By Kenneth J.
Theisen, 8/14/07
Many hold out
hope that the 2008 elections will bring radical change to the agenda pursued by
the Bush regime. But if those with such
illusions think that the leading candidates of the Republican and Democratic
parties are offering such changes as they seek the presidency, I would suggest
looking closely at what the candidates say.
Let’s look at two
of the leaders of the Republican pack and their policy proposals on
immigration. Front-running Republican presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani and
Mitt Romney attacked each other recently over who could “crack down” better on
immigrants. Giuliani has unfolded his
“immigrant reform program” before, but he re-emphasized it August 14th.
On Tuesday Giuliani
vowed to prevent “illegal” immigrants from entering the country by creating a
central database to track the legal status of visitors to the U.S., by
requiring a uniform identification card for foreign workers and students, by
continuing the construction of a border fence, and by deporting any “illegal
alien” who commits a felony. He left out
the wearing of any identifying triangles on their clothes. Giuliani promised,
“We can end illegal immigration. I promise you, we can end illegal
immigration.” He also proposed that
all immigrants who want to become citizens learn English before being allowed
to do so. This is already a requirement except for some elderly and disabled
immigrants. I guess Rudy wants to show how tough he can be by attacking the
elderly and disabled immigrant community. Way to go Rudy!
But Rudy is
willing to allow some immigrants a pathway to citizenship. But first they must identify themselves as
illegal then go “to the back of the line to apply.” This is a realistic proposal? Several million people will first go to the
federal government and admit that they are here illegally trusting the
government not to deport them. Then some
day they can hope that the government will allow them citizenship. I predict
that line will be relatively short.
But despite the
harshness of Giuliani’s proposals, Romney accused him of being soft on
immigration. He stated that the former
New York mayor supported illegal immigration when Giuliani “instructed
city workers not to provide information to the federal government that would
allow them to enforce the law. New York City was the poster child for sanctuary
cities in the country.”
In response Giuliani
touted his law and order credentials by saying New York “had the least
amount of illegality per capita of any major city in the country and I brought
that change about.”
So what is
Romney’s immigration reform package? “You’ve
got to have a wall or fence or electronic surveillance. You have got to make sure
we secure our border, that’s first,” states Romney in apparent agreement
with Rudy. He also echoes Giuliani when he states, “Two, put in place an
employment verification system to make sure we’re giving jobs only to those
people who come legally.” He apparently
opposes any sort of pathway to citizenship or legalization for those here
“illegally.” “And number three, for the
12 million, we can’t allow them to have a special privilege of being able to
stay here indefinitely.” He goes on
to say, “In reforming our
immigration system, we must do so in a way that rewards immigrants who obey the
laws and guards against providing special incentives for those who show no
regard for them.”
During the 6 ½
years of the Bush regime we have gotten use to attacks on immigrants. The words
“immigrants” and “terrorists” are often used in the same sentence by
politicians and in the media. Thousands from Middle Eastern countries or
countries with large Islamic populations have had to report regularly to the
government and at least hundreds of these people have been detained. Millions of immigrants have been apprehended
during the Bush regime and deported. Tens
of thousands were incarcerated in prisons or held in detention centers. Several hundreds have been killed at the borders
or nearby by immigration policies that force them to attempt border crossings
in deadly areas. This is the legacy of
the Bush regime that candidates such as good old Rudy and Mitt want to continue
or even make worse.