The Ron Paul take on Immigration

From Ron Paul 2012 website

A MATTER OF NATIONAL SECURITY

A nation without borders is no nation at all.

It just doesn’t make sense to fight terrorists abroad while leaving our front door unlocked.

Unfortunately, for far too long, neither major political party has had the courage to do what is necessary to tackle the problem.

Instead, we’re presented with so-called “solutions” that involve amnesty proposals or further restricting Americans’ civil liberties through programs like REAL ID.

Ron Paul opposes both of these schemes and believes they will only make illegal immigration and the problems associated with it worse.  He has been proud to see states exercising their Tenth Amendment rights and protecting their citizens by refusing to comply with the unconstitutional REAL ID law.

While the federal government neglects its constitutional responsibility to protect our borders, it continues to push mandates on the states to provide free education and medical care to illegal immigrants at a time when the states are drowning in debt.   This must not be tolerated any longer.

Like most Americans, Ron Paul also understands just how valuable legal immigration is to our country.

Immigrants who want to work hard, obey our laws, and live the American Dream have always been great assets.

COMMON SENSE REFORMS

If elected President, Ron Paul will work to implement the following common sense reforms:

* Enforce Border Security – America should be guarding her own borders and enforcing her own laws instead of policing the world and implementing UN mandates.

* No Amnesty - The Obama Administration’s endorsement of so-called “Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, will only encourage more law-breaking.

* Abolish the Welfare State – Taxpayers cannot continue to pay the high costs to sustain this powerful incentive for illegal immigration.  As Milton Friedman famously said, you can’t have open borders and a welfare state.

* End Birthright Citizenship – As long as illegal immigrants know their children born here will be granted U.S. citizenship, we’ll never be able to control our immigration problem.

* Protect Lawful Immigrants – As President, Ron Paul will encourage legal immigration by streamlining the entry process without rewarding lawbreakers.

As long as our borders remain wide open, the security and safety of the American people are at stake.

As President, Ron Paul will address immigration by fighting for effective solutions that protect our nation, uphold the rule of law, and respect every American citizen’s civil liberties.

Source link:

http://www.ronpaul2012.com/the-issues/immigration/

Now, my take on Ron Paul's take.

I like his message.  He's got good things to say about border security, sovereignty in general and amnesty.  But he tends to be a great critic; what he lacks is a road map to dismantling bureaucracy.  And his opposition to Real ID, coupled with his history as a champion of civil liberties, makes me wonder just how he's going to get rid of the illegals already here.


I can see an internal conflict in the mind of Ron Paul when police are asking about immigration status.  Methinks he'd be more like Eric Holder than Joe Arpaio.


And when he talks about streamlining the immigration process, is he really advising that we raise the quotas and make entrance easier?  We already issue a million green cards a year.  I fear he might be suggesting that we allow the free market to dictate who comes here, and that the process is a mere formality.


He gets some credit for at least making it an issue on his website and taking a stand.  Most candidates are quiet about illegal aliens.

Little Bo-peep and immigration enforcement

Do you remember the nursery rhyme about the lost sheep?

“Leave them alone, and they’ll [go] home,

wagging their tails behind them.”

Before discussing how that applies to illegal aliens, let me provide a little background. 

Were you aware that in January of 2004 the Bush administration conducted a survey of the people the Border Patrol caught crossing into the United States?  Well, they never published the report, but Judicial Watch (after an 18-month battle over freedom of information) was able to get some of the survey results.  The analysis concluded:

• 45% crossed illegally based on rumors of a Bush administration amnesty.

     • 63% received Mexican government or media information supporting the notion of a Bush administration amnesty.

     • 64% previously entered the United States illegally.

     • 80% desired to apply for amnesty.

     • 66% desired to petition for family members to join them in the U.S.

Point #1: When politicians talk about a “guest worker program,” desperate people in the Third World respond.

Source link (a 17-page pdf report):

http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive/2005/bpsurvey.pdf

The GWB efforts at amnesty were somewhat cyclical, resembling a roller coaster.  As a candidate and up to August 2001, he was pushing for amnesty.  9/11 changed all that and he was rather shy about immigration reform for a few years.  (Who wouldn’t?  The terrorists played our lack of immigration enforcement like a fiddle to get themselves into position.  Be it expired visas, drivers licenses, college student verification or local law enforcement cross-checks, we failed to detect people who should not have been here.)

But Bush was back on the stump in January 2004, an election year.  And he pushed hard as an advocate for illegal aliens.  He would continue that push until he realized that the American voter would not tolerate amnesty without showing some control of the existing situation. 

And so Bush began enforcing the law.  He began building the fence.  He stepped up worksite raids.  He found more detention beds.  He started cooperating with local police (287g).  He threw money at visa control.  He talked about the virtual fence.  He went out of his way to show he was serious.

The result of his stepped-up enforcement was a reversal of the flow at the border.  Illegal aliens were going home.

Source link:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2008/0731/p08s01-comv.html

Point #2: When we enforce the law, even on a small scale, illegal aliens return home.

Now, back to Bo-peep.  “Leave them alone…”  What does that mean?  Well, we’ve all heard the politicians lumping illegal aliens in with noble immigrants.  And they love to defend things like the DREAM Act and in-state tuition.

The political rhetoric of “Hard workers wanting to make a better life for themselves,” or “Doing jobs Americans won’t do,” or “Wanting to pursue the American Dream,” only encourages illegal aliens to come here and stay here.

Leave those hackneyed phrases alone and they will get the idea that there isn’t an amnesty program around the next corner.  Instead, talk about enforcing the law and the word will spread.  We need to send this message to illegal aliens: Americans have wised up to the scam and we’re going home.  Or better yet, we’re not even going to try to sneak in.

We have the tools to enforce the law.

SAVE could be used by social service agencies (the ones crying that they don’t have enough resources with all these budget cuts) to screen for unlawful presence.  Our welfare reform legislation of 1996 was both tough and powerful.  Let’s use it!

Local law enforcement can and should be screening the people they are booking and identifying to ICE the illegal aliens who cross their path.  LESC is the database for screening.  287G and Secure Communities can be used to build the partnership.

E-Verify can help to dry up the jobs illegal aliens are taking.  Also, audits and No-Match letters need to be implemented.

Obama is not helping when he talks about giving green cards to illegal aliens on the deportation list.  These are the fugitives, like his uncle Omar and aunt Zeituni, who were ordered deported and failed to appear for departure.  Now he wants to review them all and reward the nonviolent ones with work permits.  Wrong message, Mr. President.

Governor Perry is wrong to offer them in-state tuition.

Governor Huntsman is wrong to offer them work permits.

Strong signals of interior enforcement will result in self-deportation.  Let’s give that a try, shall we?

Candidate review

So, after the CNN debate in Tampa last night, I was looking for some way to categorize the candidates on their talents and abilities.  I decided that if someone wanted to be president, they also ought to have the combined talents to serve as cabinet members.  After all, the President is the boss of all the departments.

I asked myself if I could picture a particular candidate in a specific cabinet post.  Some were obvious.  Ron Paul as Secretary of Defense or Education?  No way!

And could I envision Romney running Labor?  Not likely.

So, here's the grid.  It's my own take on things.  Some have the skill set while I'd give the job to others for their general ideology on the subject.

At the end of the day, Newt has the most talent...yet I still can't support him for President.

Deseret News Snooze

The Deseret News, owned and controlled by the LDS Church, takes a pro-amnesty position regarding illegal aliens.

As I blogged a couple of weeks ago, their story indexing tends to equate the topic of "Immigration" with all sorts of other things.

Here are the "Most recent headlines" they chose to post in the Immigration section of their on-line edition.

Four of the stories are really about terrorism, though they would be the first to tell you that illegal aliens are not terrorists.

One is about labor, but Obama's Labor Department is on a campaign to secure the rights of illegal aliens in the workplace.  That one fails the immigration test as well.  Had Biden mentioned it in his speech, and had that comment been reported in the story, perhaps.  But he didn't and they didn't.

The murder trial of the gay student is odd.  Neither the victim nor the suspect are immigrants.  I just have to scratch my head for any remote connection.

The Libyan rebel's past is another non sequitur. 

At one time I thought perhaps the Deseret News was trying to cast immigration enforcement advocates in a bad light by lumping them with evil-doers.  At this point, I simply believe they've lost it.

A GRAND idea

This is the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake.  It is a 5-star hotel, arguable the swankiest in town.

They just announced that after an audit of their personnel files they are firing their illegal aliens.
This was all done on the up-and-up.  The company explained that they have been screening employees since 2001 and checking their records against the federal database since 2006.  (That would have been Basic Pilot, or perhaps the Social Security file search.)

Last October they brought in the feds to do an audit and as a result they are terminating an undisclosed number of employees.  (A local Latino activist says the number is 120, but he says a lot of things.  The company says the actual number is much smaller.)

This is a bold move.  The Grand America stands alone here, and they are standing tall.

On the other side of the issue, they face the following foes:

• Governor Herbert- he is a proponent of guest worker status for illegal aliens.
• Attorney General Shurtleff- see above.
• About half of the General Assembly- see above.
• Police Chief Burbank- Opposed to immigration inquiry by his department.
• LDS Church (The elephant in the room)- Openly supports guest worker amnesty.
• The hospitality trade group- They claim illegals are needed because $12/hour jobs go unfilled.

Kudos to Grand America.

Although it is not specified in the articles I read, they are most likely using a program called ICE IMAGE.  It is not a new program.  Companies become partners with Immigration and are trained to spot illegal applicants.  In exchange, ICE performs an audit of the existing employees to weed out illegals already on the payroll.  Info here: http://www.ice.gov/image/

Source links on Grand America:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/52494849-90/america-audit-businesses-confirm.html.csp

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705390066/Audit-Many-Grand-America-employees-lack-documentation-to-work.html