I know this isn’t really much of a shock: but Nancy Pelosi is, once again, uttering nonsense. This time, her aimless string of platitudes was focused (and I use the word “focused” rather loosely) on immigration reform. Like many of her progressive allies (in both parties) she rambled about the need for America to create a “path to citizenship”. Nancy, we already have a path to citizenship… And generally, the first step to becoming a US citizen isn’t breaking our Federal immigration laws.
According to CNS News:
“As a country, we cannot, let me say, we cannot prohibit a path to citizenship,” Pelosi said Tuesday at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation annual economic summit in Washington, D.C.
Right… Because expecting hopeful immigrants to follow the laws, regulations, and procedures for lawful immigration, is clearly a prohibition on welcoming new US citizens into the country. (I’m sure you recognize the need for a sarcasm font as much as I do.) It seems to completely confound the Liberal loon from San Francisco that some Americans want citizenship to be given only to people who haven’t already displayed a blatant disregard for our legal system. (Giving citizenship to illegal immigrants is kinda like retail stores giving out discounts to shoplifters… It just doesn’t seem like you’re rewarding the correct behavior.)
But, of course, Nancy continued:
“I don’t think we as a country want to be a country that says, ‘You can do our work, but you can’t have the rights of a citizen in our country,’” said Pelosi. “It’s more about who we are as a nation.”
Ok, I must be having a stroke… I think I agree with her words. Something tells me, however, that our solutions are probably a bit different. While Nancy seems to believe that America should toss aside its respect for the rule of law (by allowing illegal immigrants to magically obtain citizenship after displaying a clear contempt for our immigration system), I tend to believe that – well – we just shouldn’t hire illegals.
I mean, heck: Rahm Emanuel has announced that Chicago will start hiring illegals en mass. Liberal utopias, like San Francisco, have promised to give de facto immunity to illegals and their unlawful employers. Aside from the fact that Americans are feeling a little left out of the workforce nowadays, this plan doesn’t really seem to do the poor illegal immigrants any favors.
As Nancy Pelosi (unwittingly) pointed out: Illegals are living in a perpetual shadow economy, with no representation, hope, or economic mobility. What’s ironic, however, is that the liberal/ progressive promise to hand out de facto amnesty (through selective implementation of immigration laws) only exacerbates the current crises in American immigration politics.
Maybe we should start enforcing citizenship requirements on employers, instead of allowing this shadow economy to flourish? Perhaps we should actually implement the laws we have on the books? After all, these laws were not written to exclude, or discriminate against, immigrants. Quite the opposite, actually. They were created to protect the hopeful immigrants who trudge through our bureaucratic process of legal immigration. In essence: Our immigration laws protect immigrants who respect the rule of law.
Nancy Pelosi’s ramblings, along with the “amnesty-politics” among progressives of both parties, have done far more damage to immigrants in America than a little governing has ever done. Maybe we should look at simply enforcing our laws, rather than implementing some loony California liberalism.