Amnesty Bill Was Wrong On All Counts

When President Bush climbed aboard the amnesty bill express he didn’t give a damn about immigrants, Hispanics or minorities. The Prez had three things in mind regarding the so-called cornerstone of his domestic agenda: 1) Getting Hispanic and minority voters into the Republican camp; 2) Providing cheap labor for US corporations; 3) Amping up his compassion creds in the history books; And yesterday the Senate told George W. Bush he is irrelevant and powerless. When the Senate voted against the immigration bill, it was because the voters had informed their representatives they were against amnesty for ILLEGAL immigrants. Very few people in the United States are anti-immigrant. The US is populated by ancestors of immigrants. The point that stuck in our craw was that the proposed bill gave amnesty to people who had broken the law. It seemed patently insane to pardon criminals and also to give them the same rights and benefits of people who had worked their asses off to legally enter the US and/or to become citizens, That was the chief thing that made no sense in this immigration bill. Other items were the idea that the US would take major steps to secure our borders after it gave amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, and that allowing lawbreakers to become citizens and to enjoy the same advantages of law-abiding citizens would make the US more secure. If lawmakers now follow the desires of voters, they will secure our borders, enforce existing laws regarding illegal immigrants, prosecute those who hire illegal immigrants and require employers of migrant workers to pay at least the minimum wage.