My column in today’s Marietta Daily Journal. I have added some hyperlinks to educate the reader.

Amnesty – Again is Back on Front Pages

“I hope by now the American people understand the need for comprehensive immigration reform is a clear need”
President George W. Bush, at the Yuma, Arizona Border Patrol headquarters – April 9, 2007.

“Last year we passed the worst piece of legislation I’ve seen here in my thirteen years”
Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, on the U.S. Senate’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2005 – to the Marietta Rotary club – April 4, 2007

Having been in office since 2001 and taking an oath – twice – to faithfully discharge the duties of the office of the President, with several million illegal border crossings a year and the terror of 9/11, “Dubya” now hopes the American people understand the need for “immigration reform”?

This is the same man who, as Governor of Texas, said of the illegal border crossers and the Rio Grande River: “Hell, if they’ll cross Big Bend, we want ’em”! The same man who labeled American citizens “vigilantes” for having spent part of 2005 observing the border and reporting illegal crossings to Border Patrol using cell phones…from lawn chairs.

We do understand Mr. President, all too well sir.

That even more labor equals even lower priced labor is not that difficult a concept to grasp.

Not many Americans fail to understand that the phrase “comprehensive immigration reform” is code for finding a way, any way, to officially allow the millions of illegal aliens who have been allowed to live and work in the U.S. illegally to remain here… like we did in 1986.

Memo to the President and Congress: No gracias and no sale. Been there, done that and sadly, we have the t-shirt. It reads: “Press one for English”.

Much like the menu at the corner Mexican restaurant, in the language of the President’s – and much of Congress’ – never ending effort to repeat the failed amnesty of 1986, you basically get the same five ingredients served fifty different ways.

Neither do many working Americans fail to understand that no one is mentioning any penalty for the millions of criminal employers who have been rewarded for faithful campaign donations with a virtual free pass on illegally hiring the taxpayer subsidized “cheap” labor that flows in from Mexico.

Now that amnesty-again by any other name is on the front page – again – look for the usual suspects in the media to renew the name calling aimed at marginalizing the huge majority of Americans who demand secure borders and an equally applied rule of law, without conditions…any conditions.

Many in the press like to paint those who oppose illegal immigration and our unsecured borders as “anti-immigration” – rather like labeling the activists involved with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) as being “anti-automobile”.

Few will argue with Senator Chambliss’ remarks to the Rotary club regarding last year’s Senate amnesty bill, but his use of the long worn-out phrase describing illegal aliens as being in “the shadows” is nonsense. No one has forgotten the angry and defiant Mexican flag – waving criminals marching in the U.S. last year demanding American citizenship while screaming “THIS IS OUR CONTINENT and WE ARE AMERICA”!

In the shadows indeed.

For years we have been given the false choice of either rounding up and deporting millions of illegal aliens or rewarding them with what they came for: Legal status. For years we have been told the former is “impossible”.

Senator Chambliss says that now our government will decide which of the illegals are “behaving themselves” and which are “burdening our health care and legal systems”. The Senator told the Rotarians that “we will round up the latter folks and send them back”. Hmm.

It is not clear if stealing the identities of Americans, manufacturing and using false documents, illegally accessing taxpayer funded services or repeatedly driving with out ever having a driver’s license is regarded as “behaving themselves”.

All of those actions are treated and prosecuted as crimes when committed by Americans in America.

The announced plan is to now make the “well behaved” criminals “Temporary Workers”…that can perpetually renew their “temporary” status. Proving what much of Europe has learned…few things are more permanent than a temporary worker.

Senator Chambliss added that “we’ve got to enforce whatever we put in place”.

Let’s start by enforcing what we have already put in place. Secure American borders – at any price – enforce the existing laws and watch as the flow of illegal immigration stops and the illegals go home. That is what most Americans want. We are America.

D.A. King is president of the Dustin Inman Society, a Marietta-based coalition actively opposed to illegal immigration. On the Web: www.TheDustinInmanSociety.org