Former senator and probable Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson
brought Virginia Republicans to their feet last Saturday night in Richmond
when he said the public no longer believes in politicians who promise to
secure the U.S. border as part of a bipartisan immigration bill.
"You've got to secure the border first, before you do anything," said
Thompson. "The members (of Congress) say it's right here in this bill: the
border. The response is, ŒWe don't care what's on a piece of paper - secure
the border.' The piece of paper doesn't secure the border."
Thompson claimed the bill now being debated in the Senate is "the same deal"
offered in the 1986 amnesty: legalization of aliens in exchange for border
security. He said the public won't be fooled again.
When Thompson speaks of distrusting Washington politicians, he is including
Republicans and President Bush, who in recent weeks - in company with
members of his administration - have taken to labeling opponents of the bill
xenophobes and nativists, even suggesting some are racists.
Among many reasons to distrust the immigration bill is the failure of the
administration to convince the public it would hold accountable people who
break a new law, when they have been lax enforcing existing laws. If
illegals refuse, or claim they can't pay the proposed $5,000 fine to obtain
a legal visa, or if they abscond, as many have, will the government then
roll out the buses and jets and deport them, along with family members who
were either born here or allowed to immigrate as part of the "chain
migration" that has brought so many in the past?
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal's Kimberley Strassel, the
president again asserted there will be economic benefits to the country from
permitting millions more foreigners to live among us. Strassel writes,
"Studies have shown that immigrants add some $10 billion annually in net
economic output." That is misleading.
A new report by The Heritage Foundation says the American taxpayer pays for
tens of billions of dollars in services and other benefits to households of
low-skill immigrants, many of them illegal.
Analysts Robert Rector and Christine Kim write that on average, each of
these 4.5 million households receives nearly three dollars in
taxpayer-funded services for every dollar it pays in taxes. They say that
while low-skill immigrants paid an average $10,573 in taxes in fiscal 2004,
they received nearly three times as much - $30,160 per household - in
government benefits and services for a "fiscal deficit" of $19,587.
That deficit might be tolerable if it were for a short and fixed term and
illegal immigrants were required to learn English, receive a good education
and improve their lot beyond manual labor. But the chances of illegal
immigrants doing that are equal to politicians telling the truth about the
immigration bill. The Pew Hispanic Center reports that one-third of all
foreign-born persons in the United States are Mexican and of that number
half are illegal. At least half of the adult illegal aliens in the U.S. lack
a high school degree, compared to 25 percent of legal immigrants without
one.
In the Journal interview, the president reveals what's really at the heart
of the debate: politics. "If people think that a party is against somebody
or some group of people, you'll pay a political price for it." He then
likened those opposed to the immigration bill to people who once opposed
civil rights for blacks. Strassel links civil rights opponents to the
Republican Party, but the majority party during most of those years was the
Democratic Party and the majority of those opposed to civil rights
legislation were Southern Democrats.
If the president thinks this is about politics, he should open the borders
and let anyone come who will come. Why tell any immigrant "no" if they, or
their native land, might be offended? Democrats clearly believe illegals are
potential recruits into their party. If Republicans fall for this crass
appeal to import new voters, they will deservedly suffer electoral
deportation from what remains of their power. Already, contributions to the
GOP by grassroots donors have declined 40 percent, according to The
Washington Times. They cite the immigration bill as their main reason for
reduced donations. This trend will continue if the Washington politicians
keep trying to force a bill down the throats of those who don't want it.
Whose country is this? Does it belong to illegal immigrants and politicians,
or to the citizens of the United States of America? |