We were told today that if you oppose the Senate immigration bill, “you don’t want to do what’s right for America”. Well, then, it appears that most Americans of most demographic groups “don’t want to do what’s right for America”. In an interesting slip of the tongue, President Bush admitted that “most Americans” are concerned first with border security, in his speech today on the Senate immigration bill, not that he let that fact interfere with his relentless pushing of this fantasy of “comprehensive” reform:

the fundamental question is, will elected officials have the courage necessary to put a comprehensive immigration plan in place that makes it more likely we can enforce our border and, at the same time, uphold the great traditions of — immigrant traditions of the United States of America…

we’re expanding the number of Border Patrol agents from about 9,000 to 13,000, and by the end of — we have expanded it — and by the end of 2008, we’re going to have 18,000 agents. We will have more than doubled the Border Patrol in a relatively quick period of time…In this immigration debate, oftentimes people say, well, they’re not doing anything to protect the border. Well, that’s not — those folks just simply don’t know what’s going on. You do. Men and women who wear the uniform understand what’s going on. There’s a focused, concerted effort to enforce our border…Arrests have gone down by 27 percent over the past year on the southern border. That’s a sign of progress…

Most Americans — many Americans say their primary concern is border security and ensuring that those who violate our laws face consequences. That’s what you’re hearing out there when you’re listening to the debate.

Others say their chief concern is keeping this economy strong. There’s a — a lot of employers need a legal way to fill jobs that Americans simply aren’t doing…I remember the peach grower, Saxby, that you sent over to the White House. He’s there saying to me, you’ve got to understand something, Mr. President, my business won’t go forward unless I have some of these good people that are willing to work long hours in my peach orchard helping me harvest the crop. So a lot of people in this debate are concerned about getting a bill in place that will help keep the economy growing. Others say their main concern is to bring hardworking, decent people out of the shadows of our society…

A lot of Americans are skeptical about immigration reform primarily because they don’t think the government can fix the problems. And my answer to the skeptics is, give us a chance to fix the problems in a comprehensive way that enforces our border and treats people with decency and respect…Amnesty…many of the authors of this bill oppose it. This bill is not an amnesty bill. If you want to scare the American people, what you say is, the bill is an amnesty bill. It’s not an amnesty bill. That’s empty political rhetoric, trying to frighten our fellow citizens…

Those determined to find fault with this bill will always be able to look at a narrow slice of it and find something they don’t like. If you want to kill the bill, if you don’t want to do what’s right for America, you can pick one little aspect out of it, you can use it to frighten people.

We observe, among other things, that the Bush administration has notably failed to follow through on its previous commitments to expand border enforcement personnal. Pardon our skepticism and not wanting to be fooled twice.

UPDATE

When we look at the convoluted and soon to be weakened implementation plan, we can only think that the author of the President’s speech was naive or stupid or perhaps a college professor. The real world does not work this way, as we have explained at some length. Here’s the administration’s take:

Under the bill, those who want to stay in our country who have been here can apply for a Z visa. At some point in time, those who are coming to work will get temporary work visas. Those who have been here already can apply for a Z visa. To receive the visa, illegal workers must admit they violated the law and pay a meaningful penalty, pass a strict background check, hold a job, maintain a clean record, and eventually earn English — learn English.

The hurdles to citizenship are going to be even higher. In other words, if somebody says, fine, I’ll take my Z visa, I’m out of the shadows now, I’ve got an opportunity to not hide in America. I’ll continue doing the work I’m doing, I’m going to keep my record clean. I’ll pay the penalties necessary so I can stay here — that’s what it says — but if you want to be a citizen, there’s more hurdles. It says, the Z visa worker would first have to pay an additional fine. In other words, you have broken the law and there’s a consequence for breaking the law. That’s what the bill says.

Secondly, you’ve got to return home to file an application for your green card. If you want to be a citizen, you pay a fine, you touch base home to apply for a green card, and then you take your place behind those who have played by the rules and have been waiting in line, patiently, to become a citizen.

As Hugh Hewitt has ably demonstrated, no illegal immigrant is going anywhere after the bill is signed. And the notion that immigrants will leave the country to get back in and get in line is just cockamamie. We quote the NYT’s editorial today on the Senate bill’s “cruel path” to citizenship: “that path is strewn with cruel conditions, including a fine — $5,000 — that’s too steep and hurdles that are needlessly high, including a ‘touchback’ requirement for immigrants to make pilgrimages to their home countries to cleanse themselves of illegality.” How long do you think the $5000 fee and the “touchback” provisions will survive after a bill is signed? We prefer our amnesty bills honest at least.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 2:17 pm and is filed under Democrats, General, Law, Republicans, idiots!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.