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July 19, 2006
Senate Amnesty Bill "Far, Far Worse" Than 1986 Abomination
Some Congressional Republicans call the Senate's amnesty monstrosity the "Reid-Kennedy" bill, not wanting to admit that fellow Republicans would have a hand in such an irresponsible fiasco, despite Lettuce McCain's cosponsorship and the support of Majority Leader Bill Frist and even the President himself. Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN), comparing it to 1986's disastrous Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), observes that "Congress and the administration have no credibility with the American people" when it comes to illegal immigration, and asks:
Why should Americans have any reason to believe that the supposed enhanced enforcement provisions in Reid-Kennedy will be effectively enforced by the administration any more than successive administrations have enforced IRCA? The administration will probably implement amnesty for millions of illegal aliens quite quickly. Enforcement will likely lag behind if it occurs at all. We will find ourselves in exactly the same place we found ourselves 20 years ago.
Well, not quite exactly the same place. According to James R. Edwards Jr. of the Hudson Institute:
The Senate amnesty would condemn the United States to the same harmful consequences that IRCA caused. Only now, its effects would be far, far worse.
IRCA granted amnesty to 2.7 million illegal aliens, but what's worse, it created an expectation that anyone who breaks into our country will be pardoned eventually. The result was the deluge of unskilled illegal immigrants that we are currently experiencing, with disastrous long-term social and economic consequences that are already beginning to unfold.
The Senate's absurd bill, in addition to lavishing privileges upon aliens that are not granted to Americans, would make it official that we do not expect the citizens of other countries to take our laws or borders seriously. As socialized medicine begins to take hold, America will become an ever more attractive magnet for the world's freeloaders. Penniless unskilled immigrants will not stop flooding over our underguarded borders until America is as poor as the Third-World dumps they've been leaving behind.
Hostettler, like many others, sees the problem with IRCA as being that it granted amnesty before putting in place working deterrents against illegal immigration — just like the current legislation.
For her part, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), the ranking Dem on the immigration committee, thinks the problem is that conservatives keep using the word "amnesty" to describe the amnesty bill.
A classic symptom of insanity is when someone repeats the same action, expecting a different outcome. The poverty and ethnic balkanization that would inevitably result from the Senate's shamnesty bill would benefit Dems demographically. But as for Republicans who support it, insanity seems the best explanation.
Posted by Van Helsing at July 19, 2006 3:44 PM
