The Problem With Bush’s Immigration Reform (Part 2)

08 Jan, 2004 by John Hawkins

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Because this is an important issue, I want to spend a little more time elaborating on what’s wrong with Bush’s immigration reform and why I think it’s such a bad idea.

1) Even if Bush’s reform doesn’t give illegal aliens amnesty, it still rewards them for breaking our laws. I say that because the illegals who are currently here will get to stay here for at least 3 years, maybe more. During that time, if an illegal alien has a baby, he is an American and that means hey, hey, hey, welcome to early citizenship! Meanwhile, all the people who respected our laws, who waited in line, are being played for suckers.

2) Bush is acting as if we’ve already finished the job on the borders…uh-uh, not even close. In fact, to claim that we’ve already secured our borders is laughable, yet that seems to be the line that Bush is taking. I’ve read Bush’s speech, I read numerous articles about this, I’ve read the White House talking points, and I don’t see any serious new steps that Bush plans to take to keep illegals from just waltzing over the border.

3) Combine #1 and #2 and you’re going to see MILLIONS of additional illegal immigrants pouring across the borders while we’re debating Bush’s plan…and why not? If we don’t care about our own laws, why should they?

4) Also, Bush’s plan calls for giving out citizenship each year to more immigrants…why? Our population is already growing, the numbers of immigrants in the US has already tripled since 1970, and the number of “immigrant households using welfare programs is 30 to 50 percent higher than that of native households”. We should be decreasing, not increasing, the number of immigrants we allow into the US each year.

Last but not least, the most frustrating aspect of this is that we are going to crack down on employers who hire illegals…but only after we give work permits to the illegals who are already here. Common sense tells us that not all, but most illegal aliens will go home if they can’t get a job here. So, if we’re really going to go after businesses that continue to hire illegals and we’re going to have a working guest worker program, why don’t we just go ahead and institute it without rewarding illegals?

I’ll tell you why; because this isn’t about doing the right thing or what’s good for America, it’s about helping Bush in 2004. This reform wil allow Bush to rake in money from business owners who benefit from hiring illegal aliens and Bush is hoping it’ll mean more votes from Latinos in 2004. But what about us? What about the majority of Americans and the overwhelming majority of Bush’s base? If we don’t like, tough luck. What are we going to do? Vote for a Democrat who’s sure to come up with something we’ll like even less? This is Clintonesque, political gamesmanship at its worst…