Offer incentives to bring the hidden out of the shadows. Those that come to us willingly make it a lot easier to find the ones that are here for nefarious reasons. That’s why there must ultimately be some kind of regularization - unfair as it may seem – because it’s far better than pulling crying families out of crumbling apartments in Los Angeles right before the November elections.

Remember Elian Gonzalez? Dems will have a thousand pictures like that portraying Republicans as jack booted racists.

The issue now is about trust, and Republicans don’t have any for this administration or the government in general. But anything we need to get done on the border needs to get done before Hillary becomes president.

So get your priorities in order – and be prepared to compromise – or nothing changes and ten years from now it will be 30 million illegals demanding rights…

So according to Harry, if you sneak across the border, you’re an American. Presumably, Harry’s already got ACORN out there registering them for the next election.

Meanwhile, honest immigrants like MD’s wife get nothing from this poorly drawn bill. Sickening.

The video of Harry’s statement is here at Hot Air.

True, Lorica. But to do that, in previous generations we required the immigrants to assimilate. The immigrants who came in via Ellis Island wanted to become Americans – to learn English, become citizens, and contribute to building this country.

GWR, I agree with that, but also Ellis Island was used to ensure the health of each candidate. TB was running rampant in Europe, and there were candidates that were turned back to their own country because of health issues. I say bring back Ellis Island. Seemed to be a better system, with better checks and balances that what we have now. – Lorica

Entitlement mentality demands that they be granted shamnesty. Hogwash! As MD pointed out- follow the flippin laws and work through the miserable lefty laden bureaucratic layers, if you want to be in America.

The main differences in being in America and being an American are well known Terrye, but raping for the short term grab is why the illegal aliens want to be in the great land north of Mehico. They jeopardize all US citizens and do not belong, period. Selfish motivations are not and never will be a reason to be in America. I would apply that same logic to the no accounts born under her flag who create nothing but problems.

There is nothing good about passing the current bill – absolutely nothing. And given the current immigration system that we have, doing nothing is a wonderful, beautiful idea compared to passing a bill anything like the current one.

USCIS, the government agency that will deal with processing the paperwork of these new “immigrants”, has shown itself to be nothing but a nest of incompetent bureaucrats. They cannot process the current low level of legal immigrants in the system, and this bill (if it becomes law) will dump even more into their hands. Guess what will happen? USCIS will start rubber-stamping applications, especially if Congress and the President want things “to move along”.

My wife and I have actually been through the immigration system, and it is a complete mess. Legal immigrants like my wife are treated like criminals, while under this bill real criminals (meaning illegal aliens) get the red-carpet treatment. Unless you believe that tax money will suddenly buy an efficient bureaucracy, and that the government will do what it has refused to do for decades – namely, enforce the law.

I guess that this makes me one of Terrye’s dreaded “hardliners”. Who do I think I am – demanding fair treatment for legal immigrants who obey the law?! A regular Buchananite, I am!

I hate that we have to rely on the federal government for border/immigration rule enforcement. The gov’t has been a miserable failure on this issue time and time again, and they likely will be again, no matter what passes in Congress on this bill. It’s a vicious cycle.

Hazleton, Pennsylvania is a blue collar town near Philly, population about 30,000 or so. Democrats outnumber Republicans by a significant amount, but the incumbent mayor, Lou Barletta, is a Republican.

Barletta just won the GOP primary to run for a third term. Nothing shocking there.

But this IS a shocker: he also won the Democratic nomination, purely on write-in votes.

What’s significant about this? Just that Barletta has been a steadfast ‘hardliner’ on this issue. He’s repeatedly called for enforcing the immigration laws. The ACLU has devoted more than a few resources to dragging him into court, but he has no plans to back down.

So maybe – just maybe – the idea of enforcing the immigration laws is a winner, and the first party to embrace it may gain big. It appears there’s an undercurrent of public support waiting to be tapped.

LINK

My issue with the tone of the debate certainly doesn’t have anything to do with anything posted here. It’s what I’ve seen elswhere (other blogs, pundits, email, etc) that’s bothersome. And as I noted in my post, the admin is just as guilty of over the top rhetoric so their hands aren’t clean either. It’s just that once the name-calling starts, no matter how much you try and move beyond it, the substance of the issue gets lost in the effort to attack personalities rather than the actual meat of the various arguments.

I guess on this thread CZ, Vegas, and I qualify as what you call ‘hardliners’. Please go back and read our comments. None of us has called anyone a traitor. We’re saying they’re mistaken. Big difference there. All we want is to have the laws already on the books enforced better. Is that so unreasonable?

ST says abortion is her no-compromise issue. It may surprise you to know that immigration isn’t the line-in-the-sand issue for me. National security is, but this one’s related. Even Beth, who seems to be more aligned with you than with me, noted the potential for jihadis to slip through lax border security.

As for assuming we have “the right to tell you what your duty as an American is”, where do you see that? We’re expressing our opinions, not dictating. We have that right, just as you do. It is possible for people of good intention to disagree.

True, Lorica. But to do that, in previous generations we required the immigrants to assimilate. The immigrants who came in via Ellis Island wanted to become Americans – to learn English, become citizens, and contribute to building this country.

As a rule, the illegals aren’t here for such reasons. For the most part, they want no part of assimilation. They want to set up small outposts of their old country here. They have no allegiance to America, and no desire to do much more than make more money than they could back home.

So exactly what part of the current proposal would hold any appeal for them? Citizenship? No, they’re not interested. Their loyalty is elsewhere. So the current bill would have little effect on the problem. I suspect most of the illegals would simply ignore it and continue with the status quo.

I’m very much on the same page as CZ. I welcome anyone from another land who wants to come here and become part of the American experiment. I do insist that the laws be obeyed. If we grant amnesty to people who are here illegally, the biggest losers would be those who followed the rules and arrived legally. They’ll have learned a very disillusioning lesson: in America, it pays to break the rules.

I don’t think people of the right who disagree with me are traitors, or any of the other epithets Beth cited. I think they’re simply wrong, and I don’t see how that path can benefit America in the long or short term. The other side of that coin is that people like Linda Chavez who conclude I’m a racist for that view need to think hard and long about whether playing that card to score points on this one issue is worth the accompanying loss of credibility.

What we do need is Border Security, these are actually 2 seperate issues. I hate to overuse the military, but we need true security, and they bring that most definately. What other country doesn’t have the military on their borders?? None. If we bring security to your borders, then the “illegal alien” problem will work itself out. Eventually the illegals will either leave, and not be able to come back in, or they will become citizens, and all we have to do is follow our present laws. In my mind this is our best course of action, and leads to the solution that would make everyone happy. – Lorica