Perhaps I'm just becoming more and more paranoid, but I have visions of being asked for my "papers", much like Europe in the 1930's and 40's (via The Wall St. Journal):
"It is fundamentally a massive invasion of people's privacy," said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "We're not only talking about fingerprinting every American, treating ordinary Americans like criminals in order to work. We're also talking about a card that would quickly spread from work to voting to travel to pretty much every aspect of American life that requires identification."
On top of that, it seems that the "immigration reform" they are hammering out is more like amnesty. According to Chuck Schumer,
The card, he said, would directly answer concerns that after legislation is signed, another wave of illegal immigrants would arrive. "If you say they can't get a job when they come here, you'll stop it."
That statement, to me, spells amnesty for the upwards of 12 million illegals currently in the country. Why would there be another wave of illegals after the legislation is signed if not because the previous wave was given amnesty? (What do you think the odds are that someone will try a discrimination challenge to the law for allowing a previous group to come in but not the next? Follow-up question - What do you think the chances are they will win?)
This bill seems to be all about amnesty and tracking US workers. What I haven't heard about it is how it will address border security and illegals who work under the table. When are we going to stem the flood of illegals flowing over our borders? That isn't just about jobs, guys, it's about national security.
No amnesty, no federal ID cards. Back to the drawing board. Secure our borders, and if they came here illegally, they should be unceremoniously sent back. The only amnesty I'd support would be for those who came here legally but overstayed their visas, and even then, they need to be put through the process, not just automatically given citizenship. If someone sneaks into this country illegally, in my opinion they are automatically 'undesirables' and should not be given any breaks.
Tens of millions of people have legally emigrated to this country, my own ancestors included. They went through the rather degrading process at Ellis Island and then went on to become taxpaying, voting, contributing members of society, no worse for the wear. My paternal grandmother refused to speak polish because that was not the language of her country. They left Poland because they wanted to be Americans - and not Polish-Americans, either. Just Americans.
I hear all this talk from the left about fairness - how is it fair that those millions upon millions of people had to jump through hoops and meet the requirements for citizenship, become contributing members of society and integrate into the fabric of this country, and yet others are just given a pass on our laws and procedures, can't be bothered to learn the language (and don't really need to anymore), are catered to by our government and allowed to create their own ethnic enclaves to keep themselves separate and apart?
Am I anti-immigration? Hell no. This country was created by immigrants, my own family included. I'm proud of our Melting Pot society - it made us vibrant and innovative and unique in all the world. But I am very much anti-illegal-immigration. We allow in millions of legal immigrants every year from all over the world and we have numerous programs to help those emigres become productive members of one of the greatest countries the world has ever known. There is no excuse for breaking our laws upon entering our country.
Perhaps there should be some talk about making it easier to emigrate from places like Mexico to the US. But, then again, considering fully one-third of the country would emigrate if they could, perhaps relaxing the requirements might not be such a good idea - that's an awful lot of people to integrate, no matter how you slice it or where they come from.
The point is, this proposed legislation is a mess. Granting amnesty (again) won't solve the problem, and neither will punishing law abiding legal citizens by forcing them to carry around federal documentation of their legal status.
Our government's bipartisan PC efforts to make sure they don't alienate the illegal aliens at the expense of legal citizens is no surprise. That Lindsey Grahamnesty is the power behind it is no surprise, either.
Want to know another not surprising thing? The public outcry against this idiotic plan.
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