Call to action on pending immigration amnesty bills.

The scent -- or stench -- of immigration legislation is in the air again with the usual lollipops to be handed out to illegals and the pencil in the eye for those who have dutifully applied to emigrate through legal channels.

The details are complex and it is safe to assume that solons want to railroad the voters by passing some version of this legislation before any opposition can be mounted.

Here are the Colonel's objections:

• Amnesty of any kind ought not to be something that puts illegals ahead of people who have tried to come here legally.
• A short amnesty should only be a means of setting up a system to ameliorate the harshness of grabbing people out of the Piggly Wiggly check out line or dragging them off the operating table and then speeding them to an early and mandatory date with the border. There's a certain visceral appeal to that but Americans do not have the stomach for that and, probably, neither does the Colonel.
• Amnesty with a "go home" provision after the end of a five-year period allows for five more years within which to avail oneself of the economic advantages of residing in the U.S. That's a significant benefit -- and concession -- right there. By rights, the illegal is entitled only to immediate deportation, having broken the law with his first step onto U.S. soil. Getting five more years is very, very generous, not to mention not being prosecuted for the time already spent illegally in the U.S.
• Illegals who do not register for the amnesty would be subject to immediate deportation, having by their failure elected not to avail themselves of the generous five-year period. No heart need bleed for those who choose to reaffirm their (a) illegal status and (b) determination to live outside the law in a country to which they were not been invited.
• Any kind of a "guest worker" provision risks setting up a class of people who will be neither fish nor fowl. Germany tried hard to keep its Turkish guest workers as "guests" but, lo, they remained, settled, and had or brought families. "Guest" became "unremovable other of indeterminate status who know's he's not wanted." One should either be a citizen of the country of one's residence or be a tourist or short-term student there. Anything else is a formula for long-term resentment.
• If -- that is, IF -- there is any kind of an amnesty, it should be for skilled workers only.
• Ditto for new quotas made available to legal would be emigrants in their home countries.
• Sealing the border and fiddling with amnesty provisions are INDEPENDENT problems. The most important thing to have happen in Congress is to GUARD THE BORDERS! Without delay, there should be separate legislation that effects a vastly improved Border Patrol operation and ONLY when there is an effective sealing of the border do we need to turn our attention to the remaining problem, that is, illegals who remain. We think it is an attempt at deliberate obfuscation that the control of the border and amnesty issues are being considered together. They must be kept separate. To heck with la la Yale and Harvard summer intern experiments with amnesty and privileged status for law breakers. First stop the hemorrhage of new illegals.
• Finally, we note the bizarre concept devised by Rep. Jon Kyl, who does not want to "strand" anyone outside the U.S. For crying out loud, the world is not divided into (a) people in the U.S. and (b) everyone else "stranded" outside the U.S. Anyone ejected from the U.S. is not ipso facto stranded, he or she goes back to his or her home country, which in most cases, will be Mexico, the country into which they have been ejected.

End of Colonel Bunny diatribe. Please read this week's Guard the Borders blogburst post and ACT as suggested.

CALL TO ACTION!
On Thursday, March 16, the Senate Judiciary Committee told their staff to meet behind closed doors to construct an immigration bill that would include provisions from the Kennedy-McCain bill. Known as S. 1033, the McCain-Kennedy bill includes an amnesty for illegal aliens, a massive "guest" worker program that leads to citizenship, and an estimated one million additional permanent immigrants each year.

Millions of illegals to become citizens?

[The] Kennedy-McCain immigration reform bill [is] likely to pass Senate committee after recess:

A bill that would give millions of illegal aliens in the United States the opportunity to earn citizenship is closer to becoming law today as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee signaled likely passage of a proposal by Sens. Edward Kenney, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz.

Though a committee vote will not be held until after a week-long congressional recess, likely March 27, committee members appeared ready to back the Kennedy-McCain bill.

"The votes are there," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Congress is working to pass a reform bill that includes enforcement, a policy on dealing with illegals already in the country and a guest-worker program pushed by President Bush.

Under the legislation, illegal aliens in the United States would obtain six-year nonimmigrant visas under which they could work in the country and travel outside the country. The aliens would have to pay a $1,000 fine and undergo background checks.

After six years, the aliens would be able to meet certain requirements and then apply for a green card, or permanent residency.

Besides voting on the bill after the recess, committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said the panel also would vote on a bill by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., that would give illegal aliens up to five years to leave the U.S. After returning home, they could then apply to return, either as temporary workers or for permanent residency.

"Our intention is not to strand anyone outside the country," Kyl said, according to an AP report. But he asserted the McCain-Kennedy plan would give an illegal alien allowed to stay and work in the country a "huge advantage" over a person having to wait for years in his or her own country for a green card.

The McCain-Kennedy bill would start off with offering 400,000 of the new visas.

To compare the various bills please click here to view a .pdf chart created by NumbersUSA.org. You will be able to see for yourself that what the spin-meisters are telling us about the various bills clearly does NOT match the actual provisions of the bills themselves.

Although Sens. McCain and Kennedy adamantly deny that S. 1033 is an amnesty for illegal aliens, it clearly spells out a path to jobs and residency for illegal aliens. Among the significant immigration-increase provisions of the bill are: a new visa category (H-5A) for 400,000 low-skill foreign workers (this cap can be adjusted upwards); a new temporary 6-year visa category (H-5B) for illegal aliens (and their spouses and children) already in the country; an amnesty for illegal aliens who apply for an H-5B visa and pay a $2,000 fine; a provision for the H-5A temporary workers to apply for permanent resident status after four years; and an exemption of immediate relatives (spouses, children, and parents of U.S. citizens) from the annual level of 480,000 family-sponsored immigrant visas thereby providing additional visas to the family preference categories.

Supporters claim S. 1033 contains measures to increase border security, yet it contains virtually no such provisions. Aside from creating a Border Security Committee and requiring a few reports, the main "enforcement" provisions are aimed at helping Mexico control its borders!! S. 1033 does, however, require machine-readable immigration documents, and create a new electronic work authorization system that would eventually replace the current "I-9" system. S. 1033 would require the federal government to reimburse states for the cost of providing emergency health care to H-5A and H-5B workers.

Aside from the fact that any guest worker plan would be nothing more than a disastrous amnesty deal tied with a big red bow for lawbreakers, there is another reason to reject it: Our government can't handle it!

Our government is not capable of handling roughly 13-20 million temporary worker applications when our illegal alien population suddenly becomes eligible through guest worker legislation - USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service) simply cannot handle the administration overload it already has. The only solution would be to massively increase the government. The link above outlines a report from the GAO that shows how the USCIS is already irrevocably buried under a backlog of immigration adjudication. It's a whole other perspective on the various administrative amnesties proposed by the Senate. Mundane? Perhaps. Crucial to the overall scope and size of our bloated and sprawling federal government? Absolutely.

This Guard the Borders Blogburst is a CALL TO ACTION!

1. If you care about the careless increases in immigration as proposed by our Senate, please send a fax - today. It's fast, it's easy - and it's free. NumbersUSA has an amazing way to help us stay involved, and helps us get our voices heard. Their basic faxes are pre-written, and will take less than one minute to send. But, even better, once you register, the faxes are fully customizable to say what you specifically find important to say, if you so choose. The site is an incredible free resource for immigration issues. You can also opt-in for timely updates on issues coming before Congress, and take action on every single on, if you desire.

2. Email the permalink from this article to others you know who care about the impact of illegal immigration. Together, we can all have a voice. The more Americans that respond - the bigger the impact.

Please take a moment, and send a fax today. The Senate Judiciary committee is behind closed doors as we speak. The McCain-Kennedy bill will come to a vote by next Monday. They and their staffs are smugly confident that they have the votes - let's convince our Senators otherwise.

Take action! We can still be heard!

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This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It is syndicated by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we're going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration in our country, join the Blogburst! Send an email with your blog name and url to euphoricrealitynet at gmail dot com.