They say history has a way of repeating itself. That certainly came true in June when the U.S. Senate approved a sweeping reform bill to revamp the nation’s immigration laws. Unfortunately, the U.S. Senate failed to learn from the mistakes created by the 1986 overhaul.
Consider the 1986 bill that President Reagan signed into law.
At that time, about three million people who were living in the country illegally were granted citizenship.
Today, 27 years later, the U.S. estimates 11 million undocumented immigrants are living here.
What should that tell us? It says that the 1986 law failed to stem the flow of illegal immigration. It sent the wrong signal by granting legal status to millions while ignoring the need to secure the border. It gave the green light to millions of others that it was okay to break our laws because enforcement wouldn’t be taken seriously.
I voted for the 1986 law. And by looking through the rear-view mirror, I don’t need a crystal ball to tell me what would happen on the road ahead if we repeat the mistakes of the past. I saw how legalizing before securing our borders turned out. It turned America’s time-honored welcome mat into a timeworn doormat.
America’s immigration system is broken. It’s time to fix it so that a legal flow of immigration can help the economy and bolster areas of the workforce that are short of workers, from low-skilled to high-tech workers. But, immigration laws should not come at the expense of American workers or cause them to be disadvantaged, displaced or underpaid. Rooting out fraud and abuse from many of our visa programs should be a priority.
We need to secure how people enter the United States through legal channels. For instance, it makes sense to allow foreign students who have been trained and educated on U.S. soil to remain here. We need to enact solutions that ensure we keep those highly skilled and sought after students here. At the same time, we need to ensure that we protect American students and encourage them to explore Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. We also need to close any loopholes with the student visa process in order to protect our national security.
Unfortunately, the bill passed by the U.S. Senate won’t fix what’s broken and is chock-full of loopholes that make the legalization system far from ideal.
Thankfully our system of self-government protects representation of, by and for the people with a bicameral Congress. Now the U.S. House of Representatives has a chance to get it right.
Here’s what I’d like to see:
• border security first and its verification by elected and accountable members of Congress, not the federal bureaucracy or administration;
• meaningful interior enforcement that empowers federal, state and local authorities;
• stronger laws to deter criminal offenses, including identity theft and gang-related activity; and,
• policy to ensure qualified Americans have the first opportunity at U.S. jobs.
Finally, as a taxpayer watchdog, I cannot support a bill that does what Congress seems to do best: throw taxpayers’ money at the problem without actually solving the problem. Originally, the bill’s price tag started at $6.5 billion. At final passage, the Senate sponsors jacked that up to $46.3 billion, essentially to win support. And, in the end, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that the bill would only reduce illegal immigration by one third to one half.
For more than 200 years, immigrants have looked to America’s shores as the beacon of hope, freedom and opportunity. Immigration has played a central role in the social, cultural and economic fabric of our communities and neighborhoods for generation after generation.
That’s why it’s so important for Congress to fix America’s welcome mat. We can learn from the lessons. We need immigration laws in place that welcome law-abiding immigrants to share their entrepreneurial spirit, build better lives for themselves, and help make America a better place for generations to come.
I would like to know how we have an illegal President he won’t even produce a legal birth certificate ?
get over it Dave. The argument is 6 years old now. And he has produced legal birth records.
Do the rest of you realize that illegal immigration is now at zero? More are being sent back than come across.
And when your great-great-great-great grandparents came over and stole the lands from the Indians how fair and just was that?
@????-quit reading the left wing blogs. It makes you ignorant.
At least being ignorant can be corrected, but there is no fixing being stupid like you are LVS. Stupid is as stupid does fits you to a tee.
Oh ow-that was original. You IDIOT studying hard to be a moron.
Are U retarded Dave?
We meed a immigrant for white trash trading program.
Things have changed in 200+ years idiots. How about the UN moving into Mexico and kicking the fricking government crooks out and establishing justice in a manner that their citizens would not want to leave their country. Quit putting band aids the cancer, idiots!!
Never, never for even a moment, forget that this country was built by immigrants. Those who left theirs homes and families behind…never to see them again, came here for a multitude of reasons; a better life being high on the list.
Read the tablet at the base of the statute of liberty….read it over and over….then read it one more time.
You have been a managing part of our government for the past 150 years; deal with it, but don’t extinguish the dream of hope for the unending tide of humanity that only want to live free and contribute to what made this country the best destination on earth.
At some point Senator, even your ancestors made that trip; that’s why you are where you are. Did you forget?
And I would bet that his ancestors came here LEGALLY as did mine and my wife’s and all of the other people who came here. LEGAL is the key word here. We have a process that needs to be followed to make sure that everyone coming here is treated the same and fairly. The people that sneak over our borders are here ILLEGALLY. It would not be tolerated in any other country and should not be tolerated in ours. If they want to come here there are many ways to do it LEGALLY. They can apply like everyone else had to or they can come in as guest workers if all they are doing is looking for work.
LVS, you are spot on, I have no problem if they do it the right way. I have a big problem with amnisty when the boarder is not secured, that is what Ragan signed off on and it never happened. Secure the boarder first and then we can talk.
Peter – quit with the hand wringing “read the tablet” stuff.
This immigration bill is about politics and the next election. You have to be brain dead to not recognize that the political class is prepared to stick it to taxpaying working men and women (citizens) to curry favor amongst Hispanic voters.
Closing the borders will not “extinguish the dream” as you put it. There are few other places on earth that people seek to get in – by any method; legal or illegal.
I don’t think Grassley has forgotten that his ancestors made the trip. Mine did as well – long before there was an America. They actually fought in the Revolutionary War, living very near Valley Forge.
It really ticks me off to see politicians of both parties willing to give away what our ancestors created using their “compassion” as the default excuse.