Everyone's Favorite Immigration (Illegal Aliens)

[Artegal 1]

Pence Plan Would Send Illegal Immigrants Home

Morning Edition, July 7, 2006· Indiana Congressman Mike Pence ® talks with Lynn Neary about his proposal for immigration reform. His proposal would return illegal immigrants to their home countries before they could enter a guest worker program.

Immigration

Executive Summary: The Pence Plan: No Amnesty Immigration Reform

“The Border Integrity and Immigration Reform Act is a bill that is tough on border security and tough on employers who hire illegal aliens, but recognizes the need for a guest worker program that operates without amnesty and without growing into a huge new government bureaucracy.”

-Rep. Mike Pence

The Four-Step Solution: No Amnesty Immigration Reform

I see the solution as a four-step process:

1. Secure our border.

2. Make the decision, once and for all, to deny amnesty to people whose first act in the United States was a violation of the law.

3. Put in place a guest worker program, without amnesty, that will efficiently provide American employers with willing guest workers who come to America legally.

4. Enforce tough employer sanctions that ensure a full partnership between American business and the American government in the enforcement of our laws on immigration and guest workers.

. . . .

Step Three: Enact a no amnesty guest worker program using private-sector firms

Therefore, the solution is to set up a system that will encourage illegal aliens to self-deport and come back legally as guest workers. Private worker placement agencies that we could call “Ellis Island Centers” will be licensed by the federal government to match willing guest workers with jobs in America that employers cannot fill with American workers.

U.S. employers will engage the private agencies and request guest workers. In a matter of days, the private agencies will match guest workers with jobs, perform health screenings, fingerprinting, provide the appropriate information to the FBI and Homeland Security so that a background check can be performed and provide the guest worker with a visa granted by the State Department. The visa will be issued only outside of the United States.

The process that I just described to you will only take a matter of one week, or less. That is the beauty of the program. Speed is so important. No employer in America wants to lose employees for an extended amount of time. No worker who is earning money to feed and clothe a family can afford to be off the job for long.

But, an employer faced with a looming requirement to verify the legality of its employees and stiff fines for employing illegal aliens will be willing to use a quick system to obtain legal employees. And, an illegal alien currently employed in America will be willing to take a quick trip across the border to come back outside of the shadows and into a job where he does not fear a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Imagine for a moment asking millions of people to line up at the U.S. Consulate in Mexico City to obtain a visa to come to America and work as a guest worker. It would be a disaster. Now, imagine private companies competing against each other to process guest worker applicants and match the applicants with open jobs. Imagine the application of American business ingenuity to this process. That, my friends, is why this program will work.

My real problem is with Step Three. Turning over immigration to Private Firms. And Pence really believes that 20 million illegal aliens could be deported and reprocessed with a guest worker visa in just one week? Why does it still take 6 months or more for a immigrant spouse to get a visa--please fix the current system before we make some crazy outsourced HomeLand Security/Dept of State/SS Agency. Like Equifax, Transunion and Esperian don't control enough of our lives--they want these Private Ellis Islands to determine what's best for the nation and immigration. And what if a Multinational Corporation is also a contractor or owner of one of these Private Ellis Island agencies? Like this just smacks of so much wrong--conflicts of interest--tax evasion--fraud--privacy rights and sovereignty be damned.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

My real problem is with Step Three. Turning over immigration to Private Firms. And Pence really believes that 20 million illegal aliens could be deported and reprocessed with a guest worker visa in just one week? Why does it still take 6 months or more for a immigrant spouse to get a visa--please fix the current system before we make some crazy outsourced HomeLand Security/Dept of State/SS Agency.

The reason why the work visa under this scheme could be made available in a week i/o months would seem to be that private firms rather than the governement would run the process. The government is slow in anything it does. That ain't going to change. So, maybe the outsurcing would be the fix?

[peejay 327]

Yes...and I can remember when the US Border Patrol subcontracted background checks for Border Patrol Officer applicants to a private contractor. And...they had a Mexican illegal alien working as a Border Patrol Officer after supplying bogus documents. And...it wasn't discovered until said illegal alien border Patrol Officer was arrested for taking money from human smugglers to help other illegals to enter the USA in his patrol sector.

No...immigration issues should be run by the US government, not private contractors. No passing the buck on this one.

[rebeccajo 14]

I don't see how outsourcing the paperwork would speed up any visa that has to ultimately be approved by the government. Unless the government sectors off a portion of one of the current service centers for processing those petitions alone. Not unheard of BTW.

It's just grandstanding anyway. It sounds good to those voters who are opposed to amnesty. This guy must be up for re-election.

[gimygirl 0]

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Step Three: Enact a no amnesty guest worker program using private-sector firms

... the private agencies will ... provide the appropriate information to the FBI and Homeland Security so that a background check can be performed

And we all know how quick the FBI and DHS are with getting back on background checks. 1 week? Whatever.

I am not opposed to outsourcing, per se. However, the same things that make the government such a poor implementor also makes them poor at effectively overseeing and governing any outsourcing contract.

[I'm Gone 60]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0706/p09s01-coop.htm

How Eisenhower solved illegal border crossings from Mexico

Fifty-three years ago, when newly elected Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House, America's southern frontier was as porous as a spaghetti sieve. As many as 3 million illegal migrants had walked and waded northward over a period of several years for jobs in California, Arizona, Texas, and points beyond.

President Eisenhower cut off this illegal traffic. He did it quickly and decisively with only 1,075 United States Border Patrol agents - less than one-tenth of today's force. The operation is still highly praised among veterans of the Border Patrol.

Walt Edwards, who joined the Border Patrol in 1951, tells a similar story. He says: "When we caught illegal aliens on farms and ranches, the farmer or rancher would often call and complain [to officials in El Paso]. And depending on how politically connected they were, there would be political intervention. That is how we got into this mess we are in now."

Bill Chambers, who worked for a combined 33 years for the Border Patrol and the then-called US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), says politically powerful people are still fueling the flow of illegals.

During the 1950s, however, this "Good Old Boy" system changed under Eisenhower - if only for about 10 years.

In 1954, Ike appointed retired Gen. Joseph "Jumpin' Joe" Swing, a former West Point classmate and veteran of the 101st Airborne, as the new INS commissioner.

Influential politicians, including Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D) of Texas and Sen. Pat McCarran (D) of Nevada, favored open borders, and were dead set against strong border enforcement, Brownell said. But General Swing's close connections to the president shielded him - and the Border Patrol - from meddling by powerful political and corporate interests.

One of Swing's first decisive acts was to transfer certain entrenched immigration officials out of the border area to other regions of the country where their political connections with people such as Senator Johnson would have no effect.

Then on June 17, 1954, what was called "Operation Wetback" began. Because political resistance was lower in California and Arizona, the roundup of aliens began there. Some 750 agents swept northward through agricultural areas with a goal of 1,000 apprehensions a day. By the end of July, over 50,000 aliens were caught in the two states. Another 488,000, fearing arrest, had fled the country.

By mid-July, the crackdown extended northward into Utah, Nevada, and Idaho, and eastward to Texas.

By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and an estimated 500,000 to 700,000 illegals had left the Lone Star State voluntarily.

Unlike today, Mexicans caught in the roundup were not simply released at the border, where they could easily reenter the US. To discourage their return, Swing arranged for buses and trains to take many aliens deep within Mexico before being set free.

Tens of thousands more were put aboard two hired ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio. The ships ferried the aliens from Port Isabel, Texas, to Vera Cruz, Mexico, more than 500 miles south.

The sea voyage was "a rough trip, and they did not like it," says Don Coppock, who worked his way up from Border Patrolman in 1941 to eventually head the Border Patrol from 1960 to 1973.

Mr. Coppock says he "cannot understand why [President] Bush let [today's] problem get away from him as it has. I guess it was his compassionate conservatism, and trying to please [Mexican President] Vincente Fox."

There are now said to be 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the US. Of the Mexicans who live here, an estimated 85 percent are here illegally.

Border Patrol vets offer tips on curbing illegal immigration

One day in 1954, Border Patrol agent Walt Edwards picked up a newspaper in Big Spring, Texas, and saw some startling news. The government was launching an all-out drive to oust illegal aliens from the United States.

The orders came straight from the top, where the new president, Dwight Eisenhower, had put a former West Point classmate, Gen. Joseph Swing, in charge of immigration enforcement.

General Swing's fast-moving campaign soon secured America's borders - an accomplishment no other president has since equaled. Illegal migration had dropped 95 percent by the late 1950s.

Several retired Border Patrol agents who took part in the 1950s effort, including Mr. Edwards, say much of what Swing did could be repeated today.

"Some say we cannot send 12 million illegals now in the United States back where they came from. Of course we can!" Edwards says.

Donald Coppock, who headed the Patrol from 1960 to 1973, says that if Swing and Ike were still running immigration enforcement, "they'd be on top of this in a minute."

William Chambers, another '50s veteran, agrees. "They could do a pretty good job" sealing the border.

Edwards says: "When we start enforcing the law, these various businesses are, on their own, going to replace their [illegal] workforce with a legal workforce."

While Congress debates building a fence on the border, these veterans say other actions should have higher priority.

1. End the current practice of taking captured Mexican aliens to the border and releasing them. Instead, deport them deep into Mexico, where return to the US would be more costly.

2. Crack down hard on employers who hire illegals. Without jobs, the aliens won't come.

3. End "catch and release" for non-Mexican aliens. It is common for illegal migrants not from Mexico to be set free after their arrest if they promise to appear later before a judge. Few show up.

The Patrol veterans say enforcement could also be aided by a legalized guest- worker program that permits Mexicans to register in their country for temporary jobs in the US. Eisenhower's team ran such a program. It permitted up to 400,000 Mexicans a year to enter the US for various agriculture jobs that lasted for 12 to 52 weeks.

[peejay 327]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0706/p09s01-coop.htm

How Eisenhower solved illegal border crossings from Mexico

Fifty-three years ago, when newly elected Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House, America's southern frontier was as porous as a spaghetti sieve.

Excellent post MDYoung. I read this yesterday online. As for me...I could care less whether Eisenhower was a Republican or a Democrat. He got results and returned credibility to our border and our enforcement of our laws.

We already proved that the 1986 amnesty was a dismal failure, but the US Senate has proposed 20 years later in 2006 the exact same approach as a solution. And Teddy Kennedy was ramrodding the agenda back in 1986 too. I could care less whether he is a Republican or a Democrat. There were and are plenty from both parties that signed on to this policy failure in 1986 and in 2006.

Look at proposed Senate legislation S.2611 and the House's H.R.4437. S.2611 is almost an exact copy of the failed 1986 illegal alien amnesty that rewarded millions of illegal aliens with permanent residency with vague promises of future enforcement that never materialized.

H.R.4437 is pretty close to what Eisenhower did, but does not have "temporary" guest worker provisions.

What works and what doesn't work? Amnesty doesn't work and enforcement works.

Eisenhower and H.R.4437 works. That is why the illegal aliens, the Mexican government, and the US Chamber of Commerce hate H.R.4437! It is time for law and order instead of corruption and anarchy.

[I'm Gone 60]

http://tinyurl.com/n8un5

Bloomberg: N.Y. Too Corrupt to Function Without Illegals

by Mac Johnson

Posted Jul 11, 2006

Michael Bloomberg is the Barney Fife who ended up in charge of New York City when the lovable Sheriff Giuliani retired. And last week, he went and shot off his one bullet during a Senate hearing on amnesty for illegal aliens. Essentially, he said that the Big Apple is rotten to the core. So rotten, in fact, that if we ever began seriously enforcing our immigration laws, the city that claims to be America’s greatest would collapse and die.

I’m not sure what was more ridiculous, Barney Bloomberg’s Chicken Little moment in defense of the corrupt underground economy, or just the fact that the Senate was staging hearings on amnesty at all. For the Senate to hold hearings now, after they’ve already passed the most sweeping amnesty bill in U.S. history, is a little like a court, after pronouncing the verdict, deciding to have a little trial --you know, just so the peasants stop whining about the fix being in.

Regarding the estimated 500,000 illegal aliens that have stowed away inside the city that never checks immigration status, Mayor Fife stated that:

"Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders ... our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported.” Adding ominously, "The same holds true for the nation."

Oh, thank God, they got here just in time. If they hadn’t been willing to break the law, who knows what horrors could have befallen the poor helpless United States? I mean, Bloomberg himself might have had to eat buffet style for lack of little foreign servants to wait upon him. And only Allah knows who might drive the cabs (or the Ryder trucks).

As far as I know, only one part of New York City has ever actually “collapsed,” and seeing as several of the 19 hijackers involved in making that happen were illegal aliens, it was not a lack of “undocumented workers” that caused the collapse.

Since Deputy Bloomberg seems incapable of considering anything other than economics in the immigration debate, let’s examine a few numbers, just to estimate what a repeat of a large terrorist attack could cost New York City. According to a report commissioned by the New York Senate after 9/11, the attacks of that day were estimated to cost New York $105 billion dollars in damage, lost taxes, lost jobs and lost businesses. That works out to $210,000 for every illegal alien in New York City. At that rate, I don’t know how much more cheap labor we can afford. That would buy a lot of legal busboys, Barney.

The al Qaeda operatives who were foiled in their plot to blow up New York’s subway tunnels last week must love the sort of institutionalized corruption that has taken hold within much of America’s ruling class -- a corruption that has fostered the “sanctuary city” policy of asking no questions, of ignoring the fake Social Security numbers, the fake IDs, and the illegal driver’s licenses. They must love the large community outside the law that will not co-operate with police, the supporting networks of human smugglers and forgers, and the cash-only, off-the-books jobs beyond the ability of the IRS, ICE or FBI to monitor.

What good is a “watch list” when the man on it lives in an apartment in someone else’s name, working for cash in a back room, among a community that hides all, in a city that tells its cops to ask no questions -- lest the price of hors d’oeuvres go up 3%?

But wait, there’s more! Mayor Fife also threw in this nugget regarding the ability of the United States to control its own destiny regarding illegal immigration:

"No wall or army can stop hundreds of thousands of people each year."

And that would be especially true if Bloomberg were in charge of the Army. That man has the sort of “can-do” spirit that New York needs in a mayor! If only Mayor Bloomberg had been in charge of stopping the Axis in World War II, those German classes I took in college might never have been necessary. Rudy Giuliani was “America’s Mayor.” Bloomberg seems set on being “Latin America’s Mayor.” Oh well, to each according to his abilities, I guess.

Lastly, I would like to address a moral issue inherent in Bloomberg’s statement that our immigration laws must not be enforced too vigorously for fear that it could hurt some businesses: Perhaps some businesses should be hurt by law enforcement -say, those that make their profits by breaking the law. And if an entire city is dependent upon such businesses, then perhaps it should be hurt too.

The illegal alien employer has no more right to have his profits protected from law enforcement than does the tax cheat, the thief, the con man, or the bribe giver. These things are illegal, and if you make your money by means of them, it is in society’s best interest to harm your business.

And if that means some cities are hurt more than others … so be it. The more honest ones will finally benefit from their honesty.

[peejay 327]

http://tinyurl.com/n8un5

Bloomberg: N.Y. Too Corrupt to Function Without Illegals

by Mac Johnson

Posted Jul 11, 2006

Regarding the estimated 500,000 illegal aliens that have stowed away inside the city that never checks immigration status, Mayor Fife stated that:

"Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders ... our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported.” Adding ominously, "The same holds true for the nation."

Oh, thank God, they got here just in time. If they hadn’t been willing to break the law, who knows what horrors could have befallen the poor helpless United States? I mean, Bloomberg himself might have had to eat buffet style for lack of little foreign servants to wait upon him. And only Allah knows who might drive the cabs (or the Ryder trucks).

As far as I know, only one part of New York City has ever actually “collapsed,” and seeing as several of the 19 hijackers involved in making that happen were illegal aliens, it was not a lack of “undocumented workers” that caused the collapse.

Another great post MDYoung. The entire article is on target. If businesses cannot survive on cheap exploitable illegal labor subsidized by the taxpayer then maybe these businesses should be extinct. I sure don't see the priviledged classes from both parties lamenting the outsourcing and offshoring middle class jobs. Glad to know that Bloomberg is worried about illegal aliens and the crooks that employ them. I know who I won't vote for if his name ever comes up in my voting booth!

[Artegal 1]

The argument that businesses cannot survive without cheap labor--that argument was already made. By southern plantation slave owners, yeah the south could not survive without cheap labor. And now the pence plane and those like Bloomberg want to continue the modern day slavery of illegal immigrant workers (or simply undocumented) and therefore untaxable, unrepresented, unarbitrational in collective bargaining, or un-owning of labor rights. Its a weak argument--its an argument that failed to justify slavery and it should not be used to justify the wholesale importation of substitute slave labor. And this idea of private Ellis Island centers that will import the migrant workers in to the USA---reminds me of the private companies that imported in indentured servants and then eventually african slaves--Private Ellis Islands or slave auctions.

Edited July 24, 2006 by Artegal

[iceyspots 0]

too late.. the can of worms is open

[pedroh 21]

so thats where the word wetback came from?

[pedroh 21]

a racial slur invented by US Government.. lawl

and lol oh surprise eisenhower was a closet racist lawlawl..

While Eisenhower professed that he would obey the Brown decision, he privately defended the racism of Southern whites, telling Warren that they "are not bad people. All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negro."

[Marc and Olga 0]

I tend to agree that there should be much more enforcement of the current laws, why the heck did I have to file an I-9? Oh yeah to prove I could legally work in the US!

And Pedroh, hate to break it to you but in the 1950s, racism towards african-americans was status quo, it was the 1960s when racism towards the african americans started to be looked down upon. Also, while I realize your sig is mostly intended as humor, this part bugs me "I DONT SUPPORT illegal actions" as you obviously do condone illegal actions as long as they are commited by MEXICANS.