History Forum / General / British History / May 2007

Hmmmmmmmm...

DSH
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One Short Amendment

The Amnesty Compromise Needs a Caveat

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, May 25, 2007

As the most attractive land for would-be immigrants, America has the
equivalent of the first 100 picks in the NBA draft. Yet through lax border
control and sheer inertia, it allows those slots to be filled by (with
apologies to Bill Buckley) the first 100 names in the San Salvador phone
book.

Bingo!  We need more selectivity in our Immigration Policies. -- DSH

The immigration compromise being debated in Congress does improve our
criteria for selecting legal immigrants. Unfortunately, its inadequacies in
dealing with illegal immigration -- specifically, in ensuring that 10 years
from now we will not have a new cohort of 12 million demanding amnesty --
completely swamp the good done on legal immigration.

Today, preference for legal immigration is given not to the best and the
brightest waiting on long lists everywhere on Earth to get into America, but
to family members of those already here. Given that America has the pick of
the world's energetic and entrepreneurial, this is a stunning competitive
advantage, stunningly squandered.

Indeed. -- DSH

The current reform would establish a point system for legal immigrants in
which brains and enterprise count. This is a significant advance. But before
we get too ecstatic about finally doing the blindingly obvious, note two
caveats:

(a) This new point system doesn't go into effect for eight years -- eight
years of a new flood of immigrants chosen not for aptitude but bloodline.
And who knows if a different Congress eight years from now will keep the
current bargain?

EIGHT YEARS!  Ridiculous! -- DSH

(b) It's not enough to just create a point system in which credit is given
for education, skills and English competence. These points can be outweighed
by points given for -- you guessed it -- family ties, which are already
built into the proposed point system. There are already amendments on the
Senate floor to magnify the value of being a niece rather than a nurse. (
Barack Obama is proposing to abolish the point system entirely in five
years.) A point system can be manipulated to give far more weight to family
than skills -- until it becomes nothing but a cover for the old
chain-migration system.

CHAIN-MIGRATION is NOT a Good Idea. -- DSH

As for the bill's provisions about illegal immigration, let's not quibble:
It grants the essentials of amnesty. True, there is a $5,000 fine (for a
family of five!) attached to registering for legal status in the United
States. But the truly significant penalty for illegal immigration is
deportation -- which undoes everything the immigrant has built in America.
When the feds raid a sweatshop, the fear is not that the agent will grab you
and yell, "We are here to collect a fine." The fear is that he will yell,
"We are here to deport you back to the subsistence and misery you fled in
China."

From the moment this bill is signed, every illegal alien who does not have a
criminal record can register with the U.S. government for temporary legal
status. Moreover, as soon as the president certifies that certain border
enforcement triggers have been met, this cohort of 12 million becomes
eligible for the new Z visa -- renewable until death-- which allows them to
stay and work and travel and reenter.

That's NOT a Bad Thing.  It is NOT AMNESTY. -- DSH

This is amnesty -- and I would be all in favor of it if I believed in the
border enforcement mechanisms in this bill. If these are indeed the last
illegal immigrants to come in, let us generously and humanely take them out
of the shadows. But if we don't close the border, that generous and humane
gesture will be an announcement to the world that the smart way to come to
America is illegally.

Bingo! -- DSH

In this bill, unfortunately, enforcement at the border is all bureaucratic
inputs and fancy gadgets: principally, a doubling of the Border Patrol to
28,000, lots of high-tech sensors and four unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
And 370 miles of fence -- half of what Congress had mandated last year.

Does anyone imagine these will stop the flood? Four UAVs? And how does 370
miles of fence close a border of 2,100 miles? And if fences work (of course
they do: look at the San Diego fence), why not build one all the way?

Yes, 370 miles is FAR too little FENCE. -- DSH

The amnesty is triggered upon presidential certification that these
bureaucratic benchmarks are met -- regardless of what is actually happening
at the border. What vacuous nonsense. The trigger must be something real. I
propose a single amendment, short and very concrete: "The amnesty shall be
declared the morning after the president has certified (citing disinterested
studies) that illegal immigration across the southern border has been
reduced by 90 percent." That single provision would guarantee passage of
this comprehensive reform because most Americans would be glad to grant a
generous amnesty -- if they can be assured it would be the last.

Food For Thought.

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas