Saturday, February 11, 2006

Amnesty won't fix immigration woes

Registerguard

Peter DeFazio weighs in...

America has a proud heritage as a beacon for the dispossessed and oppressed, who come from around the world for a shot at achieving their dreams.
However, a nation that does not control its own borders is not secure. We need to know who is coming into our country, and we must keep out people who are not authorized to enter. With 500,000 or more people entering illegally every year, the status quo is not acceptable.
The border security legislation I voted for, House Resolution 4437, addresses this issue by requiring employers to verify a job applicant's eligibility with immigration and Social Security officials, rather than a cursory look at easily forged. I-9 documents The bill doubles the fines for employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers to a minimum of $5,000 for a first offense and up to $40,000 for subsequent offenses.


Defazio continues to say that he is not convinced that there is a labor shortage that requires importation of 550,000 a more guest workers every year as envisioned by the immigration reform bill.

I am concerned that guest worker proposals will continue to erode the wages and working conditions of tens of millions of Americans and legal immigrants.

With more than 4 million immigrants around the world waiting for their paperwork to be processed to enter the US legally, a blanket amnesty for the 11 million already here illegally could delay or prevent legal immigration.


While the solution to the immigration problem may seem as simple as just closing the borders, however the logistics are a bit more complicated. The illegal aliens are already laughing at us for our lack of enforcing the laws already on the books, creating new laws that we have no plans of enforcing is a waste of time and resources.

Greed has created the problem... and until it is no longer profitable to hire illegal aliens and we get serious about the borders, the problem is not going to go away.

In addition, I am certainly not going to learn Spanish to get a job in my own country but that is where it is going if we do not get the problem under control now!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

At the heart of our country are the immigrants. Chances are that most of us can trace our heritage to another country. HOWEVER - all of our relatives had to go through the process in order to become citizens. The one thing the politicians seem to be ignoring is that illegal means against the law! As a citizen of this country we are all expected to obey the laws or pay the price. If we travel to another country, we are expected to obey their laws as well. Why then can the rest of the world ignore our laws and do as they please? I also disagree with diplomatic immunity. If you cannot follow our rules - stay out! And I agree with Robin, I don't see why I have to learn another language to obtain a job in my own country. Sure, it's a bonus, and I do speak another language, German, but I will not be forced to learn Spanish simply because the Latino population doesn't know English. I hate the fact that we are paying more for grocery labels because they are being printed in several languages. When in Rome....

Robin said...

Very well said!

The Gentle Cricket said...

Despite being a registered Republican, I always voted for Peter DeFazio. No matter my party, DeFazio has always impressed me as being genuinely committed to helping our nation, not any special interests. In fact, DeFazio continually votes "no" to congressional pay raises (they still pass) yet he takes his pay raise and puts it towards scholarship.

I'm glad to have someone of any party who is interested in protecting our border.

Robin said...

I've also been very impressed with Peter DeFazio... I believe that one of the reasons why he continually gets reelected is because he makes himself available to the general public.

He holds town hall meetings where people like you and me can just go and ask him question and not rely on the news media to stumble on what the public is really thinking.

he is not like other government officials that we have come to know who think that you are only important when they need something such as your vote and the rest of the time you're just an inconvenient nuisance.