Obama Smart To Go on Immigration Offensive

Read "Bill Hedges of MO @ Jul 04, 2010 00:39:48 AM" on this article.

Bill Hedges of MO 8:58PM July 05, 2010

First of all Kennedy sponsered an immigration bill with John McCain of Arizona, a conservative Republican. The Kennedy-McCain Bill allowed illegal immigrants to earn their citizenship through a rigorous process which included expensive fines and other obligations. It also excluded those with criminal backgrounds and those who pose a security risk. Mass deportation is expensive, ineffective, logistically impossible and chaotic and is inhumane. The Bill co-sponsored by Kennedy will save money and be more effective. Here are the main provisions for earning citizenship for those here illegally.

Under our plan, to earn their legal status and eventually apply for citizenship, they must:

· Pay a $2000 fine.

· Work for six years.

· Pay their taxes.

· Learn English and civics.

· Pass rigorous criminal and security background checks

· And get in the back of the line behind those who have been waiting patiently to qualify for green cards.

Unfortunately, yesterday on television Senator Frist mischaracterized our common sense proposal. He called it an amnesty, when in fact nothing is forgiven, nothing is pardoned. Undocumented workers must earn the privilege of legal status and a path to American citizenship.

http://standing-firm.com/2009/08/26/remembering-ted-kennedy-the-inspirational-champion-of-immigration-reform/

In any case, none of Kennedy's bills ever passed so his impact on US immigration policy is a moot point. According to Wikipedia;

"The "McCain-Kennedy bill" did not reach a Senate vote, but provided a template for further attempts at dealing comprehensively with legalization, guest worker programs, and border enforcement components. Kennedy returned again with the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, which was sponsored by an ideologically diverse, bipartisan group of senators and having strong support from the Bush administration. The bill aroused furious grassroots opposition among talk radio listeners and others as an "amnesty" program, and despite Kennedy's last-minute attempts to salvage it, failed a cloture vote in the Senate."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kennedy

In concluding, I would like to say that Kennedy's co-sponsored bill was deliberately mischaracterized as an amnesty. The GOP did this for purely partisan purposes. It was a mistake because it could have succeeded in limiting the problems we face today. This is just another way the GOP puts its party interests ahead of the national interest.

steve of IL 5:29PM July 05, 2010

Bush terminated a border patrol effort after two years of only modest success at great cost and without solving the problem. Immediately thereafter the problem worsened. Bush seemed to have more money to spend on wars abroad, including tens of billions on no bid reconstruction contracts for GOP connected corporations, then he had for a massive program to secure our borders that could also have stimulated the US economy during a deepening recession.

"As effective as the Guard has been, however, some feel it could have been more effective. The late U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA), the driving force behind the OJS program, had recommended in 2005, after studying the Border problem, that 36,000 troops, or 18 personnel per mile, would create an impenetrable border. He had researched and published this number in his 2005 report to the House Immigration Reform Caucus, “Results and Implications of the Minuteman Project." In the end, 6000 troops at a time were called up the first year for two-week intervals, instead of for six months, as Norwood had recommended. That number was cut to 3,000 troops after the first year. If the 36,000-troop number sounds expensive, consider that the 36,000-man project would have cost around $2.4 billion per year (based on light infantry deployment numbers). Not a bad tradeoff against the minimum $70 billion-per-year cost to taxpayers from illegal immigration."

Bush sent fewer than half the recommended troops and achieved a mere 24% interdiction rate. A full size border patrol would have sealed the US/Mexican border by most knowledgeable estimates.

http://www.groundreport.com/Opinion/Has-Operation-Jump-Start-Been-Effective/285

Obama has restored efforts to increase the size of the current border patrol. An amnesty will at least get these folks paying more taxes and obeying the law. We need to secure the border directly. Obama has already exceeded Bush's record for annual deportations of illegals but the point is to deal with the problem at the border.

steve of IL 10:48PM July 04, 2010

i say no talk of reform till we seal the border.enough all ready.

bruce b of NV 11:31PM July 03, 2010