SHUT THE D*MN BORDER DOWN NOW!

Idiot Savant?

2007-08-10T08:50:00.000-04:00

Yesterday our favorite Homeland Security Secretary made this comment: "We shouldn't have a patchwork of laws. We should be doing a comprehensive federal solution, but we haven't got that thing done," Chertoff said. "What I can tell you is we will certainly use every enforcement tool that we have, and every resource that we have available, to tackle the problem."

Hello? Is this man as daft as he seems?

Mr. Secreatary, we don't have "a patchwork of laws"-- We have a great, comprehensive set of illegal immigration laws already in effect! As Secretary of Homeland Security, shouldn't you know that??? Or are you still just eating sour groups because the Bush administration didn't get it's way in its attempt to jam insidious, amnesty-providing, border control-skimping immigration reform down the American peoples' throats?

While we're happy to see that recently monies have been levied for increased border security measures, and that penalties have increased to employers who knowingly hiring illegals. So don't get us wrong, we're not complaining here--

It's good to see you finally doing your job with the TERRIFIC ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION LAWS currently on the books.

So we end by encouraging you-- Quit your belly-aching, shoulder to the wheel, and do your part by enforcing existing U.S. law, and we'll all get along just fine.

Round 2 : The American People Again!

2007-06-28T18:13:00.000-04:00

I must admit, I was skeptical.

But happily, the haranguing of our Senators by outraged Americans (rightly emboldened by Limbaugh, Hannity, Ingram, Savage, & Co.) brought about today's successful defeat of the insidious Senate bill S 1639, more properly titled, "The Senate Amnesty Bill of 2007".

Now talk radio and grassroots accolades fly, our jilted President pouts, Senators on both sides posture, and news outlets declare Illegal Immigration Reform is legislatively dead until after the 2008 election.

Do we relax? Can we relax? Should we relax? -- No - No - and NO!

And here's why...

Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff, with no unmistakable hint of chagrin in his voice, lamented that now he would have to enforce existing law (!), i.e., build the fence, hire more border guards, and deport illegals. Imagine that! Is anybody else astounded at the juvenile irony of this man's words? MAYBE, MR. CHERTOFF, IF YOU DID YOUR JOB IN THE FIRST PLACE, WE MIGHT NOT BE AT THIS CURRENT IMPASSE! The audacity of his reaction will astound me for days.

Furthermore, news commentators are largely disparaging the bill's demise as benig a great shame on our country and politicians for yielding to the will of the talk radio-whipped voting constituency.

ARE THEY ALL DAFT?!?!?!

If the bill was worthy, it would have passed. Simple. Period. This bill sucked from inception. It was a political ram-job, tying much desired border security to much despised amnesty.

If the Senators truly wanted to initiate repair to the Illegal Immigration Fiasco, which they created in the first place, they would have started with winning America's trust by demonstrating not only their willingness, but also effectiveness, in SHUTTING DOWN THE DAMN BORDER!

So save all the righteous rhetoric about how a so-called noble, historic opportunity was waylaid by the fool-hearty masses. WE WON'T BUY IT. Instead, tell the story about how these misguided politicians attempted to slam errant legislation down the peoples' throats, but that we've seen this charade before, and this time didn't buy into it. Instead, tell the story about how these same people would be more than happy to re-visit the measure when it's government demonstrates it is serious about stopping the influx of illegals so that we don't have to wrangle about it again, in even more epic proportions, ten years from now.

Yes, Mr. Chertoff, we agree with you. You should do your job for a change. And oh-- just to be clear in case you didn't hear us the first time-- we dont intend to let you rest until you do.

Round 1: The American People

2007-06-13T08:24:00.000-04:00

Sad that the illegal immigration issue has boiled down to a battle between the American people vs. their political leaders. But with the shelving of the Senate proposal last week, Round 1 goes to the American people.

But we should not rest on our laurels. It is no insignificant action that, upon returning to the U.S. from an extended European/G8 tour, the President went directly to the Congress to lobby for the resuscitation of the downed illegal immigration legislation. The battle seems to have just begun.

Just today, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez appeared on FoxNews Channel to defend the President's comprehensive reform policies. When asked whether the legislation is dead, Mr. Gutierrez replied with the same old stale rhetoric, that the President is committed to it's passing "because it's the right thing to do for our country." That's all, no more, no less of a reason than that it's "right". Do these dolts really think that we, the American people, are all that stupid? Do they really think we'll fall under the spell of the mantra, that if they just keep repeating, over and over, "because it's the right thing to do", that we'll eventually succumb and start mumbling the phrase ourselves?

WHY IS IT SO 'RIGHT'???

When pressed on his answer, Mr. Gutierrez continued with similar pabalum: "current laws are too weak", and "secure not just our border, but our country". Give me a break.

I'm not an expert on "current law" (civilian readers who are, please post your comment), but here's what I do know:

On October 26, 2006 President Bush signed into law the Border-Fence Bill, which would have established, among other security measures, 700 miles of fencing along the Mexican-American border. He did this despite Mexican President's urging for him to veto it. He did this despite that it conflicts with his own idea of illegal immigration reform. He did this because Americans were expressing fury over governmental inaction on the eve of a congressional election. HE DID THIS BECAUSE HE KNEW IT WOULD BE INEFFECTIVE, because there was no funding for the measures.

This is the kind of games and trickery U.S. politicians have been playing on their constituency from the outset of the illegal immigration problem.

So until they treat us like the thinking adults we are, we will continue to ferociously resist their seemingly insidious efforts to jam this foul comprehensive reform down our throats. WE WANT THE DAMN BORDER SHUT NOW! Until then, Dear Politicians, you'll get no quarter.

Incremental Immigration Reform: A Legislative Proposal

2007-06-06T13:04:00.000-04:00

Recently Presidential candidate John McCain defended his support of the 'comprehensive' Illegal Immigration Reform legislation currently being reviewed by the U.S. Senate. His defense: offer an alternative solution.

This article proposes an alternative solution which denies comprehensive reform in favor of incremental reform. Like comprehensive reform, we propose that an incremental reform solution address all five facets of the Illegal Immigration Reform issue:

Border Security
U.S. Economic Interests
Quality of Life Pursuits
Illegal Residency
Governmental Negligence

But unlike comprehensive reform, we propose that particular tenets be addressed in turn in order to ensure effectiveness and accountability.

The core tenet of why we propose Incremental versus Comprehensive Illegal Immigration Reform hinges on the fact that U.S. citizens have lost confidence and trust that their government intends to address these issues forthrightly and effectively. From past lack of performance, law-abiding citizens simply do not trust the government's sincerity on the issue of illegal immigration reform. Our proposal as a work in progress enables a level of confidence to be restored while addressing the serious problems our government has allowed to develop. The government alone is responsible for the current state of alarm and emergency as it has demonstrated continued, decades-long inaction on the issue of illegal immigration. To this day, we feel that it continues to offer up rhetorical “solutions” which sound evasive, lacking societal benefit, and even detrimental to our security and national culture. We are convinced that the government only insists on a comprehensive solution because it intends to force acceptance of unpopular tenets of reform by bundling them with popular ones. To this, we say “No!”, we've had enough of that type of political shenanigans when it comes to illegal immigration.

Before outlining an Incremental Illegal Immigration Reform proposal, we acknowledge the five core problems with possible solutions. We in no way imply that these problems/solutions are complete, and invite corrections and suggestions.

Problem 1: Border Security
That 700,000+ estimated immigrants (Illegal immigrants in the US: How many are there?) illegally cross into the United States annually through the porous southern border shared with Mexico
Possible solutions:

Physical boundaries
Technological deterrences (electronic surveillance, etc.)
Increased border enforcement personnel and equipment

Problem 2: U.S. Economic Interests
That U.S. businesses have come to rely on the cheap labor pool that illegal immigration brings in order to provide an affordable product
Possible solutions:

Guest worker program
Increased legal immigration quotas
Increase domestic workforce availability (welfare to workfare)

Problem 3: Quality of Life Pursuits

Earnings opportunity: That the U.S. offers about 10 times the earnings for similar jobs in many Central/South American countries
Possible solutions: Not recommended, but U.S. assist poorer countries to better their economies. This gets too messy and will most likely be seen as U.S. interference in foreign affairs.
Family Unification: That legal and illegal immigrants alike have family abroad with which they'd like to be re-united, preferably in the more habitable U.S.
Possible solutions: None recommended. When immigrants choose to leave their homes legally or illegally to enter the U.S., they fully realize they will be separated from their families of origin. They may continue to work through current legal channels to bring their families to the U.S.
Education, Health Care, and other social benefits: That the U.S. offers better quality social services than many Central/South American countries
Possible solutions: Short of privatizing all of our social programs, as long as the U.S. government or it's individual states offer hand-outs, these will be magnets, whether exploitative or not.

Problem 4: Illegal Residency Issues
That currently 12+ million undocumented, illegal expatriates have taken up residence in the United States.
Possible solutions:

Outright Amnesty – Grant legal citizenship status as was done in 1986 (which although promised otherwise, obviously did not resolve the issue);
Penalty towards citizenship/No deportation – Impose fines and other penalties along with a system to achieve U.S. citizenship;
Penalty towards citizenship/With deportation – Impose fines and other penalties, including a requirement to return to one's country of origin in order to initiate provision to achieve U.S. citizenship;
Outright Deportation – While this seems unreasonable, there are workable scenarios in which it can be reasonably and demonstrably effective. We agree that it is a ridiculous suggestion to initiate a massive round up and forced march of 12+ million illegals back to the border. But it is not unreasonable to insist our government target and implement, say, 3- to 5- thousand deportations a month.

Problem 5: Governmental Negligence Issues
That the U.S. government has had decades of legal means to address the dramatic influx of illegal immigrants, but has neglected to do so.
Possible solutions:

Governmental action: The government begin to demonstrate earnestness by taking consistent, responsible action by enforcing existing laws for securing our borders and prosecuting law-breaking trespassers;
Citizen uprising: With all three branches of the U.S. government demonstrating a stubborn, purposeful lack of will in enforcing existing laws to secure our national borders and address illegal residency, and in light of the fact that there is no accountability for our public officials on these issues other than the voting booth, we propose that citizens unite in threatening the careers of politicians by communicating loudly and forcefully their intentions to withhold funds and votes for non-compliant politicians in upcoming elections.

INCREMENTAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REFORM PROPOSAL OUTLINE

We'll leave the finer details to those in the know, but the following proposal seems more than reasonable as an alternative to the mis-guided comprehensive reform the U.S. government has been attempting to slip pass or foist upon its citizens.

The American people want to see decisive, clear, and forceful action by the government. The main idea behind incremental reform is that there be measurable success with one phase of reform before another is undertaken. If one phase fails, the others are forfeited, and built-in accountability would trigger societal outrage and pressures to correct the situation.

Phase 1: Shut the Border Immediately (Year 1)
Institute a three-year plan that will cut the flow of illegal immigrants across our southern border by 90% (as of this writing, from approximately 700,000 illegal crossings per year, to 70,000 per year). The plan should include any and all solutions that would provide deterrence of illegal trespass into the United States. It should be flexible, so that if some solutions prove more effective than others, resources can be re-designated away from the less successful solutions. But ultimately, there should be specific time-bound, numerical goals with built-in accountability. The citizens WANT TO KNOW that the government is on the ball and that it's plan is working.

We propose that NO OTHER TENET of Illegal Immigration Reform be enacted UNLESS the government demonstrates success that it has met its first year goal in stemming the flow of illegal trespass across our southern border.

Phase 2: Provide for Temporary Guest Laborers (Year 2-3)
Provide a means for U.S. employers to apply for temporary worker permits. Require that employers, not the tax payers directly, fully fund the temporary worker program.

A major problem with a guest worker program is that temporary workers can evade return to their country of origin. Therefore we propose that guest workers be rigorously documented, and that the penalties for non-compliance are severe, including a lifetime forfeiture of ever returning to the U.S. under any circumstances.

Employers who are found to circumvent the legal guest laborer provision should be penalized heavily.

Applicants for other forms of legal entry to the U.S. should be given precedent to participate in any guest laborer program. The U.S. should reward those who desire to legally enter and become full, participatory citizens of our country.

As an enticement for existing illegal aliens to legalize themselves, and in acknowledgment that existing family ties are meaningful and important, we propose that those illegals who volunteer to return to their country of origin be rewarded by going to the front of the line in the guest laborer program.

Finally, and this is important, unless the Phase 1 goals for stemming the flow of illegal immigration continue to be met, the guest laborer program is suspended. Doing this enables the U.S. business sector, as well as the citizens at large, to help hold the government accountable for securing our borders.

Phase 3: Repatriation of Existing Illegals (Year 3+)
As Phase 2 legal guest laborers begin to fill the needs of U.S. businesses, and current illegals are given opportunity to re-enter the U.S. under legal immigration provisions, tougher repatriation laws should be enacted. Rather than grant amnesty or even a penalty-and-stay program for existing illegal aliens, we propose that U.S. law enforcement officials begin forcibly returning illegal entrants programmatically after the third year.

The idea of this phase is to severely enhance the deterrence factors making it increasingly undesirable to enter our country illegally. As illegals have been given at this point ample opportunity to voluntarily return to their country of origin, and seek re-entry to the U.S. through amenable guest laborer or other legal entry provisions, family considerations should no longer be a factor nor entertained. Furthermore, the antiquated “anchor baby” legislation should be repealed.

As in Phase 2 above, unless the rate of illegal immigration has been reduced to a pre-determined level (for example, to 70,000 per year), phase three would not be implemented, and the guest worker program would be suspended. Doing this would enrage both the U.S. business sector, as well as the citizens at large, who then by various means forcefully revisit the situation with the U.S. government.

Write your Senators and Representatives Soon!

2007-06-01T17:22:00.000-04:00

I encourage all U.S. citizens to write their Senators and Representatives now, demanding that they resist the current political travesty of forcing through comprehensive immigration reform.

We hear lots of political grandstanding these days claiming that 'comprehensive reform is the right thing to do'. But do we ever hear why comprehensive, rather than incremental, reform is right? I submit that the reason we don't get an explanation as to why comprehensive reform is so 'right' is because it's really not all that 'right' after all. In fact, the arrogant insistence that comprehensive reform is the only right reform indicates that the politicians know that the only way to pass unpopular tenets of this legislation (such as the guest worker program, and amnesty-by-any-other-name) is to package them with the popular desire that the border be immediately secured. It's politics, the ugly kind, as usual.

So I urge everyone who reads this to phone and write their lawmakers (regular mail is better than email) to insist that comprehensive reform be rejected, and incremental reform, beginning with border security, be enacted-- and enacted NOW!

You can get your Senator's contact info here:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

You can get your Representative's contact info here:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/

This is not about Bush-bashing! This is simply about government approaching the problem in the the right way.

Here's a sample letter I recently sent around:

Dear ~legislator's name~,

Although I'll refrain, I want very badly to fill this email with a healthy dose of expletives in order to convey to you my outrage, utter outrage, over the recent "Immigration Reform" bill under consideration in Congress.

First of all, this bill does *not* represent "immigration reform" at all. The current system for immigration to the United States is working as well as any bureaucratic program can be expected to work. Our current immigration system is not broken, and needs no reform. This is an Illegal Alien Reform bill, since it represents reform on how we treat illegal aliens, not legal immigrants.

Which leads me to my second point-- Distillation of this legislation shows an unabashed granting of legal status to the 12+ million extant ILLEGAL aliens. That's amnesty by any other name. Period. It shows no respect for the rule of law, one of the pillars of our great country. Instead it demonstrates that our laws are negotiable at best, and ignorable at worst. Despite the fact that politicians want to spin this in other lights ("bi-partisan", "fair", "comprehensive", etc.), no matter how long or loudly they insist it's not amnesty, we're simply not that ignorant.

Third, I understand this bill touts border security "triggers" in attempt to make it more palatable to the masses. This being the more important of the tenets of Illegal Alien Reform, it falls far too short to be meaningful to any thinking citizen. We are aware that previous border security/illegal legislation (1986) was for all intents and purposes ignored, without accountability for it's failure. Combine that with the fact that the current legislation requires 300 miles of fence on a 2000 mile border, you can understand how I consider this measure laughable. Doubling the number of border agents is meaningless without physical deterrent. I also understand the loopholes in this bill are astounding.

In the course of this debate, I urge you to consider and expound on several points:

1) Border security is paramount in the minds of the great majority of Americans. Unless we sense that serious, measurable action is taken to secure our borders, south and north, from being easily transgressed, all other tenets of Illegal Alien Reform are meaningless in comparison. We suggest you show the American people that the federal government has successfully stemmed the flow of illegal aliens by ninety percent, and then we will gladly engage in Illegal Alien Reform discussion.

2) Drop the pig-headed, politically manipulative insistence that reform be "comprehensive". What we care about is the flow of illegal aliens across our borders. As above, until our government accomplishes this feat, all other tenets of reform are meaningless, and we will resist any attempts at amnesty.

3) Once the borders are secured, let us see our government reward immigrants who engage the legal processes for gaining access to our country by accelerating, through current legal immigration processes or a "guest worker" program, replacement of those who would attempt to work here in an illegal capacity.

4) Strongly penalize US employers who would use illegal workers over those who would honor the rule of law for which our country is renowned. We realize that standing up to big money is one of the hardest things for politicians to do. But to borrow a phrase from our President in this matter, it is time to be brave and do the right thing-- take employers to task on breaking our laws.

5) Do not provide illegal, law-breaking aliens amnesty, regardless of the bleeding-heart "family unification" or "crippling economy" excuses. Drop the ridiculous "anchor baby" legislation that only serves to undermine the immigration laws at this point in time. Illegals, as they are discovered, not en masse, should be returned to their country of origin, and encouraged to pursue legal means of gaining access to our country if they truly desire to be here.

Finally, be warned that the near term political ramifications for any politician's support of the current measure will be devastating. We will interpret such support as further demonstration that our national leaders have virtual contempt for what is important to the Americans. I am so outraged by political support of this legislation that I plan to not only withhold my vote for all national candidates who support it in the upcoming elections, but am seriously considering voting for their rivals in shear protest.

But unless you get the impression that my refrain from using expletives in this letter means I am complacent with the status quo, allow me to summarize what I really want to convey:
SHUT THE DAMN BORDER DOWN NOW!

Sincerely,

~your name~