The Senate Immigration Bill

So, the Senate Immigration bill has been killed. That's a real shame!! Now we are stuck with the ever-worsening problem.

It's time for some real leadership--the kind of leadership that President Bush will not and can not provide. Specifically, the executive and judicial branches should be rigidly enforcing our existing immigration laws. Secure the border, and punish the employers who hire illegal immigrants.

The Senate bill had some excellent elements, but also many flaws:

• It did not provide sufficient border security
• It did not deal strongly with the illegal immigrants who committed crimes after they arrived
• It provided a weak, convoluted 'path to citizenship' for virtually all illegal aliens--one that would require a very costly administrative staff
• It provided the illegal aliens with entitlement which should be available only to citizens
• It did not sufficiently penalize the law-breaking employers

I have said before that our country has too many laws; there are so many that the ones we have are not being enforced. Immigration law is the perfect example of that. If we are not enforcing our current border security laws, how can we possibly expect that the provisions in the Senate bill would be enforced?

Our legislators were playing political football with over 600 pages of paper that gave half of the farm to the law-breaking employers, and the other half of the farm to the illegal aliens. Some senators were actually voting for a bill that they have not even read!!

I have decided to support the Bill O'Reilly "no spin immigration plan." Not surprisingly, 87 percent of the visitors to his web site support it.

1. Secure the southern border with 700, not 300 miles of barrier, double the border patrol and back them up with 10,000 National Guards people. That would effectively shut down human and drug smuggling from Mexico.
2. Require all illegal aliens in the country right now to register at the post office with Homeland Security. After registering, they would be given a tamper proof ID card, designating their status and their right to work temporarily in the USA. If the illegal aliens do not register, it's a criminal felony. Right now sneaking across the border is a civil action. Remember that. Subjecting the person to immediate deportation or jail time. The criminal penalty goes way up.
3. Any business that hires an illegal worker who doesn't have a tamper proof ID card faces draconian fines and possible prison time for the executives.
4. Each illegal alien would have his case reviewed by federal authorities. And they would decide who would receive a Z-visa to stay and who would not. That takes the blanket amnesty, something many American hate, off the table. It also allows the feds to make rational decisions about who's helping America and who isn't.

We should not give away our tax money to criminals; instead, we should be using our tax money to prevent the crimes and to punish the criminals.