Dangerous Divide, the reformation of an immigration bill

For those in Washington it’s déjà vu all over again.  Massive twelve-hundred page bill full of handouts to special interests?  Check.  Members of Congress voting on another massive bill that will bring sweeping change to our country without actually reading it?  Checkmate.

Throw in some good intentions, mix in the typical money grab, toss in some politicians playing to their base, and you have the immigration bill currently navigating its way through Congress to inevitably become law.  President Obama will claim yet another major victory, while the real issues centering on immigration reform, aren’t really addressed.  Reform is needed.   Unfortunately reform before security, or a real plan to legalize those here illegally.

So what’s wrong with the bill?  Quite a bit.                    

The bill puts amnesty ahead of security: Amnesty is an idea that makes sense.  Let’s grant citizenship to those already here provided they haven’t committed crimes and will be solid members of society.  The key to granting amnesty to those already here is ensuring that the flood of those entering illegally is restricted.  Unfortunately the spirit of getting the bill passed is running into the reality of extending the fence.  The government’s inability to effectively complete the border fence, taking seven years to complete a fourteen mile section outside San Diego, is another reminder of the inefficiency of our bloated government bureaucracy.  As a result we get an amnesty bill and the eventual flood of more illegal’s looking to get amnesty, effectively not address the problem of illegal immigration that amnesty was intended to correct.  With the issue needing to be addressed now we simply don’t have time to build a larger and longer border fence.

Giving those here illegally amnesty just encourages more law-breaking behavior:  It’s a constant refrain, but true: instead of making new laws why don’t we just enforce the ones we have?  The current immigration bill is yet another example of creating new laws because we don’t want to enforce the ones we already have.  For this reason it’s laughable to believe that we’ll enforce this new bill.  Whether you agree with the specifics of the bill or not, the spirit of reforming immigration makes sense— the odds of the bill actually being enacted and enforced properly are far-fetched.  The refusal to enforce existing laws on the books extends to the fact that the current Senate bill actually prevents police officers from arresting anyone based on the fact that they are here illegally.

The bill essentially declares years of protection for illegal aliens, even if they don’t qualify for the amnesty program:  The Senate bill declares that illegal aliens can’t be detained, deported or removed until their applications are fully ruled on, unless they commit a criminal act.  With the resulting mound of applications this essentially guarantees years of protection while the slow process of amnesty is played out.

So what we essentially have is a bill full of the typical ineffective loopholes, no interest in actually restricting the flow of new illegal aliens and no interest in enforcing the new law or the laws already in place.  The result will be millions of new citizens who essentially are able to bypass the traditional citizenship process but no stop in the flow of others crossing the border.