Saturday, May 01, 2010

Immigration Reform Begins

The question of amnesty in immigration reform is on the table yet again, and again it poses the question of what the long term effect will be if we implement it with it’s new label, calling it a “path to citizenship” this time.

The concern in 1986 was that if we granted amnesty to the 3 million undocumented workers, whom we called “illegal aliens” in those days, that such a move would actually worsen the problem since more people would cross the border illegally in hopes of future amnesty. We solved that by saying that this was a “one time deal.” This act provided the only amnesty that was ever going to be granted. “If you are coming based on the hope of future amnesty,” we said, “don’t, because we are never going to do it again.”

That worked well, didn’t it; we now have, according to most counts, some 12 million undocumented workers. (I wonder if the people who have lost their jobs due to the recession are still “undocumented workers.”) Nobody believed that it was a “one time deal” in 1986 or the years following and we are now, of course, proving them correct.

Okay, but, “This time we really mean it.” Right.

My point is not the amnesty itself, my point is the inability of our lawmakers to see their own hands in front of their noses. I’m surprised these clowns are able to walk around the halls of Congress without repeatedly running into walls. Everybody knew in 1986 what was going to happen except those clowns who passed the law, who were able to kid themselves that what they were doing was going to work based of some half-baked foolish argument that they cooked up purely for the purpose of convincing themselves that they didn’t need to sit down and write a law that actually made sense.

Now, in order to avoid dealing with border enforcement, employment enforcement and amnesty, Congress is addressing “immigration reform” in the form of a piece of plastic that will take six years to implement and will be about as effective as the 1986 amnesty was. Something like putting screen doors in submarines.

They started out stupid and are actually getting stupider.

3 comments:

  1. bruce9:07 AM

    what do you expect ? this is nothing new.
    they pass a lot of stuff without thinking of the long term effects
    or the good stuff not quickly enough
    or the "feel good" stuff that means nothing
    or the good stuff watered down so much it's like kool-aid
    or the stuff that that's just bad and stinks like BS
    or the "people are stupid so we have to protect them from themselves"

    gack... no wonder people have a low opinion of Congress. But... the voters do nothing about that, either. perhaps we do get what we deserve.

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  2. I actually hate the term "we get what we deserve," but your point is well made in that we do elect them, and we keep reelecting them. Still, these people are just awful, and I don't think anybody actually "deserves" them. It is, admittedly, a bit of a semantic argument.

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  3. But you're a blogger, and deal with semantics. Actually, come to think about it, you frequently refute and caution against hyperbole and omissions and misrepresentations of facts. That is not semantics.

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