Comprehensive Immigration Reform

(Emphasis on Comprehensive) by Terry Christiansen

 

Obama says he wants comprehensive immigration reform. Some members of Congress and the American public parrot that same blather. It's likely that none of the entire gaggle has given five seconds of real thought to the subject....much less read the massive tangle of immigration law that we have on the books right this minute....that isn't being enforced.

 

And there have been many changes to our immigration law over the years which have made things worse. The worst change was pushed through by Ted Kennedy in 1990 and upped the immigration quota from a hundred thousand per year to a million. That alone has artificially increased our population by 24 million since it was passed and probably by 60 million when you consider that those 24 million immigrants likely produced children after arriving here. Remember....those were only the legal immigrants.

 

It's also interesting to note that while the population of the USA continues to grow rapidly, the population of every other industrialized country has generally stabilized at a constant level.

 

The much-ballyhooed immigration reform legislation proposed last year by the Senate's "gang of eight"....eight idiots in my opinion....is a load of crap! But, it's no surprise the Senate passed it. None of them read it. I actually read the first 322 of its 844 pages. I quit because it solves nothing and costs us taxpayers billions more money. It's the bill Obama is harping about the House of Representatives needing to pass. If the House ever passes it, we should load the muskets.

 

But actually, I'm in favor of doing a "comprehensive" reform of our immigration laws. Just bear in mind that "comprehensive" means: Total; All-encompassing; Thorough; Complete. So just remember that you asked for it.

 

The very first thing to do is to scrap every single word of immigration law we have on the books and replace it for the time being with these words:

 

"No member or members of the United State government or any of its employees is authorized to allow any person or persons to immigrate into the United States unless and until specifically authorized to do so by a future Act of Congress. The Executive Branch is directed to take all measures necessary to ensure the intent of this legislation is met in its entirety, including the use of the Armed Forces as necessary to augment the Border Patrol to achieve total border integrity and prevent unlawful entry into the United States by any person or persons. State Governors are authorized to use their National Guard to augment the U.S. military and Border Patrol. Funding as necessary for this Act shall be redirected from other Homeland Security accounts to reimburse state governments and the Department of Defense for expenses incurred which result from complying with this Act."

 

To be clear, I say to scrap our present law because without any law on the books which allows immigrants to enter the U.S., we can't legally have any immigration....period! And without any law, there is nothing for Obama to implement with his Executive Orders. Legally, he'd be out of business on immigration and flat-out ripe for impeachment if he tried to circumvent the language in the previous paragraph.

 

So, let's say we repealed all of our immigration laws and were largely successful in securing our borders. What next?

 

Next, we ask and answer a few questions before we even think about writing any new immigration law.

 

First question: Do we need....not want, but NEED, more immigration? If the answer is "No", the problem is solved. If the answer is "Yes", then go on to the next question.

 

Second question: WHY do we need....not want, but NEED immigration? Personally, I'm not the least bit interested in hearing whining about "we're a nation of immigrants", or "this country is a melting pot", or "because we need the talent of the brightest students from other countries", or "because we need to give oppressed people a place to be free".

 

I think the answer is a solid NO!!   Let me give you a list of reasons why we don't need to artificially increase our population by allowing immigration.

 

1. We're $17.5 trillion in debt and we can't afford to provide welfare and subsistence for millions more people.
2. Our schools are crammed and are failing. Adding untold millions of additional students who don't speak English makes things worse.
3. We have probably 25% unemployment if you count the real numbers.
4. Our health care system is on life-support now.
5. Our prisons can't hold all the criminals we convict now.
6. We have to import a lot of food now to feed our existing population.
7. There is a limited supply of fresh water.
8. The cost of housing is very high and the idea that building low-cost housing is possible without taxpayer dollars involved is utter nonsense.
9. Our infrastructure is crumbling and there's no money to fix it.
10. We can't afford to maintain our armed forces adequately to sustain a credible deterrent force much less one which we can deploy willy-nilly to hellhole countries we'd like to see make some changes.
11. Our mainstream social welfare and entitlement programs are bankrupt now and will bankrupt the entire nation if not fixed rather than being further burdened by artificially increasing our population via immigration.

 

If those eleven reasons aren't enough to convince you, consider the following problems:

 

A lot of people come here WITH permission who then overstay their visas. They're mostly students but that doesn't make them legal to overstay their visa. It seems to me that issuing arrest warrants when a visa has expired would solve a lot of that problem....one way or another.

 

We don't require citizens of most European countries to obtain visas to visit the USA. All they have to do is get a passport and come on in! Now couple that easy-going entry with the fact that the Muslim immigrant populations of many European countries have been growing by astounding percentages lately, and add the fact that most terrorists seem to be Muslims lately, and I have to come to the conclusion that we're simply inviting the next 911 terrorists to "come on in".

 

I suspect that by now, some of you think I'm just a terrible person who doesn't care one whit about my fellow man. You're totally wrong if that's what you think. I'm strongly in favor of helping people out but in ways that help the people, not just their governments. And, I'm in favor of helping them in their own country, not ours, provided their government is willing, and provided we control how aid money is spent....not the foreign government.

 

If the foreign government doesn't cooperate, they don't get the aid....period. Not a dime. It then becomes a problem for that country's people to resolve....just like we did in our country in 1776 when some of my ancestors and my wife's, loaded up the muskets and set out to create this country....and a new government. By the way, I don't think of myself as an immigrant. I'm a twelfth generation American.

 

But since most immigrants are seeking to escape rather than correct a situation they have allowed their own government to create for them, I don't have a lot of sympathy. I would much rather see those people shed their blood for their country rather than ask our country to take them in or to send our military men and women to their country to shed our blood on their behalf. Heck! We may have to shed blood in our own country soon enough the way things are going.

 

Finally, I think another question we should ask ourselves is whether, in the large scheme of things, we can actually make a perceivable difference by allowing immigration and/or by spending a ton of money trying to solve all the problems in the world? We did in World War II but that was a survival situation not of our making. We also had help in that war.

 

Well, I could go on for a long time but there's a place where you can see a very informative visual presentation on immigration which explains things far better than I could ever do in writing so I'm going to give you a web site and plead with you to take a look at it. You're already on the internet if you're reading this so just click the link below and it will only take you 5 minutes to watch. I think you'll find it entertaining as well as enlightening.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE

Source: Terry Christiansen, Go Patriots Tea Party, Anacortes, Washington http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=4c0d9bbf-bc21-473e-9e1d-ea13cd023d38&c=4be63110-3536-11e3-b189-d4ae526edd6c&ch=4d19a800-3536-11e3-b1c6-d4ae526edd6c