In his next to last State of the Union Address, President Bush
once more called for the irresponsible, self-destructive immigration
policy of mass amnesty.
The President unfortunately showed he has learned nothing from
the bitter debate that has churned throughout the nation for the
past few years. The "decider in chief" has decided upon
the wrong immigration stance, once more.
Damaged Credibility
Even worse, he continued to strain credulity -- and stretch thinner
his credibility. In the bad old days, President Bill Clinton visited
upon himself a credibility crisis by blatant, arrogant abuse of
language, even fudging on the meaning of "is."
Now the current President won't shoot straight on how he would
deal with illegal aliens. All President Bush said was that "we
need to resolve the status of the illegal immigrants who are already
in our country -- without animosity and without amnesty."
He then again called for "comprehensive immigration reform"
-- a euphemism he has repeatedly used for mass amnesty of every
last illegal alien.
To conservatives who thought they were getting someone who wouldn't
play word games with the American people, President Bush has been
a disappointment when immigration is the subject. He just will
not plainly admit that to legalize and give eventual U.S. citizenship
to at least 12 million law-breaking foreigners now among us is
pure and simple amnesty.
'Chain Migration'
The Bush amnesty plan would supposedly "take pressure off
the border" by "establish[ing] a legal and orderly path
for foreign workers to enter our country to work on a temporary
basis."
But this is only a half-truth. He failed to mention that the
"temporary" work program he has in mind would not be
temporary at all. Every illegal alien already here will get a
"temporary" visa.
Those same illegal aliens are then rewarded with an eventual
green card and later citizenship. All would be allowed to sponsor
their extended family members in lengthy "chain migration."
There's no reason to think those chain migrants would act any
differently from the third of current legal immigrants who sneak
into America illegally and live here unlawfully until their green
card number comes up.
While "they won't have to try to sneak in," most certainly
will. The only way to process all those illegal aliens and their
distant relatives in a lawful and orderly way is with visa quotas
and reasonable screening procedures. The only alternative is to
open the borders to all comers -- hardly a law-and-order proposition.
To have heard President Bush, you'd think we have no temporary
work visas. But we have about 10 types already. They work out
with different degrees of success, and each has its share of problems
and unintended consequences.
For example, H2As are for foreign agricultural workers. Yet,
agriculture is the occupational sector employing the most illegal
aliens. H1Bs allow in skilled workers who regularly displace skilled
Americans in fields such as high-tech.
The President also fibbed about his administration's commitment
to enforcing immigration laws faithfully. He said: "To secure
our border, we are doubling the size of the Border Patrol and
funding new infrastructure and technology."
Yet this administration is trying to weasel out of building a
border fence, which Congress plainly called for. President Bush
favors a "virtual fence," which really means the illegals
sneak across open land, some expensive technology detects them,
and Border Patrol agents have to try to catch them inside our
country before they disappear.
"We will enforce our immigration laws at the worksite and
give employers the tools to verify the legal status of their workers."
Really? When? We already have employer sanctions laws that President
Bush has been lax in enforcing.
This administration has steadily turned a blind eye toward the
jobs magnet. Only a handful of companies have received sanctions.
In the big-headline raids of the past year, the public wasn’t
told that most of the illegal aliens arrested were released within
a few hours.
This administration even pared back sending employers "no-match"
letters when it became embarrassing to have the public learn that
-- as HUMAN EVENTS has often pointed out -- hundreds of thousands
of aliens are working under fake or stolen Social Security numbers.
Tens of thousands even use the obviously bogus Social Security
number of 000-00-0000. But Bush does nothing.
Congress made a now-10-year-old electronic employment verification
program available to employers nationwide nearly four years ago,
but participation remains voluntary.
Mr. President, please quit the word games. Start doing your duty
by starting finally to enforce the immigration laws already on
the books.
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