Jun 21 2007
“Nothing” Is Not An Option On Immigration
While everyone can find a nit to pick on the immigration reform everyone also knows failure now means being stuck with the same FUBAR’d system for 2-10 years to come. And if anyone is harboring the delusion Americans will settle for nothing check out this poll:
Nearly three-quarters of participants in a UPI-Zogby International poll said the U.S. immigration system is in need of major reform.
A total of 73.1 percent of those asked said “major” reform when asked what they believed the current immigration system needs. Another 16.8 percent suggested “minor” reform and 6.7 percent said no reform at all.
Major reform is not incremental reform. It is not more fence only. It means COMPREHENSIVE reform. In other words people are not going to buy into the idea it was OK to tank the current bill. They would expect it to be beefed up, passed, and beefed up more. But of course some amnesty hypochondriacs will find some marginal excuse not to face the facts. And it will be at the risk of their waning credibility.
Sadly, in American politics, something isn’t a problem until it is a crisis and it is going to take about five more years for people to really begin to see the writing on the wall when the boomers start to retire in droves.
It just isn’t a problem until it is a problem in this country and then it is a crisis and we end up with bad legislation shoved through Congress because it is a crisis.
Every day I get more and more validation of the truth that 50% of the population are of below the median intelligence level. In my opinion you should have an IQ of at least 100 and have taken basic micro and macro economics courses in order to get a license to vote. Sadly, you don’t have to know a damned thing to vote, only how you “feel”.
Doing Nothing is not a option on many fronts. For the good of the economy, the good of National Security, the good and the nations soul, the good of countless families, and finally for the long term good of the Republican party.
This issue must be dealt with this year. The sooner we start signing up people during the probationary period and get this verfication system up and running the better. That is the real fence
You think AJ does not link to only those polls that support his position? Think again.
Here is a poll from the same organization:
http://www.upi.com/Zogby/UPI_Polls/2007/06/21/analysis_majority_oppose_immigration_bill/2744
Now we are to assume that the “majority” are now in AJ’s “immigration hypochondriac” class? Guess so.
But he is right on one point. “Nothing” is not an option any longer. Americans are demanding that the administration enforce the laws already on the books and build the fence they were promised last year. “Nothing” is what the administrations of the last 20 years have given us. “Nothing” is tying the hands of law enforcement and allowing sanctuary cities to operate against the law. “Nothing” is the prosecution of only a handful of employers last year, and the year before and the year before that. “Nothing” is what we got after all the empty promises made by Teddy Kennedy in 1966 and 1986.
Now we want “something”. The very “something” that has been promised for the last 40 years.
Now Chernoff is saying that they are not building the fence because of the “engineering” difficulties at Smuggler’s Pass. Would someone please give Chernoff the phone number to the engineering department at Texas A & M?
Nothing? Why not enforce the laws? If we did and stopped showering illegals with free medical care and schooling and employing them, many would go home and if they went home to Mexico the govt would have to stop exploiting their poor. And if they stayed anyway in a generation or two they’s be citizens.
Terriye whom I like very much was offended when I responded to the claim that we needed farm worker visas to pick the crops, that if we had no cheap labor we’d invent robots.
Well, they’re here:
“As if the debate over immigration and guest worker programs wasn’t complicated enough, now a couple of robots are rolling into the middle of it. Vision Robotics, a San Diego company, is working on a pair of robots that would trundle through orchards plucking oranges, apples or other fruit from the trees. In a few years, troops of these machines could perform the tedious and labor-intensive task of fruit picking that currently employs thousands of migrant workers each season. ”
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/06/robo_picker
Clarice, 50% of the people where who aren’t supposed to be entered perfectly legally and overstayed their visa. That is not a “crime” in that there is nothing in any penal code that I am aware of that would cause them to be sent to criminal court or serve any jail time. It is technically not a “crime” to be here in an undocumented status and those people are not “criminals”. The have violated proper immigration procedure and pending the outcome of an administrative immigration hearing (unless they waive it) can be deposited outside our borders or allowed to stay depending on their circumstances.
This is what the same poll says about Congress:
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Americans give both President Bush and the Congress failing marks on their handling of immigration, according to a new UPI/Zogby poll on the topic.
The Zogby Interactive poll of 8,300 adults nationwide finds just 3% of Americans viewing Congress’s handling of the immigration issue in favorable terms, while 9% say the same of the President-even as respondents in the survey rated it the second most important issue facing the country, after the war in Iraq.
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Given the margin of error — 1.1% — it may well be that no one approves of Congress’ Immigration Reform bull performance.
This is the same range of contempt that Israel has for P.M. Olmert.
Doing nothing AT THIS MOMENT certainly is an option, if the only alternative is this crap bill!
AJ,
When people are polled on the “route to citizenship” AKA the amnesty option versus the “Attrition” option the so-called “Immigration hypocondriacs” advocate — AKA close the borders to illegal immigration and do nothing about the illegals already here. The “Attrition option” wins every time.
People don’t want to pay 12-20 million illegal’s potential welfare and social security bills.
That is a large reason why Immigration Reform has driven Congress’ popularity polls to less than one half that of President Richard Nixon when he resigned.
It is an issue increasingly being seen as a “moneyed special interests” versus the American people and the side that advocates a route to legalization, your side, is being seen as against the people.
This isn’t a matter of right or wrong.
It is pure politics and your position is losing.
AJ,
Consider the implications of this turn of events in light of the fact that both Georgia Senators — part of the original immigration reform secret working group — are now against reviving Immigtration Reform:
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http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4910228.html
June 21, 2007, 11:07PM
Hutchison to vote against reviving stalled immigration bill
By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who has been under intense pressure from the White House and Republican leadership to support a sweeping immigration overhaul, nevertheless announced today that she will vote against reviving the legislation when it returns to the Senate floor next week.
She was joined today by the state’s other senator, Republican John Cornyn, who had been expected by the bill’s supporters to take such a stance. They had aggressively lobbied Hutchison in hopes of adding her vote to the 60 necessary to revive the stalled legislation.
“I could not support (bringing the bill to a vote) in its present position,” Hutchison, criticizing the legislation as amnesty for illegal immigrants, said today.
As No. 4 in the Senate GOP leadership, Hutchison is the highest-ranking Republican to break from her party on a domestic policy issue of signal importance to President Bush.
“Until major changes are made that reject amnesty and a more open, fair process emerges for debating one of the most crucial issues facing our nation, I cannot support this immigration bill,” she said.
Cornyn added, “Passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill has been, and remains, one of my top priorities in the Senate. It has become clear however, that I and many others will not be able to introduce amendments to fix key areas of this very complex bill.”
The Republicans’ top vote counter, Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott of Mississippi, predicted today that bill backers would get the 60 votes to bring the bill back next week, though he acknowledged the vote could be a squeaker.
“I think we’re going to get it,” Lott said. “But senators have a way of changing their minds and things tend to slide one way or the other.”
The architects of the tenuous bipartisan immigration compromise, which twins increased border and interior enforcement with a path to eventual citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, had given Hutchison a chance to propose an amendment in hopes of securing her support.
But Hutchison acknowledged that her amendment, which would require most adult illegal immigrants to temporarily return home within two years of obtaining their visa, was unlikely to succeed.
Barnett (filling in for Hugh Hewitt) excited that the House of Rep.
is definitely going to kill the immigration bill next week. sigh…