Update (6/23): Firefighters fired because they don’t speak Spanish…
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Thanks to Dennis Hastert’s hardball maneuver, it looks like President Bush’s amnesty-for-illegal-aliens bill is floating on the surface of the political pond like a putrid dead fish. Shame on all Republicans who voted for it.
Keep border and interior enforcement provisions and dump all provisions leading to citizenship for lawbreakers.
By the way, my first Examiner column is up. Check it out. This morning I walked to the corner news stand and grabbed a few hard copies. It looks so much better in print. The smell of the paper, the ink on my fingers…it was nostalgic! (Also see page 19 of the PDF)
I jumped off Bush’s “nation of laws, nation of immigrants” bandwagon and ran. In theory, we’re a nation of laws, but in practice — Read Part I and Part II of my column on the Herndon, Virginia, day labor center and other topics.
Related posts:
- Herndon’s Day Labor Center-Supporting Politicos Kicked to Curb
- Illegal Ingrates
- Secure Our Borders Campaign
(Image courtesy of Schoolhouse Rock)
Addendum: Ed Morrissey, fellow Blog Board of Contributors member, writes:
Americans have no real ethnic ties to bind them as a nation. This nation bound itself from the beginning on an ideal, one that we have frequently failed but always aspired to achieve: equal treatment under the law. At the time, the notion that a functioning state could survive without a monarch as at least a symbol of national unity seemed ludicrous, but the real challenge as we grew was the notion that disparate cultures could come together, cast off their allegiances to ethnicity and religion to be Americans first and foremost. The one binding cultural touchstone was the ideal of equal treatment under the law, and the laws that implemented it.
It therefore rankles and enrages when we have new immigrants come to this country, and in their very first steps on American soil disdain the laws that bind us as a culture.
(Emphasis added)
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Great column! And very appropriate too. I saw a news story last night on my local news with some “immigration activists” who are determined to push amnesty on us. They said, “we did it wrong the last time.” I suppose he meant the massive criminal marches that took place.
New tactics to push it on us are sure to come. Aided and abetted by those we put in power. Sickening.
Your 1st column on immigration was right on the money.
I’ve been thinking that all we really need is a bill which provides for a fraud-proof ID card. Then, simply enforce current law. No card = no work, no drivers license, no benefits of any kind other than those already provided by current law such as access to ER care. Everything would adjust. Corporate farms would use mechanized equipment. Wages would raise enough in those areas that need workers (that supposedly citizens won’t currently do) so that unemployment would virtually disappear. Mexico would be forced to take back and care for its citizens who would go home voluntarily or be deported under CURRENT law. End of story.
Fraud proof ID card? Do we really need “papers please?” I wondered what we would use and who would issue? I think if someone wanted to go that route, it should be a state issued ID. Show birth cert or naturalization papers and get your card. But that would hardly be tamper proof. How many fake IDs are there already?
Do you really want to force free American citizens to provide a body part sample or submit to retina or other scans to prove their identity? If we start there, where do we stop? Make it implanted into the body? Link the card to our bank accounts? Provide tracking so the government or some NGO can pinpoint our location – for our own safety of course – I believe I’ll pass on that.
We have enough IDs as it is. What’s to stop the government from adding other information to your file? Do you own a gun? Every time you get pulled over will it be at gunpoint, just because you could be carrying a gun? Are you in default on a loan? Oh, come with us down to the station…. You’re a churchgoer? Hmm, let’s search your premises for bigoted hate literature, that old family Bible.
Forget it. I’d rather leave things as they are. Stop illegals at the border, and deport those apprehended. I’d prefer spending money on that than some ID that could be used for all sorts of unintended uses.
#3 ScottG raises some compelling points about the national identity card. But he forgets to mention that your computer is loaded with cookies which feed huge data banks in the private sector. Your cell phone calls are easily monitored by anyone who cares to snoop. Soon, you will be carrying a GPS cell phone and we will know your whereabouts within a yard. Wi-Fi is like networking with everyone in the zone.
A little paranoia is healthy. But you talk on your cordless phone or cell phone and use your GPS and enjoy Wi-Fi because you choose to believe that every tree does not really have a boogie man hiding behind it.
A national identity card need not be a Nazi tattoo on the wrist. (Certainly shared information laws would have to be updated.) It could cut through the mess of air travel. It could be a great boon to solving the growing crisis in identity theft.
I give up my thumbprint a bazillion times a day by my simple actions. I can even log on with it. Where is the loss of freedom in its being part of my identity card?
The biggest problem I see would be that when you lose the card, you will end up sitting in a DMV type place for endless hours while the bureaucrats look at wedding pictures.
National ID card? Hey, let’s just skip all that and go for a global identity card. And the best way I can think of to make it fraud proof is to implant it, say on your forehead or your hand. Instead of using your vulnerable VISA, you could just wave your hand at the RFID reader. In fact, maybe you shouldn’t be able to buy or sell without it! Wow, would that cut down on fraud and ID theft and all kinds of illegal behavior. This is such a good idea, I wonder why nobody has thought of it before.
Heliotrope,
I can at least dump the cookies and I keep my cell off when I’m not using it. I don’t know if that would stop pinpointing my location or not but perhaps it does.
I think the things you bring up are possible, but who’s going to do the work it takes to monitor everyone? I’m not really concerned about it. I don’t do anything wrong, so why would the government or NGO waste time on me?
Well, OK I don’t do that much wrong….
Again, we already have identity cards so I’m not averse to the idea of one, but I prefer it to be issued by each state and it should have only the basic information needed, same as a driver license. Why would anyone need any other info for things such as air travel? If it has my picture why need a thumbprint. Both can be faked.
Lashawn there is another prison scandal involving AA guards down in Tallahassee.
mugshots: http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060622/BREAKINGNEWS/60622012
See: http://forums.tallahassee.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=kr-tallgennews&msg=1524.1&ctx=0
One of the things no one seems to be discussing is the ’silent victims’ of illegal immigration.
In order for an illegal immigrant to work in the USA, they need a ‘fake’ SS#. That fake card is sold to them by a criminal who is involved in identity theft.
For every illegal alien, there is some poor US citizen out there whose financial life has been totally screwed by this ‘hardworking’ illegal alien.
There are more victims here than just the taxpayers.
This alone is reason enough to never offer these criminals citizenship.
I support Bush on many things, but he is just flat wrong on illegal immigration. Enforcement of illegal immigration rules on employers has gone to ZERO on his watch.
Shame on you George. You wanna know why your approval ratings can’t get back above 40%. Bingo.
I know I’m going to be flagged as a traitor to civil liberties, but I am not averse to a microchip implanted say, in your hand. It could potentially smaller then a grain of rice. (especially if we put some money into the technology it) and it could be as minimalist or as complex as the law dictates. It could do anything from work as a bank card to a driver’s license. It could be used to locate a person, which on the face sounds like a police state, but how many crimes could be solved simply by setting up “zones” say 25 square miles each, and knowing only that a person is in that zone. It would be another brick on the stack against guilty people, and a way to completely exonerate the innocent in many cases. “Well look, Bill couldn’t have killed his wife, she was in zone 22352 and he was in 22344.” Hell, make it an zip code per zone. Then you wouldn’t even have to number them differently. How fast would lost people be found? It’s not like you could easily remove the chip to commit a crime and then reinsert it. It has the potential to be massively abused, but it could do a lot more good then it is likely to do harm.
Not only has this been asked and answered ad nauseum, but your comment is off-topic. I advise all new readers to spend some time reading older posts and columns before commenting. Forming a judgment about me is fine, but arm yourself with better information. – Admin
John, that microchip will stir up fears of “the mark of the beast”.
Shade, John,
See comment five.
Yeah Scott, I saw that, I wasn’t sure if it was sarcasm or not, so I went that path. As for the mark of the beast…yeah I dunno.
What kind of garbage is that? Firing ENGLISH speaking people in the US because they don’t speak Spanish?
Uh, people, this country was founded by English speakers. The people that move here should learn OUR language. Not vice versa.
I have been following you and read you quite a bit. I had taken a hiatus due to medical woes.
I am absolutely filled with peace in my heart and the surroundings of it due to your great articles regarding illegal aliens Shawn.
You may not remember me. My youngest son is in Homeland Security/Immigration.
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