Immigration Bill Moves Forward bumped
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| VIDEO: Immigration debate |
The
president “misspoke” this morning, says Tony Snow. I’ll say.
“You know, I’ve heard all the rhetoric — you’ve heard it, too — about how
this is amnesty. Amnesty means that you’ve got to pay a price for having been
here illegally, and this bill does that. But it also recognizes it’s in our
nation’s interest to bring people out of the shadows; that there’s got to
be a way forward that recognizes there is a penalty for being here illegally
— on the other hand, that recognizes that each person has got worth and dignity.” – George
W. Bush
But this bill has never represented “amnesty” to me. It’s just a
bad bill.
However, Republicans who are thinking only about their voting constituencies,
and Democrats who actually believe this bill solves problems managed to get
cloture on the bill to stop debate and move it forward. But it’s going to meet
up with problems in the House. According to MSNBC and el Rushbo, House Republicans
are working to get a measure passed denouncing the Senate bill.
Again, the only way to stop illegal immigration is to target employers. As
for the fence, it’s simply ridiculous. All that money should instead be poured
into hiring border agents, as well as utilizing technology along the border. Besides, if employers are truly targeted the illegal immigrants crossing over would come close to disappearing, with only the worst elements trying to cross over. The border agent manpower could then likely handle what today is untenable. As for the 12 million
or so illegal immigrants here today, the obvious answer is allow them to stay
and work towards citizenship through paying fines, learning English, background
checks, etc. Do you call that amnesty, considering there are all sorts of hoops they have to go through to get their citizenship? If so, have at it.
The first issue for me is funding and manning government enforcement agencies,
which actually can target employers and make them pay substantially for hiring
illegal immigrants. Unfortunately, besides not focusing enough on that issue, the current bill allows employers to go around
American workers to import cheap labor. That’s only one problem with the bill,
but it looks like we may get stuck with it. What are unions supposed to tell their workers?
It really is something that 19% of the people surveyed don’t even know what’s in the
bill that our senators just pushed forward. What a colossal mess. Why are the people so uninformed? Talk radio has a lot to do with it, their vitriol and xenophobia spewing over on every station on the dial. Misinformation and using emotion to pump up excitement is what they do best, even if their information is all about their own self-interest. Wingnuts see Hispanic immigrants becoming citizens and they freak out that they’ll only vote Democratic. That’s how little respect right-wing radio and their listeners have for anyone different from themselves.
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