Immigration and You

The US Senate is about to debate amendments to the proposed immigration reform bill. Even the amendment is hundreds of pages with much of it designed to negate language in the original bill promoted by the “Gang of Eight”. Conservatives and Liberals have gone nuts over this bill. All are betting on the outcome being more voters for their respective parties. Time for them to step back and do what is right.
Current law that has been in place for decades says that if you are in the United States without going through established legal procedures, you are here illegally. The law refers to those as “illegal aliens”. No matter how you massage the language to be politically correct, the operative term is “illegal”. This means against the law. This means being in the United States without legal permission. What about that is not clear? Those here illegally have not been deported only because they have not been caught and local or state law enforcement has been hog-tied and are unable to do anything about it.
Now the Gang of Eight wants to enact a law that provides a pathway to citizenship for about 11 million people who are in the United States illegally. This should not happen. For humanitarian reasons, there is a case for children of illegal aliens who were born in the United States to be legal citizens. Even this is bending the case for “anchor babies”, but it was no decision made by the baby. However, the parents should never have a path to full citizenship. Permanent residency, maybe under certain circumstances, but not full citizenship, ever. They should never have voting rights or be able to collect financial benefits paid for by legal citizen taxpayers. If they want citizenship, they should have to return to their country of origin and make application in line with all others who have followed the legal pathway.
The border with Mexico must be secured. If this means fences and armed outposts, that is what it means. If this means drones, airplanes, and boots on the ground; that is what it means. We do no less for protection of our ocean coasts and the border with Canada is a totally different matter. For an example of border control, take a look at how Mexico manages its southern border. The border between Mexico and the US should be nothing less and probably more. The goal is total stopping of illegal crossings, period.
We will see if the Congress has the guts to do what is right and lawful.