When they are so routinely flouted, and then amnesty is so routinely suggested as the cure?

[size=4]Legalizing Illegals[/size=4]
[b]Immigration questions.[/b]

Richard Gephardt, minority leader of the House of Representatives, has a solution for the problem of illegal immigration: Guess what? To whom did he set forward his proposals? Guess who? What do they amount to? Give up?

Congressman Gephardt suggests that the way to bring undocumented immigrants "out of the shadows and into the light of accountability" is to legalize their standing. I.e., to countenance and, in effect, to reward their breaking of the law. This proposal was made to an assembly of the 3,000 who cheered him on wildly at the annual meeting of the National Council of La Raza, the Hispanic organization. Mr. Gephardt acknowledged that it would not be possible to introduce the necessary legislation until some time later in the year. Later in the year, also, are congressional elections, and if a few extra votes are garnered by the Democrats, the minority leader will become Speaker of the House or, at least, majority leader, clearing the path for La Raza.

There is of course opposition, and at several levels. Dan Stein is executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. He reported, in reaction to the Gephardt speech, that what would surely ensue from it and its proposals would be a stimulation of yet more illegal immigration. If there are now approximately 8 million illegal immigrants and 3 million of them are from Mexico alone, what reason would Congress have to think that amnesty would bring an end to illegal immigration? When amnesty was given by President Carter to Americans who had dodged the draft and were now living abroad, whatever criticism one had could at least not be based on the assumption that amnesty would increase the number of illegal draft dodgers shirking duty at war, there being no longer a draft law or a war to fight.

And there are broader questions, well organized by Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies in National Review's current issue.

Here are the basic data. The foreign-born in America are 57 percent higher than in 1990. The number of immigrants in the U.S. in the past 30 years has tripled.

The key question is always the same: Is assimilation doing the traditional work of Americanizing the foreign-born?

One begins by asking about employment. In the 20th century, immigrants found work in industry where training was not an important prerequisite. Such openings aren't as abundant in the post-industrial age and the result of it is that the relative under-education of the immigrant class results in relative poverty. [b]Newly arrived adult immigrants are three times as likely as natives to lack a high-school education.[/b]

- continued -

Moreover, the density of the immigrant population is a spur to the kind of ethnocentrism that retards assimilation. This is especially a problem, Mr. Camarota observes, with the second generation of immigrants. Their parents had a reason to have come to the United States. Their children, born here, think less of why their parents came than of relative disadvantages they suffer, retarding what John Fonte of the Hudson Institute has usefully called "patriotic assimilation" — the adoption of America's past as something exclusively relevant to their developing culture. The result is that the second generation veers in the direction of thinking itself a multicultural exfoliation — encouraged to continue speaking in Spanish, persevering in Hispanic culture, refreshed by the frequent visits now possible to the original homeland.

Poverty leads, in the immigrant class, to a higher incidence of families without health insurance. Reliance on state welfare grows correspondingly, and since fertility is higher, the strain is greater on the protective engines of their new homeland. And then these — welfare — are constantly being reinforced, so that when congressional friends of La Raza promise amnesty, [b]they are identifying themselves with all that is there to entice the immigrants to America in the first place — work, unemployment insurance, health care, education.[/b]

The big question before the house is: [b]Does the United States benefit from unregulated immigration? By definition, the answer has been no — otherwise there would be no such thing as a body of illegal immigrants. Illegal because Congress voted against green cards for the 8 million people who are nevertheless here and are being adopted by Mr. Gephardt the single father, who wants only one thing in return: a vote for Democratic legislators. But what is it that Congress has to legislate, if immigrants can come around in whatever numbers, whenever they want?[/b]

See article at:[url]http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/buckley072302.asp[/url]

Eric The(Exasperated)Hun[>]:)]

Saw a news blurb earlier this am...the CHP stopped a van which contained 18 illegals...they called INS who told the CHP to release them as they didnt have the man power to investigate at the moment.....a woman who witnessed this claimed to a reporter that Homeland Security is a joke...

Why not just annex the rest of the world.

That way everyone can

- say they live in the US
- vote in our elections
- apply for welfare (if needed)
- get jobs (cause there aren't any here)
- not have to go through the hassle of moving

immigration laws are there for idiots like this guy who tried to disguise himself as a seat inside a van!

[img]http://www.printroom.com/_vti_bin/ViewImage.dll?userid=redray&album_id=86221&image_id=6&show=image¶m=66161[/img]

future TRANSFORMER robot in training.

Here's an idea - rid ourselves of welfare programs and open the borders wide.  The only folks that will come over then will be the ones who actually intend on working and contributing to society.

the_reject

Right, because terrorists would never take advantage of our border security going from "Weak" to "Non-existent," right? And those criminals who don't want to apply for welfare, but instead would like to come here to prey on Americans directly, what about them?

Open borders is a great idea if you have nothing to protect.

Why don't we just take all the doors off our houses and just put signs up on our lawns advising one and all that we don't desire to give away our possessions? Our friends could more freely come and visit us if that was the case. What's that you say? Our honest friends have no trouble knocking on the door and waiting to see if we're home and wish to admit them? What a concept!

Great idea. When can we get started. Lol.

I think what everyone forgets, when they decide that they're going to America, is that our greatness isn't in the air, the water, or the soil of our land. Our greatness comes from each and every one of us who gets up in the morning and goes to work to build a better life for themselves and their loved ones. It's the small allowances each of us make each day for each other because we're living together in a society.

We work at it every day. It's not enough to just get here, you also have to work at it, each and every day.

It's not a joke......It's not about stopping terrorists either.

I agree with you that it isn't a joke to the average American citizen.

But it is a joke to the average politician who laughs at the people they manipulate to get their votes, who pass laws for petty self serving reasons, who are more concerned with getting re-elected than doing what's good for their constituants, who use their power and authority to enrich their 'friends', who ...

darn, what's the use, we've given them more power over our lives than they ever needed and they're taking the rest.

Homeland Security [red][i]is[/i][/red] a joke.

[red][i]I am convinced that the Washington DC middle management - the bureaucracy - wants another big terrorist attack.[/i][/red]

It's like your sig line says, follow the money.

It's not about stopping terrorism, it's about keeping the big cash machine flowing along smoothly. Anything that they claim their doing in our benefit is really just a side effect of them trying to get as much out of you as possible.

Back to the original post.

Darn Demoncrats will do anything to get another vote.

You can always rely on them to do not what is right for this country but to follow their own bankrupt socialist ideology.