Immigration politics

Posted: Oct 12, 2002 12:00 AM
Just a week after he chastised his fellow Democrats for playing politics with "a life and death issue" on Iraq, Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) is back to playing politics himself on another vital issue: illegal immigration. Congress's minority leader told an audience of nearly a thousand people, according to CNS News, that he would introduce legislation to allow illegal aliens to become legal -- provided they help Democrats regain majority control of Congress. Of course, Gephardt couched his promise in euphemistic terms to camouflage its sordidness, telling the Democrats-in-waiting his legislation would enable "undocumented people" to "earn legalization." But, he added, "We need a Democratic majority to get this up and get it done." As David Ray, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform observed, referring to an illegal alien as an "undocumented immigrant" is "like calling a bank robbery an 'unauthorized withdrawal.'" That is precisely the point. How can we pretend to be serious about protecting our borders when prominent politicians so casually dismiss illegal activity? How can we claim to be fighting the war on terrorism on all fronts when we are unwilling to enforce immigration laws? Everyone knows Democrats rammed through Motor Voter legislation for the barely disguised purpose of registering more state-dependent Democrats -- and that was plenty bad enough. But to compromise our national security and completely ignore the rule of law for the sake of regaining political power is indefensible. Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) supported Gephardt, saying that amnesty legislation would be hard to pass with Republicans in control. "In America," he said, "we should always understand one of the principles. And that is: He who has the most votes dictates the public policy of this country." In saner times those words would make devastating soundbites for Republican congressional candidates throughout the nation. Gephardt and Gutierrez might as well have said, "It's tougher for us to be soft on crime when the rule of law Republicans are in power. Help us get them out so we can erase your criminal acts, and in turn, you can help keep us in power." This type of craven political calculation on the immigration issue is among the outrages Michelle Malkin has exposed in her compelling bestseller "Invasion." Right in the introduction she points the finger at Congress. "The United States Congress," writes Malkin, "pressured by ethnicity lobbyists, corporations, the travel industry and open-borders activists, aided the September 11 terrorists by losing track of foreign students and visitors overstaying their visas. To this day, no such tracking systems have been implemented." This book is growing more relevant every day. Malkin shows that politicians are creative in their pandering. While they can't achieve full-blown amnesty for immigrants, they try to deliver other benefits to placate "ethnic activists." Such benefits encompass "public accommodations for illegal immigrants, including driver's licenses, banking privileges, college tuition breaks, protection from police action, health care, and even American taxpayer-subsidized water stations to ease their illegal journeys across our borders." And if you think Motor-Voter was shameless, you should read about "the $95 million, taxpayer-funded Citizenship USA program under the Clinton-Gore administration." On page 208, Malkin reminds us how Vice President Gore pressured the INS to reduce the wait time for citizenship naturalization from two years to six months "in key states before the 1996 elections." Why? That's a tough one. Because Gore knew the lion's share of them would vote for Democrats -- the party that is hard on those who are hard on crime. But Malkin goes on to reveal an even more disturbing aspect of this saga. Only by waiving criminal background checks could the INS meet this expedited timeline. The result was "the naturalization of thousands of criminal aliens." Now, if that doesn't make your blood boil, you either don't believe it, or your concepts of patriotism and the rule of law are different from mine. Assuming you have no blood pressure difficulties, you simply must get Malkin's book, because you will find that the type of vote pandering in which Dick Gephardt is engaged is just the tip of the iceberg. Read the fact-packed "Invasion," and you'll discover that the first-generation American Michelle Malkin is no alarmist, but the Paula Revere of the illegal immigration crisis delivering a message that must be heeded.
