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Selling out our children's future

Thursday, May 31 at 12:01 AM

This Speakout has not been edited

By Darrell D.B. Damschen, Esq., Bennett

I believe in legal immigration to this country, but it is time for the legal citizens of this country to stand up and be heard on illegal immigration. Congress and the President, who I unfortunately voted for 2 times, are selling out our children’s future and must be stopped. We are witnessing an action that is clearly amnesty for lawbreakers and a continuation of the process of making legal citizens into a group of second class citizens. We need enforcement of our laws, the closing of the border, and the severe punishment of the employers of illegal aliens to stop the flood of illegal immigrants, not a reward system to encourage only more.

Rosemary Jenks, Senior Analyst of the Center for Immigration Studies, a non-profit, non-partisan research institute established in 1985, said in recent House testimony “People understand that rewarding illegal behavior will inevitably produce more illegal behavior. If I were to steal car, for example, and a highway patrol office pulled me over and wrote me a $2,000 ticket for stealing the car, but then told I could keep the car, as long as I paid the ticket, there would be a lot more car thieves once the word got out about my good fortune. The officer’s actions would tell the public that the law against stealing cars is not taken seriously. The $2,000 ticket is simply a cost of doing business that will be built into decisions to break the law in the future.”

She further stated “The most helpful definition of amnesty I’ve seen is: Pardoning immigration lawbreakers and ‘rewarding them with the objective of their crimes.’ Thus, any legislation that rewards illegal aliens who came here for jobs by giving them a work permit is amnesty. It makes no difference whether they are granted temporary residence or green cards; whether they have to pay a fine or back taxes; whether they have to learn English and civics; or whether they have to ‘touch back’ across the border to launder their status. If the end result is that they get legal permission to work, it is amnesty.” What we are witnessing now is the representation by our government of foreign born peoples from all over the world, over and above the lawful citizens of this great country. Our fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters have fought and died to protect our freedoms and our way of life. The Government they gave their lives and limbs for is now spitting on them by giving that country away.

In a May 17, 2007 press release the anti-illegal immigration group, NumbersUSA, decried the immigration deal announced by the Senate last week.

They say that the proposal would allow virtually all illegal aliens currently in the United States to remain and work in this country. In addition, it would raise legal importation of foreign workers over its already peak historical level. Over the next 13 years alone, they believe it would increase the current number of foreign-born green card holders from about 25 million (who arrived over 75 years) to around 50 million.

“The Senate negotiators would have us believe we can solve illegal immigration by rewarding it, and that we can deal with the American people’s sense of being overwhelmed by a 20-year flood of accelerated immigration by increasing the numbers still further,” said NumbersUSA Executive Director Roy Beck. “These Senators have sold out the American public and the rule of law by agreeing to craft such a disastrous bill that gives illegal aliens exactly what they broke the law to obtain — permission to live and work in the United States. Several of these negotiators ran for re-election on platforms promising not to legalize immigration lawbreakers or have promised constituents for months that they would never be part of this kind of amnesty. Their betrayal of trust was made official when they stood at the press conference this afternoon announcing the amnesty.”

In 1986 Senator Kennedy said, ‘This amnesty will give citizenship to only 1.1 to 1.3 million illegal aliens. We will secure the borders henceforth. We will never again bring forward another amnesty bill like this.’ Senator Kennedy lied to us then, and should not be trusted now.

Attrition through enforcement is the only realistic way to deal with the 12 to 20 million illegal aliens currently in the United States. The Senate’s current proposal guarantees that the problem of illegal immigration will grow exponentially as it did after the 1986 amnesty. Call, write, e-mail and fax your Senators and Representatives right now; tomorrow may be too late.

READER COMMENTS

American citizens have been standing up ansd screaming at the top of our lungs ever since the illegals marched for their " rights "

Our government have their ear plugs in an American citizen speaks out.They take them out when the illegals speak.

So American citizens have been ignored and we are doomed.

Posted by Can I get an AMEN! on June 3, 2007 10:22 AM

American citizens have been standing up ansd screaming at the top of our lungs ever since the illegals marched for their " rights "

Our government have their ear plugs in an American citizen speaks out.They take them out when the illegals speak.

So American citizens have been ignored and we are doomed.

Posted by Can I get an AMEN! on June 3, 2007 10:10 AM

I, along with many, agree with you.

Senator Kennedy was wrong on immigration legislation in 1965, 1986 and 2006. I doubt he will understand, or care, how amnesty hurts Americans - especially low income Americans.

Knowing how our politicians favor special interests, one would have to assume that a 380 page immigration bill must be full of hidden agendas for private interests given their past performances. And the Senate's attempts to RUSH this through with secret meetings and "it must be fixed immediately - it's what Americans want" lends an air of darkness as well. This has been an escalating problem for 40 years which they chose to ignore and not enforce laws; so why the rush now?

This should be a topic of national debate, with all sides presenting their arguements to the American people and letting the nation's populace concede in majority will on the proper direction to take concerning all immigration reform.

If the nation's citizenry had ever experienced enforcement of immigration laws already legislated, maybe then they would have a better understanding of what laws work and what laws don't.

But Congress and Presidents have never demonstrated a committment to upholding those laws.

Posted by Labas on June 3, 2007 08:41 AM