Posted by
arandomguy on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 11:29:13 PM
The Senate voted today to impose more restrictions on the Immigration bill that has been going through, which many liberals decry as being too tough on illegal aliens, and conservatives rightly complain about not being tough enough on border security, which is an extremely important security and economic issue for this country.
Today, the Senate overwhelmingly voted to drastically cut the number of foreigners who can come into this country on temporary visas. I don't generally praise Democrats, but they proposed the amendment, which would cap the number of temporary visas at 200,000 (and was strongly opposed by the Bush administration), instead of the previous 400,000 (with the added option of raising it to 600,000). Now, it is 200,000 period. This is a good addition to the bill, something that definitely should be kept (and was voted for 74-24) today in the Senate.
Additionally, they accepted an amendment which would require mandatory prison sentences for illegals who re-enter this country illegally, something else that should be kept. This amendment was proposed by Lindsey Graham.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration remains solidly behind the pro-Amnesty stance that many "illegal rights" groups have adopted, one that makes absolutely no sense to anybody with sense. First and foremost, there are not nearly enough border security measures in place to clamp down on problems at the border.
I cannot understand the Bush Administration on this issue. No Republican presidential candidate except John McCain - who helped craft the bill - have come out in support of this trash, and very few conservatives support it. Why hasn't Bush figured out that this is NOT what the American people want? He has already upset a good deal of them with his botched handling of a justified war (including myself), what political incentive does he have to continue to aggravate them with policies that nobody likes? With Iraq, there is little that can be done. Bush is generally right about Iraq now, despite what many people - some understandably upset with war - say, but on Immigration, he is completely and utterly wrong.
Why create further problems for yourself and your party?
No good can come if this bill passes. Democrats are the primary authors of it - and John McCain - and if it succeeds (highly unlikely), it will be presented as their success. Even if it does not, it will be blamed on Republicans who attached too many strings to the bill, and too many security provisions that do not take into account the aliens already here.
I still do not understand the President's stance on this issue. There are serious problems with our Legal immigration system, I understand that. Yet there are also serious problems with most government programs (the primary reason I believe almost all of them should be abolished as soon as possible), but we don't run off to fix them. Not that I'm arguing the legal immigration system should be fixed (or abolished!). What I am arguing, is that we need to stop the flow of ILLEGAL immigration first, and THEN we can worry about what to do with those already here, and reforming our legal immigration system.
Trying to do it all at once will be - and is - a nightmare.