On immigration reform, call a timeout
CHICAGO — In the absence of a meaningful, substantive bipartisan immigration reform that will satisfy both polar opposites of the debate, our legislators should admit that there is no political will or capital to address the issue honestly and, therefore, our immigration laws will remain as is until further notice.
That's not going to go down very well with the people who are banking their lives on a near-term reform that will allow them to attain the "better life" they came for. And I'm certainly not saying anyone has to give up the fight. Rather, just be realistic that the system will remain every bit as dysfunctional as it is today for some time to come.
Various versions of the DREAM Act and comprehensive reform bills have been routinely shot down in Washington for 10 agonizing years. Wouldn't an official timeout and knowing where things will stand for the next few years be better than yet another decade of false hopes and broken promises?
After closely watching the back and forth on various schemes that have been floated by the two political parties, I'm seeing, more than ever before, that with the still-decimated economy, and with the ideological rift between Republicans and Democrats, there is just no way immigration reform will pass in the next several years. The rancor is just too high.
One example, of many, is how the two ends of the immigration debate appear to exist in separate galaxies when it comes to perceiving illegal immigration.
On Monday, hours before he went on TV to complain that the Republicans weren't playing ball on a debt-ceiling compromise and asking the American people to solve the crisis themselves by pressuring their elected representatives directly, President Obama -- whom I will hereafter think of as the do-it-yourself president -- told a fawning crowd at the annual National Council of La Raza conference that it was their responsibility to find him a willing Republican "dance partner" for a reform push.
It was a rerun of his May speech at the Mexican border that glossed over his record number of deportations and also asked his audience to, basically, get off their duffs and start pushing reform -- as if people in that crowd hadn't been doing so since 2005, when the crackdown on illegal immigrants began.
What Obama got for his trouble was a chanting La Raza crowd that begged/demanded he take leadership on the issue and enact specific protections for individuals who might benefit from passage of the DREAM Act, which would be a path to legalization for young immigrants who vow to attend college or serve in the military. The president, whom many activists call the deporter in chief, said he couldn't do that and took yet another pass on the issue.
The very next day, over in the La-La Land where Obama is seen as a secret agent for "back-door amnesty" despite having removed about close to 1 million illegal immigrants in the past two years, the Republicans were plotting. On Tuesday, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, was busy pushing the HALT Act -- it stands for Hinder the Administration's Legalization Temptation -- which would forbid Obama from making exceptions on immigration policy.
What color is the sky in Smith's world?
Any rational immigration reform will put the needs of our nation ahead of the wants of particular niche voters and advocacy groups. It will require nuanced, data-driven conversations and a willingness for leaders on both sides to make significant compromises that will cause much unhappiness.
If the arms-crossed-on-the-chest partisan demagoguing that has characterized the debt-ceiling debate is any indication, this kind of rational decision-making seems out of the question in the near future.
Elected representatives with the guts to tell it like it is will stop stringing their reform-minded constituencies along by promising that the next year, the next Congress or the next president will bring the realistic opportunity to make the immigration laws work.
Such honesty would be a tragic admission for millions of people whose lives hang in the balance. But the worse alternative is yet another decade of thinking their situation will somehow improve when the political reality is that there's little to no chance of that happening anytime soon.
Aug 4, 2011 at 6:42 a.m.
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Why such long posts! This isn't "America's Got Talent for PhD's!" or "Tryouts for Dissertations."
Aug 1, 2011 at 2:24 p.m.
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Only the true TEA PARTY leadership was borne from what is wrong with either the Leftist-Democrats or the far right Republicans. Like the Phoenix from the ashes of ultra Right, the Tea Party is a revolution for all citizens and legal immigrants, no matter their race or religious doctrine. They have watched their nations money being squandered in massive spending fiasco by the Obama administration, by the Bush presidency and others before him. The day of reckoning is upon us, with a massive $14.5 Trillion dollars deficit that is coming to a festering head now, and yet Liberals are pressing for another Amnesty. Under the Tea Party wing of the Republicans there will never be another amnesty, of which the first 1986 giant citizenship a fraudulent embarrassment. Its outcome we are now drowned in a 20 million plus population of foreigners without papers. Be mindful of the behemoth monetary consequences of any new immigration Reform packages, the Dream Act and the materialization of more Sanctuary Cities, that all accelerates CHAIN MIGRATION another expenditure that is added to federal and State deficits. and states the Tea Party will never retreat from the people's interests and the taxpayers will, which extends to cutting out-of-control spending and the a tax system fair to everybody, with no loopholes for the wealthy.
Aug 1, 2011 at 2:23 p.m.
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The Legal Workforce Act (H.R.2164) would:
* Phase in E-Verify over three years, starting with the largest companies first.
* Require the Social Security Administration (SSA) to target illegal aliens using fake social security numbers by sending out “no match” letters to employers if the name and social security number of a current employee do not match. Requires the employer to check those employees through E-Verify after receiving a “no match” letter.
* Require SSA to send a yearly notification to each owner of a social security number that has multiple employers reporting income to that number indicating that the number may have been stolen and is being used by illegal aliens. Requires employers to run through E-Verify those employees who are likely to have stolen the number from the legitimate owner.
* Establish a phone verification system as an alternative to using the electronic system.
* Require the use of E-Verify for those contracted at day labor sites and other referral or recruitment services.
* Protect employers who use the system in good faith from liability if the system makes an error on eligibility.
* Protect states’ and localities’ authority to revoke business licenses of employers who fail to use E-Verify as required by this Act.
* Significantly increases the penalties for employers who refuse to use the system, or who intentionally try to game it. The fines levied can be up to $25,000 per unauthorized worker and a minimum one-year prison sentence may be imposed on an employer who engages in a “pattern or practice” of violations.
* Require SSA to lock the use of social security numbers when it is being used by someone other than the rightful owner, when the owner has violated immigration laws and been ordered to leave the country, or when the owner’s temporary visa has expired.
Aug 1, 2011 at 2:22 p.m.
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Are the lawmakers going to remain dumb like Headhunters trophies with their lips stitched together on reducing illegal migrants and immigrants? Just one presidential candidate who has the backbone to stand straight and has the conviction to address this monolithic problem. That person is Rep. Michele Bachmann, Caucus leader of the TEA PARTY and the only one who dares to establish a connection between the rapidly rising Treasury debt ceiling and the evermore support of the illegal aliens, overcrowded schools, health care and inroads to free programs, enacted by Liberals on Capital hill.
The most progressive enforcement in 30 years will soon be debated in Washington and that is Chairman Lamar Smith's 'Legal Workforce Act', known as H.R.2164. Known nationwide to businesses and the general public alike as the mandatory E-Verify program.Of course like anything else, the Leftist advocacy groups have tried to tear it apart, but mostly to no avail. Originally, when it came up for a vote over a year ago, good old Senator Harry Reid nearly got it tabled, but it squeezed through to the dismay of all his big corporate contributors and that when the American public became more aware. Smiths new law would reinstate the no-match letter program to help identify the 7 million illegal aliens currently holding non-agriculture jobs. It would require most employers to use E-Verify within two years of enactment. Large employers, federal, state, and local agencies and federal and state contractors would need to comply within six months.
The only problem I see with it, is safeguards for the State of Arizona law, along with Georgia, Alabama, and other States that have enacted laws ahead of H.R.2164. After the realization that Arizona was losing its shirt in upwards of $2 Billion, 569 Million annually from subsidizing the waves of illegal aliens coming across the unsecured border.(FAIRS analysis.) This was the inception of the struggling American people's peaceful revolt, against Capital Hill, and each of the 50 States being crippled by foreign nationals. Not just from those stealing across our borders, but the 40 percent that takers in their mind, to illegal immigrate through airports arrivals or even from entering by boat or ferry. The United States has had an open border for way too long, and now with the crippling recession the whole illegal alien invasion has catapulted into one of the main political issues today.
Aug 1, 2011 at 8 a.m.
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Send them back home and their lives will not be hanging in the balance. The DREAM act is a nightmare for legal tax paying citizens.
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