Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon (published March 28th). You can read their related commentary and links HERE.
Thomas Sowell points out how the debate about immigration legislation is not being talked about honestly. An excerpt:
...Let's return to the question of what would happen if border control legislation were to be voted on separately from amnesty legislation, instead of in the current package deal.
First of all, we would find out who is serious about border control, especially if the question of amnesty (by whatever name) is postponed for some definite period of time, in order to first see what happens at the border before taking that irrevocable step.
Who would lose anything by this separate consideration of the two pieces of legislation? The country would not lose anything. Neither would the illegal aliens already in the country.
The biggest losers would be politicians. They could no longer be on both sides of the issue by voting for a package deal but would have to stand up and be counted on border control.
Some say that the Democrats would filibuster a bill that offered border control separately. Fine. Let them!
Let them show their true colors in an election year and then go face the voters in the fall.
Of course, those Republicans who are either weak-kneed or who share the Democrats' views would also lose the political cover of being able to vote on both sides of the immigration issue.
But the country would be better off not to commit itself to guaranteeing the permanence of millions of illegal aliens and all their descendants thereafter without getting anything more than pious hopes about controlling the border...
(bold emphasis mine) Excerpt is from part II, but all three articles in the series are well worth reading. Very clear thinking, which is much needed in this debate.
May 23, 2006 : Bordering on fraud
The immigration bill before Congress has some of the most serious consequences for the future of this country. Yet it is not being discussed seriously by most politicians or most of the media. Instead, it is being discussed in a series of glib talking points that insult our intelligence.
May 24, 2006 : Bordering on fraud: Part II
Of all the insults to our intelligence in the current discussions of immigration legislation, the biggest insult is the claim that border control legislation and legislation on the illegal immigrants already in the country must go together.
May 25, 2006 : Bordering on fraud, part III
Some people are worried that amnesty will give illegal aliens the same rights that American citizens have. In reality, it will give the illegals more rights than the average American citizen.
2 comments:
Amen, I think we as voters should demand that the issues be addressed as separate bills.
One to close the border should be done now.
Later they can have as much fun on visiting workers, long term violators, blind justice or whatever they want to call it.
Without a secure border, nothing else they decide is going to matter very much. And building a partial fence is worthless; it just becomes a funnel, pushing people to cross at the unprotected areas.
The real problem is, Mexico needs to reform. But as long as we let them continue to use (or abuse?) us the way they have been, they will have no incentive to change.
Strengthening control of our borders could, in the long run, be good for both us and them.
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