California Conservative

Former Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts has written a great op-ed in today’s Las Vegas Review-Journal about immigration. Here’s the key graph:

The whole immigration reform/amnesty/path to citizenship/border security debate has gotten really messy.

My position is similar to one I advanced a couple of years ago on the matter of lobbying reform on Capitol Hill: If we would just enforce the laws on the books, there would be no reason for this debate. But because of the sins of our fathers, the issue is more complicated than that today.

Yes, it’s more complicated today than in yesteryear but the path to immigration reform is still fairly straightforward. Watts is right in saying that there wouldn’t be a reason for this debate if we got serious about enforcing existing laws. Instead, we’ve been given a promise that they’ll get serious about enforcing the existing laws, which isn’t the same by any stretch of the imagination.

As I said here, we won’t be fooled again. This time, we’re demanding that the first step taken must be a sustained, persistent improvement in enforcing the existing laws. Only after that’s happened will we move onto the other provisions of the bill.

Think of it like you think of a meal in a restaurant: Enforcing the borders is the entree. Without that, you have a substantial empty spot in your tummy. The various visas in the ‘Grand Bargain’ is the dessert. You don’t order dessert until you’re getting close to finishing the entree. The path to citizenship is the topping to the dessert.

It seems rather foolish to order dessert when you order a big steak. It makes perfect sense, however, to order dessert once you’re getting close to finishing that entree. And you surely don’t order whipped cream or ice cream for your dessert until you’re still hungry enough to finish it all off.

One thing that hasn’t changed is Ted Kennedy’s role in the immigration debate:

In 1965, Ted Kennedy was chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization. He essentially directed President Lyndon B. Johnson’s immigration policy.

A younger, slimmer, dark-haired Kennedy, in supporting an immigration reform bill, said, “I want to comment on what this bill will not do. First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same.”

In 1986, speaking on behalf of another immigration bill, Kennedy said, “This amnesty will give citizenship to only 1.3 million illegal aliens. We will secure the borders. We will never again bring forth an amnesty bill like this.”

Now, another 21 years later, we revisit the debate, and we are dealing with 10 times the amount of immigrants Kennedy promised in 1986. If we don’t act now, I dread the debate 21 years hence.

McCain’s and Kennedy’s whining that “the status quo is unacceptable” is just a different way of saying “Surely, we’ve got to do something.” That’s been the ‘rallying cry’ for more bad legislation than any other saying. I know that the status quo is unacceptable. I also know that the legislation that Kennedy, NCLR and McCain cobbled together is equally unacceptable.

As I said here, NCLR isn’t interested in law enforcement. Here’s a major part of their agenda:

NCLR conducts immigration policy analyses and advocacy activities in its role as a civil rights organization. The primary focus of these activities is to encourage immigration policies that are fair and nondiscriminatory, to encourage family reunification, and to enact necessary reforms to the current immigration system.

In other words, NCLR is quietly advocating that the borders not be enforced while Ted Kennedy is making the rounds saying that this legislation is focused on border enforcement.

I’m going to reword King’s favorite Tim Pawlenty quote to give Teddy some advice: Push away from the open borders buffet. Set your amnesty fork down.

I’d also add this advice: Send this legislation back to committee. Most importantly, get this done right. After all, the status quo is unacceptable.

Technorati Tags: Ted Kennedy, NCLR, Family Reunification, J.C. Watts, Illegal Immigration, Border Enforcement, John McCain, Amnesty

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Crime, Homeland Security, Immigration, Liberals, Special Interests, Subversives, W. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.