Scott: This is the sort of brain dead legalism that often makes me sad to be a rightwing republican. I like this lady's writing. EVERY WORD SHE SAYS IS TRUE. What is missing is any connect with the planet Earth.
1. Whatever should have been done in 70's, 80's, 90's we have worked with a modified open borders system - once you were here we did squat about and did less with each half decade to the point where by law and regulation most of US state and local governments treat illegals as de facto citizens. Now one CAN argue that this was really dumb and has had bad consequences. However this is the pro-abortion argument. Now that she is pregnant I repent of boinking her so cut it out and lets pretend it all never happened. Sorry. Doesn't work that way. There are 10-13 million illegals here. Lady doesn't address dealing with the current situation.
2. Most of these illegals are from Mexico and most of the rest are from Central America and Carib islands. Surprise. It does matter to the national security of the US that these nations not implode and that anti-US populism not be the dominant political discourse in these polities. We can change many things but geography isn't one of them.
3. The current situation is simply not sustainable. There are too many illegals. Too many of their relatives and children are citizens. They have too many ties in too many communities. Forget for a moment how we made this mess. Separate issue. Even O'Reilly admits that we are NOT going to deport 13 million people. DUH. Imagine finding courtrooms to try 13 million people. Imagine the drganets to even round them up. Imagine the indignation when a percentage turn out to be citizens - as a culture we have lost our ability to shrug and go shit happens. Yes we shouldn't have made this mess. Yes it would be nice to think that we won't make it again. However the same constellation of interests on the left AND right AND the corporate lobbies show ZERO sign of climbing off their hobby horses to do a deal. Yes, that may happen further down the road as Bush's proposals do not become law without mamouth bargaining in Congress. However I see zero sign of sanity on any side.
4. However while Bush had to do something he did it all wrong. Usual moralism and display of short term political advantage. We need a national bargain on this trading some legality for many of these people for steps that will keep it from happening again. We also don't need to be this nice to any nation except Mexico and to a lesser extent the Carib-Centam block. We should be trading these concessions for things we need from these nations instead of treating this as a purely domestic and ideological issue. Oh well. Joshua and I will survive the debacle. Have fun those of you who are younger as this solves as little as the Reagan Amnesty
Bush's amnesty plan
By Michelle Malkin
My 8-week-old son's Social Security card recently arrived in the mail. On the back, there's a stern warning: "Improper use of this card or number by anyone is punishable by fine, imprisonment or both."
Welcome to the world of government theft and selective enforcement, my boy.
While innocent babes who have yet to earn a penny are threatened with jail time for misusing Social Security cards, the Bush administration appears set this week to turn the ailing government pension program into an international relief fund for illegal alien workers who used counterfeit Social Security cards and stolen numbers to secure illegal jobs.
Unlike the bedtime stories I tell at night, I am not making this up.
This belated gift to the open-borders lobby and Mexican President Vicente Fox is part of a larger amnesty plan that has been in the works since before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. So, why exactly are we rewarding a country that has been obstinately opposed to the War on Terror? Go ask Mr. Brilliant, Karl Rove. This I do know: It couldn't have come at a worse time from either a fiscal or national security standpoint.
According to Rep. Clay Shaw, Florida Republican, chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security, benefits paid to retirees will exceed revenues in just 15 years. The pay-as-you-go system could go belly-up as early as 2030.
These projections don't take into account the economic impact of the Bush proposal, which would allow untold millions of illegal aliens from Mexico to collect full U.S. cash benefits for themselves and their families from their home country — without having to work the required number of years that law-abiding American citizens must work to be eligible for payouts.
Reporter Joel Mowbray, who first exposed this treachery a year ago, noted that this raw deal may well cost overburdened U.S. taxpayers $345 billion over the next 20 years. Probably much more. As we know from experience, Social Security projections are notoriously off the mark.
The bureaucrats call this scheme "totalization." Try total prostration. The proposed agreement is nothing more than a transfer of wealth from those who play by the rules to those who willingly and knowingly mock our own immigration and tax laws. What are we doing promising lifetime Social Security paychecks to day laborers in Juarez when we can't even guarantee those benefits to workers here at home?
Unbelievably, the White House is trying to convince us to embrace this global ripoff because it "rewards work." No, it rewards criminal behavior. The plan will siphon off the hard-earned tax dollars of American workers who may never see a dime of their confiscated earnings and fork it over to foreigners guilty of at least four acts of federal lawbreaking: crossing the border illegally, working illegally, engaging in tax fraud and using bogus documents.
Giving money to scam artists will simply result in more fraud — not only by Mexican agricultural workers, but also by Middle Easterners such as Youssef Hmimssa, who provided fake Social Security numbers and fraudulent drivers' licenses to members of an accused terrorist cell in Detroit. "If you have the right connection, you can get anything," he testified before the Senate last fall.
The door is now open for all illegal aliens to collect retirement benefits using bogus Social Security cards. What's next — survivors' benefits for the families of the 19 hijackers of September 11, 2001?
Michelle Malkin is a nationally syndicated columnist and the author of "Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores" (Regnery).
posted by scott 5:30 AM