Below is my Marietta Daily Journal column today

Bush immigration bill amounts to…
Amnesty – Again

D.A. King
Columnist

“Never use the ‘A’ word – amnesty. But rather, find other words that don’t convey the power of what we are about” – Cardinal Roger Mahoney, Archbishop of Los Angeles, concerning ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform’ to the National Council of La Raza, 2007

Cardinal Mahoney was offering sage and experienced advice to the very large and well-funded group of proponents of amnesty and open borders.

If you are curious about whom he means when he says “we,” perhaps a simple translation of the group’s name will help. In English, “La Raza” means “The Race.”
Mahoney went on to insist, “Our current immigration laws are, in a word, unjust.”

By “our laws,” he meant American laws.

“We” take in more than a million legal immigrants a year. Unjust?

His guidance, while certainly not a new concept, has been taken to heart by a very unlikely group of people pushing the latest attempt to legalize the millions of illegal aliens who represent a large portion of Mahoney’s constituents – I mean “flock.”

In politics, it is important to have a “message.” Successful politicians become so because they have learned to find a message that resonates with voters and stay with it over and over again, no matter what.

Mahoney’s message is clear enough. To get another amnesty for illegal aliens, don’t ever call it amnesty. And stick with that message.

The president’s message for years now has been that we must legalize the illegal aliens who are doing “jobs Americans will not do.”

Try hard to disregard the base insult from the leader of the American people in telling us that we are either lazy or over-paid. I have never decided which he means myself, but am leaning toward it being both.

Presently, the president’s message on the “grand bargain” in the Senate is that it will “help enforce our borders, but equally importantly, it’ll treat people with respect. This is a bill where people who live here in our country will be treated without amnesty but without animosity.”

The president broke Mahoney’s rule; He used the “A-word” in denying what most Americans can plainly see: If any legislation – under any name – grants legal status to illegal aliens, it is amnesty.

At present, the mind-boggling bill in the Senate grants “probationary status” to any illegal alien who is willing to give up his fingerprint, take a chance on the inept Department of Homeland Security actually being able to run a background check in 24 hours (It cannot, it lacks the resources) and swear that he will keep his job.

The now legalized alien can stay in the U.S. indefinitely in the “temporary” probationary status.

The promise, again, is that afterward, we will secure our borders and create a verifiable ID for the workplace.

Like we did in 1986?

The message from the U.S. Border Patrol Union Local 2544 in Tucson on the bill is that it is a “Senate sell-out.”

The message on the pending legislation from Kris Kobach, a professor of law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, who served as chief consul on immigration law to the U.S. Attorney General 2001-03 is this: “The bill effectively shuts down our immigration-court system. If an alien in the removal process is eligible for the new ‘Z visa,’ the immigration judge must close the proceedings and offer the alien the chance to apply for the amnesty. The wheels of justice won’t just turn slowly, they’ll go in reverse.”

Newt Gingrich has a message on the Senate bill as well: “This bill is a disaster. It is a failure. It should be defeated. It should cease to exist.”

The president has been working toward amnesty-again since his inauguration and has refused to secure American borders even during a war on terror.

The president lacks the integrity to be trusted to fulfill any promise of future border security.

It is sad to see that most of the American people can plainly see what many U.S. Senators cannot.

This is amnesty-again.

While different from Cardinal Mahoney’s, the message to Georgia’s senators from Georgians is equally clear: Securing the border is a basic duty of government. We will no longer suffer the lack of that security and any attempt to make it a condition of another amnesty is will be treated with animosity – no matter what.

Listen to the citizens of Georgia, senators. We admire and respect you.

We will stick with you as long as you stick with us.

D.A. King is president of the Marietta-based Dustin Inman Society, a coalition dedicated to educating the public on the consequences of illegal immigration.