Senate-House Bill -- Will it Stop Illegal Immigration?

Lee Ellis

I agree with Fred Barnes when he writes in The Weekly Standard, "REPUBLICANS are staring political disaster in the face on immigration. The problem isn't that they might enact a bill allowing illegal immigrants living in America to earn their way to citizenship, inviting foreign workers to come here, and beefing up security on the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. No, it would be a disaster for Republicans if they didn't pass such a bill."

While I agree with Fred, I also think that it will be a disaster if they compromise on what both the Senate and the House want and yet still leave out one important facet of such legislation --- the necessary budgets and laws to determine who truly qualifies to stay or to gain the right to take this passageway to the promised citizenship.

Most Latino and Mexican immigrants in this country have worked long and hard, spending many years to earn their way to American citizenship. They have done much to benefit this country. They are the doctors, lawyers, teachers, professors, business owners and workers who help keep America economically strong. It is not fair to them that others might be able to obtain, without earning them, the same rights and freedoms that they have achieved.

On May 16, I wrote: "President Bush clearly said that he believes illegal immigrants who want to stay should have to pay a meaningful penalty for breaking the law, pay their taxes, learn English, and work in a job for a number of years. The President also believes that there are differences between an illegal immigrant who crossed the border recently - and someone who has worked here for many years, and has a home, a family, and an otherwise clean record. Those who meet these conditions should be able to apply for citizenship - but approval will NOT be automatic, and they will have to wait in line behind those who played by the rules and followed the law. Further, all applicants will have to have criminal background checks."

I think the Senate/House compromise will contain these provisions in a bill, as well as strengthening border security, if something is to be done by this Congress about this grave threat to the USA.

However, always missing by both the Senate and the House bills are how these conditions, stressed by President Bush, are to be enforced!

Where are the budgets and the laws that ascertain the following:

1. How is the length of stay here in the USA checked?
Do we just accept the word of an illegal alien or a counterfeit document? After all, lies and fake social security cards or stolen identities are what have allowed many illegals to get jobs here in America! We need a law to prevent this from happening. Leaving such details for bureaucrats to solve or guess at later will not work.

2. Who has learned English and how it was taught?
Is the ability to speak and write in English sufficient to maintain a job or start a career? Can all government documents stop being printed in two languages to save taxpayers money? Can all retails stores go back to signs only in English? Will the clerks understand us again when we ask questions? Will banks still be forced to hire only bilingual tellers, stores to hire bilingual sales people? Can we become again a one language country instead of being divided by two languages as has happened in Canada where both French and English are national languages?

3. Who is doing the background check on each applicant and how is it verified

4. Who collects the fine for the misdemeanor of coming here illegally and how is this verified and recorded?

5. Finally, how are the businesses who hire illegals in order to pay low wages detected and stopped?
Can these magnets for illegal immigration be truly stopped via serious fines or jail time? Can tamper-proof biometric ID cards really protect honest business people from being fooled by new employees as they have in the past via fake social security cards? Will there be a budget to make these cards?

If we want to escape the word "amnesty," then it is imperative that Congress include the budgets and laws required to create the necessary keys to open these roadblocks to the passageway for citizenship, and not let the American people wonder afterwards how so many illegals were able to cheat their way into our American life and the freedoms offered by genuine citizenship.

Emma Lazarus, a nineteenth century American poet, is best remembered for her sonnet, "The New Colossus." Her words are inscribed, in part, on our Statue of Liberty. She wrote:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I think that this poem represented the enslaved people of foreign shores. They knew that once they could taste freedom and break the shackles that bound their minds, their energies, their hopes and dreams, they could contribute much to this new America---they could put their entire efforts into building and making it that gleaming city on the hill. And so they came here legally and willingly as invited souls bringing with them their gifts and talents in order to enrich this great continent. They asked nothing from us, in return; they simply wanted to be Americans, free to become part of that great melting pot of so many different people of all nationalities and religions who were being molded into that new great culture called America. They needed no hyphenated names, no need to return to their olden ways. A new future lifestyle beckoned and they embraced it!

America still wants such immigrants. Miss Lazarus's poem is still on that invitation! We need these kinds of educated and energetic people. Will Congress really make it possible with strict laws that will allow this to happen?

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Lee Ellis is a retired journalist and narrator, formerly with both CBS and Gannett (USA Weekend). He was also a combat veteran of WWII, having fought in the South Pacific invasions. He had the pleasure of interviewing Ronald Reagan as an actor and then later working to help him become Governor of California. At the age of 80, he is keeping busy writing and doing free lance narrations for radio and television. He is an active member of Rotary and the VFW.

indiolee@dc.rr.com