TODAY'S TALKER: Immigration Bill Hits Major Hurdle

I absolutely don't support this bill. I may be one of the 20 or so people in this country who actually read the bill. It was so full of holes that it was pathetic. I will give you one example of why this bill deserved to go down in flames.

The biggest mess in this mess of a bill was the amnesty for illegals, no matter what you choose to call it. They would be allowed to apply, go through a background check, pay a fine, and be given temporary permanent status and only after the border enforcement and identification sections were in place. Sounds fair, doesn't it? The devil, as they say, is in the details, however.

1. Yes. The border enforcement and identifications sections have to be in place so that employers can check identification. However, there is a clause later on in the bill that says if this isn't completed in 18 months, the amnesty goes into effect anyway.

2. The border security measures, when broken down, eventually would have built under 2 miles of new fence and if that wasn't finished in the same 18 months, well too bad. How is that so? They counted all the pre-existing fence and other barriers as part of the new requirements.

3. Background check sounds good doesn't it? Another detail. Authorities were given exactly 24 hours to complete a comprehensive background check (they generally take a month or so). After 24 hours the person is legal and nothing that comes back on the background check counts.

4. They have to pay a fine. True story. However, they can put a small amount down and pay it off in installments.

5. One of those tricky subclauses says that gang members can stay and be legal simply by signing a paper that says they don't want to be in gangs any more.

6. Another great little subclause halts and revokes deportation on people who were previously caught and ordered deported because they were here illegally, and who subsequently were released and disappeared without reporting to their hearing.

The biggest problem with this part of the bill is the totally erroneous assumption that most of the millions of illegals really want to be U.S. citizens and will later go through the tortuous route to citizenship. This is ridiculous. What these workers want is legal status so they can work and use social services without risking being caught and deported. That's why the argument about people "going to the back of the line" is just so much hogwash. They are in this country and are allowed to remain and work while those coming here legally are outside and waiting sometimes as much as ten years or more. That sounds like front of the line to me. Semantics are a bear when you actually dissect them.

So let's go back to the starting block and put this together right. As soon as I get some free time today I'll toss together my ideas and post them. Then together we can probably put together a better bill than special interest money bought in this one.

This in one section. It is only a few of the worst of the ideas contained in the bill. Imagine if you could stay awake long enough to read the entire thing. This needs to be broken up into individual bills addressing individual issues. It needs to stop pandering to special interests and concentrate on what is best not for illegals, but for this country and our people.

99% of America has no idea whatsoever what this bill is about or whether it is good or bad for the country. If you want America to pay attention to this bill, figure out a way to tie it to the price of gas. Then, every time the price of gas goes down, America will think this is a good bill and every time the price of gas goes up America will think it's a bad bill. At least then they'd have an opinion on the bill.
I personally do not like this bill, but I also don't think we're likely to see anything better because the goal of our policy makers is to make this issue go away, not solve it.
America has silently absorbed 12 million illegal aliens over the last several decades ( this after President Regan gave amnesty to the previous boatload we had ). What makes people think we won't have another double digit number of millions to deal with twenty years from now ?
Why not poll the aliens that came to this country legally and ask them how they feel about our government/business community being eager to bump them to the back of the line in favor of illegal aliens who are willing to work cheaper than they do ?

The thing is George, if they fixed the broken legal system, there would be plenty of legal citizens here to take these lower level jobs. There is nothing inherent in that type of work that dictates that the person doing it has to be an illegal. Streamline the legal immigration system and you would have a steady stream of legal immigrants in the pipeline. It shouldn't take 8-13 years to process an immigration application. The very top should be 3-4 years. The rules need to be streamlines and automated so that the average person can understand them and comply without the need to hire an expensive immigration attorney as they do now.

We have tons of laws on the books now against hiring illegals. We don't need a massive new bill and a massive amnesty program to enforce the laws we already have.