There’s a Stranger in My House

Imagine for a moment that you came home from work this evening and found a stranger in your house. This stranger had cleaned out your refrigerator, helped himself to your credit cards and drivers license and even erased your Tivo, only to watch what he wanted. You decide that calling 9-11 is your best option, only this person tells you he will not allow it, instead, he wants you to negotiate with him, so that he can arrange to move himself and his family into your guest room.

In the past week, liberal church leaders are campaigning for this very scenario. People like Jim Wallis and Pastor Derrick Harkins want you to believe that this scenario is “protecting families”. Their use of these specific words, code words for a Christian conservative, is intellectually dishonest and meant only to confuse people from the core of the issues in the now, defunct senate immigration bill sponsored by Senators Ted Kennedy and John McCain.

Immigration reform is important, it is important for the security of the country. If a realistic plan that does not involve amnesty is put into action, the public will be satisfied and the process of getting this chaos under control will begin.

While the issue is complex, I would offer a few simple suggestions:

1. Secure the border with the 700 miles of fence and additional border agents already apportioned and signed off on in the Duncan Hunter legislation. Homeland security already has their appropriations, thus the politicking is not needed and this would create a sense of law and order that has been absent for some time.
2. Require all those here illegally to register within 60 days; anyone not registered within this 60 day period would be deemed a criminal which would allow for much stronger penalties. Those who register would be issued a temporary card and consent for a background check. Those who had criminal offenses of any kind would be deported immediately.
3. Enact stiff penalties for employers who hire anyone not authorized to be here.
4. End the “anchor baby” policy, thus discouraging those from sneaking over the border for the purposes of giving birth to a baby, who, under the current law is considered a U.S. citizen.

I realize that this is a simplified plan, but given the fact those in favor of the now defunct bill could not even agree to an amendment that denied amnesty to gang members and those convicted of felonies, I think these basic step would serve as a starting point and immediately begin the task of securing our border. What this plan does not address, is the overwhelming distress that this would cause to the Social Security system. According to the Heritage Foundation, under the bill sponsored by Kennedy-McCain, the net cost of this plan would result in $2.6 million dollars in retirement benefits.

The immigration issue is a problem of gigantic proportion and tremendous consequence and one that I urge everyone to do their homework on and get involved with.