By D.A. King
On the illegal immigration crisis, it is likely time - again - for a reminder about false choices and an as yet untried and reasonable solution.
The transparent argument from those who will never relent on the amnesty-again agenda is that because we cannot round up and deport more than 20 million illegal aliens by sundown tomorrow (false choice "A"), the only other option is to legalize them as part of some contrived and disingenuous "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" program (false choice "B").
I know what the reader must be thinking: "Why is he bringing that up again? The amnesty attempt of 2007 was defeated in the U.S. Senate in June!"
Here is why: Just weeks after this year's attempt at forcing the now not-so-trusting American people to accept the legalization option, another nationwide push began to prepare them for the next one - but not until the elections are over.
But, for the "legalization now, legalization tomorrow and legalization forever" crowd, there is a rather inconvenient truth emerging in news stories from around the country.
Nearly every week Americans paying attention can read news reports from places where the law is actually being enforced about illegal aliens giving up and leaving for more hospitable places to look for a better life, either in other states here or back to their home countries.
Simply put, again: Enforcement works.
For many in the amnesty industry, the fervent hope is that either many Americans don't realize that the legalization option was tried - and failed - more than 21 years ago, or they can be convinced that Albert Einstein was wrong when he remarked that one definition of insanity was "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."
It is past time that pundits, editors and candidates for political office begin to recognize and discuss the third and seldom-mentioned option: Attrition through enforcement.
It doesn't take another Einstein to recognize that the idea of gradual attrition of the illegal population through the enforcement of existing laws while at the same time stopping illegal entries by securing our borders - at any cost - will work. It simply takes good old-fashioned common sense.
For decades, common sense seems to be in short supply when it comes to illegal employment and the illegal immigration it produces. Illegal immigration isn't just wrong because it is illegal - it is illegal because it is wrong.
The national disaster created by the fact that Washington has failed to secure American borders or enforce our immigration and employment laws did not happen overnight. It has taken more than 30 years to get where we are today.
We should all stop looking for an overnight solution. There isn't one. It may take as long to solve the problem as it did to create.
Not many can argue that border security is not a fundamental duty of the federal government. Neither can anyone argue against the equal application of American laws. Put the two logical concepts together and we can watch the illegal immigration problem begin to shrink instead of grow with each passing day.
Illegal immigration has been labeled by many in the media as the "third rail of politics." But that's not the case on the streets of America or at office water-cooler conversations. The American people rightly expect the issue to be addressed with something more than the empty rhetoric of the last two decades.
Candidates for office - on all levels - should heed the common sense of the American people and their ever increasing education on the topic and realize that a growing number of voters will not accept the false choices being offered on illegal immigration.
American voters should demand that we stop the insanity of repeating the mistakes of the past and expecting different results. Enthusiastic enforcement of the existing laws seems to be the only thing we haven't tried. A slow but steady decrease in the illegal population is the obvious reasonable and workable solution.
This longtime American will be listening closely for the concept of attrition through enforcement to be one of the first things mentioned in political candidate's campaign speeches.
I suspect that I will be in a very large group of common-sense voters.
D.A. King is president of the Dustin Inman Society, a Cobb-based non-profit coalition dedicated to educating the public on illegal immigration. On the Web: www.theDustinInmanSociety.org.
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We cannot sustain either our economy or our country without security and enforcement. We have been waiting far too long. Anyone in office that has not worked for enforcement and security in all levels of government needs to be voted out.
D.A. is right about everything except one statement: "A slow but steady decrease in the illegal population is the obvious reasonable and workable solution". While that is already happening on a very small scale, there are still 5,000 to 10,000 illegal aliens breaking into our country every day--between 1.5 and 3 million per year. In lieu of this, "a slow but steady decrease" will not amount to a hill of beans and will take too long. Every day that an illegal alien family stays in the U.S. is another chance at a jackpot or anchor baby who will be the financial responsibility of U.S. taxpayers. Efforts to clarify or change the 14th Amendment will take years, probably 10 years, if ever to occur. Therefore, "a slow but steady decrease" is simply not enough. Clearly, employers of illegal aliens will scream and jump up and down, but the more illegals we can deport, the better. Right now, I'll accept "a massive self-deportation" before anything else. Let the businesses who have profiteered for decades by breaking our Federal laws by hiring illegal aliens feel the pain!
D.A. is making too much sense again...I hope someone will listen to him.
Some politicians and pundits still delude themselves and/or scam the public by claiming that's it's just a small but vocal minority of anti-immigrant exremists who oppose another amnesty. The longer this issue has dragged-on, the more citizens are opposing an amnesty. The American people are clearly fed up and aren't falling for the stale, meaningless, pro-amnesty rhetoric of 1986 and 2007. We're seeing states take a stand for this nation that the federal government adamantly refuses to do. No doubt, more states will be passing anti-illegal alien laws in 2008. And these laws are working.
Either we as citizens take the laws seriously, and demand that our leaders do, or we continue to degenerate into lawlessness. This isn't rocket science.
These illegal aliens will not stop.Every time one is arrested,he says something like "I'll be back in 3 days".Even criminal aliens wanted for murder or other serious crimes ,where they could be locked up for life or given the death penalty are caught coming back into the U.S.The only thing that will work for certain is to put the military on the border.That is where we need to be. Thanks D.A. King for all you do. Sincerely.
... but the elite need the cheap labor! They can't cut their booming profits by paying 'legal' Americans enough money to get the job done, feed their family AND pay their taxes. You must be living in the twilight zone.... these people are such hard workers,... & they never complain! .. but watching the breaking news yesterday, shows the connection to the sinister drug world that illegal immigration is tied to. Take a poll, & you will see just how many of these hard workers know a cousin or uncle, involved in drug smuggling & human smuggling. You can ride by 100's of construction sites & all you see are masses of illegal crews. Who do you think is profiting? ... the people this invasion is effecting the most(so far)- don't seem to matter.... & I'm one of them, that had to pack up & sell my house, (just to get some peace & quiet), because my neighborhood had been overrun by boarding houses & drug labs,...& my painting business continues to suffer, as the 'undocumented workers' continue to outprice me! ... but, hey the walls built around 'the good' neighborhoods, keep the rif-raf out,.... for now! .. thanks D.A., for your hard work!
Right on DA. You are absolutely correct. Close the border and strictly enforce work-place laws--then wave good-bye to our departing criminal invaders from the South.
A sensible article - too sensible for our brain-dead politicians! Ask any of them - except Tancredo or Duncan Hunter - a simple Yes/No question and they immediately launch into "talking points" which is just pol-speak for nonsensical blather.
Yes, and while we're at it let's deport all of the illegal aliens who ever entered this country in the past and their offspring. Oh wait, that would only leave the Native Americans! Enforcement is only part of the answer and ignoring the fact that we should relax our legalization standards to resolve this problem is well.....ignorant.
Anybody that states, we need to legalize illegal immigrants, because their doing jobs americans won't do, is a bald faced liar. The reason most americans don't want to do these lower wage jobs, is because wages have remained stagnant, because of the cheap illegal alien labor corporate leaders have been able to exploit. Illegal aliens are criminals, that have no respect for america, or it's laws! Breaking into america, stealing an americans identity, to steal an american job, and use services like medical care, education, and social services, makes illegal aliens carrer criminals! The time has come to start enforcing immigration laws, and deporting all of these criminals, is at hand!
Excellent Op-ed by Mr. King. He is exactly right: attrition through enforcement works and it's the way to solve the illegal alien crisis. And we should remind voters that Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani do NOT support attrition, rather both support "pathway" amnesty -- the same type of garbage that the American people rejected this past summer.
For the "let's also deport anyone who is not a Native American" bunch, I have one thing to say: which law did the Europeans break?
Those who are for amnesty say "let's do a background check and if they are clean give them a chance at citzenship". How can we do a background check on a person when we don't really know who these people really are? The Mexican government will gladly clear all of them just to get rid of their poor and criminal.
Right on. As we have seen on the network news, Calderon and Fox before him said where a Mexican is so is Mexico, and the Mexican authority did not stop at the boarder but extended anywhere there a Mexican citizens. If we were to accept this as fact of law where are the Mexican authorities who police those Mexicans and in which courts are they held to what law? Returning to some sense of reality why could we not send the military reserves to do their active duty for training (two weeks) down along the boarder. Or have they just been used up in a ruse of a war to differ our attention from the take over of our nation by Mexico?
Those employers who want their profits now and the future can go to blazes will never listen to reason. Every minimum wage law passed opens the door for employers to hire below-min wage illegals. These laws have prohibited employers from paying the "entry level" salaries needed for our own youth...who are reduced to sitting home all day discovering the joys of pot smoking. "Pay-to-play" is the only answer...pay under the table or without checking SS#'s and all players are penalized. No other country allows its citizens' safeguards to be abused to the benefit of foreign nationals.