Immigration, Amnesty, guest workers, and fences

Sorry for the long delay on blog posts. I was taking a much needed vacation up along the Au Sable river.

The major thing in the news lately has been immigration reform and possible amnesty. Apparently, a deal has been made between Ted Kennedy, John McCain, and President Bush.

The agribusiness wing of the GOP and the democrats both want an amnesty plan to make illegals citizens. Illegals are mostly from Mexico and for the most part, areas with large Mexican populations lean democrat. California is solidly democrat. Southern Texas is democrat. Arizona is much less republican than it was in Goldwater's time. Colorado is competitive, but Pueblo is democrat. The agribusiness gets cheap labor with a guest worker program. Bush has banked on this for his legacy and is a long time friend of permissive immigration policies.

Now, I have not seen a bill up in final format yet for a vote. I'll wait and see before it's in congress before I say yea or nay to it, but to say that my guard is up right now is a major league understatement. I never trusted Bush or McCain on immigration, and anything with Ted Kennedy's name on it is usually bad news. I wasn't a fan of No Child Left Behind, an am worried for another leftist boondoggle.

My concerns are as possible:

1. Where's the border security? We're asked to give up our freedoms with the Patriot Act, but very little has been done to control our borders. It is not just Mexican's who cross our border. Hezbollah terrorists have crossed our border. One found his way to Dearborn. Anything without major border control is unacceptable, on national security concerns alone.

2. Illegals need to go home first. This seems to be a real sticking point in negotiations. One thing I liked about the Pence compromise was this requirement. If this doesn't happen, I oppose it. We can not reward people for breaking the law. Reagan's amnesty was supposed to be a one time thing, and illegal immigration skyrocketed. If this isn't solved the right way, we'll have much more illegal immigration.

3. Any businesses hiring illegals need to get nailed. There's no supply without demand.

4. What's the "pathways" to citizenship. Will legal immigrants be pushed to the back of the bus? It's not easy to be a legal immigrant. It's much easier to sneak across the border.

For now, I'm waiting and seeing what the bill will be, and what's it voting form will be in the senate. Until there, it's not worth sounding the alarm except for us to all call our reps and make sure that there is not an amnesty plan.