THE TOP TEN REASONS WHY ANOTHER AMNESTY IS SWELL FOR AMERICA

By Don Feder

Some of you out there think amnesty is a four-letter word. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich spoke for you when he warned, "The announcement... that the White House and a group of senators have reached an agreement on 'comprehensive immigration reform' should have the same effect that the word 'iceberg' had on the passengers and crew of the Titanic."

Erroneous! Another amnesty for an estimated 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens is just what the doctor ordered -- if Jack Kevorkian is the attending physician.

Here are the top ten reasons why another amnesty will be the best thing to happen to America since the influenza epidemic of 1918 and the Wall Street Crash of '29.

1. We can't send them all back -- The argument conjures up images of swarms of heavily armed agents in jackboots, all dead ringers for Major Strasser in "Casablanca," kicking down doors and dragging away terrified occupants. That only happens if the feds are coming for 6-year-old Cubans fleeing Castro's gulag, and Janet Reno is Attorney General.

` Posing an impossibility (deporting every illegal in the land) as the only alternative to an absurdity (amnesty) makes the latter look realistic.

We can't catch every murderer, rapist, child pornographer or drug dealer either. So -- what the heck -- let's stop enforcing those laws too.

I know. I know. We really don't have to catch them all -- just dry up their sources of employment and most will leave voluntarily. But, keep it to yourself.

2. They're taking jobs Americans don't want -- This is another way of saying that corporations, contractors, restaurants, landscapers, etc. want cheap, docile labor (and are delighted to have you, the taxpayer, make up the difference in increased social service/law enforcement costs). In reality, almost anyone will take any job at the right wage. Corporate America wants low, subsidized wages.

Thomas Sowell points out that even in the agricultural sector (generally thought of as the province of border-jumpers), only 24% of all workers are illegal. Where did farmers find the Americans to handle the other 76% of their labor?

On the other end of the spectrum, many of those employed in rebuilding areas devastated by Katrina were illegal. Bet you didn't know that carpentry and welding were jobs Americans don't want.

3. An amnesty will help control our borders -- If we no longer have borders, controlling them will be a breeze. Last year, Congress authorized a fence along 700 miles of our 2,000 mile-long border with Mexico. Guess how many miles have been built to date? Two. But as every savvy proponent of comprehensive immigration reform knows, the way to control our borders is with magnets, not barriers. Build it and they won't come?

Just imagine, if this amnesty goes through, anyone who can procure two documents (a utility bill, a rent receipt) purporting to show that they've been here since January 1, 2007 can apply for a "Z" visa. Rest assured, this will not set off a mad dash for the border, as millions more from Mexico seek economic asylum -- any more than this amnesty will lure future illegals here in hopes of yet another.

4. Diversity is our greatest strength -- Bringing in hordes of people who want to live in America, but not to be Americans, will make us stronger. Admitting those who are contemptuous of our history and heritage will make us stronger. Legalizing aliens who question our right to exist as a nation will make us stronger. National suicide will make us stronger, as a nation.

This year's pro-amnesty demonstrations featured arrogant mendicants marching with signs that read "We are indigenous! The ONLY owners of this continent." What a great way to start their journey toward citizenship and assimilation.

If the presence of millions upon millions of Mexicans who think we stole their country will make us more vibrant, just imagine what a growing population of those who call us infidels for not embracing their religion will do for our national unity. A recent Pew Research poll of American Muslims showed only 26% believe the war on terror is a sincere effort to reduce terrorism, 40% think Arabs did not carry out the 9/11 attacks, and a hefty 26% of religion-of-peace-niks under 30 believe suicide bombings are justified. Can't get more diverse than that.

5. English is sooo boring! -- In 1980, 11% of adult Americans spoke a language other than English at home. By 1990, that figure rose to 14%. In 2000, it was 18%. Do you discern a trend here?

Isn't it fun to get an automated answering machine that instructs you to press "1" if you want to continue in English? (Wait until we're given the option of pressing "8" to continue in Swahili and "9" to continue in Arabic.) Don't you enjoy going to a shopping mall and hearing the new Americans jabber in their native tongues? Bilingualism has proved such a blessing for Canada. Wait till we have multilingualism here.

Besides, under Executive Order 13166, the federal government now requires grant recipients (including hospitals) to provide interpreters for everyone who can't communicate in the language they're supposed to speak when they come here. And think of all the trees we can sacrifice for government forms printed in Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Urdu and Tagalog.

6. It's a great way to grow the welfare state -- Amnestied illegals are immediately eligible for Medicaid and nearly 60 other welfare programs.

The undocs (undocumented workers) made kosher will eventually bring in a score of family members, through aptly termed chain migration. Among other benefits, children of the newly legalized will get public school educations worth $9,600 a piece, on average.

The Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector estimates that, in government benefits alone, this amnesty will cost us approximately $2 trillion. More government spending means more government workers and more power in the hands of politicians. This is just one frequently overlooked blessing of amnesties.

7. It's compassionate -- Especially for the working class and urban minorities -- who are on the receiving end of this particular brand of compassion.

In testimony before Congress, T. Willard Fair (president of the Urban League of Greater Miami) recalled that back in 1965, Ted Kennedy, architect of that year's comprehensive immigration reform, assured us: "The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs." (And we were dumb enough to believe him!)

Harvard scholar George Borjas found that immigration (legal and illegal) has cut the wages of American men without a high school diploma by roughly $1,800 a year. Fair says that since 1965, one-third of the drop in black male employment can be attributed to immigration.

There aren't a lot of surgeons, lawyers, newspaper editors and foundation presidents wading across the Rio Grande. It's those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder who get knocked off by illegal aliens. How can we deny Ted Kennedy another opportunity to feel compassionate on the backs of the native-born poor and working class?

8. Cops don't have enough to do -- 29% of all federal inmates are criminal aliens. In the last 5 years, 72,000 aliens have been arrested on drug charges alone.

More than 30,000 illegal-alien gang members operate in 33 states (including the notorious Salvadoran Mara Salvatrucha 13), dealing in drugs, arms and prostitution. All a gang member has to do to be amnestied is to sign "a renunciation of gang affiliation" form. (How about notes from their mothers saying they promise to behave?)

In Indianapolis, 27-year-old Jonathan Castillo is under arrest for raping a 7-year-old girl. According to the local news, Castillo is an undocumented rapist. Clearly, we don't have enough indigenous perverts, drug-dealers and gang members, and so needs must import them.

9. Terrorists Deserve a Fighting Chance -- Under the Comprehensive Immigration Deform act now before the Senate, the government has 24 hours to do background checks on amnesty applicants. If nothing turns up, Abu Illegal gets a provisional amnesty that he can use to run around the country legally.

But there's no unified database. Information about those with terrorist ties is buried in the archives of dozens of foreign governments, and can take months to dig out.

Of the 6 terrorists recently arrested for plotting an attack on Fort Dix, three were in the country illegally for at least 20 years. The standard argument for our Iraq intervention is that if we don't fight them (Al Qaeda, et al) there, we'll have to fight them here. Whatever happens in Iraq, thanks to Comprehensive Immigration Reform, we'll have plenty of chances to fight them here too.

10. It's good politics -- Pro-amnesty politicians operate on the premise that, while Middle Americans (normally comatose) won't retaliate, amnestied illegals on their way to citizenship and their supporters will show their gratitude at the ballot box. It's a classic case of sacrificing the national interest to scrounge a few votes. Think of it as a going-out-of-business sale -- for America.

If the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bomb is detonated, you can begin your journey to bilingualism by practicing the following phrase -- "Hasta la vista, America!"

THINKING ABOUT THE TB GUY

Now ... let's address all of this hysteria over the TB Guy. It turns out that he's an attorney. A personal injury attorney, no less. His name is Andrew Speaker.

Everyone seems to be in a lather over the idea that he endangered an entire plane load of people by coming back to the United States on a Czech airliner.

Methinks we're approaching the point of hysteria here.

According to Speaker, all the time he has been diagnosed with TB he has been interacting with his family, his daughter and his finance, now wife. He had been told repeatedly that he did not present a threat to others. Did they tell him not to travel to Europe? Yes, they did. But Speaker has a tape of these people telling him not to travel to Europe not because he was a threat to others, but because they felt they had to warn him not to travel to cover their own rear ends.

I believe that the bottom line here is that this man felt that his best chance of recovery was to get to that TB hospital in Denver. He also believed that he did not present a contagious threat to others. Doctors had repeatedly told him that he was not contagious and not a treat. Then they tell him that he can't come back home.

Put me in his place... same circumstances ... same promises that he wasn't a threat .. and I'm going to do everything I can to get around the government bureaucracy and get to Denver. The American government would just not be worthy of my trust in this situation. The CDC says now that they were working hard to get him home. Somehow I'm having a hard time believing that.

We need to stop hammering this guy and try to figure out why our great Homeland Security system couldn't keep him out of this country. He was on a no-fly list. His name was on a computer at every border crossing. Yet he got through. Let's study that situation, and leave this guy alone to try to recover from his disease.

Oh ... and before we move on, we need to say this. Andy Speaker is a personal injury lawyer. Turn the situation around just a bit. Let someone who was on that airplane contact him for representation. How long before we would see the lawsuits fly!

Bottom line. The guy has a life-threatening disease. He wanted to get home. He was told that he wasn't a threat to other people. He saw the impossible American government bureaucracy getting in his way. He did what he had to do to protect himself. You would do the same.

AL GORE AND THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE

It looks like I agreed with OwlGore for about minute this week when he criticized Americans' obsession with celebrity gossip. Well he is back to his liberal bit-government self again. This time he is joining the ranks of Fairness Doctrine supporters.

On CBS' "Early Show" with Harry Smith, Al Gore said, "the first concerns among defenders of democracy arose with radio. And that's why the equal time provision and the fairness doctrine and the public interest standard were put in place here. Those protections were almost completely removed during President Reagan's term."

There you have it. OwlGore feels that the government should set the "public interest standards" for radio shows like this one. Well, maybe I am a low man on the totem poll, but liberals loathe the conservative influence in talk radio. They just can't stand the fact that people like Hannity, Limbaugh, Ingraham, and even little old me can get up here and yap for hours and hours and they can't do a darned thing to limit what I talk about.

What is so different about what Hugo Chavez in doing in Venezuela? Weren't those pretty much the same words that Hugo used when he seized the nation's most popular television station, a station critical of his rule? Chavez said he was "democratizing" the public's airwaves? Gore excuses his desire to shut down talk radio by referring "defenders of democracy."

Al is losing his political touch here. Sure, there was no real secret that he, along with the rest of the left, wants to shut down talk radio. After all, every attempt at bringing a successful left-wing talk show to the airwaves has met with failure. So, the rule in government is if you can't beat 'em, shut 'em down. But just how stupid do you have to be to voice your threat to shut down talk radio just days after your leftist fellow traveler Hugh Chavez shut down an opposition television station in Venezuela? And then you use virtually the same language that Chavez used to justify your plans?

Poor Al Gore. Perhaps he was listening yesterday when I covered the news story about global warming on Neptune.

THE DANGERS OF DOING 'NOTHING' ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Posted by Bobby Eberle

In a recent statement to the media, the #2 Republican in the Senate, Trent Lott of Mississippi, said in reference to the immigration deal brokered by the White House and a select group of senators, that the “only thing that’s unacceptable is to do nothing.”

So… it’s unacceptable, even dangerous to do “nothing,” about illegal immigration? Let’s take a look at what doing “nothing” actually does for us.

Last year, the Congress passed a bill which the president signed creating close to 800 miles of security fencing along America’s southern border. The “grand bargain,” as it’s being called in the Senate, calls for hundreds fewer miles of border fencing. Hmmm… let’s see… this means by doing “nothing” and not passing this terrible immigration bill, we actually get MORE border fence. That doesn’t sound unacceptable or dangerous to me.

Next, let’s look at employer enforcement. There are numerous laws on the books right now to crack down on the hiring of illegal aliens. What’s lacking, of course, is the political will to enforce those laws. For some reason, the White House and some members of the Senate want America to believe that with the new bill will come a new courage to enforce those laws? Show of hands… how many believe that??? So, by doing “nothing,” we still have laws against hiring illegal aliens and still have an administration with no spine for enforcement. I guess it’s not really dangerous or unacceptable to not pass the bill in this case either… let’s just enforce the laws we have.

How about economics? The White House says there are jobs Americans simply won’t do… that we NEED cheap labor and this Senate bill is the way to go. First of all, this is ridiculous. Pay a real wage for the hard work, and Americans would do it. Oh… prices would rise, you say? How much are we paying now in taxes for health care, social services, education, and more for illegal aliens? Imagine not having to pay all those extras taxes… I’d pay a little bit more for my oranges if that were the case.

In addition, the “temporary” worker plan does more than provide for cheap labor to come into America. According to the bill, each “temporary” worker is allowed to bring his spouse and children with him. Thus, the temporary worker has now become a permanent family in America which will likely draw more social services. The bill has yet to address the problem of “anchor babies,” so if these temporary workers have children in America, those children are now U.S. citizens. That doesn’t sound very temporary to me.

Then, there is the concept of deporting those who continue to break the law. As I noted in a previous posting, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that “illegal immigrants living in the United States who don’t try to gain legal worker status will be forced to leave.”

“The people who don’t apply and don’t get the Z visa are going to be hunted down and they’re going to get deported,” Chertoff told FOX News. “So there’s a very clear choice: You can either bring yourself into the system and find, you know, safety, pay your fine, and work within the law, or you can stay outside the law and we’re going to focus our attention on those people and deport them.”

Now, one has to ask… How many of the 12-20 million illegal aliens will decide it’s better to keep the status quo than go through the hassles of a Z Visa? It will likely be millions. What the administration and Senate “leaders” are saying is that with the passage of this bill, America will deport the law breakers. Wait a second… Didn’t they say it was impractical to consider mass deportation? Isn’t that what they are saying they will do if the new bill is passed? Ok, then let’s go after law breakers now and deport them! We don’t need a new bill to do that, do we?

We have the laws in place, both old and recent, to increase the level of Border Patrol Agents, to construct hundreds of miles of security fencing, and to punish employers for illegal hiring practices. We can deport law-breakers now, and we have a system that allows for legal immigration. Add a strong dose of political cajones, and not passing this bill doesn’t seem so “dangerous” or “unacceptable” to me.

PRESIDENT BUSH AND "EMPTY RHETORIC"

By Michelle Malkin

The Founding Fathers: They meant what they wrote

President Bush attacked immigration enforcement proponents for engaging in "empty political rhetoric"--and the NYTimes was all too happy to report on it:

President Bush today accused opponents of his proposed immigration measure of fear-mongering to defeat it in Congress, and took on his own conservative political base as he did so.

“If you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill’s an amnesty bill,” Mr. Bush said this afternoon at a training center for border enforcement agents located in this town in Georgia’s southeastern corner. “That’s empty political rhetoric, trying to frighten our citizens.”

President Bush, meet the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

President Bush, meet Article IV, Section IV of the U.S. Constitution:

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

President Bush, meet your oath of office in accordance with Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Talk about "empty rhetoric," President Bush.

HUGO CHAVEZ AND THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE

Jealousy is an ugly thing. And jealousy is especially ugly when you have freely elected leaders from a country that prides itself on a dedication to freedom and individual liberty being openly jealous of a dictator.

Such is the case with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

Hugo the Horrible has now accomplished in Venezuela what Democrats only wish they could accomplish here at home. He has silenced a broadcast outlet that was critical of his regime. Sunday night Venezuela's most popular television station went off the air. Why? Because Chavez decided that their broadcast license would not be renewed. Radio Caracas Television was the only TV station in Venezuela that was broadcast nationwide ... and Radio Caracas Television was critical of Hugo Chavez.

Are you starting to get the picture here?

Chavez says he is "democratizing" the public's airways. He also said that this TV station was a threat to his country. Wow! Now doesn't that sound very much like the things that the left is saying about talk radio in the U.S.?

What Chavez accomplished by edict the left in this country hopes to accomplish through legislation and regulation.

Just be patient, my friends on the left. Your time is coming. The impotent Republicans pose no threat to you in 2008. In the meantime, just sit back and admire your friend Hugo.

We should note that Venezuelans are protesting Chavez' actions. He'll tolerate some protests --- but let's hope these people know just how far they can push it. My wife and I were being shown around Caracas many years ago when we noticed some demonstrators. It was quite a spectacle to watch ... until the gunfire started. Our guide rushed us into a building to keep us safe.

How soon before Chavez answers these protestors with gunfire?

Hold on another second here. We can't let this segment go without mentioning that Hugo Chavez is the hero of such great Americans as Cindy Sheehan (see below), Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte and others. Great Americans all. Coming soon, don't miss Michael Moore's exciting documentary on the evils of Radio Caracas Television!