My first few blogs are going to touch on a tricky issue - illegal immigration. I'll address what I believe is the real issue in this blog, then follow up with a couple more blogs about what you can do about it and the specific bill going through Congress right now. This is a bit of a long blog, but bear with me - it's all important stuff!
Recent Rasmussen polls show that 69% of Americans believe illegal immigrants should be prosecuted, and that 72% think it's 'very important' to improve border enforcement and reduce illegal immigration. Clearly, this is a big-time issue that has a lot of people concerned about it. And, if you're someone who is upset at what is going on, you're far from alone!
At first glance, illegal immigration is a tough issue. Americans are, by nature, compassionate and helpful people. We have a natural sympathy for the underdog. We admire anyone who is simply trying better themselves and their circumstances; we all want that, too. But, if you look deeper, you'll see a very different picture. There are many problems with illegal immigration, and I'll try to outline a few of the biggies.
1. Illegal immigration --- by definition, if they're here, they're breaking the laws of the United States of America. "Undocumented worker" is simply a term used to deflect the reality that they're not supposed to be here at all. If they're here, they've committed a crime. Period.
2. This is NOT a racial issue --- anyone who tries to tell you it's a race issue is simply playing on your emotional sensitivities. I'm just as much against a Swede or an Australian who is here illegally as I am a Hispanic who is here illegally. Makes no difference who they are; what counts is how they got here.
3. It IS a security issue --- Remember the "Fort Dix Six"? A group of radical Islamic terrorists had gathered a weapons cache and planned to kill as many people as possible at Fort Dix in North Carolina, but were stopped before they commenced their attack. Of the six, three of them were illegal aliens who came through the Mexican border. This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened, either.
4. It's a crime issue --- As of 2004, about 9.6% of the population of the US was Hispanic. Curiously, about 19.2% of the population in US jails is Hispanic. Let's be honest here - are all Hispanics criminals? Absolutely not! But, the logical conclusion is that -- compared to other ethnic minority groups -- an abnormally high percentage of them are not the "good, hard-working, honest" people the media likes to talk about. Rather, those who are here illegally are often drug dealers, thieves, rapists, and murderers. Do you think it's a good idea to give them citizenship or legal status? Take it a step further - if you set a precedent that we're going to ignore certain parts of the law, where do you draw the line of enforcement? For instance, here's a story reported by George Will from Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute: "Protecting one form of lawbreaking may require protecting others as well. The city of Maywood in Los Angeles County declared itself a sanctuary zone for illegal aliens this year. Then it got rid of its drunk-driving checkpoints, because they were nabbing too many illegal aliens. Next, this 96 percent Latino city, almost half of whose adult population lacks a ninth-grade education, disbanded its police traffic division entirely, so that illegals wouldn't need to worry about having their cars towed for being unlicensed." What kind of logic is that? But, if you ignore one part of the law, how can you logically enforce another part? Another example of what's actually going on is that sanctuary cities (which, by the way, have no offical standing according to law) instruct their police officers NOT to ask about citizenship status, even as they arrest illegal aliens. In fact, it appears that illegal aliens get more leniency from our legal and judicial systems than American citizens! The "Fort Dix Six" had 75 prior arrests between them, and not once were they investigated for being illegal aliens!
5. It DOES affect YOU right NOW --- Many illegal aliens utilize emergency rooms to obtain medical care without paying for it. Believe it or not, many hospitals have closed because of the volume of illegal aliens being treated on a daily basis. I think everyone agrees that health care costs are skyrocketing, but have you stopped to think about why? It's at least partially because you're paying the bill for illegal aliens' health care. Similarly, how much do you pay in taxes each year for your kids' schools? Illegal aliens know they can obtain medical care and education for free here because of the generosity of Americans. So how much generosity are we talking here? Consider the fact that since 1996 US taxpayers (you and I) have paid literally billions of dollars in social services (health care, welfare, etc.) and literally billions more in schools for illegal aliens. How do you think that affects your premiums for health care and tax rates for schools? Illegals may provide some cheap labor in a few industries, but they drag far more out of the US economy than they put in. In 2004, illegal aliens paid an average of $10,573 in taxes, but consumed an average of $30,160 in government benefits and services. The Center for Immigration Studies published a report in 2004 that showed illegals consume $10 billion more than they contribute at the Federal level alone. Hmmm...
6. Identity theft --- if you or anyone you know has been the victim of identity theft, you know it's a massive pain in the rear. You have to do the police report, notify all the cards that were stolen, close accounts and open new accounts, and dispute every invalid charge that comes to you. In most cases, the police are too busy to chase down this sort of thing, so all of this falls to you. It takes literally dozens (if not hundreds) of hours to clean up the mess, and if your credit report gets dinged in the process, you could have major problems obtaining a loan or financing for years into the future. With that being said, who do you suppose is the biggest consumer of stolen identities?
7. Voter fraud --- one of the most valuable rights of the US citizen is that of voting. We get to have our say in who leads this great nation, and that's priceless. I can think of very few things that infuriate me more than knowing illegal aliens vote in our elections because voting places do not require us to show photo IDs. Do you know that any US citizen can get a government-issued photo ID that's not a driver's license? Before the 2006 election it was free, and they would even come to you if you couldn't get out and about. When the US Supreme Court ruled that requiring photo ID to vote was unconstitutional (a horrible decision, in my opinion), these programs were stopped, but you can still get a non-driver's photo ID for a small fee at your local DMV. Despite this, there is absolutely NO reason not to implement this safeguard in our nation's election process...except, that is, if politicians want to stack elections in their favor by allowing multiple votes from one person, votes from dead people, votes from pets, votes from illegal aliens, etc. A photo ID does not disenfranchise voters at all - rather, it empowers legal voters to know that their vote truly has meaning. I have yet to see one legitimate reason NOT to require photo IDs for voting purposes.
8. Previous attempts haven't worked, either --- the US has granted amnesty before, and it's never worked out as promised. In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act (called the Hart-Seller bill) was signed into law along with promises that "the bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs" and "No immigrant visa will be issued to a person who is likely to become a public charge". It effectively granted amnesty to several hundred thousand illegal aliens. Okay, so that maybe wasn't such a big deal, but in 1980 we got the Immigration Rescue Act, which removed foreign policy considerations from refugee laws and sent phony assylum request rates skyrocketing. In 1986, the issue came up again with the Immigration Reform and Control Act (called the Simpson-Mazzoli bill), which provided amnesty to illegals living in the country before 1982. This time it was over 3 million illegal aliens. Each of these laws was accompanied by assurances that it would be the last time, and from that point immigration would finally be enforced. But where are we now? We're in the worst position yet - an estimate of as many as 20 million illegal aliens would be granted legal status (translate that to amnesty) instantly if the current legislation gets signed into law! Given the history of this issue, do you really think this is going to help or hurt America? One more thing - the man leading the charge for the current immigration "reform" is Senator Ted Kennedy. Guess who was the driving force behind each of these previous amnesty bills? You guessed it, Ted Kennedy. Do you trust him to actually fix the problem this time?
9. Business problems --- Some major US companies are now creating programs specifically for illegal aliens - Bank of America will now issue credit cards to anyone without a social security number. Seriously?! If that doesn't show you the lack of enforcement currently taking place, nothing will. When illegal aliens ditch their Bank of America credit card with a $50,000 balance on it, guess who ends up paying that bill? You, the Bank of America customer who is a law-abiding American citizen. I'm not a Bank of America customer, but if I was, I'd contact the corporate headquarters and demand they end all such programs immediately. If they didn't, I would take my business elsewhere. But that's just me.
10. Different motivation --- I often hear and read that "we're a nation of immigrants". True, that's how America started. There's a key difference, however, in those original immigrants and the problem we face today. In the past, immigrants were coming here legally, with the hope of achieving the American dream - joining in, becoming an American, and contributing to the greatness of the country. Legal immigrants are still doing that every day, and we as Americans should welcome them with open arms! Unfortunately, many illegal immigrants are coming here with no intention of learning English, no intention of being a productive member of American society, and no compunction about breaking laws once they're here. Instead, the intent is to leech off the prosperity of America, sucking up as much personal gain as possible with flagrant disregard for the principles America stands for. The multicultural movement has firmly established the idea that the culture of origin is far more important than the American culture, which is fundamentally damaging to our country. Look at the marches that occurred about a year ago - illegal aliens marched through the streets of many cities, demanding "rights" while flying Mexican flags and refusing to speak English. I don't know about you, but that really doesn't sit well with me! Now, take it a step further - if we allow Islamic jihadists and radical Islamics into the country and allow them to ignore the laws of this country in the name of "multiculturalism", what will we end up with? Home-grown terrorists and Sharia law, where women are subjugated, punishments are brutally carried out without due process, and many other awful things. Think it can't happen? It already has in Germany.
There are very few things that infuriate me more than watching our national leaders pander to this issue. They are the people we have elected to create and uphold our laws, and yet they blatantly ignore them. Why? The answer is in the last couple of elections, which were decided by 500,000 and 3 million votes, respectively. This issue is -- to them -- all about gaining votes. I think the Democrats are a little more out of line about it, as illustrated by this brochure photographed at one of the 2006 immigration rallies across the nation.
But, both major parties are salivating to gain a new voting bloc of 12-20 million people, and they're willing to risk destroying our own economy and identity to get themselves in positions of power. I believe that the Democrat leadership is making a deliberate calculated bid for power, and I think the Republican leadership is simply a bunch of idiots for following along regardless of the fact that no previous amnesty attempt has gained them any significant votes. I think that many of the leaders in the House, Senate, and White House honestly believe that if they can just secure this new voting bloc and get into power, they can go back and fix the problems they cause on the way. It doesn't work like that. If they continue on this path, they're going to do irreparable harm to this country. More on that coming up.There's my two cents.
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