I have questions for those on both sides of the proposed immigration reform bill.
For supporters, are you sure the proposed enforcement provisions are enough to effectively stop illegal crossings? If not, we will have a repeat of 1986 and the illegal flow will continue. Also, does the bill violate the principle that we should not reward those who are here unlawfully by putting them ahead of those who have waited in line?
For opponents, have you ever looked up the definition of “amnesty?” According to Webster, it means “the act of an authority (as a government) by which pardon is granted to a large group of individuals.” The definition of “pardon” is “the excusing of an offense without exacting a penalty.” Therefore, by definition, a bill that provides a $5,000 penalty, among other penalties, is not “amnesty.” We may disagree with changing the penalty from deportation to a fine, but there is still a penalty and it is therefore not “amnesty.”
Sen. Jon Kyl has a 96.9 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, one of the highest ratings in Congress. He is a committed, principled conservative, and I trust his judgment.
That doesn’t mean we have to agree with him on this issue. It does mean we should respect his 20-plus years of fighting for conservative principles in a hostile environment. Even if we ultimately disagree about the merits of this bill, attacks on Sen. Kyl for being a traitor to conservatives are not only silly, but absolutely destructive to our cause.
Although I may cut Sen. Kyl some slack regarding his participation in helping craft this un-necessary legislation, I sit in amazement that someone with his political history failed to accurately assess the visceral anger that was seething on mainstreet America regarding our Federal government’s abject failure to enforce the provisions of the previous amnesty bill of 1986. And with his tenure as a politician, his fingerprints are on the smoking gun as much as any others regarding that failure to enforce our nation’s immigration laws.
I have been a registered Republican all my voting life, and now at age 64 I have left the party that left me. As a veteran, I did not serve my country simply to sit on the sidelines and watch my government undermine the sovereignty of this nation that so many paid with their lives to protect and defend.
This supposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill is nothing but a repeat of the same smoke and mirrors we were fed in 1986. In the 20+ years since the enactment of that legislation, our representatives have been purchased by business/corporate interests so that they would have a continued supply of cheap, exploitable labor with which to enhance their bottom lines. I see little the average citizen can do in face of this entrenched cabal of self-serving politicians and sorporate interst groups. My mind does tend to ponder the French Revolution at times such as this.