« A-Zarqawi stripped of political power | Main | Human Rights Watch in Egypt? No, thanks »
April 3, 2006
Populists Beware Of Immigration Reform?
America is a melting pot because people of varying races and backgrounds come to the U.S. and bring their culture, and they choose to learn about America and our way of life. Many immigrants have assimilated. That is what ties us together as a family. When there are millions of illegal immigrants who do not wish to assimilate and go about the proper way to immerse themselves in American culture, and become legal, they undoubtedly isolate themselves. Americans should not feel that, in order to bridge the divide to communicate with an exploding Latino population, that we must take Spanish. - Felicia Benamon (an American first, an Afro-American second)
Edward Gillespie, former chairman of the Republican National Committee in the 2004 election cycle, has a piece titled "Populists Beware" in the Opinion Journal today in obvious support for a temporary guest worker program (surprise - his firm, Quinn Gillespie & Associates, represents clients who support a temporary guest worker program). He warns Republicans that the GOP must not become an anti-immigration party, and he irrationally draws a connection between being "anti-illegal immigrant" and being "anti-immigrant".
According to Gillespie, Republicans in Congress must choose either a comprehensive immigration reform package including a guest-worker program or a narrowly focused border-security bill. He then offers that the former would improve homeland security, help our economy and build greater Republican majorities, but the latter, conversely, would ignore fundamental problems, hurt our economy and risk the party's majority status. To support his premise, Gellespie accurately points out that between 2000 and 2004, President Bush increased his support in the Hispanic community by nine percentage points. Had he not, John Kerry would be president today (Perish the mere thought).
While Gillespie certainly knows his business, and who am I to argue with a political expert, reading his entire piece convinces me that while many of his points are valid, he, like so many of those supporting the guest worker program, fail to look at the issue in a balanced perspective. There's a very big difference between those that have come to America legally, and those that sneak into the country illegally.
No matter how you cut it, those that cross our borders illegally are criminals, and the fact that the U.S. government has failed to protect our borders and has also failed to enforce the enforcement of our laws is itself also criminal. To further fail to enforce the laws that have been criminally ignored is simply encouraging more criminal behavior and the continued invasion of America by an what has clearly become and "army" of illegal aliens in more ways than one.
And while I'm blowing my top, why is it that I keep hearing from politicians and the news media, even Fox TV, that we can't simply throw out 12 million criminals? Why not? Every time one goes to the doctor, a hospital, a school, receives a traffic ticket, applies for any program or job, aren't all of these opportunities to arrest them and spirit them back to where they came from? Shouldn't this have already been done during the last ten years while the federal government has sat back and allowed the problem to now reach a crisis point?
Frankly, I'm getting damned tired of having to go through a bilinqual menu every time I call a business, tired of paying to support services for people that have invaded my country illegally (although I certainly support caring for them during a very brief few days while we are arranging their transportation out of the country), tired of seeing Mexican flags flying over the streets of America, tired of hearing people that barely can speak English tell me on television about all of their rights and telling me what we legal Americas have to do for them while they are trampling all over ours (we have to obey laws, pay taxes, and behave responsibly (as do my kids who are not allowed to skip school), and yes, I'm also very tired of seeing politicians place politics way in front of what's good for America.
Posted by Richard at April 3, 2006 3:16 PM
