Failing to Act on Illegal Immigration

Eleven million – that’s the official number of illegal immigrants in the US. The real number could be much higher, and everyday brings more, with no end in sight. In the meantime, Nero is fiddling while Rome is burning.

For too many years, our elected leaders in Washington have chosen to ignore the immigration problem, or have actually encouraged it. Now finally, as millions of Americans have awakened from their pleasant slumber of barbeques and American Idol and discovered that the government has done nothing to stop this influx of illegals, DC congress critters are suddenly making a lot of noise on Capitol Hill.

The problem is, noise is about all that is being made. It reminds me of that scene in Blazing Saddles, where Mel Brooks in his role as Governor William J. LePetomaine, declares, “We’ve got to protect our phony-baloney jobs – we must do something immediately, immediately!”

As is often the case, when government attempts to “fix” something, they get it wrong. What the public wants and needs is enforcement, and what the Senate attempted to do this past week was to offer up a “compromise” bill that would have granted amnesty to all of those eleven million plus who have already demonstrated their willingness to break our laws. Those who would put amnesty first and securing the border second have not only missed the point, they are endangering our nation’s security. Not only that, but such an approach is a slap in the face to all of those who did what they were supposed to do by going through the proper legal channels to come here.

Fortunately, this so-called compromise bill, that would have fixed nothing, was torpedoed by a majority of the Senate. As Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) said, “Today is a good day for America. The Senate – in a rare moment of clarity – rejected its amnesty-now, enforcement-later approach to immigration.” Tancredo went on to add, “If the Senate is serious about sending real security legislation to the President’s desk this year, it must take a different approach.”

Tancredo is correct – the amnesty approach was attempted before, back in 1986 and some three million illegals were given permanent legal status. If granting amnesty to three million then, got us eleven million more this time, what will granting amnesty to those eleven million now, bring us in the future?

Tancredo of course, has been a very vocal spokesman for the movement to get tough on immigration since he was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1998. His tough stance on immigration has not exactly put him on the VIP list at the White House, as President Bush has been inexplicably enamored with those who cross our border illegally.

For Tancredo, and the many who see illegal immigration as not just a drain on our resources, our jobs and the welfare system, but also as a very real and grave danger to our national security, the attitude of the current administration is beyond frustrating. Ever since the 9/11 attacks on our shores, President Bush has made national security his number one priority. How then can one reconcile protecting us from terrorists with allowing our border to be overrun by millions of undocumented aliens? While Juan and Pedro are entering the country virtually unimpeded, so too can those with names like Muhammed and bin Laden.

It is this sort of disconnect that is affecting the President’s poll numbers, and not just over the immigration issue (think federal spending, among others), although this is the issue that he will find himself most at odds with the conservative base. But then again, not listening to the base has been a hallmark of this administration, and for many Republican members of congress as well. It is the key reason that the November midterm elections are looming ever more crucial as the GOP looks to hang on to its majorities in the House and the Senate. If the base stays home, the GOP will lose.

Tancredo and some others will doubtless be ready to press the issue when lawmakers return from a two-week vacation, but unless they can pass a bill that puts the emphasis on enforcement, it will do nothing to solve the problem of illegal immigration. Any meaningful legislation must involve building a fence along the entire border, increasing the border patrol in sufficient numbers to do the job effectively, deporting those who are found to be here illegally, and heavily fining those employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens.

The cost of failing to act could be our very survival as a nation and culture.

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