Illegal Immigration

If I were President, I would represent and protect all Americans, but wouldn't do too much for those who are not.

Yes, I know. We are a nation of immigrants. The strength upon which America's greatness is built is the diversity of it's peoples. There are only about 3 million Native Americans out of our national population of over 300 million who did not descend from relatives who emigrated to America at one time or another. Personally I am only a third-generation American, descending from Grandparents who came to this country from Russia and Hungary. My wife's mother was born in Germany and came to America at the age of 17. That doesn't make us less American than those who came over on the Mayflower; If anything, it makes us more thoroughly American, another fiber in the fabric of America.

I have no problem with the current generation of immigrants to our country. I understand their desire to find a better life like my mother-in-law, or to flee persecution and find safety like my grandfather. I understand the great lure of the promise of America, where wages are higher, living conditions are better, and freedoms are broader than the countries from which they travel.

I do have a problem, though, with those who come here and stay here unlawfully. My grandfather came to America in 1906 on a steamer ship and was processed with the throngs at Ellis Island. My mother-in-law obtained a visa to work in the U.S. as an au pair for a family in California, and when she met her future husband and decided to stay in the country she followed the steps to obtain permanent residency status and be issued her green card. My issue is with those who enter the country illegally and stay here illegally.

I'm not necessarily one of those who believes that illegals take more from the economy than they add to it. That's not the basis of my argument with them, and to be honest, the book is still open on that question. I don't believe that they drive down the price of labor and steal jobs from legal Americans either. I think you would be hard-pressed to find any white or black citizen willing to work in the produce fields at any price, or who would be satisified to work for years at a restaurant as a dishwasher.

My problem with them is that by entering the country illegally they are de facto criminals. They knowingly broke the law to get here. Their very existence here is an affront to those of us here legally. And what's worse, after they establish themselves, they think that they have rights here. A right to work, a right to collect social services, a right to seek medical care they cannot pay for, a right to be represented, and a right to stay here.

In May 2006 immigrant's rights groups staged "The Great American Boycott, A Day Without An Immigrant", urging all immigrants to not work that day, not buy anything or sell anything. It was to show the extent to which the American economy benefits from the contributions from illegal immigrants, and to demand legislation for amnesty for those illegals and a way to formalize their status here.

Are you kidding me! That's like crack dealers withholding their drugs for a day, forcing hundreds of thousands of addicts to emergency rooms with withdrawal symptoms to prove the drug dealer's value to society and then demanding the legalization of their crack dealing. The police and immigrations enforcement should have cordoned off the streets and funneled them onto buses bound for the nearest border.

They thought that by showing their numbers that politicians would be forced to consider their demands. Well, the politicians don't represent them, they represent their constituents, those who are citizens here legally. I hope the immigrant's rights groups didn't mean to imply that all those millions of illegal aliens would somehow register to vote illegally and demand their rights at the ballot box. I hope that politicians are smart enough to not be influenced by the tactics of people who are already acting criminally just by their presence here.

So, how do you solve the problem of illegal immigration? By taking away what they came here for. Many states, including California where I live, have legislation in place that requires you show proof of your right to work in this country. The problem is that there is no meaningful enforcement mechanism for these laws. Business complains that the burden of enforcing immigration laws falls on them. Likewise, schools, hospitals and public service departments have all complained that they don't want to be placed on the front-lines of the immigration battle by being tasked with proving residency before providing services. Stemming the tide of illegal immigration is a huge job, and everyone will have to do some of the work whether they want to or not. If illegals cannot find a job here, if they are turned away from schools and public government services, if we take away the very things that they came here unlawfully to obtain, they will stop coming. They will go back.

If I were President I would enforce the immigration laws of this country and insist that everyone else does, too. And oh, yeah, I would change that stupid provision of the law that says that any baby born in America is a citizen. I would change it to say that any baby born here to a mother here legally is entitled to citizenship. No more 'anchor babies'.