When Senators from both sides of the political aisle announced they have reached a compromise, look out and the voter should remember such action when it is time to step up to the sacred ballot box. Here is a breakdown of what is being heralded as successful legislation.

1. The 11-12 million illegal aliens, oops workers, must come forward to obtain a probationary card that would allow them to live and work legally in the United States. Additionally for those who come forward they must pay a $5,000 fine.

2. The legislation would call for an assessment in determining an illegal worker’s education and skill level. This would be part of a temporary work program separate from agriculture workers.

3. The legislation would call for 18,000 more border patrol agents.

4. The addition of over 300 miles in fence between the US and Mexico.

5. The time frame for American citizenship will be 8 years.

First what will happen if only half the estimated illegal workers come forward? What if some of these who don’t come forward are fathers or mothers? Will they be swooped up and sent back presumably south of our border? This is exactly what Congress is trying to avoid. This has been the new battle cry from the American Left. It has been said by proponents of immigration reform that many of these workers fill jobs that Americans won’t take. This implies they are of the low wage nature. How will the illegal worker be able to pay this fine assuming they are working in a low wage job?

Secondly at what scope will an agency go, assuming that a government agency will conduct such action, to verify a worker’s education and skill level? While your author does support the thought process, that having one less unskilled worker in our country, he cannot help to consider that this gives government yet one more excuse to grow. This will also make a good self-professed Liberal cry ‘unfair’. And as far as the fence and beefing up border security-don’t hold your breath.

The common thread in immigration policy for the past 40 years has been Democrat Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy. He echoed this sentiment after the Senate’s agreement:

"The agreement we just reached is the best possible chance we will have in years to secure our borders and bring millions of people out of the shadows and into the sunshine of America,"

Senator Kennedy it isn’t an issue of whether or not illegal workers are hiding and none of them are hugging shadows. They are on our streets, tapping into our social programs and creating a burden on law enforcement. What Kennedy, Senator Arlen Specter Republican from Pennsylvania, who is not a conservative and maverick Republican Senator John McCain from Arizona along with the other supporters have done is managed give themselves a pass for not enforcing current federal laws.

Senator Kennedy in particular has assisted more than any other elected official in creating this catastrophe. Rewind to 1965 when then the youthful Senator supported the Hart-Celler Act, which greatly altered immigration laws. In short the legislation curbed visas accessible to European immigrants to 170,000 with 120,000 for eastern hemisphere countries but the legislation contained a kicker. The kicker was that it allowed for unlimited family reunification visas. In other words bring your wife, kids, mother in law, cousin, etc. At the time of the vote Senator Kennedy said the following:

"...our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually.... Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset...."

This may have well been true except for in 1968 when Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society introduced the Bilingual Education Act. The bill was introduced by then Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough. It called for federal funding devoted to bilingual teaching classrooms. This was later amended in 1974 with a claim that civil rights were being violated because schools were conducting such on a voluntary basis. The amendment would make way for what we see now and that being entire areas in our cities were English is rarely spoken. As your author has stated he wishes for our country not to have an official language because this will only be challenged in courts and will be forced to recognize more than one language. Not speaking English is encouraged from pressing 1 for English and 2 for Spanish to government agencies that contain instruction signs in both languages.

Then in 1986 Kennedy once again stepped up to the plate by supporting the Immigration Reform and Control Act. The legislation resulted in what amounted to amnesty for illegal aliens working in the United States. The bill called for intensifying the border patrol, which eventually fell by the wayside and at the end of the day 2.7 million illegal aliens were legalized.

Your author calls such current bipartisan legislation a fantasy. It didn’t work before so why will it work now? What is wrong with the notion of enforcing current laws? America is indeed the land of immigrants but in 1900 items such as social welfare and national security were not an issue. The federal government was only a miniscule size then as compared to now.

Currently House Speaker Democrat Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi has expressed the following:

"We need to improve the bill as it moves through the legislative process." She no doubt knows that if such legislation, as it is written today, passes it will assure that her term as Speaker will be one of the shortest.

Now a constant theme your author has had to repeat is why the Democrats won in 2006. Their victory was because of a few things most notably the Republican scandals involving Jack Abramoff and former Congressman Mark Foley. Another issue that voters felt strongly on was the problem with the number of illegal aliens perusing our countryside. Voters flocked to the polls and voted for what they perceived as conservative Democrats, also known as ‘blue dogs’. The victory had nothing to do with the Iraq War yet Pelosi and others would have you believe otherwise. Your author cites the victory of Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman over anti-war candidate Ned Lamont as proof.

If Congress is unable to successfully cut and edit this bill so that it effectively addresses the problems with our southern border, then we have lost. Additionally many of these elected officials may be finding themselves looking for another job. The giddy Senators are referring to this legislation as reform. In the case of Kennedy and others reforms means chaos, which neither claim responsibility. There will be no sunshine at the end of this journey.

AmericanYank.com