Our Immigration System Isn't 'Broken'
Will conservative politicians please stop conceding the point that "our current immigration system is broken"?
Our immigration system isn't broken. The only thing that's broken is our enforcement of laws dealing with immigration and immigrants that have been on the books for years, if not decades:
U.S. law requires companies to employ only individuals who may legally work in the United States -- either U.S. citizens, or foreign citizens who have the necessary authorization. This diverse workforce contributes greatly to the vibrancy and strength of our economy, but that same strength also attracts unauthorized employment.
E-Verify is an Internet-based system that allows businesses to determine the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States. E-Verify is fast, free and easy to use -- and it's the best way employers can ensure a legal workforce.
Source: U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services website.
The impetus for this lack of enforcement comes straight from the top. President Obama himself has left no stone unturned in his effort to undermine the enforcement of current immigration law.
Even Marco Rubio, at one point the shining Republican face of the Gang of Eight Comprehensive Immigration Reform effort, was forced to admit President Obama cannot be trusted to enforce any new laws that would result from any immigration reform: "Look, if you want to know the single impediment to get things done... people don't believe the Obama administration or the federal government will enforce the law."
But it is this falsehood of our "broken immigration system" that opens the door to "dialogue," that gives the Republican establishment the cover to take up the issue in the first place and engage in a process that suborns the interests of their constituents to those of the lobbyists whose pockets they are in.
Byron York at WashingtonExaminer.com sources the Wall Street Journal's expose of the subterfuge and misdirection leaders of the House are willing to employ toward this end:
But the Wall Street Journal stirred a lot of interest this weekend when it reported that GOP leaders are hoping to put one over on voters who oppose reform. The plan, the Journal said, is to delay a vote on a bill until after the deadline passes for primary challenges across the country. That way, a GOP lawmaker whose constituents oppose reform could lay low until the coast was clear -- no primary challenge! -- and then vote against his voters' interest.
This is exactly why Tea Party supporters and sympathizers have no trust or faith in the Republican establishment.
"One of the basic laws of American politics is that Action Moves Away from the Center." -- Hunter S. Thompson from Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
As long as we are governed by liberal Democrats and moderate Republicans, our country will remain on the trajectory we've been on for the past 50 years, at least as long as this trajectory can sustain itself.
The clarion call from the political establishment for immigration reform, just like those for health care reform, global warming, and income inequality, is just another excuse for them to empower and enrich themselves and their supporters at the expense of American citizens and the taxpayer's standard of living and economic liberty.