Monday, June 24, 2013

Why a Rush to Floor?

The rush to pass a 1,200-page immigration bill argues for sending it to committee and letting the normal process of negotiations and amendments--and a conference committee to resolve difference between the houses in the end--to be followed. Do we really want to find out what is in this bill after it is passed?

I'm generally a pro-immigration kind of guy. We built our nation on immigration. But I want border security before I want immigration. This is no way to do it:

There are lots of reasons to believe that most of what is promised in the current so-called comprehensive immigration-reform bill won’t be honored if it is passed by the full Congress and signed by the president.

It breaks my heart to think of people who know no other country than America being sent "back" to Mexico because they came here illegally with their parents. I want to make the exception and not send that person to Mexican exile.

But if we are making that exception 100 times every day for the rest of this century, that's a disaster and makes a mockery of our laws. If we know that illegal immigration is throttled and only legal immigration at a level and under conditions we set is taking place, we can easily make those exceptions to keep people--including children--who don't know any other country but America, in America.

So I think this whole complicated bill is horrible. Immigration reform should be done in two stages--first, seal the border; and then create provisions to legalize those who are already here under conditions we set that don't encourage more illegal immigration. All this complicated two-stages-in-one legislating will inevitably just allow pro-legalization legislators to pretend we've sealed the border and go from there.

There is no way I trust Senator Schumer or President Obama on this. Or Senator Rubio, for that matter.