The Anti-Weasel Checklist: Notes on Understanding Immigration Issues

Mike Scruggs

We have a new and more Republican Congress, but will it be a more conservative and wiser Congress as the people have obviously mandated.  Two great nation-destroying dangers confront the nation. First, is the unconstitutional usurpation of immigration policy by President Obama. Second will be the tendency of many Republican leaders in Congress to place special interest donors and acclaim by the powerful liberal media above the common good, which could lead to disastrous an eventually nation-destroying compromises in immigration policy.

How do we cut through the platitudes, bromides, weasel words, and issue-avoidance dances to identify political leaders and candidates who are informed, intelligent, and courageous enough to fight for immigration policies that will best serve the American people and preserve our heritage of liberty? Based on more than twelve years of study and writing on immigration, I have prepared a brief anti-weasel checklist that also sorts out the uninformed and misinformed

Securing our borders is necessary but not sufficient to stop illegal immigration.

Almost every political candidate, no matter how liberal or out-and-out Marxist, says they will enforce border security.  Hence addressing border security alone is a common way of dancing around important immigration issues without really saying anything. Despite everybody saying they are for border security, nothing ever really gets done.  If the candidate only addresses border security, he or she is either hiding a liberal position or is not well enough informed to be elected to or remain in high public office.

Most illegal immigrants do not sneak across the border. Almost half simply violate their work, tourist, or student visas and become illegal. A common method of illegal entry is to come as a legal agricultural guest worker and then skip out to take a higher paying construction job. Good candidates for public office should be willing to support a system of monitoring visas and enforcing the law against those who have violated our trust

The most effective way to stop illegal immigration is to turn off the employment magnet by enforcing immigration law at the workplace.

If the magnet is turned off, few will come, and most of those here will go home on their own ticket. If you want real reform, do not vote for candidates who do not clearly support workplace enforcement and programs like E-Verify to screen out illegal work applicants.

Our present national E-Verify law is weak. It needs to be strengthened and guarded from debilitating amendments favorable to cheap labor special interests. Better yet, we need a new, strong national E-Verify law.  Some state E-Verify laws, e. g. Georgia, have proved very effective.

The original Federal E-Verify legislation was so weakened by amendments to please special interest political donors that many consider it semi-useless. North Carolina recently weakened its

E-Verify law to benefit special interests. Some state legislatures, heavily influenced by special interests, have gone so far as to issue driver permits to known illegal immigrants. The Oregon legislature passed such a bill, but the people demanded a referendum, and on November 4, the people defeated the Oregon legislature’s Measure 88 by 64 to 36 percent. Even the people of liberal states are getting fed up with lawmakers encouraging illegal immigration.

Watch out for amnesties that politicians refuse to call amnesties because of some gimmick or subterfuge.

 Should small fines and paying back a portion of unpaid taxes  make up for years of robbing American workers, honest employers, and taxpayers of their daily bread! Are people who have committed forgery, fraud, identity theft, and tax evasion really good candidates for American citizenship? Amnesty for ten to twenty million illegal immigrants would probably be the end of a once-great American Republic and a triumph for greed, corruption, and totalitarian socialist government.

Solving the illegal immigration problem is not just a matter of balancing law and compassion for ten to twenty million illegal immigrants.

What about the millions of American workers they have displaced?  What about their families? What about the 130 million U. S. workers whose real wages have been depressed by our failure to put our own people ahead of cheap labor profits? What about the crime victims?  Yes, we are importing higher crime rates! What about taxpayers? Does being a taxpayer make you fair game for continuous robbery? Where is compassion for law-abiding Americans who are suffering because of illegal immigration?

Watch out for those who say we have no choice but amnesty. This is a false dilemma and disingenuous nonsense.

They disingenuously raise the specter of rounding up millions of people and shipping them out in railroad boxcars. This is a false dilemma. Simply applying immigration enforcement at the workplace would reduce illegal immigration to pre-1986 levels within months, and in a few years most of those already here would pack up and go home at their own expense. The relatively small remainder could be cleaned up with consistently applied normal enforcement over a number of years.

Beware of analytically defective or disingenuous special interest economics.

Importing poverty does not increase national per capita wealth. Importing predominantly unskilled labor does not increase per capita wealth. Displacing American workers with illegal immigrants is not job creation.  For immigration to be positive, it usually has to raise the average skill and brainpower of a nation. New technology requires more skills and brainpower. That leaves less genuine need for unskilled labor.

However, don’t buy into attaching a green card to every science degree.

Because a naïve Congress has allowed U.S. companies to hire excessive foreign Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) graduates and workers, our own graduates and experienced science workers over 40 are having a tough time finding jobs in their fields. Highly qualified engineering graduates are waiting restaurant tables. U.S. engineering and science schools are the best in the world. What’s going on is not hiring the best and the brightest; it is hiring cheaper and younger foreign labor and getting a big boost to the next quarterly earnings per share report. American workers and their families are hurt. Their future opportunities are hurt, and America’s future will be severely damaged.

Beware of the common analytical error that making illegal immigrants legal benefits the economy.

The pubic cost of illegal immigrants does not go down just because they are legalized, nor does their tax contribution increase significantly. Because they are eligible for more benefits, the public burden increases significantly. See the Heritage Foundation Study 2013. Amnesty is actually very costly.

Beware of overly optimistic projections that economic freedom will turn low-skilled or poorly educated immigrants into instant Republicans.

This may sound appealing, but most research demonstrates this to be false. If it happens at all, it takes three or more generations. We don’t have the luxury of such long-term bets  By that time, we could have a totally socialist and radical social dictatorship. We are already close to being overwhelmed by excessive immigration, especially low-skilled immigration.

Illegal immigration is not the only problem. We have excessive legal immigration.

Excessive legal immigration and guest-worker programs have approximately the same

economic effect as illegal immigration. American workers are being displaced and their wages and standard of living lowered. Taxpayers pay a heavy burden for all low income workers.

There are other dangers that confront our Federal and State Legislators. It is the human tendency to place looking good over doing the right and best thing for the people.

Our legislators need to do their homework on immigration issues. This is not a trivial matter. We are already on the edge of permanently surrendering our freedoms and heritage to a radical social and economic Leftist ideology with strong totalitarian tendencies. President Obama is trying to change the electorate from Center-Right to Radical Left by  immigration. We don’t need to give him a friendly helping hand. One small slip could be enough to plunge the nation into irrecoverable catastrophe. The people have now clearly told Congress and their governors to stop Obama and his now radicalized party. We must put aside the desire to simply look good, or “compassionate” and strive to do the right, the wisest, and best thing for the people and their posterity. That is where true patriotism, honor, nobility, and compassion abide. Our leaders need to evidence a high regard for truth. They must have a courageous heart for opposing whatever is foolish, evil, or unfair. They must have the wisdom to discern wrong and the ability to look past the immediate consequences of legislation to its future consequences for all the people.

Beware of special interest influence on immigration policy.

We need immigration policies that benefit the American people rather than special interests. Immigration laws must be enforced and must protect American jobs, public safety, public health, national security, and the ever-burdened taxpayer.