Nov 14 2006
Immigration Hardliners Threaten Moderates Again
The ‘Fence Only’ crowd, which helped bring about the Republican debacle, are at it again and threatening further damage to Reps if they don’t get their way. Just like Cleavon Little holding a gun to his own head in Blazing Saddles, they bring us this silliness:
Now that Democrats are in control on Capitol Hill, President Bush has expressed hopes of getting a bipartisan immigration bill. The only bipartisan bill that can get past a Democratic Congress is an amnesty bill, which can be a down payment on another Republican defeat in 2008.
If the people in the White House do not understand how outraged their supporters were at this year’s attempt to pass an amnesty bill for illegals — virtually guaranteeing that even more millions will come — then it is hard to know what message they got from the Republicans’ recent debacle at the polls.
What a bunch of BS. There are plenty of PENALTIES in the Comprehensive Immigration Bill for those who are working here illegally and who want to become sanctioned immigration workers. First there was the requirement to pay back taxes – which is not a minor penalty by a long shot. Since paying back the IRS includes interest, this is a burden very few could afford to do. Then there was the requirement to have a background check – which could lead to deportation if a criminal record was found. This would eliminate the hard core, violent criminals from the ‘white collar’ crime of improper paperwork. I was a fan of a registration fee, to offset the program costs, as well as tax on employers. So no free rides anywhere. Plus, no one involved would become an American instantaneously. Those who worked here could not apply any of that previous time towards citizenship – it was all to be nullified (another penalty).
But the “fence only crowd” are completely irrelevant, as is this threat. If they are threatening to do more damage in 2008 than they did in 2006 then count me out of the Republican party. I would rather work a comprehensive solution than listen to cries of retribution for not toeing the line. If these ‘pure cons’ want to create the Buchanan party – then fine, go ahead. The Reps in the House – who pushed this threat last cycle and alienated most of the ‘legal’ immigrants who can vote (for the obtuse, that makes these voters US citizens) – need to realize they have no power now. They are not going to be engaged in this debate in any serious manner. And temper tantrums like this are not going to fix that reality. They gambled and lost. It is over. The ‘Fence Only” crowd is out of power and just filled with empty, angry threats.
There are penalties for the illegal workers, so there is no amnesty. And if anyone is going to infer or say those of us who do not agree with these exaggerations are for law breaking, or somehow inferior in another way, I got a message: the independents select who wins elections. This cycle it wasn’t the ‘Fence Only’ crowd who were selected. The inferior ones are the ones who have no political power right now. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge….This is not “betrayal”, it is liberation.
Addendum: I want to make this point before I go into the comments and possibly get turned off to the Reps again, but here is the deal. (1) The ‘Fence Only’ crowd got their fence only passed. (2) They said comprehensive legislation had to come later. (3) It is later. (4) The ‘Fence Only’ crowd has no political power. I should not have jumped to item 4 alone without stepping through the other three points. But if the hard liners want to take their marbles home and be angry because there is INSUFFICIENT punishment for the crime of making a living – so be it. Sit home.
“Comprehensive” reform will nothing accomplish nothing of the sort. It will merely legalize the last bunch of folks who came in after the last attempt at comphrensive reform. As soon as they are legalized then the market pressures will build to admit the next bunch of illegals to take their place and the cycle begins again.
What this is really about is undercutting the wages of the American labor force and driving law abiding citizens to break the law so that they can compete. For example if you are a contractor who does not hire illegals you are not going to be able to match prices with one who does.
If you RHINOS want my support for your amenesty then you have to put stiff employer sanctions into the language and I have to see that you are serious about enforcing them. So far no one has been serious about enforcing the laws that ironically protect the very people y’all claim to be so worried about. Instead all your side has been willing to do is demagoque the issues.
Quoting someone above, this is like a circular firing squad.
Let me point out that someone with 6 children, a wife and making 6 bucks an hour is not gonna owe any income taxes, so paying two years back taxes would cost about zero.
Here is another thing that I can’t get my hands around.
A fence law passed and 1.2 billion was appropriated to build it and NO ONE feels like it will be built. The Comprehensive bill had some penalty provisions. Would they all be optional also?
I, back at the time, read the whole bill and I saw where it had penalties, BUT no provisions to enforce those penalties and no money appropriated to put them into law.
It also allowed convicted criminals (if they didn’t have more than one felony and 3 misdemeanors) to remain legally.
I don’t understand why, if we are not going to secure the border, why spend the money on pretending to? Spend the money for Border Patrol to pay the hospitals for all the babies born to illegals. The only people that they keep from entering now are the ones that come to checkpoints.
I, personally, feel that the only real outcome of the comprehensive bill would be amnesty for about 20 million people over the next ten years.
I, like everyone else, have made up my mind and like everyone else, won’t be changing it.
Exit polling indicated it did not affect the outcome of the election. I have no better insight than the exit polling(which is often wrong)
About half the folks agree with this, about half don’t.
The biggest problem with the senate compromise bill is the back taxes and penalties. Illegals would not come forward with this in the bill. Why should they? Being underground had worked the whole time. If the government intended to nudge the illegals to come forward they needed a bigger carrot on a bigger stick than the one they used. These penalties were pandering to the base and probably could not be enforced, but would have stopped thedocumentation of these workers cold.