidation is what caused Roe vs. Wade to be enacted as a law of the land. I was one of those ignorant women who defend this ILLEGAL act who has come to realise the stupidity of my arguments all those years. It has always been illegal, against the law, to murder innocent human beings but today we now have a law of the land which gives females the legal right to murder innocent human beings.
Now you want me to support yet another platform based upon lawlessness. I want people from around the w0rld to have the opportunity to become American citizens and I want it done legally.
What you are doing AJ is what Americans, including myself, did in order to justify lawlessness like Roe vs. Wade, incorporating irrational emotionalism to justify your argument.
Like I’ve posted earlier, I had friends who were legal citizens of this country yet their sponsor had broken the law which then justified the government’s ability to require that they leave America. This was in 1998.
You have yet to make a reasoned reponse to why you continue to support an ILLEGAL act.
Terrye
You’re ‘ethnic cleansing’ comment is not only ignorant it is representitive of incorporating emotional blackmail into the debate.
I will not be intimidated by this totalitarian tactic.
Listen, I’m not one of those hard-righters of which you speak but actually an American who believes in defending the law and no matter how you try to immidate the debate with your irrational emotionalism you still cannot defend the basic principle that this debate is all about people from around the world who enter our country ILLEGALLY.
My grandparents did not come to this country illegally, did yours?
In any case, I am sure AJ you will be delighted to learn that your site is no longer on my daily read list. For the very same reason why I today reject orthodox Marxist feminism after two decades of supporting that misguided cause, I simply cannot support those who defend and support illegal lawlessness.
“Lawlessness.” That’s a rather loaded word to use for a crime that has been and remains a misdemeanor — one that involves merely being here, breathing American oxygen.
Wow! I go to work, check back this morning, and found out I am Anti-Mexican, it sure was news to me.
It seems many think it was up to the House to cave to the senate. Perhaps, I guess, but perhaps those who think this way may want to concider the following:
Well, we currently wont get much more border enforcement, and it is said it is the houses fault.
It seems to me that the Border Enforcement should have started in 1986, when the first wave of Amnesty was granted. In fact, Border and Interior Enforcement, including Employers, were promised then, but never materialized.
Additionaly, The House Had Their Bill First. Should Not The Senate Have Crafted Their Bill To Be Close To What The House Bill Was, So That The Bills Were Not Polar Opposits? Why Is It Just The House That Seems To Get Blaimed?
Speaking just for the North Carolina House Deligation, if they had caved, I.E. addopted the senate bill, their Constituants in this State would have voted against them in 06. It is a Big issue here, and our local blowtorch, WBT, has had all these people on several time over recent months. Sue Myric, Robyn Hayes, Walter Jones, and other ALL say their constituants are adimantly opposed to the senate bill.
Many may not quite understand this, but we are not a Democracy. We are a Represenative Republic. That meens they represent us. They are suppose to do what their Constituants want, or risk replacement every two years. Well, here in N.C., the vast majority want Border Enforcement, and do NOT want Amnesty for people here illegaly. I suspect that is the case in most district around the country. If you look at who VOTED AGAINST THE SENATE BILL IN THE SENATE, you will see the overwelming majority are UP FOR RE ELECTION THIS YEAR. I’m no rocket scientist, but I’d bet their constituants also do not want the senate bill either.
I think that is about all I have to say today, or even in the future here. I ment no hostility to anyone, I hope someone actually takes the time to read the Tucson Weekly Articles by Leo W. Banks, they truely are the best I’ve seen to date.
Syn,
Jay Walking is illegal, so is terrorism. Your side has no ability to discern a misdemeanor from a felony, and a waste of security resources from a Captain Ahab obsessions with a fantasy. All I need to know is the bottom line – and the far right left us unprotected and have used fairy tale scare tactics to rationalize their failure.
No security – none. And all because some immigrant may become a US citizen in 10-15 years? What American has not broken a law? All of us are ‘illegals’ by your tortured rationalization. Whether you read this blog or not is of no concern. That the far right exposed us to attack to make a political point is unexcusable. There is no pet cause worth risking our children over.
I meant what I said about ethnic cleansing.