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Response to "Immigration Bill Backers Try Again Despite Jobless Rate"

By Michael Cutler

I have attached a news article that appears in yesterday's edition of the Washington Times and was written by one of that newspapers outstanding journalists who has been covering the immigration beat for many years.

The article that Stephen Dinan wrote reports on how members of the Congress are absolutely refusing to represent the best interests of the citizens of our nation and are, even as so many Americans are unemployed or under-employed, pushing for a massive amnesty program known as "Comprehensive Immigration Reform."

Those of you who are familiar with my writings and public appearances at a wide variety of venues including when I have testified before Congressional hearings and before hearings conducted by state legislatures and appeared on various television and radio programs and have appeared before live audiences know that I have consistently opposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform for a number of important reasons. First and foremost, of course is the national security issue. There is no way that our beleaguered adjudicators at USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) the agency that would administer this insane program would be able to reliably know anything about the millions of illegal aliens who would undoubtedly seek to acquire lawful immigrant status and ultimately, United States citizenship through Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

They have no official documentation to substantiate their true names or even their true nationalities. Therefore there would be no reliable way of determining if these illegal aliens whose simple presence in our country represents a violation of our nation's laws and borders, are fugitives from justice in other countries. There would be no reliable way of knowing if these illegal aliens are affiliated with criminal or terrorist organizations.

There would also not be any reliable way of knowing when these illegal aliens entered the United States. They will have no doubt, used one or more, stolen or fictitious identities, making it all but impossible to know when, where or how they actually entered the United States without conduction a field investigation. Yet with the huge numbers of illegal aliens involved and the small number of agents available to deal with the onslaught of applications, all that would be done is a "background check."

As I have noted on so many previous occasions a background check does not entail having investigators knocking on doors and interviewing those who might know these illegal aliens. A background check would simply require that the applicant's fingerprints and name he (she) provides on the application be run through a computerized database.
If the fingerprints come up "clean," that is to say does not match any known criminal and if the name provided by the applicant is fictitious, then the system would automatically deem the alien to be okay for a temporary identity document that would immediately enable that alien to apply for and receive a Social Security card, a driver's license and other such documents.

As insane as this is, I want to take a moment to explain another aspect of Comprehensive Immigration Reform that is seldom, if ever discussed, but first I want you to consider that the unscrupulous employer who intentionally hires illegal aliens does so in order to exploit their vulnerability. This sort of employer generally pays the illegal aliens substandard wages under substandard and, indeed, all too often illegally hazardous conditions. In many instances these employers fail to make the appropriate payments to Workman's Compensation and other such payments. This is all about greed.

Illegal aliens are certainly easy to exploit because they are desperate to secure any job that they can so that they can send their money to their families back home. This, of course, raises the issue of the fact that every year foreign workers, both legal and illegal seek to send as much money out of country and our nation's economy as possible. It has been estimated that more than 100 billion dollars is wired or otherwise sent from the United States to other countries around the world by foreign workers. This is money that is lost to our economy. This is money that is not spent in the United States and not invested in the United States. This is money that is not earned by American citizens or lawful immigrants.

Now here is the really insane part of the proposal for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. This is not speculation but actually occurred in the wake of the Amnesty of 1986.

When aliens who had previously been illegally present in the United States were granted lawful status, they were no longer exploitable.
In many cases these previously illegal aliens approached their employers and told them that they would certainly want to continue working for them but that they now wanted to be paid prevailing wages. They wanted the appropriate deductions taken from their salaries. They wanted to be compensated appropriately for working overtime and on weekends.

In short, these previously vulnerable aliens were no longer vulnerable and demanded fair and equitable treatment by their employers. In many of these instances, guess what happened? The employers fired these now legal aliens and hired the next wave of illegal aliens!

Now stop and ask yourself the very obvious question: "What would happen if 10 million or 20 million legalized aliens demanded proper wages and working conditions?"

If you guessed they would be fired, you would be right! The unscrupulous employers would not go without cheap exploitable labor; however, they would simply seek to hire the next wave of illegal aliens who would easily run our porous borders hoping that they would ultimately take advantage of the next amnesty!

How much would unemployment and welfare cost our government to care for the newly unemployed legalized aliens?

How much would this further drive wages down as too many workers would be forced to chase far too few jobs?

Incidentally, how many of the displaced workers would be members of the various minority groups in the United States?

Comprehensive Immigration Reform is nothing more than an attempt to grab political power by politicians who do not give a damn about anything or anyone but themselves and their quest for power!

Please pay attention to the names of the members of the House of Representatives and the United States Senate who back Comprehensive Immigration Reform. These politicians do not represent Americans and lawful immigrants who are trying so desperately to keep their heads above water and support their families!

Once again, Congressional Representative Lamar Smith, the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee and former Chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee demonstrates commonsense and leadership borne of his concerns for the plight of the average American. He was quoted in the article I have attached below.

Here is Lamar Smith's quote: "With 15 million Americans out of work, it's hard to believe that anyone would give amnesty to 12 million illegal immigrants," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. "Even the open-borders crowd agrees that illegal immigrants take jobs from American workers, particularly poor and disadvantaged citizens and legal immigrants. This is exactly why we need to oppose amnesty."

Can you imagine, Congressional representatives who actually represent their constituents and, in fact, all Americans!

It is now less than one year until the next federal election, do you know where your representative stands on these critically important issues?

Where illegal aliens and health care are concerned, all too many of our "representatives" apparently favor a policy we have heard about before on another matter- it was called, "Don't ask: don't tell!"

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

Any politician who refuses to work to secure our borders and create an immigration system that has integrity is either corrupt or too dumb to keep his (her) job. Any politician, irrespective of party affiliation who favors health care for illegal aliens and/or Comprehensive Immigration Reform should be shown the door at the next election!

If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same.

Next year each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. Next year more than one third of the members of the United States Senate will have to face their constituents. They need to be reminded that they work for us, We the People!

However, the practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there. The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines! The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians. I implore you to get involved!

Any American who has lost his job certainly has enough time on his (her) hands to get involved!

Any American who fears the loss of his job must make effective use of his spare time to make certain he keeps his job! (Remember, the job save may be your own!) If this situation concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional "Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation! You need to politely but pointedly, demand to know what they are doing to protect our nation. You need to ask them how they are protecting you and your families. You can also forward this commentary to them. All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are! We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue! You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem! Democracy is not a spectator sport! Lead, follow or get out of the way!

Immigration bill backers try again despite jobless rate by Stephen Dinan