What is it going to take for us to get meaningful immigration reform that keeps millions of illegal aliens from entering our country?

To me, that’s the biggest question of all. We need to keep them from entering the country first and foremost to stem the tide.

After that we need to start rounding up as many illegals as we can find and deport them to their country of origin. We need to enforce existing immigration laws that forbid employers from hiring illegal aliens. We need to stop figuring out ways to give these people drivers’ licenses. We need to stop providing free social services to them, and they should never collect one cent of Social Security benefits earned while they were here illegally.

Full disclosure: My niece’s father is Mexican and I don’t know if he’s legal or illegal, but my sister is an American and raised their daughter herself.

If a child is born to illegals in this country that child is an American according to the law. He should remain an American but the parents should be given the choice of returning to their home country alone and our country provides foster care for the child, or they can take the child with them and the child can come back here to live when he or she is 18 years old.

That would be ideal to me, but I’m not the president and I’m not Congress and they are the ones who have to wrestle with this problem, all the while calculating how many votes they can get if they can get the right to vote for these illegals.

Yesterday President Bush was in Arizona, checking out an area he checked last June and telling us of his latest plan to help resolve this problem that has been in the making longer than the years he and Clinton were both in office, but somehow it fell on his shoulders as though it were something caused by him.

“Securing the border is a critical part of a strategy for comprehensive immigration reform. It is an important part of a reform that is necessary so that the Border Patrol agents down here can do their job more effectively,” the president said.

Despite frosty relations with the Democrat-controlled Congress, Mr. Bush urged lawmakers to move forward with his five-point plan, the centerpiece of which is a guest-worker program that would give the estimated 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the United States legal status and a path to citizenship.

“Congress is going take up the legislation on immigration. It is a matter of national interest, and it’s a matter of deep conviction for me. I’ve been working to bring Republicans and Democrats together to resolve outstanding issues so that Congress can pass a comprehensive bill and I can sign it into law this year,” he said to applause.

After running into fierce opposition from his own party — which failed to pass the legislation when it controlled both chambers of Congress — the White House has overhauled its immigration reform plan. A draft sent out to advocacy groups and top Republican lawmakers calls for work visas to be granted to illegals but would require hefty fines and that they leave the U.S. briefly. They could then apply for three-year work visas, dubbed “Z” visas, which would be renewable indefinitely but cost $3,500 each time, and would eventually be able to apply for citizenship.

The revealed plan prompted thousands of demonstrators to take to the streets of Los Angeles on Saturday in protest.

The president’s trip yesterday was targeted at members of his own party, who have opposed his guest-worker program. He was joined by Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, whose support is key to any deal in Congress.

See full story.

The Democrats who run Congress now believe they were put in with a mandate to stop the war in Iraq and that probably was the number one priority of most of their voters.

What they, and a lot of people, fail to recognize is many conservative Republicans stayed away from the polls in droves last November over the illegal immigration issue.

We had at least one blog have a complete melt-down and fire all the bloggers because they didn’t toe the line of the owner, who never blogs except about illegal immigration and only because he’s a legal immigrant.

So these people who stay away from the polls really showed them, didn’t they? They’re the same ones doing the loudest howling about what’s going on in the congress they helped elect by their own inaction and temper tantrums. They wanted all or nothing, just as Arafat wanted all or nothing. They turned down a good percentage of what they wanted because they couldn’t get it all just as Arafat turned down 90% of what he demanded because he couldn’t get 100%.

I’m not now and never have been a single issue voter. I look at the platforms and the stands taken by the candidates for any office and go for the one I think best serves the interests of what concerns me the most, and right now homeland security is the most important issue to me, and that includes immigration reform. That does not mean, though, that I will stay away if a candidate disagrees with me on that issue but generally agrees with me on everything else.

I repeat: This was not caused by President Bush and yet he has been the one unfairly charged with the whole mess. He’s not the one who passes legislation, people. He just signs it into law or he vetoes it. It’s been that way for over 200 years now, so it should come as no surprise to anyone how our system works.

I may sound harsh in my ideal circumstances scenario, and it’s probably unrealistic to think it could all be done, but a journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step.

I’m ready to back the president on his current immigration stand.

Now it’s time for Congress to quit playing the gotcha game and start passing some meaningful legislation.

Also blogging on this: Captains Quarters

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One Response to “Immigration Reform”

1. Shawn says:

   April 10, 2007 at 12:16 pm

   Great point! We need to stem the tide of illegals flowing into this country first. Only after that can we discuss what to do with the 12+ million illegal immigrants that are already here.