|
 Don't
Cry for the Failed Immigration 'Compromise'
Just make sure it's dead...
[by Mac Johnson] 4/11/06
I thought
nothing could be worse than the corrupt status quo on illegal
immigration, but I was wrong. The much-touted immigration “compromise” that
is currently stalled in the Senate is far worse.
Contributor
Mac
Johnson
Mac
Johnson is a freelance writer and biologist in Cambridge,
Mass. Mr. Johnson holds a Doctorate in Molecular and
Cellular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine. He
is a frequent opinion contributor to Human
Events Online. His website can be found at macjohnson.com [go
to Johnson index]
|
You can tell
it is a bad bill by three simple signs.
1. The
mainstream media is apoplectic that it has been stalled. As soon as it appeared that the bill might be dead, it became
to many in the press the legislative equivalent of James Dean
-- cut down too soon and far more perfect in early death than
it could have ever been had it lived to potbellied big-nosed
maturity.
2. Teddy
Kennedy (speaking of pot-bellied big nosed maturity) is
said to be angry with Harry Reid for not taking
any deal
that would have gotten the bill
passed last week. The original open borders behemoth knew
a good deal when he saw it. Bill Frist may have tried to sell the plan
to middle America as
NOT an amnesty. But Senator “Amnesty Is the Only Option” Kennedy
had already bought the bill on insider knowledge.
3. Supporters
wanted the bill voted on before anyone had time to read
it. The 471-page monstrosity, cobbled together
last Thursday, was originally due to
be voted on by 10:30 the following Friday morning. You know a bill
is a forthright and quality item when its authors think their best
chance of getting it passed
is to railroad it through before any of those annoying “voters” get
wind of it.
I believe these three signs are mentioned somewhere in Revelations
as foretelling the illegal immigration apocalypse. And with good
reason: the bill offered a group of highly watered down border
security measures, to be enacted later, in exchange for a massive
conditional amnesty of millions of illegal aliens today.
The “conditional” part is supposed to convince you
it is not really an amnesty. The Senate has decided it can get
its way and then just lawyer you into believing you got yours.
But then it all depends on what the meaning of the word “amnesty” is.
Supporters of the compromise define amnesty as only a total pardon
delivered at no cost to every illegal alien in the country.
To claim
their bill is not an amnesty, they charge a fee of $2,000 per
eligible
immigration criminal that wishes to be made
totally legal and put on a track to citizenship. You see, if
they charge a little tax for it, then they can claim it’s
not an amnesty. Amnesty is free. By this logic, Marc Rich did
not really receive a pardon from President Clinton. He just paid
a “fee” to the Clinton library fund and then got
what he wanted as a punishment.
A legal immigrant
might spend about $2,000 in lawyer’s
fees in a few months just to get a legitimate job in this country.
Also, everyone paying the $2,000 “fine” would, upon
receiving legal status, become eligible for welfare, food stamps,
Social Security and a host of other programs that will pay back
that fine in no time flat. So you can see what a mighty blow
for justice the fine is, and how it’s not an amnesty.
The bill,
which is NOT an amnesty, divides immigration criminals into
three groups,
and increasingly rewards them based on how
long they’ve been breaking the law. No, that is not a joke.
Those who
have gotten away with breaking the law the longest (five years
or more)
will get legal status and a track to citizenship
for being so bold and successful as criminals. Those who have
broken the law between two and five years will need to go to
a border checkpoint or an international airport and leave the
country for a few hours with a guarantee of readmission before
getting their legal status and a track toward citizenship. That’s
the Senate’s idea of deportation, I suppose. Those who
have only been breaking the law for two years or less are supposed
to leave. You know, just like they weren’t supposed to
come in.
I would say
that these slackers will have to wait for the next amnesty,
but here’s the best part: all they need to “prove” how
long they’ve been here is a jumble of receipts and utility
bills with old dates on them. That system is so good, I think
we should use it to determine who can board planes and cash checks.
Oh, but then we will be doing that essentially, since everybody
with such a treasure trove of crumpled trash can then get a real
legal driver’s license and visa! My advice is to save your
old receipts; you never know when they might be worth something
on “eBay de Mexico.”
Let’s adopt such an amnesty system for other crimes too,
such as tax evasion. Those who have not filed a tax return for
more than five years will be totally forgiven. Those who have
not filed for two to five years will have to pay their taxes,
with a guarantee that it will be refunded the same day. And those
who have paid their taxes properly until just a year or two ago,
will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law -- unless
they can find an old receipt showing they didn’t pay sales
tax on a “Furby” doll they bought back in 1998. That
plan should decrease tax crime just like the Senate immigration
plan will decrease immigration crime. And it’s not an amnesty,
because I’m going to charge a small fee for the right not
to pay taxes.
The Senate bill also makes illegal aliens eligible for in-state
tuition at public colleges in the United States, and would force
most current immigration court judges to retire and be replaced
by immigration lawyers, who will presumably be very hard on their
former business partners and clients.
This is the bill that is so mourned by the media. It should
have died. The only real shame is that proponents plan to try
to pass it again in a couple of weeks. What will be different
then? They believe that massive protests by illegal aliens and
their supporters will have softened you up by then and will provide
the Senate with the political cover it needs to defy the overwhelming
majority of (actual) Americans.
As Senate
Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R.-Pa.) said Sunday, "There
are going to be some expressions by many people very unhappy
with the Senate not passing a bill and very unhappy with the
House bill." Apparently, this is as close as the lugubrious
Specter can come to saying “No Justice! No Peace!” You
middle America types will be intimidated into surrender.
The first
mob scenes were crucial in getting the bill this far. As bill
opponent
Rep. Peter King (R.-N.Y.) said, "The Senate,
I think, was, quite frankly, intimidated by having hundreds of
thousands of people in the streets waving flags, but I don't
think we should pass legislation or devise legislation based
on how many people you can get out into the street."
King is correct
on that point, but some in Congress think that is precisely
why
you should pass legislation. Although it is
unprovable speculation on my part, I believe the real reason
that Senate minority leader Harry Reid allowed the bill to stall
Friday, is that he believes the Democrats will get more credit
for the bill’s eventual passage if they wait until after
the second round of illegal alien protest rallies, which were
already scheduled and organized.
The bill
was stalled, to be blunt, so as not to spoil the energizing
and intimidating
effects of the illegal alien rallies. If Reid
and friends won before the protests, the marches would seem silly,
and it would seem less like a victory of “people power.” And
it is a belief in people power that will send illegal aliens
and their sympathizers to the polls after they receive amnesty.
There is
debate over whether the influx of millions of illegal aliens
has lowered
the value of Americans’ wages. This
week’s “compromise” in the Senate should leave
little doubt, however, that it has lowered the value of Americans’ votes.-ONE-
First appeared at Human Events Online
copyright
2006 Mac Johnson
§
|
