Secure the Damn Border
Posted by Andy on June 15th, 2007
Charles Krauthammer has a great piece in the Strib (yes the Strib pulled his Wa Po op ed and published it) about the great Amnesty debate of 2007. Immigration reform made simple: a fence
WASHINGTON - Comprehensive immigration reform is in jeopardy because it is a complex compromise with too many moving parts and too many competing interests. Employers want a guest worker program; unions want to kill it. Reformers want to introduce a point system that preferentially admits skilled and educated immigrants; immigrant groups naturally want to keep the existing family preference system. Liberals want legalization now; conservatives insist on enforcement “triggers” first.
There is only one provision that has unanimous support: stronger border enforcement. I’ve seen senators stand up and object to the point system, to chain migration, to guest workers, to every and any idea in this bill — except one. I have yet to hear a senator stand up and say she is against better border enforcement.Why not start by passing what everyone says they want? After all, proponents of this comprehensive reform insist that the current situation is intolerable and must be resolved. It follows, therefore, that however much they differ in the details of how the current mess should be resolved, they are united in the belief that such a mess should not be allowed to happen again. And the only way to make sure of that is border control.
I feel that the reason they won’t just secure the border is that they know they will never get another chance at Amnesty. It is all or nothing for Bush and Company on this one. It is sad, but appears to be true.
I concur with Mr. Krauthammer, build the fence and secure the border first. What in the world will stop people from sneaking in and out like they have for decades? A program that makes them pay to stay? Please, are you really that stupid? Why would they do it right, when they could just keep doing it like they have for so long?
You have to secure the border for any Amnesty program to work.
I think it is time to test the water in DC. It appears to damage intelligence.
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