A Pathway to Devastation

As I listen to the prominent voices championing Comprehensive Immigration Reform, whether they be among the politicos or the opinion makers, there is a universal theme. The theme is that we owe a path to citizenship to 12 million migrants who violated our immigration laws. It’s as if amnesty is not a matter of generosity, but instead an entitlement. The illegals deserve legal status because they went to the trouble of slipping across our border and succeeded in eluding our law enforcement system. As one example of this, the Wall Street Journal reports that Richard Trumka, head of the labor federation whose more than 50 unions represent 11 million workers, told reporters Thursday that:

“as far as organized labor is concerned, full citizenship is non negotiable as part of an immigration bill. This is a top priority for America’s unions, because a road map to citizenship for all those who are Americans in every way is critical for working people. We’re opening our arms at the AFL-CIO to all of those workers and saying they deserve citizenship.”

‘Americans in every way?’ Where the hell do you live, Mr. Trumka? Has it become a universally accepted American virtue to steal someone else’s identity so that you can take a job you aren’t entitled to have? If they are ‘Americans in every way’, why am I having to ‘press 2 for English?’

I also find it remarkable that these Senators are positioning this aspect of ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform’ as a prerequisite for any further hardening of our border defenses. It’s basically a bizarre, juvenile posture. “If we don’t get legalization of the 12 million, enhanced border protection and enforcement is off the table”. Such a defective sense of priorities is scandalous, if not outright treasonous.

Moreover, you may have heard noises from Marco Rubio that sound like he’s balking on moving forward if S744 doesn’t put triggers based on beefed up border enforcement – he’s not. He’s been lying to Americans, while telling Univision an entirely different story. Here’s the English translation of his interview with the Spanish language network on Sunday:

“Let’s be clear,” Rubio said. “Nobody is talking about preventing the legalization. The legalization is going to happen. That means the following will happen: First comes the legalization. Then come the measures to secure the border. And then comes the process of permanent residence.”

There are several other cards in this hand, to which I will address further posts – but let’s begin here. Why do I owe illegal aliens a green card, much less a path to citizenship (amnesty)? I mow my own lawn, perform my own handyman work, wash my own car, take care of my own children and expect that employers use legal citizens for all the work that goes on behind the scenes at the restaurant, when I’m not preparing my own meals and cleaning up the mess.

I didn’t lure anyone into this country with off-the-books employment or social benefits their own country doesn’t provide them. Not only do I not owe them citizenship or anything that resembles it, they are actually imposing a burden on me and my fellow citizens. We pay inordinately high taxes to support the social services that the illegals are using.

According to documented research conducted by the Heritage Foundation, Illegal households use, on the average – $24,721.00 in government benefits, while paying in only an estimated $10,334.00 in taxes, leaving a net deficit, unfunded mandate and a liability to the taxpayer of $14,387.00. Pardon me if that doesn’t quite seem to me like a benefit to the economy. – it’s more like a ball and chain for the taxpayer.

I’ve yet to hear of any other would be immigrants to this country that Senator Chuck Schumer thinks ‘deserve’ citizenship beside the ones who managed to cross our border. How about the millions who don’t have access to a border with the United States that they can cross unlawfully? There is a separate standard for them. I have relatives in Europe who would jump at the chance to come here to find economic opportunity. They must patiently wait in line, while the politicos devise a preferential arrangement for those who arrived here uninvited.

The entire premise of this concept of obligatory citizenship is absurd and unfounded. First of all, citizenship is not an entitlement and no one ‘deserves’ it merely because they have gone through the effort to violate our immigration laws. There is no enumerated right or imperative in the Constitution binding us to hand out Green cards or immigrant status. That’s a disingenuous tactic of sophistry, but it’s quite transparent to anyone who is actively thinking and not just passively absorbing political correctness. John McCain says “We need to provide a path to citizenship”. I can’t seem to discover any logical reasons given why ‘we need’ to do such a thing. So do we ‘need’ to grant amnesty?

The ‘Gang of Eight’ may want or desire to do so, but it does not automatically follow that any obligation exists. I do understand the reasoning behind the approach they are taking. It’s assumed that if a phrase, no matter how erroneous or illogical it is – is repeated with enough false earnestness, urgency and frequency; at some point it will attain the status of not only popular wisdom, but inevitability. You nearly always hear the word ‘fair’ somehow conjoined with the phrase ‘path to citizenship’, but the fairness being touted always implies preferential treatment for one group to the disadvantage of another. Doesn’t that do violence to the fundamental principal of fairness?

Yet the politcobabble keeps being repeated ad nauseum. The latest Senator to reveal herself as a willing imbiber of the Purple, sugar laden beverage that is offered in exchange for betrayal of this country is Senator Kelly Ayotte of Maine. The Los Angeles Times, happily reports:

She praised the bill’s pathway to citizenship for immigrants who are here without legal status as “tough but fair,” saying they would “go to the back of the line, pay taxes, pass a criminal background check, learn English.”

Ayotte is too well educated to believe a word of it, but some arm-twisting and horse trading has without a doubt, taken place behind the scenes. Illegals don’t owe any taxes because they have large families and are in the income brackets where instead of tax liability, they are actually qualified for tax benefits like the Earned Income Credit. So, we won’t be getting a penny of taxes out of even one of them. Go to the back of the line? – Hell will freeze over first. Learn English? That’s not only a lie, but an insult on top of a lie.

Why do we really need amnesty? Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey explains:

‘First, Americans support it in poll after poll. Secondly, Latino voters expect it. Thirdly Democrats want it. And fourth Republicans need it,’ Menendez said.”

Well, 2 out of 4 is 50% anyway. Americans do not support amnesty ‘in poll after poll’. Do ‘Latino voters’ expect it? That’s a question that is up for debate. From what I’ve seen there is a not inconsiderable number of Americans of Latin American origin that aren’t thrilled about doubling down on more wage degradation. Democrats want it – yes, I’ll admit that, no question. That is to say, the Democrat party wants it. Democrat voters, especially center / right are not unanimously in favor of awarding citizenship to illegals.

‘Republicans need it’? Republicans need amnesty like I need a 1986 Suzuki Sidekick. Remember those? A small gust of breeze or someone a few pounds heavier in the passenger seat and ‘a’ over tea kettle goes the vehicle. 1986 was the year that Republicans first got snookered on amnesty, just as some of you got snookered on that jaunty little deathtrap.

America won’t recover from the next round.