Wasting Time With Alex

Illegal Immigration

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Illegal Immigration and a National ID system

I was driving into work this morning and listening to a local talk show and the topic being discussed was a national ID card. The people calling in to make their point seemed equally divided over the whole idea. You had your usual privacy advocates that felt it was a given that the government was going to abuse such and ID system, and you had those that felt it would actually despite the privacy problems and potential for abuse be a valuable tool. The most common arguments of the proponents of such an ID system, including the arguments by the host of the program - and they are totally right about this - was that government already had all kinds of information on its citizens, and especially the law abiding ones. If you drive, own a passport, have been married, own a bank account or credit card, pay bills, own a fire arm, and file taxes - all things most law abiding citizens do - there is no way to avoid the government collecting a ton of information about you. And even if you are not such a law abiding citizen, these many and broad requirements for documentation to function in our society make it nigh impossible to hide from government effectively.

So the privacy argument is moot. It still does not do away with the potential for abuse that such a system would give our government, but that is why we have the second amendment. I should add still to that last thought. On the other side such an ID system does have some values, but that is predicated on the system being used to stop certain abuses. But what struck me as ridiculous was the belief held by many proponents of such an ID system that government would do exactly that when it comes to illegal immigration. I am one of the first people to point out that our immigration system is broke and in dire need of fixing. But I am also of the opinion that the people that circumvent it should not be rewarded for their lack of respect for our laws, but punished for doing that. No matter how good their intentions or their efforts after the fact are. The point is that they broke a law, and allowing people to break laws they find inconvenient, leads to nothing but anarchy. But I digress. The issue is how so many believe a national ID system will suddenly make the government care about enforcing immigration laws.

If your argument is that government already is able to collect so much information about its citizens that a national ID system will simply be a minimal step up on the already existing level of intrusion, then please answer me why government is not already able to control illegal immigration? The answer is simple: they do not want to do so. Democrats like the illegals because of many reasons. They help enforce the images of a poverty stricken populous that requires government intervention to address all the evils of society. From lack of insurance and the need for “free healthcare” to every other two bit socialist program intended to make the people dependant on government hand outs can be made more urgently needed when you pad the numbers with illegals living outside the system. While many come here for a crack at the American dream the fact remains many also suck, and suck very hard, at the government’s teat. Often by design. And do not forget the illegal, and often repeat voters, the democrats could not win elections without either.

Republicans love the illegals because it is huge force of cheap labor. A sad but direct response to government’s attempts to regulate the market and doing a terrible job of it. And many of them also see an influx of a few score of million potential workers as the only alternative to shore up a social security system that will soon have way too many people taking out compared to those paying in. Conservatives have given up on their attempts to do away with that SS Ponzi scheme and have settled for prolonging the agony and leaving the though decisions up to someone else down the line. They see that in the near future SS will either end up paying out so little it means nothing, be forced to take such a huge chunk of the income of those still working to stay viable that it basically becomes a disincentive for work, or simply goes belly up. To correct that they are hoping to skew the ratio of those paying in to those collecting back in favor of those paying in for at least a few more decades. Stupid by any kind of logic because what we need is for SS to be killed off and people to get their own way of saving for their retirement if we want to prevent that system from going belly up and leaving one or 2 generations to suffer the consequences on that dependency.

Anyway, back to the national ID system and the lame argument of how it would help enforce or curb illegal immigration. If the government has no incentive to curb illegal immigration right now, and while it has so much information about its citizens already, and turns a blind eye to the entire illegal immigration issue, why do we thing a national ID system will suddenly make them change their minds? Basically the people claming that such a system would be a powerful tool to combat illegal immigration forget that the only reason we do not have a much better response to illegal immigration is that government itself has no desire or reason to enforce the law. Getting such a system will not change that underlying problem. So it is a dumb argument to begin with. it is like the constant lawmaking around gun violence when existing gun laws are not enforced. It is meaningless. Let it go. If your concern is illegal immigration address the problem now by making our government change its mind about enforcing it more rigorously first. Everything else will be a waste of time.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Why who is in the WH matters.

Many of my fellow conservatives have taken the stance that since McCain is no worse than your average democrat when it comes to his social beliefs, showing your dissatisfaction with him by helping a democrat win the WH and then get the blame for the damage the supposed socialist policies both they and McCain would enact will help the conservative cause. I think these people are crazy because they are hoping that a shift to the right in Congress would somehow check a donkey in the WH. i am not sure why they feel so assured Congress will go right in the next election. But that is an argument for a different time. What I am writing about is the presidential power to appoint judges to the SCOTUS. It is a given IMO that the next president will appoint at least 2 judges. All you need to do is read this article about the effects of the Medellin v. Texas SACOTUS decision and this other one about how that decision translates to the US ratifying the Kyoto protocol or some other such international treaty would have played out if the left had been the majority on the SCOTUS and abdicated our Constitutional rights to some international body like the ICJ. Read them both.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Not again!

Please stake, behead, fill the mouth with holy wafers, and then burn this vampires corpse and get it killed once and for all. The current problem with illegals is a disaster, but this bill only serves to exacerbate it. If the choice is to keep the disaster we have now or adopt this bill which will make it worse though, I pick the status quo. How about a damn bill where we secure the borders, cut the illegals off from the ridiculous social spending programs that cost us tax payers billions if not trillions each year, and start deporting the many criminal elements, first. Once we are certain that we are really going to stop illegal immigration because we see these things enforced we can talk about the other crap like the guest worker’s program and allowing some to pay a fine and become residents. Got dang cabrones in Congress. I for sure do not want a death pact for the conservative movement and this country.

Trojan Horse

Friday, June 08, 2007

ALLELUJAH!

DING DONG THE WICKED WITCH IS DEAD! Let’s face it. This was nothing but an open ended amnesty bill that would have been disastrous for conservatives and our culture based on immigrants that came here to work hard and pursue the American dream. This disaster of a bill would have allowed as many as 30 to 40 million people to come here over the next decade under the pretense they were doing so to join us in pursuing the American dream, but only a fool would have accepted that story. The fact is that too many of the people this bill was targeted to come to America now because of the socialist handouts the democrats have given them, at the American tax payers expense, and all this bill would have done is guaranteed democrats a voting majority as these people became citizens (or as often already happens many voted even when they should not be voting). Personally I would love to see a bill that expands the amount of legal immigrants that are allowed to come to the US each year, doubling if not tripling the number we allow and vastly improving the process so both the experience and our ability to screen out bad apples become better, and that we concentrate on people that come here to pursue the American dream, and not just help the left make this place another socialist dump like too many of the countries they could be coming from. People that have felt the yoke and evils of communism - like the Cubans, Chinese, Vietnamese, and even some of the African nations - and those that have seen the disaster & stagnation caused by socialism - like many that want to escape the socialist dumps of Western Europe - and want a shot at the American dream is what we need. Not a whole load of people that will help the left turn us into one of these dumps that the people we really want are trying to flee from. Anyway, I am glad to see this monster of a bill die a gruesome death.

Anyway, now comes the battle to make sure that the left doesn’t get to paint us as simply being racists. AP is already hard at work helping that with crap like this:

Most Republicans voted to block Democrats’ efforts to advance the measure. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who had made no secret of his distaste for parts of the bill, quickly pulled it from the floor and moved on to other business, leaving its future uncertain.

Of course Reid wanted this bill. As I pointed out it would bring in 30 to 40 million people over the next decade and they would break by a 3 to 1 ratio for democrats (based on the current trends). That’s 23 to 30 million more eventual votes for democrats and their socialist agenda. AP, and the MSM in general, don’t think that it was thus a good idea for the bill to be blocked. And do not be fooled by the concessions that were supposedly put in to appease republicans. AP states as a matter of fact that republicans got what they wanted.

The legislation would tighten borders and institute a new system to prevent employers from hiring undocumented workers, in addition to giving up to 12 million illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status.

But what they do not say that we were promised the same things in that amnesty bill they rammed down our throats the 1980s and got none of it. In fact, the major reason most of us conservatives opposed this bill flat out was that it was obvious to us that as soon as this horrible bill was passed, the left would likely pass another bunch of bills stripping or repealing funding for any and all of these issues that they claimed were there to protect the border. The fact that Ted Kennedy is all over this bill is sure fire sign that it is bad for this country. Keep it dead because it is worse than what we have now. Fix legal immigration and enforce our illegal immigration rules. Get us people that want to keep the American dream going, not a flood of socialists that will allow the left to force their will on a public that has resisted them and is turning away from their lies finally.

Friday, May 18, 2007

What are they thinking?

Congress has lost its mind. They have just given amnesty to anywhere from 10-12 million illegals and so much as made it possible for 30 million or so total to immigrate to the US. The donkeys like Ted Kennedy are in heaven because that is about 25 million more leaches to suck at the government’s teat and thus 25 million votes for his party. Why the idiots in the WH and those working for them like might think this is a good plan baffles the hell out of me. They must be truly deranged. And if John McCain has not ended his chances to win the way he is applauding this idiotic bill should do so.

This idiotic bill, in addition to loading the electorate with so many future democrats that it guarantees this country will eventually end up like one of those failed European or Latin American states, is a huge injustice to those that do go through the legal process to become citizens. Heck, even the Mexicans doing it the right way can see that:

At the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, which hands out more temporary visas than any other consulate or embassy in the world, Edmundo Bermudez, a 36-year-old from the northern city of Durango, said the plan rewards those who have already entered the United States illegally, while shutting out those who stayed home hoping to gain legal passage.

How humiliating for those that follow the legal process, a horribly slow, costly, and dispiriting process, to see us again reward the law breakers. The message here is that ignoring the law pays. There is no way to spin this otherwise. I hope this bill goes down in flames because it is a disaster. What a joke! Is this how the republican party intends to fix Social Security since democrats refuse to allow us to privatize this Ponzi scheme? Finally I have seen something I find that is worse than the situation we have right now.