From Rasmussen:
With the Legal Workforce Act, a bill forcing companies to check the immigration status of their employees, working its way through Congress, voters nationwide continue to believe overwhelmingly that when it comes to immigration legislation the focus should be on the border.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 65% of Likely U.S. Voters say it is more important to gain control of the border than to legalize the status of those already living illegally in the United States…
This just reaffirms what I have been saying for years – before anything else regarding immigration is tackled, the border must be made secure. Whether or not we’ll amnesty those already here or deport all or do a mix is irrelevant in political terms until the border is secure. The reason for this is that the people simply do not trust the government…any proposal for reform which does not emphasize border security first will be seen by the people as a mere amnesty bill with the problem of illegal immigration never to be solved. Liberals can put it down to nativism or racism all they want, but the overwhelming majority of Americans simply want the laws enforced. It is against the law to illegally cross our borders…make sure the law is being enforced and then get back to us on your other issues.
In my view, this poll also indicates that we Republicans will not be punished if we make border security an important, 2012 issue. Not the most important issue, but it is an issue none the less…and an issue where we can draw stark contrasts between ourselves and Democrats. Remember what really happens in illegal immigration – our liberals like to concentrate on those who have got here and are working hard, but they never talk about those robbed, raped and murdered before they get here…nor do they talk about those who don’t work hard but, instead, choose to abuse our social welfare programs. The contrast being drawn would be one of responsible government vs feel good politics which lead to death and poverty. This can be the opening wedge in a general discussion of all liberal feel-good policies which lead to disaster.
Some Republicans worry that a strong stance in favor of border security will cost us Latino votes. In this, they are right…a certain, small segment of the Latino population of the United States does vote on whether or not there are open borders. But it is a small group…most Latino voters vote sensibly, just as most Americans, overall, vote. Bottom line, I don’t want those votes – and if it costs us votes to do the right thing, then that is the most honorable cost you can incur.
We can own this issue and make it work to our advantage…just as soon as we brace ourselves to do the right thing; and the right thing to do, first, is to secure the border.
Blogs For Victory 
just enforce the law…the duty to protect the borders lie in the hands of the federal government…its not an option…it is a responsibility that liberals have shirked for 50 + years…arrest and deport the illegal immigrants…no release…no negotiations…its time to step up and protect the CITIZENS of the USA from foreign nationals….
its not selfish…anyone can apply for legal immigration…just like our fathers and forefathers did…its that simple
build the fence now.
Their is one main reason immigration has never been resolved and that is there are two types of Republicans. One is a Chamber of Commerce Republican who does not want to punish employers who knowingly hire illegals. The other is a borders first, blame the immigrants Republican. Sometimes the two inhabit the same individual. I know people who bring up the cost of illegal immigration and then turn around and go to one of the home centers to hire illegals because they are cheaper.
When I built my house it would have been very easy to do the same. But instead I followed the legal process, filled out I-9’s and did the best I could to verify a person’s immigration status. If each person took responsibility for their own actions in this regard there would be little or no demand for illegal immigrants. Without the demand there would be no magnet to bring them here. Other than national security, there would be no need for fences or other security devices at the border. With a lack of illegals coming for the work there would be little hiding places for anyone who comes here for malicious purposes.
cam,
Nancy Pelosi has illegals working in her vineyards…its not just “greedy Republicans” who want cheap labor.
The problem is one of law enforcement – the government, ignoring its duty, simply does not enforce the law. Once we do, the problem of border security is solved. Then we can deal with those already in country, for which I favor amnesty for long-domiciled immigrants who have broken no laws other than entering illegally.
Their is one main reason immigration has never been resolved and that is there are two types of Republicans. – camsteel
This is obviously the problem. If it weren’t for those evil republicans and their alterior motives, the democrats, who are all about personal responsibility, civil rights, rule of law and protecting the downtrodden, this problem would have been corrected and all of us would be living in a land free from racism, poverty and strife. Good call camsteel
Mark,
I don’t doubt what you say about Nancy Pelosi though I suspect you don’t have any proof. You and cluster are missing my point. From 2001 to 2007 Republicans had a majority in the House, the Senate and had Bush in the White House. Yet, there was no will to get it done. Sure there was plenty of bluster, but no results. I suggest that would be the case if that scenario happened again. There are two types of Republicans when it comes to immigration and while they will agree on most other issues they will never get together on this one.
camstooge
yet only one type donk, rotten to the core.
Bush did try a version of amnesty and conservatives blocked it, saying that we need to secure the border FIRST, of which both parties have been hesitant to do. Do you remember that camsteel? Or is all your information obtained from Saturday morning cartoons?
camsteel,
You’re missing a very important point – President Bush, John McCain and even small fry like myself pressed for comprehensive immigration reform…it was defeated not because of the machinations of evil Republicans, but because the American people rose up in overwhelming majority to reject it. And it was rejected because it did not have convincing provisions for border security. That, as the title of this article says, is key – until we get to border security we cannot get further in immigration reform. Why do you think that Obama never moved on it? Even when he had overwhelming majorities in Congress he didn’t move…because he knows that without a strong border security element, it wouldn’t get anywhere…and on his political side there is no possibility of support for strong border security (the fact is that liberals, for the most part, want open borders…for ideological and practical reasons; they figured, in Rush’s trenchant phrase, that illegals are “undocumented Democrats” and, also, most liberals feel there is no compelling justification for the United States to defend her borders).
What is holding up action now is fear – fear on the part of the GOP leadership that if they take a strong stand on border security the Democrats will demagogue the issue with Latino voters, costing us a fair chance of securing 40-45% of the Latino vote next year. My view is that even if it does cost us a bit in Latino support it is still worth it because (a) it would pull in as much or more support than it alienates and (b) it is the right thing to do…it is an act of pure justice to secure the border. It punishes the guilty and protects the innocent….it is something to proudly do.
Mark,
Bush was unable to round up support for his approach to comprehensive reform when the bill was in the Senate. But the bill was not considered at all during the Republican majorities of earlier years. You have no explanation for that. 6 years and nothing.
Your contention that somehow fear by Republicans of Latino voters is keeping Republicans from acting is laughable. Securing 40-45% of the Latino vote in 2012 is not going to happen. That is a pipe dream and provides a convenient excuse. Your party will never do it.
I’m not sure why you would embrace a big government program to accomplish what you want. Putting up a fence is expensive, requires expensive maintenance and requires adding more government workers to the payroll. It seems e-verify along with employer sanctions would accomplish the same thing at a lower cost and would not likely require increases in government personnel. Once illegals were unable to find work they would have no other options but to return home.
Awww, “putting up a fence is expensive”. And welfare for millions of illegals isn’t? Educating millions of illegals isn’t? Supporting millions of illegals in prisons isn’t? Providing health care for millions of illegals isn’t? And what about the cost to society from the numbers of crime victims who have been robbed, assaulted, and even killed by illegals?
Not to mention the erosion of our very legal foundation, as we become a nation of different laws for different classes of people.
Gee, you Lefties keep claiming that it is the Right that puts a price on everything. And you want to do nothing to block the influx of illegals because you fret that it would be “expensive”.
“Once illegals were unable to find work they would have no other options but to return home.”
Well, there is the option of welfare. Food stamps. Free housing. Free medical care. Crime. Don’t forget the crime. Isn’t it the Left who keep lecturing us on how “the poor” have no other recourse but to turn to crime? Well, people unable to find work sure sound like “the poor” to me.
From 2001 to 2007 Republicans had a majority in the House, the Senate and had Bush in the White House. – camsteel
It was because of Democrat obstructionism. The party of no.
cam appears to be one of those who believes he can excuse not moving forward if he keeps his eyes firmly on the past. I fail to see how any action of any past time, whether a year ago or five years or ten, can excuse a failure to correct past mistakes.
But then an attitude like mine makes it so much harder to keep blaming Bush and those wascawwy wepubwicans for every single problem known to man.
Don’t blame your job lose on anybody but yourself, as most people fail to speak-up and remain silent on the most controversial issues. The politicians bank on this, which you are to embarrass to go the whole yard in calling them out. Whether its federal or state lawmakers, it’s your right as a citizen or legal resident to oppose any new law or otherwise amend a bill, going from conference to be read in the Congress. In most circumstances you will only reach an aid, which screens for the representative you seek. However, you are a potential vote and even though they have the power, you can make a very big difference. Of all the controversial issues facing this country, illegal immigration has become a front burner problem–because it affects us all–it affects our taxes, our schools, health care and even the prison system in mass.
MOST INDUSTRIALIZED NATIONS DESIGNATE UNLAWFUL ENTRY INTO THEIR SOVEREIGN NATION A FELONY? WHY IS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION INTO THE UNITED STATES A CIVIL OFFENSE? ASK WHY OF YOUR POLITICIAN, AND DEMAND THEY CHANGE THIS LAW.
It’s unbelievable that opponents to Lamar Smiths nationwide E-Verify would stoop to lying and rhetoric, implying that the TEA PARTY is against this urgent immigration business enforcement program. The TEA PARTY is thousands of groups, around the country and all have their principles based on liberty from a overwhelming government. This Tea Party in particular doesn’t speak for the whole. The TEA PARTY NATION is a small snippet of millions of ordinary people and certainly doesn’t speak for every member. They have their right to free speech and offer their opinion, but they don’t have my vote or voice of millions more members. Join a TEA PARTY near you and make you vote count, if you legally came to this country. Only open border organizations, businesses, farmers, radical groups have an agenda of their own–but mostly profits and exploitation.
Tell me—are the American taxpayers going to be forced to subsidize every—ECONOMIC–foreigner who slips past the border, or fools an immigration agent at an airport terminal? Isn’t it the function of a government to protect its population? According to the Heritage Foundation taxpayers are being scammed, paying out at least $113 billion dollars annually—billions more are leaving the country through wire transfers, to foreign banks. This will never end until American taxpayers oppose it in Washington. Every state is a cornucopia of welfare recipients with the instant Americanization of babies brought to this nation. Our own countryman can only get food stamps—illegal aliens receive free health care for themselves for the whole family and once again the taxpayers are squeezed for every dollar.
In 2012 the Tea Party leaders can alter this mess this country is in but you must decide where you stand. If you are under the impression it doesn’t impinge on the workplace, you are utterly mistaken. Every day American workers from the lowest income, with limited education and even higher individuals on the career ladder, are being “Pink Slipped” so business owners can replace them with either illegal workers or semi-skilled workers. These persons enter America with visas, fraudulently gained from dishonest attorneys and the recruited by middle man who go to foreign nations. These recruiters are looking for recipients who they can hire for less wages, no health care or benefits. Lower wage earners of every race are not the first to feel this abuse in America, as it carries a wide spectrum of occupations from janitorial staff, factory workers to management positions.
A good start to stop this unjust antagonism is Lamar Smith’s Rep. Lamar Smith R-TX) “The Legal Workforce Act” (H.R. 2885) would achieve a powerful deterrent against dishonest business owners, who will feel the full prosecution of the law. Just type into Google any of these keywords and then understand the consequences of hiring illegal aliens. If illegal nationals are skewered from stealing jobs from Americans, then there is no magnet to draw them from other countries or from across our borders. Every new tool will assist ICE in clearing out millions of foreign nationals, including the E-Verification for businesses; Secure Communities, determining who a person has been apprehended by local police; 287 G, a Training program on immigration regulations and the complete double border fence construction as planned by the Bush 2006 Secure Fence Act.
So why are the open borders scared of Chairman Smith’s bill, with his main sponsor Peter King (R-NY)? Because they realize it will take away their leverage for the passage of another disastrous amnesty which has plagued us like the one in 1986. CHAIN MIGRATION was the culmination of the Ronald Reagan Amnesty, pouring millions of family members into our country.
This Congresswomen opening statement on Thursday, Linda Sanchez described E-Verify as broken. “The system is riddled with errors and doesn’t work. It doesn’t flag the workers it’s supposed to flag, and it snags too many citizens and legal workers in its net. The job market is tough enough. It makes no sense for Congress to pass a law that makes it more difficult for legal workers to find work.” This er, Lady doesn’t explain that potential hires who are flagged, have the capability to straighten their immigration status out by stopping-off at the local Social Security office.
For the illegal aliens already working, there is an effective answer to this issue as well. If you are suspicious that your competition is using an illegal aliens, Etc, Contractors in Construction, assembling products or any manual work, contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division at 1-866-DHS-2ICE (866-347-2423). According to one of our members of NumbersUSA who spoke with an ICE agent, “the mere ‘suspicion’ that a company’s employees are illegal aliens is all that is necessary to make the call to commence an investigation.” He added, “Law enforcement organizations cannot, and do not, expect the public to be experts in determining whether someone is committing a crime, so they provide a safe harbor approach to informing.”
Potential President Herman Cain is a Tea Party member and deserves a chance to prove his worth. Just as with Rep. Michele Bachmann he has a high grade on his immigration stance, recognizing that another amnesty would cripple this country. He is unlike most of the others including Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who would give taxpayer money to pay for tuition for the children of illegal aliens and who would approve of yet another mass amnesty.
If you’re interested where your taxes are swallowed up, such as paying for the intentional ingress of pregnant women coming here as economic welfare recipients numbering 300.000 annually or the habitual criminals, the growing numbers of drunken aliens slaughtering citizens on our highways and then fleeing, you can find this information at American Patrol. Other websites for study on illegal alien costs are available at NumbersUSA and thousands of grass root pro-sovereignty groups. Knowing the corruption amongst your politicians is to be found at Judicial Watch. Even your politicians can be reached at the Washington switchboard at 202-224-3121.
You are right….the first step is to make being here without proper documentation a felony.
Then we should establish a three month window for registration, with no penalty for admitting to illegal entry, illegal presence, or illegal employment, for just this period of time. We need full and accurate information from these people and in this one case amnesty is the only way to get it. Registration gives a temporary work visa good till investigation is complete and the person is passed for a formal work visa.
Those who have been arrested, for example, and given false names and simply not returned for trial, will not want to register because their prints are on file. So they will go home first, or most of them will eventually be caught, imprisoned, and transported. Those who have followed our laws and been productive members of our society can stay. That is how I personally define a fair system.
From the end of the registration period onward, being caught here without having registered or without papers is a felony, punishable by prison time followed by deportation—and no possibility of ever returning.
When a person is given a formal work visa, the first year is provisional, based upon passing an English exam and courses in American culture and behavior. This would include using clinics instead of ERs in hospitals for routine medical care, and flushing toilets in public restrooms.
The work visa would not allow the person to bring in his family if they are not already here. With the visa he can go home to see them. At the end of a fairly long period, say 10 years, he can either apply for permanent residency or go home. No citizenship, ever. Rewarding scofflaws who have shown disrespect for our country by handing out citizenship like Halloween candy is not only a slap in the face to those who respected the US enough to go through the correct procedures to become citizens, making the sacrifices and doing the heavy lifting, it cheapens citizenship. You don’t have to be a citizen to live here. What is the downside of sending the message that lawbreaking has consequences? What is wrong with answering the question “Why doesn’t Abuelo go to vote?” with the truth: “Abuelo broke the laws of this country when he came here illegally. He was allowed to stay here but the penalty for what he did is that he can never become a citizen.”
We abolish the anchor baby law and we become extremely strict on border security. In addition, we treat invading Mexicans, like the drug cartels, as wartime enemies. If someone fires at anyone across a border, he is fired upon, with heavy weaponry if appropriate. If a military or police vehicle, or personnel, become involved in any border skirmish they are taken out as would any enemy attacking our forces.
Many poor Mexican families are here because it is no longer possible for the men to return home freely. Go to any sanctuary city and you will see frightened and lonely young Mexican women, separated from their mothers and aunties and support systems, without transportation, not speaking English, and not at all happy to be here. With a modern equivalent of the old bracero program, where young men can do agricultural work here for a few months a year and then go home, these young families would not have to be displaced.
What we have now is a nation with different laws for different classes of people. This is not only wrong, it is a recipe for the destruction of a nation.
This is not only wrong, it is a recipe for the destruction of a nation.
THATS the plan.