Progress On All Immigration Fronts
September 28th, 2007 by 
Kevin
Things are starting to look up on the immigration scene.
As I\’ve stated earlier, Harry Reid has agreed to drop the attempt to attach the DREAM Act to the defense bill. Too many Republicans objected to the fact that it was non-germane. Plus alot of Senators were starting to feel the same heat they got from the last attempt at amnesty and weren\’t willing to relive that nightmare.
However, Harry Reid and Dick Durbin have sworn to make another attempt by November 16th, so it\’s not over yet, but the likelihood that it will move forward has diminished quite a bit. Attaching it to a \”must pass\” bill was a fairly good move, but not good enough. They\’ve tried passing this as a standalone bill before and failed multiple times. So look for them to try to sneak it into another important bill.
Probably, the best news is that exactly what I predicted would happen is starting to happen!
Illegal immigrants living in states and cities that have adopted strict immigration policies are packing up and moving back to their home countries or to neighboring states.
Even with an incompetent Michael Chertoff in charge, and half-assed efforts by this administration, illegals are starting to self-deport. Keep in mind, this is without a fence, without employer sanctions, and without federal agencies sharing illegal status information. Imagine how quickly and efficiently this problem would be solved if we could accomplish those?
Instead, a few states have grown a background and removed the incentives for illegal aliens. And imagine that….suddenly illegal aliens aren\’t clamoring to break the law and come there. Not only that, they are moving back on their own initiative and on their own dime.
This should serve as a wakeup call to our federal government. That this issue will largely go away if they do their job and enforce the laws already on the books. There is no need for an amnesty, even for those aliens already here. Because if we remove the incentives, they will self-deport and return to their home country, where if they apply legally, we will be more than happy to receive them.
[Cross-posted at True North]
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3 Comments »
September 28th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Well, that’s certainly good news, but we still have the AgJobs thing to contend with, right? I just don’t know what these people in Congress are thinking! Maybe that’s not a proper question?
As for the “self deportation” thing, I think you’ve got a bit of Dream Act going on yourself. Or else I don’t understand the nature of illegal immigration. It has always been my assumption that these people are desparately poor, coming across the border in dire hardship to make a better life and a better living. They would never voluntarily return, because it would be a death sentence for them. Moving to other states, sure, that I can undetstand, but a federal crackdown would then create a humanitarian crisis, particularly for those who have been here many years and have nothing to go back to, and those who were born here are already “back.”
It’s highly unfortunate that we do not even know enough about these border-jumpers to know if they are just opportunists who COULD survive “back home” or if they are truly last-gasp refugees. Maybe that’s why I have a lot more sympathy for those who have been here a long time, because they would have nothing to return to.
September 29th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Considering that many of the border crossers are paying coyotes thousands to get them across the border, I suspect that the number that are “desperately poor” is smaller than they’d like us to think. But it makes for a good story for sympathy points
Plus consider how much cash illegals send back home. I don’t have the figures on me at the moment and no time to look them up, but it’s a massive sum.
September 30th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Exactly. The trick is translating those clues into a realistic answer as to how many is “many”?
For instance, if you pay a coyote %500, how much do you have left if you get deported? Of all the money you sent home, how long can you live if you have to go back? And what percentage of people CAN’T go back because they had nothing, or because they’ve been here so long there’s nothing left? I’m all for putting a stop to the illegality, but I’m not going to impose the death penalty on people. That’s why I like the suggestion abouts about “touchback” provisions. Those in the category you describe can afford to go back “home,” at least briefly, and come back in legally.