Why Don't We Enforce the Law Anymore?
Don't get me wrong, I know there are good people out there who break the law everyday. For that matter, a lot of us break some law sometimes, but as one of my personal favorite sayings goes, "It's not illegal unless you get caught." The problem these days is there are people out there who ARE breaking the law and ARE getting caught... but they get away with it. And it's not something like talking your way out of a ticket; we're talking about serious federal laws that don't seem to be taken seriously because they are not enforced.
The most glaring example in this country, of course, is illegal immigration. For some reason, there are a lot of people in this country who seem to have forgotten the "illegal" part of that statement. There are, by most counts, some 12 million people who are in this country illegally. Most of these people are of Hispanic descent and came here over the border from Mexico by several clever but still illegal methods. Some are from China, there are even some from Europe. Now I understand that these people simply want a better life than the one they are leaving behind. I don't want to seem unsympathetic to these people; after all, America has always been the land of opportunity and home to millions of immigrants ever since the first immigrants arrived just over 400 years ago in Jamestown, Virginia. My forefathers came over from Europe several generations ago from Ireland and Germany. However, they did this LEGALLY.
This isn't just a problem because these people are here illegally. These people don't pay taxes, because they have no Social Security numbers. However, their children attend our public schools, use our public services, and have to be treated by our medical system. If they have children, the children automatically become citizens, so they aren't breaking the law, even though their parents are. If these 12 million people paid the taxes they owed on the money they made, while it wouldn't be much, it would put a significant dent in the federal budget deficit, not to mention the budgets of their respective states.
For the last couple of years, President Bush and the Congress have been wrangling over how best to solve this problem. Some want blanket amnesty for these people, which is simply unacceptable. Some want all 12 million illegal immigrants rounded up and sent back across the border. While this would technically be the proper solution, it would be a logistical nightmare, a huge expense, and not likely to solve anything if we don't do enough to secure our borders at the same time. President Bush supports a "guest worker" program, where the illegals are allowed to stay in the country in order to work for a period of a couple years. Many are against this as well, because it creates a system where these people are less than citizens, "second-class citizens" if you will. In the name of equality, this just isn't right, so I'm against a guest worker program.
Last week, a compromise bill was crafted in the Senate. Heads of households will have to go back to their home countries. Since they are the ones who are making the money but not paying the taxes, that makes sense. I know this has upset many Democrats, who are concerned about splitting up families, but if the families are that concerned, they can go back to their home countries too, voluntarily. The heads of households would then have to pay fees and fines in the amount of $6500 to get on the path to permanent residency. This too makes sense; they broke the law, and they must be punished appropriately. The guest worker program was included in this, which I already noted I am against. And as improving border security is paramount, the Border Patrol would be doubled in size and an expanded border fence would be erected on the Mexican border.
Well, most of these provisions make sense and are a good compromise... which means that both conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats are against the bill. This is usually the sign of a good compromise, when both sides immediately dislike it. Conservatives don't want anyone to be allowed to stay in this country, and liberals want to water down the bill in order to allow as many illegals to get visas as possible. Really, all I have a problem with is the guest worker program. If they get rid of that, they might have a good shot at getting enough Democrats on board, so they would just need Republicans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will not bring the bill to a vote unless she can get 70 Republicans on board, which is fair because she knows many of her own party won't go for it, and it also creates the appearance of bipartisan consensus, a true rarity in Washington these days.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the bill a "fraud" and said, "Nobody in their right mind is going to leave." Well, Mayor Bloomberg, they're going to HAVE to leave. But here is where the enforcement issue comes in. They can pass all the laws in the world, and sometimes it seems like Congress does just that, but if they're not enforced, they're not worth the paper they are written on. How can we be assured that a law like this would be enforced? Especially when the current laws don't seem to be enforced all that well.
How do I know this? Simple. The whole time last year that illegal immigrants were holding their big rallies in American cities, waving the flags of their home countries instead of our flag, did you see ICE agents stopping the marchers to check for IDs? Noooooo. An article in Saturday's New York Daily News about the immigration bill included interviews with three illegal immigrants, mentioning their names, ages, and the neighborhoods where they live (Jackson Heights and Corona, Queens). Do you think ICE agents went right to Jackson Heights looking for these people in order to arrest them for breaking the law? Noooooo.
It seems to me that the biggest reason that this is not happening, and the reason that it will not happen, is fear of a PR backlash. Many who support amnesty and citizenship for these illegal immigrants claim that to do otherwise is racist. Why? Because the majority of these people are Hispanic? That just happens to be the way it is, but trust me, those aren't the only people here in this country illegally, and this is where it needs to be reinforced that this is, more than anything, for security purposes. As you may or may not know, there was a recent terror plot broken up that involved an assault of U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Dix, Maryland. What has been conveniently forgotten in the whole story, and indeed the immigration debate, is the fact that several of the plotters were ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. No, they weren't Hispanic; maybe that's why this detail has been omitted by the media. But they were still here illegally. If we had just granted amnesty to all illegal immigrants last year, then these would-be terrorists would have been U.S. citizens. Isn't that just a little bit scary to any of you?
Well, here's another point that should make you rightly concerned about illegal immigration. We don't see illegal immigrants from Latin American countries as genuine threats to our country, and rightly so. However, Hezbollah is out to change that. They have established a training camp in South America, and thanks to the financing they receive from both Iran and Venezuela, they have built a pretty good-sized group of terrorists who have remarkably easy ability to get first to Mexico, and then through smugglers, into the United States across our poorly defended border. The worst part about it is, as Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Democratic congressman from Texas points out, we would never know they were anything other than regular Hispanic illegal immigrants because they speak Spanish and look Hispanic. So if anything, fixing our immigration problems NOW, before these terrorists have a chance to infiltrate this country, will stop Hispanic immigrants from undergoing the same scrutiny that Arab immigrants now receive.
So you see, this is about a lot of things. It's about setting the right example by enforcing the laws we pass, it's about strengthening the ones that don't work, and it's about security. It's not about race, it's not about creating "second-class citizens", and it shouldn't be about fear of what others will think. Maybe that's the biggest problem of all this. Peer pressure apparently doesn't end at graduation from high school or college. Fear of what others will think of you may be at its worst in our very own government...
The most glaring example in this country, of course, is illegal immigration. For some reason, there are a lot of people in this country who seem to have forgotten the "illegal" part of that statement. There are, by most counts, some 12 million people who are in this country illegally. Most of these people are of Hispanic descent and came here over the border from Mexico by several clever but still illegal methods. Some are from China, there are even some from Europe. Now I understand that these people simply want a better life than the one they are leaving behind. I don't want to seem unsympathetic to these people; after all, America has always been the land of opportunity and home to millions of immigrants ever since the first immigrants arrived just over 400 years ago in Jamestown, Virginia. My forefathers came over from Europe several generations ago from Ireland and Germany. However, they did this LEGALLY.
This isn't just a problem because these people are here illegally. These people don't pay taxes, because they have no Social Security numbers. However, their children attend our public schools, use our public services, and have to be treated by our medical system. If they have children, the children automatically become citizens, so they aren't breaking the law, even though their parents are. If these 12 million people paid the taxes they owed on the money they made, while it wouldn't be much, it would put a significant dent in the federal budget deficit, not to mention the budgets of their respective states.
For the last couple of years, President Bush and the Congress have been wrangling over how best to solve this problem. Some want blanket amnesty for these people, which is simply unacceptable. Some want all 12 million illegal immigrants rounded up and sent back across the border. While this would technically be the proper solution, it would be a logistical nightmare, a huge expense, and not likely to solve anything if we don't do enough to secure our borders at the same time. President Bush supports a "guest worker" program, where the illegals are allowed to stay in the country in order to work for a period of a couple years. Many are against this as well, because it creates a system where these people are less than citizens, "second-class citizens" if you will. In the name of equality, this just isn't right, so I'm against a guest worker program.
Last week, a compromise bill was crafted in the Senate. Heads of households will have to go back to their home countries. Since they are the ones who are making the money but not paying the taxes, that makes sense. I know this has upset many Democrats, who are concerned about splitting up families, but if the families are that concerned, they can go back to their home countries too, voluntarily. The heads of households would then have to pay fees and fines in the amount of $6500 to get on the path to permanent residency. This too makes sense; they broke the law, and they must be punished appropriately. The guest worker program was included in this, which I already noted I am against. And as improving border security is paramount, the Border Patrol would be doubled in size and an expanded border fence would be erected on the Mexican border.
Well, most of these provisions make sense and are a good compromise... which means that both conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats are against the bill. This is usually the sign of a good compromise, when both sides immediately dislike it. Conservatives don't want anyone to be allowed to stay in this country, and liberals want to water down the bill in order to allow as many illegals to get visas as possible. Really, all I have a problem with is the guest worker program. If they get rid of that, they might have a good shot at getting enough Democrats on board, so they would just need Republicans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will not bring the bill to a vote unless she can get 70 Republicans on board, which is fair because she knows many of her own party won't go for it, and it also creates the appearance of bipartisan consensus, a true rarity in Washington these days.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the bill a "fraud" and said, "Nobody in their right mind is going to leave." Well, Mayor Bloomberg, they're going to HAVE to leave. But here is where the enforcement issue comes in. They can pass all the laws in the world, and sometimes it seems like Congress does just that, but if they're not enforced, they're not worth the paper they are written on. How can we be assured that a law like this would be enforced? Especially when the current laws don't seem to be enforced all that well.
How do I know this? Simple. The whole time last year that illegal immigrants were holding their big rallies in American cities, waving the flags of their home countries instead of our flag, did you see ICE agents stopping the marchers to check for IDs? Noooooo. An article in Saturday's New York Daily News about the immigration bill included interviews with three illegal immigrants, mentioning their names, ages, and the neighborhoods where they live (Jackson Heights and Corona, Queens). Do you think ICE agents went right to Jackson Heights looking for these people in order to arrest them for breaking the law? Noooooo.
It seems to me that the biggest reason that this is not happening, and the reason that it will not happen, is fear of a PR backlash. Many who support amnesty and citizenship for these illegal immigrants claim that to do otherwise is racist. Why? Because the majority of these people are Hispanic? That just happens to be the way it is, but trust me, those aren't the only people here in this country illegally, and this is where it needs to be reinforced that this is, more than anything, for security purposes. As you may or may not know, there was a recent terror plot broken up that involved an assault of U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Dix, Maryland. What has been conveniently forgotten in the whole story, and indeed the immigration debate, is the fact that several of the plotters were ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. No, they weren't Hispanic; maybe that's why this detail has been omitted by the media. But they were still here illegally. If we had just granted amnesty to all illegal immigrants last year, then these would-be terrorists would have been U.S. citizens. Isn't that just a little bit scary to any of you?
Well, here's another point that should make you rightly concerned about illegal immigration. We don't see illegal immigrants from Latin American countries as genuine threats to our country, and rightly so. However, Hezbollah is out to change that. They have established a training camp in South America, and thanks to the financing they receive from both Iran and Venezuela, they have built a pretty good-sized group of terrorists who have remarkably easy ability to get first to Mexico, and then through smugglers, into the United States across our poorly defended border. The worst part about it is, as Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Democratic congressman from Texas points out, we would never know they were anything other than regular Hispanic illegal immigrants because they speak Spanish and look Hispanic. So if anything, fixing our immigration problems NOW, before these terrorists have a chance to infiltrate this country, will stop Hispanic immigrants from undergoing the same scrutiny that Arab immigrants now receive.
So you see, this is about a lot of things. It's about setting the right example by enforcing the laws we pass, it's about strengthening the ones that don't work, and it's about security. It's not about race, it's not about creating "second-class citizens", and it shouldn't be about fear of what others will think. Maybe that's the biggest problem of all this. Peer pressure apparently doesn't end at graduation from high school or college. Fear of what others will think of you may be at its worst in our very own government...
Labels: immigration
posted by Dave | 10:27 PM
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