Lee from Right Thinking From The Left Coast (who is living in exile at the domain blisteringcheese.com after a DOS attack on his main domain) has an entry referencing my take on the 60 Minutes segment "Dying To Get In" that I posted last night.
He agrees with the conclusions of the segment and Bush's guest worker program. In his comments some say the border fence would be a waste of time since they'd come anyway. Needless to say I couldn't hold back from letting fly on some of the perceptions of his commenters on the immigration issues and those of us who want to secure the border and level the playing field for businesses and immigrants who actually go by the book.
Below is my whole comment as posted there:
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Most of us Americans worth our salt grew up doing these "menial tasks". I personally worked at McDonalds and as a janitor for a school as a teen. One of the real problems with the non-enforcement of workplace illegal aliens is that we're propping up corrupt businesses who fail to want to work on an equal playing field with other businesses that are doing it "by the book". These businesses deserve to go under if they can't follow the rules.
Those of you above who are saying "bah a border fence will slow them down, but not stop them" you are very short sighted. No one is saying that we're looking for a silver bullet. It is just one of many things that need to be put in place.
You cannot enact a guest worker program when you still have millions of people crossing the border illegally. That number needs to be reduced dramatically and then we can evaluate how many people can come to work here without overwhelming our education and health care systems at the same time.
A guest worker program will just force those who didn't get approved by it to hop the border. So you'll have more "legals", but still have a massive illegal alien problem.
As for changing Mexico and it's corruption... well it's just peachy that they can keep sending people here, using us as a "pressure valve" for their corruption. If people had nowhere else to go you would see massive protests and real change in Mexico. "Remittances" or money sent back is now their number 1 source of revenue in Mexico surpassing their oil revenue this year and tourism is third. If you don't think that Mexico is applying pressure through lobby's, corrupt officials and so called "immigrant help groups" like La Raza (The National Council of The Race) and MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, calling for the return of the southwest of America to Mexico) in this country you are blind to the problem.
As far as national security, well that's a given. from the same link above.
Despite the protests of the IRS and anti-terrorism agencies, the Department of Treasury last year allowed banks to accept the matricula consular and to use tax I.D. numbers to open accounts for illegal aliens.
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there are clear laws on the books for the integrity of the immigration system. United States criminal code, "It is a crime punishable by 10 years in jail for aiding and abetting someone in this country illegally for commercial gain." And the Bank Secrecy Act of 1972 makes it clear banks must know their customer, and any illegal activity must be reported to the government.
Anyone who thinks that terrorists and drug cartels aren't running money through some of these accounts is just not living in reality.
As far as other things that need to be put in place. Tom Tancredo recently sent a letter to Roy Blunt and David Dreier outlining all potential ways of reducing illegal immigration and getting thing in order. For those of you thinking it's all about the fence, read below.
Fixing our Broken Borders:
- Begin building a border security fence
- Put military on the border
- End "catch and release"
- Mandate passport usage for everyone traveling internationally
- Make volunteer border patrol a sanctioned federal activity
- Suspend visa waiver program
Enforcing the Law throughout our Country:
- Require a federal response when local law enforcement asks to have illegal aliens arrested
- Restrict federal money that goes to local governments that have illegal alien sanctuary policies
- Close the loophole which allows religious organizations and their agents to be immune from illegal alien harboring laws
- Make a DUI a deportable offense
- Increase penalties for smuggling of illegal aliens
- Increase penalties for terrorists who are illegal aliens
- Increase penalties for gang members who are illegal aliens
- Draft minimum standards for birth certificates and birth/death registries
- Make unlawful presence in the U.S. a felony
Stopping Businesses from Hiring Illegals:
- Make employment verification mandatory
- Eliminate the business tax write-off for illegal workers
- Increase the penalty for employers who hire illegal aliens
- Make businesses who hire illegal aliens ineligible for future guest workers
Reducing the Incentive to Come Illegally:
- Disallow all federal funding from going to states that offer in-state tuition to illegal aliens
- Disallow the matricula consular card as a legal form of identification
- Reform the use of ITINs
- Eliminate social security totalization for illegal aliens
Disentangling Foreign Policy from Immigration:
- Block any immigration provisions from being inserted into trade bills
- Block visas to countries that refuse to take their nationals back
- Reduce the availability of yearly legal visas per country by the number of illegal aliens from such country
Restoring the Meaning of Citizenship:
- End birthright citizenship for illegal aliens
- Eliminate dual citizenship
- Make English the official language
- Write the oath of citizenship into law
Reforming Legal Immigration:
- Eliminate the visa lottery
- Eliminate chain migration
- Eliminate H-1B visas
- Eliminate unskilled worker green cards
- Create a Department of Immigration or a cabinet-level agency
I'm not against immigration, but it needs to be done in an orderly and safe manner that allows our local communities to not be driven into despair and for the citizens of this country to not suffer for some cheap oranges.
P.S. Lee you trackback got junked, it is up now. It was lodged somewhere between trackbacks for "male enhancement" and "bestiality".
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I suppose it's not really a debate with Lee, but I'd like to hear what he has to say about all the potential solutions to the problem other than just the border fence.
