Mr. Moderate

… “no man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”
Judge Gideon J. Tucker, Final Accounting in the Estate of A.B. (1866) [1 Tucker 248 (N. Y. Surr. 1866)].

Congress has reopened the can of illegal immigrant worms many thought had been buried a couple of weeks ago. It seems that more than 60 senators have agreed to go forward with the current bill provided two dozen amendments are considered before a final vote is taken. It isn’t the least bit clear what all is in the two dozen amendments or what chances of passage any of them or the bill itself might actually have. During the last go-around, one significant amendment was enough to get a majority to refuse to go any further with consideration of the bill. If it gets through the Senate, it will move to the House, where the Democrat leaders can use any number of tricky rules to ram the mess through without any real input from an extremely upset American public. So, for those of us who oppose this stinky diaper of a bill, this week’s prospective set of votes in the Senate is somewhat “do or die.”

I would like to again make clear that I am not opposed to immigrants, nor am I opposed to immigrant workers, or any of that sort of thing at all. As a matter of fairness, I want the illegals here now to be forced to return to their home countries and wait in line before gaining legal admission back to the United States. And admission to the United States ought to be first come, first served, meaning that the earlier an illegal immigrant returns to their own country, the earlier they can possibly gain legal status. But if they choose to wait until the enforcement actions make it more difficult for them to get employment, they should not be at all surprised to return and find tens of millions of people already in line ahead of them, and even in that case, they need to go to the back of the line. The United States can let in as many workers as we need, no more. And it should be first come, first served, picked from among those who best respected our laws.

Also, given the “big lie” the people of the United States were told back in 1986, that the amnesty granted back then would be “the last time” and that the border would be controlled from then on, I believe the people have a right to demand good border control and reliable mandatory checks of the right of somebody to work in the United States. If you make it all but impossible for an illegal to gain employment, that will stem the tide right there. But the business-dominated Congress has never seen fit to have laws with any teeth in them that might harm their favored business constituents. So, business gets off the hook if the illegal can show a fake social security card that does not look too forged. It has come out repeatedly that businesses routinely ignore the letters from the Social Security Administration notifying employers that some particular employee does not match the social security number they are using. Congress failed to put any teeth into that provision as well, it would seem.

So, pardon me for being all cynical about this bill. Its really all about getting cheap labor for meat processing plants and other exploiters of low-wage workers. So, ask yourself: is this what America really ought to stand for? Exploited Mexican workers?