Illegal Immigration

I have difficulty formulating a stand on illegal immigration. I’m pretty wishy-washy on it, actually and only because  there are no easy answers that will satisfy everyone involved. My great-grandfather and great-grandmother were legal immigrants from Sweden in 1899, my wife is a legal immigrant, my step-daughter and her daughter are both legal immigrants. But, that’s legal immigration.

My wife is pretty upset at illegals because of the nutroll we engaged in to get her here and keep her here that they’ve avoided. Back in the early days, we had paperwork to file every January to report her address and employment status.

Once, when she went home for 18 months while I was deployed elsewhere in the world, she lost her resident alien status and she had to file all over again. When her alien card was stolen, we had to replace it, which took years.

Of course, when you’re an illegal immigrant, none of that stuff bothers you, I suppose.

We know hundreds of illegals here. Montgomery County, MD is full of them and since we gravitate toward Latin cultural events and restuarants, it’s hard to avoid them. Do I want them “sent back where they come from”? Not really. Generally, they work hard and contribute to the community here.

Since the welfare state and popular culture has created a lot of work that Americans won’t do (I know it sounds cliche – but it’s true), like fast food restuarants, landscaping and picking up behind the filthy pigs who were born here, they serve a real purpose. I recognize that is a pretty insensitive and racist thing to say (and the Leftists that say it are being racist without realizing it), but, again, it’s true.

Now, according to the Washington Post today;

Democratic leaders were leery of three pivotal concessions to the conservatives. The first would make illegal immigrants’ access to long-term visas and the new guest-worker program contingent upon the implementation of the border crackdown. Before those immigrant-rights measures could go into effect, the government must deploy 18,000 new Border Patrol agents and four unmanned aerial vehicles; build 200 miles of vehicle barriers, 370 miles of fencing, and 70 ground-based radar and camera towers; provide funds for the detention of 27,500 illegal immigrants a day; and complete new identification tools to help employers screen out illegal job applicants.

That’s probably the most important point of the whole bill – stop further illegal immigration. In fact, they ought to take about 50,000 immigrant laborers to the border tonight and build the wall and towers in one night, so illegal immgration ends right now. Just discussing the new legislation is probably influencing a couple thousand more to make the dash.

I think the immigration should be stopped because it’s draining poor, undeveloped country of it’s most energetic citizens. I love Latin America for it’s culture, climate and food and I hate to see it destroyed because the most valuable inhabitants leave.

The Wall Street Journal reports that this is no free ride for those here, though;

The proposed legislation would step up security along the U.S.-Mexican border, but also allow almost all of those immigrants now in the U.S. illegally to remain as long as they were willing to report to authorities and pay a $5,000 fine. One of its most sweeping innovations would be a guest-worker program that eventually would allow 400,000 temporary workers to come to the U.S. each year to fill low-skilled jobs in the booming service sector.

Although, it is close to a free ride. $5k isn’t a very big penalty considering the benefit that being here has brought the illegals all these years – and in the years to come. It’ll barely cover the costs of filing all of the paperwork and doing the necessary background investigations.

From the Washington Times;

Those convicted of serious crimes would not be eligible for the path to citizenship, though negotiators said they expect most illegal aliens to qualify. Final legalization wouldn’t take place until the security “triggers” are met.
    Under the plan, all workers, including U.S. citizens, will have to be verified as legal workers by their employers. For noncitizens, that means using a tamper-proof ID. For U.S. citizens, it means a driver’s license, passport or other government-issued ID. 

I know the xenophobic Right and the lenient Left (including the peckerwoods that want California to seceed and become a Mexican State) aren’t happy about any of this, but then, that’s what compromise is, isn’t it? A way to insure that no one is happy?

It’s a difficult problem that has no easy, workable answers. This is probably the best we could get under the circumstances. I probably fall in line with Lindsey Graham (shudder);

“This is the last, best chance to pass immigration reform on our terms as a nation,” Graham said. “If this somehow collapsed it will be years before you could recreate this.”

I think the media and the Democrats are making hundreds of missteps when they make a show of meeting with Hispanic “leaders” as Nancy Pelosi is doing;

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met today with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and said the Senate measure is a good starting point that may need to be improved through amendments. Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the House intends to complete work on its own bill before recessing in August.

If the Democrats act like the Latin Community are the only people with anything important to contribute to the discussion, they make the mistake of alienating the entire rest of the country – you know…the people who have a real and legitimate stake in the lawmaking aspect of this. But, then Democrats only see us as homogenous groups of people who think like the other people who are our same color, or have the same accent. 

But, I agree with Crotchety Old Bastard that illegal immigrants should just sit down and shut up and play the hand we deal them – it’s an incredibly generous plan and too much niggling over the details is going to have the same effect as Arafat’s holding out for more at the Wye Plantation.  

I love Michele Malkin, but I think she’s overreacting this time. If there’s no compromise on this, it’ll only get worse – but my proviso to my admittedly wishy-washy opinion is that ENFORCEMENT MUST START NOW! Probably last night.

UPDATE: Apparently Uncle Jimbo at BlackFive agrees with me, somewhat.

Category: Politics