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.
