May 17 2007
Amnesty International, formerly called the United States
***Update Below***
Hey, ya’ll want to hear a joke. It’s called a comprehensive immigration bill.
Deal Struck on Immigration Bill
May 17 02:12 PM US/Eastern
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) - Key senators in both parties announced agreement with the White House Thursday on an immigration overhaul that would grant quick legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. and fortify the border.
The plan would create a temporary worker program to bring new arrivals to the U.S. A separate program would cover agricultural workers. New high-tech enforcement measures also would be instituted to verify that workers are here legally.
The compromise came after weeks of painstaking closed-door negotiations that brought the most liberal Democrats and the most conservative Republicans together with President Bush’s Cabinet officers to produce a highly complex measure that carries heavy political consequences.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said he expects Bush to endorse the agreement.
“Politics is the art of the possible, and the agreement we just reached is the best possible chance we will have in years to secure our borders and bring millions of people out of the shadows and into the sunshine of America,” Kennedy said.
Anticipating criticism from conservatives, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said, “It is not amnesty. This will restore the rule of law.”
….
The draft bill “gives a path out of the shadows and toward legal status for those who are currently here” illegally, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
The immigration issue also divides both parties in the House, which isn’t expected to act unless the Senate passes a bill first.
The proposed agreement would allow illegal immigrants to come forward and obtain a “Z visa” and—after paying fees and a $5,000 fine—ultimately get on track for permanent residency, which could take between eight and 13 years. Heads of household would have to return to their home countries first.
They could come forward right away to claim a probationary card that would let them live and work legally in the U.S., but could not begin the path to permanent residency or citizenship until border security improvements and the high-tech worker identification program were completed.
A new temporary guest worker program would also have to wait until those so-called “triggers” had been activated.
I think it would be a mistake to glibly think that our illegals will become happy little Americans since many of our fellow countrymen no longer believe in the ideals of our country anyway. What makes us think that people who’ve come here illegally by the millions will assimilate into happy little Americans? What are we offering them other than money?
We currently have 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States, 90 percent of the Mexican, and assimilation with them is definitely not a given here in Los Angeles. I’m not sure we can absorb them into our culture. For assimilation to work, Americans must be the majority at any given place, and for many of our major cities, Americans are no longer the majority.
Many mistakenly believe that because assimilation worked in the past, it’ll work now. I’m not sure it will. The times and eras where mass assimilation has worked were in eras when Americans constitute the decisive majority; that is, not a 51 percent majority, but 80 percent majority.
Update
Perhaps I spoke too soon with this immigration bill. Readers of this blog would know that I am very emotional on the subject of illegal immigration. I think our current stance on immigration, and illegal immigration in particular, is just a travesty in the rule of law. Given enough time, it could very well destroy this nation.
In the course of the debate on this bill, I am sure we will know more about it. There are two particular items that I would like to see in this bill. One, to build and FUND the wall across our Southern border; not just 300 miles worth, but the whole damn thing. Two, to get rid of chain link immigration, where immigrants can bring every member of their family here.
I would also like to see a third item, very akin to that last item. Children that are born on US soil by alien nationals SHOULD NOT be automatically US citizens. Foreigners on a holiday having a baby shouldn’t suddenly be US citizens. Mexican women just can’t run across the border, have their baby and suddenly become US citizens.
Now, that I’d like to see too, though I understand we should take it one step at a time…
Screw the wall, we need the military, preferably in strykers and tanks. Let the smugglers tangle with real killers once or twice and see what happens.
I’ve thought for a while that amnesty, whether called that or not and probably not called amnesty, would be part of this deal. The mass of illegals provide two things: cheap labor and cheap votes. Business interests want cheap labor, as do many well to do and mostly liberals who aren’t too picky about the domestic and household help they hire; and the Democratic party hopes to harvest cheap votes and thus ensure the electoral lock they are unlikely to maintain otherwise. Given those two drivers, and the lack of ethics in leadership and inattention to long-term consequences of mass migration, you can bet your last buck on an amnesty provision and if you want to be really gloomy about, bet that 100 years from now a typical American will be named Garcia (before he changes it) and a practicing Muslim with his kids attending madrassa at Jose Padilla Charter School in California. I think, Thomas, you are quite right and if this compromise provides actual border enforcement, it won’t be a total waste. Immigration problems and assimilation are soluble problems if we actually enforce the border. Otherwise forget it.