''To end the stealth amnesty of current law, we need three things at a minimum: true border security, mandatory verification of employment eligibility through the E-Verify program and the end to "anchor baby" citizenship for children of illegal aliens.''
If you think a
congressional amnesty for 15 million illegal aliens is a bad idea, think about a stealth amnesty for 50 million. That's what we've got now even without any new legislation from the 111th Congress.
Whether or not Obama pushes for the new amnesty – which will again be packaged as "comprehensive immigration reform" as it was in 2006 and 2007 – proponents of border security and immigration control need to look beyond that battle. We need a strategy to end the stealth amnesty created through non-enforcement of our immigration laws.
Non-enforcement is the policy of our federal government on our borders, in our employment laws, in our courtrooms and in our school buildings. Non-enforcement allows at least 2 million illegal aliens to join our society each year – a million coming across our open borders and at least another million coming on tourist visas, student visas and guest worker visas, and then never going home. Those people are called "visa overstays," and the number is at least 20 million and growing daily.
Non-enforcement of our immigration laws needs to be called by its correct name, stealth amnesty, and it needs to be confronted. Stopping a new legislative amnesty is vital, but that does not begin to deal with the ongoing, continuous amnesty-by-stealth that is now the official policy of the federal government – and many state and local governments as well.
The Border Patrol trumpets the fact that official apprehension numbers on the border are down for the third straight year from the high of 1.1 million in 2005. That's a good thing, but those numbers do not tell the whole story. Apprehension numbers are down in part because Border Patrol manpower has been doubled to 18,500 since 2001, and 350 miles of border fencing has been built. So, why has he Obama administration put a freeze on new fence construction and a halt to Border Patrol recruitment?
Concerned about the unstemmed flow of illegal aliens over our border? Don't miss Tom Tancredo's book, "In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security"
Time magazine concluded in its September 2006 cover story on cross-border traffic that three to four times as many intruders evade the Border Patrol as are apprehended. Other independent observers have come to similar conclusions. So, if the Border Patrol stopped 750,000 people in 2008, probably 2.5 million made it across the border successfully. Is that acceptable level of border security? http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=115252