The week's connects & disconnects on immigration issues

1) This writer points out the obvious...obvious to conservatives everywhere except, apparently, to those in the Bush administration.

Immigration Pits GOP Elites Against Conservative Voters
W. James Antle III

The GOP’s grassroots conservative base approaches immigration with different motives than the cheap-labor lobby, transnational progressives, multiculturalists – and many of the Republican candidates they end up voting for. This discontinuity between the party’s leadership and its voters has only gotten worse under George W. Bush, who has maintained a stubborn infatuation with the idea of offering “temporary” worker status to millions of illegal aliens

2) Congressman Hayworth gets off to a strong start here:

Guest-worker plan a mockery of U.S. principles:
J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Repubic Opinion Page

"The Republic says the guest-worker proposal 'recognizes the necessity of extending legal status to those currently working illegally in this country.' It says opponents, like me, 'mischaracterize' that as an amnesty.

But compare the guest-worker notion to a tax amnesty, which gives tax evaders a last chance to comply with the law before the IRS goes after them. The Republic would turn that approach on its head. Instead of giving illegals a chance to conform to the law, it would change the law to conform to their illegal behavior."

2a) Then he disappoints.

"U.S. immigration law is founded on four major principles: the reunification of families, the admission of immigrants with needed skills, the protection of refugees and the diversity of admissions by country of origin. The guest-worker proposal being pushed by The Republic violates every one, and that is why it should not be enacted."

It is unfortunate that he doesn't take the time to explain that family reunification and diversity admissions are two historically detestable aspects of the 1965 reforms.

2b) But he does seem to redeem himself.

A new immigration dispute
Peter Hardin, TimesDispatch.com

"'A significant new population, perhaps hundreds of thousands or millions, would have access to Social Security under a Mexico totalization agreement,' warned Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz. He has sponsored his own resolution for Congress to disapprove a Mexico pact.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. and chairman of the Congressional Immigration Caucus, said Bush was telling citizens the Social Security system was in need of overhaul at the same time he intended to add as many as millions of workers to the rolls.

'On the stump, he's fond of saying he is wanting to present the Congress and the United States with big ideas. Well, some of those big ideas, like this, are pretty dumb,' Tancredo said."

3) This report from the Washington Times is chilling, but it isn't news to those of us who have been paying attention.

Disease, unwanted import
Joyce Howard Price, The Washington Times: Special Report

"According to a survey by the American Hospital Association (AHA), hospitals in 24 Southwest border counties in Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico reported uncompensated care totaling nearly $832 million in 2000.

A subsequent report prepared for the U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition determined that about 25 percent of those nonreimbursed costs resulted from emergency medical treatment provided to undocumented immigrants.

Ray Borane, mayor of Douglas, Ariz., says he knows about those financial burdens firsthand.

'The city of Douglas is the major crossing point for illegals ... and there have been some people who have come over here specifically to get dialysis or complicated eye surgery. They've established illegal residency in this country in order to thrive off the health care system,' he said, adding, 'Illegals and undocumented immigrants don't have any health insurance. We've never been reimbursed for their care, and the federal government has looked the other way, so they are not held responsible.'"

4) I've had a few people write privately with comments that I've wrongly bashed various Christian churches for helping illegals. Aside from my rule of law argument, I'm sure that at least some of my protestations to the contrary have not been well received.

Here's a piece that covers some of my concerns. I'll probably be referring others to it for quite a while.

Religious Activists Bear False Witness on Sensenbrenner Immigration Bill
James R. Edwards, Jr., Human Events Online

"The threat is real, and civil authorities have a responsibility -- a biblical responsibility -- to safeguard the American people by plugging loopholes like those in our asylum system. Congress must use a little serpently wisdom to shut down the huge threat our leaky asylum laws pose, which allow the lowest snakes on earth -- those who would fake a claim of religious persecution -- to use our laws against us for undeserved gain."

5) It seems that our friends that seek to "out" unscrupulous employers of illegal alien labor are doing a great job. Hackles are being raised all over the place!

Firms that use illegals targeted
Nancy Perkins, Deseretnews.com - Utah News

"'If we make these people green-card holders, they're not going to stay on the farms, they'll leave and go to the cities,' she said. 'We have about five years max to fix this problem for our country, or we'll never have the country of our forefathers ever again.'"

6) I'll close with a piece I like a lot. The writer ties a whole lot of our problems up in a big package. It's easier to fix things when the interrelational aspects of apparently divergent issues are made clear.

Immigration Today, Immigration Tomorrow, Immigration Forever
Selwyn Duke, Michnews.com

The mortal danger posed to us by illegal immigration is obvious. The cultural danger posed by all immigration is just as real and even, dare I say, more threatening. For, it endangers the very soul of America. And you know what I’m talking about; you see it when your government uses our tax dollars to print official documents in foreign languages. You see it when you witness the unrelenting attacks upon our cultural traditions based upon diversity/tolerance/inclusiveness arguments. Why, even Christmas is in the crosshairs now. You see it in The Student Movement of Aztlan Chicanos [MEChA], which seeks to reconquer the American Southwest in the name of Mexico. And, yes, you see it when you hear about a Michigan town that is now broadcasting Muslim prayers five times a day.