Here is part of our illegal alien problem. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has the wrong attitude for the job that he has been entrusted with:
Chertoff acknowledged there is "a fundamental unfairness" in legislation that permits illegal immigrants to remain in the United States but said trying to force them to leave would be impossible, USA Today reported.
"We are bowing to reality," Chertoff said.
He dismissed the position of some opponents who argue that illegal immigrants will leave if strict enforcement of U.S. laws makes it impossible for them to find a job.
"You're not going to replace 12 million people who are doing the work they're currently doing," Chertoff said. "If they don't leave, then you are going to give them silent amnesty. You're either going to let them stay or you're going to be hypocritical."
Chertoff warned there would be more mass roundups of illegal workers if the workers do not get a chance to become legal.
"We're going to enforce the law," he said. "People all around the country will be seeing teary-eyed children whose parents are going to be deported." -
Washington Post
I am sure that Secretary Chertoff is a great guy, but he has clearly been corrupted by the scope of the problem.
His comments above are wrong in so many ways:
"trying to force them to leave would be impossible"
- How about stopping them from getting into the country in the first place?
- It is not like Homeland Security is really even bothering to try, so I don't know where he gets the idea that it is impossible. He has no real track record to back that statement up.
- If you take into account the number of captures of illegal aliens, over 1 million caught during last year, I would think that it is very possible to force them to leave, especially if you go after the employers to attract them and enlist the assistance of local police forces who are stumbling over illegal aliens all over the country.
- It will be impossible if you keep releasing illegal aliens whenever you run across them with nothing more than a meaningless appearance ticket.
- This is the attitude that has suspended a law prohibiting the use of Mexican Matricular Consular Identity card in the US. These are identity cards issued by Mexico that are so questionable that they are not an acceptable form of identification in Mexico or even for use entering Mexico, despite Mexico's claims that they are issued only to Mexican citizens.
- Immigration cannot now deal with the documentation for all the legal aliens, so eventually we will hear this if the bill becomes law: 'trying to do background checks and issue documentation for them is impossible.'
"We are bowing to reality,"
- The only reality is that not much is being done about this, other than talk of amnesty, which does nothing but attract more illegal aliens here hoping to make it under whatever deadline date Congress attaches to the amnesty.
- Imagine the police chief of a big city like DC 'bowing to the reality' of the high crime rate and telling the citizens that they need to accept a certain level of crime. Surely that chief's days would be numbered. (This is different from a community tolerating crime, such as in urban black areas where 'don't snitch' is the cool thing to do. That is more the result of failure to take a problem seriously over time, which is where we are at this moment with illegal immigration.)
- Really is that the current illegal alien problem was born out of the last amnesty that was offered to illegals.
"You're not going to replace 12 million people who are doing the work they're currently doing,"
- Sorry, but many of those jobs are simply going to disappear once you legalize the people doing them. Once the workers become legal, they will want to be paid-on-the-books. This will make it much more expensive for the employers who will now have to pay unemployment and social security as well as pay the workers more as a result of payroll deductions. In the end, employers will hire less people to compensate. This will also make other jobs economically unfeasible, and thousands of Americans will go back to mowing their own laws.
- Illegal Aliens provide artificially low labor costs. These low labor costs delay the adoption of new technologies that automate processes that the Illegals do now. This is true for many farm tasks.
"Chertoff warned there would be more mass roundups of illegal workers if the workers do not get a chance to become legal."
- Hello. This is your job. Ever think that the more of these illegal aliens you send back, the stronger the message is to not even attempt to come here?
"People all around the country will be seeing teary-eyed children whose parents are going to be deported."
- This is exactly what happens whenever a parent is arrested. Cleary Mr. Chertoff has too much of a heart for the position that he holds. Hell, even some terrorists are parents and some are even willing to use their children to carry out their terrorist acts.
- Well this would be the fault of the parents. They should be thankful that their children were rewarded with American Citizenship simply for being born here. Then there is the bonus that when the child turns 18, they can apply for their parents to come here legally. One way to reduce this type of illegal migration is to prohibit American Citizens from applying for their parents to become legal residents if they were in the country illegally when their child was born. I think this is a better solution than denying a child born in the US Citizenship.
Mr. Chertoff's statements have probably done no end of damage within the Department of Homeland Security. This is in addition to the damage done by this amnesty bill. After all, where is the incentive for a Border Agent to risk his life to catch illegal aliens when the news is out that they will probably be rewarded with legal status once here.
So he should step aside. Surely, there is someone available who has the attitude that it is possible to take control of our illegal immigration situation without rewriting the rules to make illegals, legal.
Chertoff says immigration bill "bows to reality" - Washington Post
