Alice In Wonderland Immigration Reform

It seems inconceivable that many Americans could be unaware that the U.S. Senate is poised to pass a so-called "immigration reform bill" that would give amnesty and eventual citizenship to untold numbers of illegal aliens? Estimates range from 12 to 200 million. During his televised address to the nation on Monday night, President Bush made it crystal clear that amnesty programs and open borders will continue, and that he has every intention of giving illegal aliens, trespassing and working in our country illegally, the same rights we enjoy as American citizens.

"ILLEGALS GRANTED SOCIAL SECURITY" was the front-page headline Friday, May 19th in the Washington Times. According to Times reporter Charlie Hurt, "The Senate voted yesterday to allow illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits based on past illegal employment – even if the job was obtained through forged or stolen documents.” This is what happened...

As the Senate continued to debate immigration reform legislation, which by definition means re-writing immigration laws since the government refuses to enforce existing law, Senator John Ensign (GA) offered an amendment that would have prevented illegal aliens who engaged in unlawful activity within the Social Security system from receiving benefits. The Senate defeated (tabled) the Ensign amendment by a vote of 50-49! Guess who voted to permit illegal aliens access to the Social Security system – Senator John McCain – the deciding vote!

View the actual roll call vote:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00130

After the vote, Senator Ensign stated: "There was a felony they were committing, and now they can't be prosecuted. That sounds like amnesty to me... It just boggles the mind how people could be against this amendment."

If you are going to have any impact on this issue, you might consider doing it quickly since Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has vowed to have the immigration reform bill, complete with amnesty, citizenship, and taxpayer benefits provided to illegal aliens, passed before Memorial Day. Should you choose to sit and watch events unfold without making your voice heard, don’t try at a later date to shift the blame to Congress for your own apathy.

The American people overwhelmingly want secure borders and enforcement of existing immigration laws, not a rewrite of immigration laws simply because politicians refuse to enforce them (or allow them to be enforced). If given a voice, which is an important ancillary issue, the American people overwhelmingly want debate suspended on any and all amnesty provisions, once and for all, and our government to focus solely on securing the border!

Consider the following report from the Internet news site, The Conservative Voice:

Frist Agrees to Illegals Amnesty Senate Compromise
"In a compromise with Senate Minority leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Majority leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has revived the Senate version of the Border Security and Immigration bill that would provide millions of illegal’s with a 'path to citizenship' or Amnesty. The Senate is now pushing to complete its version of the bill, as groups who support illegal aliens had told them to do, before Memorial Day."

Here's a recent passage from an article published by NewsMax.com that should further illustrate the point:

Rep. King Slams Senate on Immigration
"The national outrage over the government's failure to stop illegal immigration has not caught hold in the Senate, says Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y."

"'They're going to use this term 'immigration reform,' and their idea of immigration reform is to throw a few things, a few nods towards border security without being serious about it,' he said.

"King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Lou Dobbs Wednesday night that the Senate's way of getting rid of 10 million of the 11 million illegal immigrants now in the United States is to legalize them.

"'I think the Senate is going to come up with legislation that will legalize them, and it's going to lead to citizenship -- if that's not amnesty I don't know what you'd call it. I think it's a real disconnect between the American people on one hand and the mainstream media and the senators on the other.'"

Congressman Tom Tancredo expressed skepticism as well, telling ABC News on Friday that while he did not want to be "cynical" he believed that, "once the debate is over, we'll go back to business as usual."

What Are The Predictable Consequences?

In case you haven't looked carefully at the Senate bill, here are a few consequences of passing the Senate bill that you may not have heard about on ABC, CBS, NBC, or read about in The New York Times. In a shocking new report by the highly respected Heritage Foundation, Robert Rector observes that the Senate's "immigration reform plan" would:

- Grant immediate amnesty for 10 million illegal aliens, comprising 85 percent of all illegal immigrants currently within our borders.

- Create a "temporary guest worker program" that is anything but temporary, since most "guest workers" would be given an immediate path to citizenship.

- Provide additional permanent visas for family members of immigrants, including siblings, parents, and adult children.

- Open the door to nearly four times as many permanent worker visas as are now issued.

- Provide for the largest expansion of the welfare state ever and cost the American taxpayer $46 billion per year.

Every U.S. Senator on Capitol Hill is aware of these irrefutable facts and national security issues (and many more that have been published in articles archived on www.redstatepatriot.com). So why are they, U.S. Senators, so eager to jeopardize the safety of Americans in the face of such strong evidence, contrary to the will of the American people in an extreme display of arrogance and in-your-face disrespect?

Do U.S. Senators not care about their country and only care about themselves? Their actions clearly show they don’t care about Americans, favoring instead illegal aliens.

Do they believe we don't care about our own country? You had better show them that you do!

Assume for a minute that U.S. Senators only respond to opinion polls. What are the American people saying? The May, 2006 Zogby poll reported the following:

- Instead of increasing immigration, a whopping 67 PERCENT of Americans want to DECREASE the numbers. In fact, a mere TWO PERCENT of Americans believe that the immigration rate is too low.

- Politicians are constantly claiming that illegal aliens are willing to take low-pay jobs that American citizens won't touch -- but 74 % of Americans said that's baloney!

- 69 PERCENT of Americans support the House bill proposed by Congressman James Sensenbrenner that has already passed the House and was forwarded to the Senate, which calls for fortification of the border, and forces employers to verify the legal status of employees.

- 81 percent of Republicans like the Sensenbrenner bill. So do 53% of Hispanics.

- When offered a direct choice between the House bill and the Senate bill, Americans preferred the House bill by a margin of 64 percent to 30 percent.

What could so powerfully influence a member of the U.S. Senate – what is so strong, so tempting, and so irresistible as to cause Senators to abandon their own citizens and their own nation en masse? What could possibly cause members of the U.S. Senate to effectively renounce their own citizenship and become paid agents of the Mexican government? Self-interest is the only logical answer since few Americans want what the U.S. Senate is about to deliver to them in a plain brown wrapper.

What would YOU call a person, an American citizen, who would sell out their fellow citizens for self-interest? Certainly not Americans! Even the Speaker of the House, Denny Hastert, appears ready to capitulate and buy the Senate’s re-write of immigration laws. Whatever the reason, Congress is proceeding full steam ahead. One fact is certain - they don't believe you and I have a memory longer than this article, or care enough to punish them severely for selling out their country.

Here are some comments that indicate what the American people -- including many Hispanic Americans -- think about this Senate and its leadership.

Retired Colonel, Al Rodriguez, who heads the "You Don't Speak for Me Coalition" -- a nationwide group of Hispanic Americans who support tough immigration enforcement -- said this: "When it comes to immigration policy, the United States Senate apparently doesn't speak for anyone, except the people who have broken our laws and cheap labor business interests."

Ron Maxwell, writer and director of Gettysburg and Gods and Generals wrote: "It seems the overriding concern of most senators in both parties is for the illegal-immigrant population. Perhaps these senators should be reminded they are supposed to represent and defend American citizens, not foreign nationals, illegal aliens, or anyone else. Listening to the self-serving and pandering speeches, you'd think the senators were elected in Mexico or any other country on the globe except America."

Steven T. Voigt -- executive director of Foundations of Law PAC -- after praising American construction workers in his hometown of Philadelphia -- said in an "Open Letter to America": "Believe me when I tell you, if the politicians on Capitol Hill award amnesty to the millions of illegal aliens who have flouted our laws, in only a few short years those construction workers that I passed on my way to my office -- individuals who are raising families with solid wage jobs -- will be replaced by cheap, exploitable labor from a bloated labor pool, with all of the added profit going into the pockets of only a handful of corporate fat cats. Experts and commentators have documented repeated instances of such displacement and depressed wages in regions where illegal immigration is particularly excessive, and this will be the entirety of America if the Senate has its way."

These comments are typical of what millions of Americans are thinking and saying. I could just as easily include your comments and those that are succinct would be welcome and added to the article.

Senate leaders are on the verge of making what is clearly the greatest mistake in the history of our country and in the process, defying Americans their birthright. It is fair to say that our servicemen and women did not make the ultimate sacrifice for open borders.

Amnesty twenty years ago was a disaster. Immigration reform legislation soon to come out of the U.S. Senate is 100 times the magnitude. What is the solution? A combination of no immigration reform legislation and zero-tolerance enforcement of the current immigration laws would be in American’s best interests. If that isn’t possible, what makes anyone think any immigration law will be enforced in the future except as a weapon against a political adversary?

Right now, there is a better chance of credible legislation that protects American sovereignty coming out of the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland, a place in time and space that has become more believable than the U.S. Senate.

Red State Patriot

Posted May 25, 2006 01:27 PM
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