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December 18, 2009
Exclusive: Amnesty Would Put Further Strain on Our Struggling Economy
An article by Stephen Dinan published this week by the Washington Times describes how members of the Congress are absolutely refusing to represent the best interests of the citizens of our nation and are, even as so many Americans are unemployed or under-employed, pushing for a massive amnesty program known as "Comprehensive Immigration Reform."
I have consistently opposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform for a number of important reasons. First and foremost, of course is the national security issue. There is no way that the beleaguered adjudicators at USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), the agency that would administer this insane program, would be able to reliably know anything about the millions of illegal aliens who would undoubtedly seek to acquire lawful immigrant status and ultimately, United States citizenship through Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
They have no official documentation to substantiate their true names or even their true nationalities. Therefore, there is no reliable way of determining if these illegal aliens – whose simple presence in our country represents a violation of our nation's laws and borders – are fugitives from justice in other countries. There is also no reliable way of knowing if these illegal aliens are affiliated with criminal or terrorist organizations.
There is also no reliable way of knowing when these illegal aliens entered the United States. They will have, no doubt, used one or more, stolen or fictitious identities, making it all but impossible to know when, where or how they actually entered the United States without a full field investigation. Yet with the huge numbers of illegal aliens involved and the small number of agents available to deal with the onslaught of applications, all that will be done under the auspices of “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” is a "background check."
A background check does not entail having investigators knocking on doors and interviewing those who might know these illegal aliens – it simply requires that the applicant's fingerprints and name he provides on the application be run through a computerized database. If the fingerprints come up "clean" – that is to say they do not match any known criminal and if the name provided by the applicant is fictitious – then the system would automatically clear the alien for a temporary identity document that would immediately enable that alien to apply for and receive a Social Security card, a driver's license and other such documents.
Consider too that the unscrupulous employer who intentionally hires illegal aliens does so in order to exploit their vulnerability. This sort of employer generally pays the illegal aliens substandard wages under substandard and, indeed, all too often illegally hazardous conditions. In many instances these employers fail to make the appropriate payments to Workman's Compensation and other such payments. This is all about greed.
Illegal aliens are certainly easy to exploit because they are desperate to secure any job that they can so that they can send their money to their families back home. This, of course, raises the issue of the fact that every year foreign workers, both legal and illegal, seek to send as much money out of country and our nation's economy as possible. It has been estimated that more than $100 billion is wired or otherwise sent from the United States to other countries around the world by foreign workers. This is money that is lost to our economy. This is money that is not spent in the United States and not invested in the United States. This is money that is not earned by American citizens or lawful immigrants.
As insane as all of this is, I want to take a moment to explain another aspect of Comprehensive Immigration Reform that is seldom, if ever discussed. This is not speculation, but actually occurred in the wake of the Amnesty of 1986.
When aliens who had previously been illegally present in the United States were granted lawful status, they were no longer exploitable. In many cases, these previously illegal aliens approached their employers and told them that they would certainly want to continue working for them but that they now wanted to be paid prevailing wages. They wanted the appropriate deductions taken from their salaries. They wanted to be compensated appropriately for working overtime and on weekends.
In short, these previously vulnerable aliens were no longer vulnerable and demanded fair and equitable treatment by their employers. In many of these instances, guess what happened? The employers fired these now-legal aliens and hired the next wave of illegal aliens!
Stop and ask yourself the very obvious question: "What would happen if 10 million or 20 million legalized aliens demanded proper wages and working conditions?"
You guessed it.
Here are some obvious follow-up questions:
- How much would unemployment and welfare cost our government to care for the newly unemployed legalized aliens?
- How much would this further drive wages down as too many workers would be forced to chase far too few jobs?
- How many of the displaced workers would be members of the various minority groups in the United States?
Comprehensive Immigration Reform is nothing more than an attempted power grab by politicians who do not give a damn about anything or anyone but themselves and their quest for power.
Rep. Lamar Smith, the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee and former Chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee, demonstrates common sense and leadership borne of his concerns for the plight of the average American. He is quoted in the Times article linked above:
"With 15 million Americans out of work, it's hard to believe that anyone would give amnesty to 12 million illegal immigrants," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. "Even the open-borders crowd agrees that illegal immigrants take jobs from American workers, particularly poor and disadvantaged citizens and legal immigrants. This is exactly why we need to oppose amnesty."
Where illegal aliens and health care are concerned, all too many of our government representatives apparently favor a policy we have heard about before on another matter –"Don't ask: don't tell!"
A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a recognized authority who addresses the implications of immigration on national security and criminal justice.
Reader Comments: Submit Your Comment (3)
Readers wanting more of the truth can go to nafbpo.org, an organization of retired Border Patrol Agents.
This continuing issue of illegal migration into the United Sates has a seriously adverse impact on our country in a number of areas besides the economy; not the least of which are crime, prisons, social services, and education to name just a few. It's time to stop this attack on the American way of life!
The bill - CIR ASAP - even if watered down, would be terrible for the U.S. Millions of aliens already in the U.S. would be given amnesty, and millions more workers would be admitted at a time when about 15 million Americans are out of work. The the costs caused by the bill have yet to be estimated but will easily be in the hundreds of billion$$$. Millions more will be added to the country's population which is already outstripping resources.
Please look carefully at this bill and see if it's in the best interest of this country.
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