Democrats want unlimited illegal immigration because they believe it will help permanently cement them in power. On the other hand, many Republican politicians also want unlimited illegal immigration because they're getting huge campaign contributions from businesses that want to profit from illegals while passing the costs on to the American people.
Of course, the Republicans can't admit that; so the GOP uses its perpetual poor performance with Hispanics to justify its support for amnesty. The only problem is that the evidence has shown time and time again that illegal immigration isn't what's turning Hispanic voters off to the GOP.
Reagan received 37% of the Hispanic vote in 1984 and then passed a comprehensive amnesty in 1986. So, did the GOP share of the Hispanic vote go up in 1988? Actually, George H. W. Bush only received 30% of the Hispanic vote that year. The 27% of the vote that Mitt Romney received from Hispanic voters in 2012 that was supposedly so shockingly low? That was significantly better than the 21% Bob Dole received in 1996. Meanwhile, other than Marco Rubio, no Republican is more closely associated with amnesty and open borders than John McCain. Yet, McCain only received 31% of the Hispanic vote in 2008 while Republicans in the House, who are overwhelmingly much tougher on illegal immigration, took 36% of the Hispanic vote nationwide in 2014. Making ten million plus illegal immigrants citizens when they will end up voting for the Democrats 80/20 is political suicide that the Republican Party would never recover from and yet, it would still do nothing to bring more existing Hispanic voters over to the GOP. Amnesty is like a Hail Mary pass from Republican politicos who are being paid to bring in illegals, but who don’t want to put in the extensive time, money and effort it will take to pull in more Hispanic voters after the GOP has ceded them to the Democrats for decades. Not only will it not work, it’s not even a serious plan.
On the other hand, Donald Trump does have a serious plan to end illegal immigration and as someone who has been fighting amnesty for years, I am profoundly grateful that he put it out. Trump’s plan is a blueprint that Republicans should have been following all along. Some of it, like increasing the number of ICE officers, getting nationwide E-Verify working, a visa tracking system, putting criminal penalties in place for people who overstay their visa and defunding sanctuary cities is fairly standard stuff among everyone who is even marginally serious about dealing with the problem.
However, even the more supposedly controversial parts of the plan are just common sense.
Build a wall and make Mexico pay for it: This has been treated as an outrageous and impractical suggestion, but Trump is actually one of the few people who is pointing out that Mexico has been a bad actor and deserves to pay a price for what it’s doing. The Mexican government has actively pushed illegal immigration, tried to undermine our border security and has encouraged Mexicans in the United States to be loyal to Mexico, not America. They’re bad neighbors and, yes, they SHOULD be asked to pay forcosts we’re having to bear because of their irresponsibility. Yes, we can increase the fees they pay to cross into our country, tax remittances to Mexico, hit them with tariffs or even simply take the hundreds of millions in aid we give them every year and use it to pay for a wall. Asking Mexico to either behave responsibly or pay us back for the money it costs us to deal with its irresponsibility is long overdue.
End birthright citizenship: Contrary to what you’ve probably read this week, the 14th Amendment was never intended to apply to illegal aliens and only started doing so in the 1980s because of a footnote slipped into a Supreme Court decision by Justice Brennan in 1982. In other words, this “right” supposedly given to foreigners who enter our country illegally by the 14th Amendment was lying undiscovered for 114 years and we still haven’t had the whole court rule on the subject. Since rulings of the Supreme Court these days hinge on what side of the bed Anthony Kennedy gets up on and whether John Roberts wants to twist himself into a pretzel to avoid controversial rulings, we can’t know how they’d rule, but it is entirely possible they would end the practice of birthright citizenship for illegal aliens if a law were passed. The children of foreign diplomats who are born here do not receive American citizenship because they’re not “subject to the jurisdiction” of our country. The same argument could also fairly be made about illegal aliens. Granted, it wouldn’t (nor should it) apply retroactively, but it would stop the incredible abuse of our system that allows “birthright tourism” and women who are 8 months pregnant to sneak into our country, have a baby and start receiving welfare soon after. When you consider that 71% of illegal alien households in this country are collecting some kind of welfare program, it gives you an idea of how badly the generosity of the American people is being abused in this area.
Increase the prevailing wage for H-1B visas: There’s nothing wrong with bringing foreign guest workers if they’re genuinely needed, but there’s a lot wrong with making American workers train the cheaper foreign workers who are being brought in to take their jobs. Just to give you one prominent example, Disney did exactly that. Ironically, some of the biggest drivers of the mad dash toward open borders and amnesty in our country are companies that want an increase in the number of legal H-1B visas included in a comprehensive bill so they can fire a lot more of their American workers and replace them with foreigners who’ll work at a much lower rate. Would that be good for the company’s bottom line? Sure. Is it good for American workers? Is it good for America? No way.
Applicants for entry to the United States should be required to certify that they can pay for their own housing, healthcare and other needs before coming to the U.S.: Fifty two percent of households headed by legal immigrants are using welfare programs. Does that make any sense at all? Why would we ever want to bring immigrants to our country who can’t take care of themselves and their families? We should want immigrants who work hard, start their own businesses and look for ways to make the most of the Land of Opportunity, not opportunists who want to come here to leech off our welfare system.
Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced: It’s absolutely stunning that it has become controversial to say we should actually follow the immigration laws we have on the books.There is no provision for “Dreamers” in the law. The law says we deport people who are here illegally. Under the law, there are no work permits for illegal aliens. We live in a bizarro world where American citizens live in fear of being audited or getting on the wrong side of some obscure government regulation while illegal aliens are allowed to break the law with impunity. It’s wrong, it’s un-American, it undermines the rule of law in our country and it needs to stop.
Deport illegals: Trump’s plan alludes to deportations, but doesn’t get very specific about it. On the other hand, he has publicly said, “When people are illegally in the country, they have to go.” This has produced howls of outrage, but it says more about the people who are upset than Trump.
Simply put: If you don’t punish people who cross the border and enter your country illegally, then you don’t have a border in any meaningful sense. If you say deportation is a bridge too far today, but we’ll deport people tomorrow after we pass a new bill, you’re obviously full of crap and the American people would have to be stupid to take you seriously.
Now, would Donald Trump or anyone else be able to round up and deport 11 to 20 million illegal aliens? No, but we don’t catch every burglar either. However, whether you’re talking about burglary or illegal immigration, having a clear cut penalty in place and enforcing it goes a long way toward reducing the number of people who are willing to break the law. The woman who has been here illegally for 15 years cheating on her taxes to get earned income tax credits she doesn’t deserve, taking a job that could be held by an American citizen and collecting welfare is no more sympathetic than the burglar who has been robbing people’s homes for 15 years and getting away with it. She might be a nice person if you get to know her, but the guy who stole your flat screen TV last week might also be fun to have a beer with at the local bar. Ultimately, she still broke the law, fully knowing what the penalty would be and guess what? The penalty is more than just. If you’re just deported for coming here illegally, you got off pretty light, especially compared to places like Mexico where you can be put in jail for two years if you enter that nation illegally.
Contrary to what you may hear from some people, this is not a radical plan. If anything, it’s basic common sense for anyone who agrees with the first three principles Trump said underlie his whole policy.
1. A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border.
2. A nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced.-
3. A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans.
If enforcing our border, sticking to the laws on the books and making sure our immigration policies are good for the American people are now considered radicalism, it’s hard to see how we’re going to survive long-term as a nation.
It’s too soon to know who’s going to be the GOP nominee in 2016, but whatever happens, conservatives owe a debt of thanks to Donald Trump for changing the debate on immigration. For too long, the discussion about immigration policy has been dominated by representatives of billionaires who want cheap labor and Democrats who want more voters. Thanks to Donald Trump, the American people are finally getting a seat at the table.
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