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Barbara Jordan’s advice ignored
D.A. King
Marietta Daily Journal, August 25, 2006

“Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: Those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave.” – Testimony of Barbara Jordan, chairwoman, bipartisan U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform

Late U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan, (D-Texas), made the above remarks as part of her testimony to a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on the Judiciary, some 11 years ago.

Si- back in 1995. Which was nine years after the “one time” amnesty of 1986 that we were assured was the certain remedy for illegal immigration.
As the Bill Clinton-appointed chairwoman of the Commission on Immigration Reform, Rep. Jordan and her fellow members made recommendations to Congress addressing what was again regarded as a crisis in America – illegal immigration.

They referred to their recommendations as a “comprehensive strategy for controlling illegal immigration.”

The Commission’s recommendations included mandatory electronic verification of legal employment eligibility – “employer sanctions can work” Jordan said. On public benefits (taxpayer-funded services) Ms. Jordan’s Commission recommended against eligibility for illegal aliens “except in most unusual circumstances.”

“Moral obligations work well enough in church, but the law requires a contract,” she correctly observed.

“Deportation is crucial,” the Presidential Medal of Freedom award winner also advised.

Ms. Jordan reflected the views of the vast majority of Americans who are still waiting for equal protection under the law -justice – in their own country.

Lucky for Ms. Jordan that she wasn’t giving such advice on illegal immigration in 21st-century Georgia. The leftists in the media elite who attempt to subdue majority public opinion these days are tireless in their staunch intolerance to such diverse and politically incorrect thought.

I can imagine the invective-filled editorials now. Using previous attacks on such blasphemous Americans as a guide, in the mindless hypocrisy governing the head thinkers at many newspapers, Ms. Jordan would likely be labeled a “mean-spirited right-wing zealot,” “anti-immigrant” or maybe a “nativist extremist” – or even worse.

The outrageous temerity to offer advice that American borders be secured, that social services go to legal residents and that we actually deport illegal aliens – as the law requires – has proven too much to bear for many modern journalists and editors for whom borders are inhumane.

“To make sense about the national interest in immigration, it is necessary to make distinctions between those who obey the law, and those who violate it. Therefore, we disagree, also, with those who label our efforts to control illegal immigration as somehow inherently anti-immigrant. Unlawful immigration is unacceptable,” Jordan told the 1995 Committee.

As proof that successive sessions of Congress and administrations chose to ignore Barbara Jordan’s words more than a decade ago, Georgia was a recent host to more House subcommittee Hearings focused on the same crisis – illegal immigration.

What a difference 11 years didn’t make. It is clear that credibility on immigration policy remains an unattained goal. The illegal alien lobby and the McCain/Kennedy open-borders coalition now label amnesty-again as a “comprehensive” strategy for controlling illegal immigration.

The House hearings on the effects of illegal immigration and the American workforce and American health care were held here last week in Gainesville and Dalton. Having been a witness at one, attending both and listening to the 2006 testimony, it seemed to me that Barbara Jordan’s words were echoing through time.

Most witnesses told Georgia Congressmen Dr. Charlie Norwood, Nathan Deal and Dr. Tom Price, who all oppose the present Senate amnesty bill, essentially what Jordan did in 1995.

We should all demand the Senate and the president listen to and act on the will of the American people and their advice now better than they did to the 1995 Commission, which was chaired by the first black woman from the South to be elected to the U.S. Congress.

We don’t have 11 more years to resolve the crisis, and we have proven that amnesty does not stop illegal immigration.

The president and Congress should finally act on Barbara Jordan’s recommendations. Let’s try law enforcement and border security.

Let’s restore the rule of law on employment and immigration.

D.A. King lives in northeast Cobb and is president of The Dustin Inman Society, a coalition dedicated to educating the public on the consequences of illegal immigration.