Immigration Bill - Boob Bait

I wanted to support this immigration bill. I really did. Or, perhaps I should say that I wanted an immigration bill that was supportable. The bill that was originally introduced with the backing of the president possesses many merits. But it also bears the burden of far too many flaws, not the least of which is the cheapening of US citizenship.
Ignore the clichés. This is an amnesty bill. Regardless of the claim that illegal immigrants have to “go to the back of the line” to gain citizenship, the truth is that those already legally in line will be pushed back by 12-20 million places, as illegals will be given an exemption from annual immigration quotas. Just pay $5,000 and learn a little English and you get your citizenship. Felonies that would land you or me in prison, such as identity theft, are forgiven.
Pass go and pick up your voter registration packets at your nearest Democratic Party headquarters. There will even be somebody there to help you fill it out.
But the dirty little truth is that just about everybody knows that even the $5,000 admission fee with be waived. That and other hurdles are just exploding cigars waiting to be lit by Ted Kennedy and the New York Times once the bill is signed into law. If this bill were to pass in its current form, within the next year Democrats will introduce legislation reducing that price dramatically. And the New York Times will denounce any Republican who opposes the bill as racist.
The same thing goes for the provision that limits the number of family members that a newly minted no-longer-illegal immigrant can sponsor for U.S. citizenship. The ink of President Bush’s signature will not be given time to dry before Democrats will bemoan the cruel and draconian, anti-family elements of that provision and will be trying to repeal it.
We need a seasonal guest worker program. And the politicians are squabbling over the number of guest workers that will be admitted into the country annually. Democrats are beholden to labor unions that see persistent labor shortages as desirable. Many businesses thrive on cheap, unskilled labor and want borders wide open. But it’s both silly and arrogant for politicians to place a number on the number of guest workers that should be admitted annually or to arbitrarily set a limit on the number of years that a guest worker program can operate. Nobody can estimate with any certainty how short of domestic labor we will be in 2010. The number of guest workers should be determined in much the same way the Federal Reserve sets the money supply – with predictive economic models.
Supposedly many Republicans believe that they have to support an amnesty program or they will suffer generations of backlash from the Hispanic voters. This is nonsense. In the 1960’s Republicans were more supportive of civil rights than Democrats, but the party is still caricatured as long-time opponents of civil rights by the managers of news. In the 1950’s, as vice president, the reviled Richard Nixon was the first national politician to openly embrace civil rights. But his place in civil rights history is forever tarred by these same information filters.
And, one does not have to wait for the verdict of history to grasp the electoral prospects of this bill for Republicans. Hispanic Republicans (one of every six likely Republican voters) have already rendered a judgment. Since the bill was unveiled, proponent John McCain’s standings has fallen, while Fred Thompson, who opposes the bill, has gained within this demographic. Overall, only 29% of Americans approve of Bush’s handling of the immigration issue. This bill a loser every way for Republicans.
But politicians should not be governed by polls. And they certainly should not be governed by polls that exist only in some imaginary future. This is especially true as public opinion in the future will be informed by the same crooked snakes who convinced Americans that civil rights were bestowed upon us by Democrats who prevailed over Republican intransigency.
Democrats’ see relaxed immigration and naturalization laws as a means to flood the voter rolls with low-wage, poorly educated souls who traditionally vote almost exclusively Democratic.
There’s a big election next year. Let the politicians stake their careers on where they stand, then let the survivors do it right.