Legalization - A Quick Fix

The 1986 amnesty was supposed to be a permanent solution to the illegal alien problem.  When one reads the Hesburgh Commission report of 1981 (aka SCIRP), one quickly realizes that they had the best of intentions in suggesting amnesty.

There was a certain amount of guilt involved in the rationale.  As the report stated, “Some Commissioners also believe that legalization would acknowledge that the United States has at least some responsibility for the presence of undocumented/illegal aliens in this country since U. S. law has explicitly exempted employers from any penalty for hiring them.”  (SCIRP Final Report, page 74)

On the very next page of the report, the Commission establishes “two major principles” regarding the amnesty recommendation:

·  The legalization program should be consistent with U. S. interests; and

·  The legalization program should not encourage further undocumented migration

Source Link: http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED211612.pdf

The Hesburgh Commission report contains various warnings regarding border and interior security measures that would be required in order to make the amnesty program successful.  One will note that these are the very same enforcement problems we face today, suggesting that we have learned nothing from our past.  Headings in the report include:

·  Border Patrol Funding

·  Port-of-Entry Inspections

·  INS, Customs, DEA and Coast Guard Inter-agency Cooperation

·  Enforcement of Human Trafficking Laws

·  Visa Abuse

·  Document Control

·  Deportation of Undocumented/Illegal Migrants

·  Training of INS Officers

·  Economic Deterrents in the Workplace

·  Employer Sanctions

·  Wage and Working Standards Enforcement

Looking at the list, is it any wonder the 1986 amnesty resulted in a wave of new illegal aliens four times the number we dealt with 25 years ago?  We failed to enforce the law!

But the risks of another failure are much higher today than they were in 1986.  I’ll discuss our shrinking world elsewhere, but let me explain what future pressures at the border will be, in real numeric terms.

Gallup did an international poll to determine the level of discontent around the world.  They asked people if they would rather live in another country, and if so, where would they like to live?

The results should not surprise you.  People wanted to leave the Third World and live in the industrialized west.  In fact, about 16% of the world’s adults would “like to move permanently to another country.”

“The United States is the top desired destination country for the 700 million adults who would like to relocate permanently to another country. Nearly one-quarter (24%) of these respondents, which translates to more than 165 million adults worldwide, name the United States as their desired future residence.”

Source Link:  http://www.gallup.com/poll/124028/700-million-worldwide-desire-migrate-permanently.aspx

To triangulate that data with another source, Pew Research discovered in a September 2009 survey of Mexicans (living in Mexico) that over 35 million Mexicans would rather live in the United States, and over 19 million admitted to the poll-taker that they would be willing to come here illegally if necessary.

Source Link: http://pewglobal.org/2009/09/23/most-mexicans-see-better-life-in-us-one-in-three-would-migrate/

We are playing with fire when we suggest amnesty in the world today.  If we fail, as we did after the 1986 amnesty, the consequences will be far greater this time around. 

How will we, in our PC/ACLU world, hold back 165 million potential illegal aliens?

How will we control this problem when we are unable to agree to deport even the criminal aliens among us?  

What tools will we have when we have halted worksite raids, filed lawsuits to block No Match letters, and consider the fence “completed” when over 1200 miles of border remain unprotected.

What can we say about security when over 500,000 people who have been ordered deported roam free with impunity?

With 165 million people waiting in the wings, one would think that we would be showing the strength of our enforcement and deportation mechanisms to discourage them.

One would think…