Election Year Immigration Spin
John W. Slagle
March 31, 2006
The recent demonstrations, protests against new and “tougher” illegal immigration laws appear to have awakened the Senate and Congress. Regarding Immigration Laws of this nation, criminal statutes, 8 United States Codes that have been in place decades are well founded and need little improvement. 8 USC 1325, illegal entry into the United States without inspection is a misdemeanor violation on first offense and can lead to prosecution formal deportation depending on the amount of apprehensions, circumstances.
Felony Codes 8 USC 1324 covers smuggling illegal aliens for gain, monetary consideration and criminal activity. 8 USC 1326 involves re-entry into the United States after formal deportation. The Immigration and Naturalization Laws of this country are fine, and cover everything from Employer Sanctions to Exclusions, Admissions standards for non-immigrants as well as legal immigrants.
Without the political will to enforce the law and actively interfering in every law enforcement effort to control illegal immigration for decades is now considered a problem in an election year. Déjà vu once again!
In 1986 Congress passed the Immigration and Reform Act. This Act imposed employer sanctions that made it illegal for employers to hire undocumented illegal workers, denied federal welfare benefits for illegals and it was a crime to work without immigration authorization. The Reform Act seemed to be law enforcement oriented, but only a few new Criminal Investigators were hired to enforce the new laws.
The Amnesty program also legitimized millions of illegal aliens already living and working in the U.S. By the process of chain migration, those legitimized could also bring their families, an endless situation that added additional millions of immigrants.
Lawmakers dreamed of ending future illegal immigration by making everyone legal and the problem was solved. A new tough law on employers was contained in the Reform Act of 1986. This law would stop all illegal entries in the United States.
Per the conditions of the IRCA, the Reform act, the Border Patrol and Investigators of I&NS made many cases across the nation with fines levied against employers of illegal aliens. These were large companies, such as meat packing plants in the heartland of the United States, to any smaller firm that hired undocumented aliens in violation of law. Investigators had many repeat offender companies that did not get the message.
The new Act despite an Amnesty program for the majority of illegal aliens in the United States seemed to work for a time. Employers were actually complying with the law enacted by Congress. A new government standard I-9 form was required by all employers to insure their employees were legal documented workers.
Farm and ranch checks by the Border Patrol were no longer authorized without a search warrant. Illegal aliens working in agriculture for most politicians was a beautiful thing, good for the country, their lobbyists, and their own self interests. Agricultural businesses wanted illegal workers who worked for low wages, without threat of law enforcement intervention.
Making all illegal farm workers legal would solve the problem in this nation with one small oversight; there were now suddenly millions of agricultural workers with the required time spent in the United States to be eligible under IRCA. Fraud was rampant.
Perhaps another small oversight, Congress failed to see is one very important point. Why should a new legal resident of this nation continue to work in backbreaking labor in the agricultural fields when they can work anywhere in the U.S. for higher wages?
From 1972 to the present, elected officials have placed every effective “road block” that can be imagined in effective law enforcement on the Borders and Interior of this nation regarding illegal immigration and crime to actual control of the “line”. Politicians have impeded efforts in every border state to enforce 8 USC statutes, laws on the books…
Enforce the laws, but “back off” is a politician’s directive if the nation’s laws are in conflict with Special Interests or Business concerns.
The Atlanta Georgia Journal presents a side of the immigration issue, those in immigration law enforcement have known since the “failed 1986 IRCA Amnesty, Guest Worker nonsense.
This is the real world of politics “illegal immigration” and total disregard of all laws depending on individual states and “who cries Foul" to elected leaders.
ATLANTA ,GEORGIA
On 3/13/98 about 45 federal immigration officials launched a raid on the Vidalia onion fields of southeast Georgia, where thousands of workers — 70 percent to 90 percent of them illegal — had been brought to pick the crop.
But instead of being lauded for enforcing the law, the Immigration and Naturalization Service came under blistering attack from Georgia's congressional delegation.
Sen. Paul Coverdell, who took the lead with Rep. Jack Kingston, condemned the INS for its "military-style" raid "against honest farmers," calling it "an indiscriminate and inappropriate use of extreme enforcement tactics."
The political heat became so intense, with Cabinet officials dragged into the mess, that INS officials were forced to halt the raid and take the extraordinary step of granting "temporary amnesty" to the illegal workers it had arrested so they could go back to picking onions. That unconditional surrender was the moment that everything changed. From that point forward, the INS abandoned any serious effort to enforce federal law.
In fact, just a few days after the aborted raid, top agency officials issued a memo to field offices nationwide, telling them that they had to give employers 24 hours' warning before they launched future raids on their workplaces, and demanding that top officials in Washington be notified before any further raids were launched.
Before that incident, the INS had been arresting and deporting almost 1,500 illegal immigrants a month. Afterward, the number dropped to almost nothing. By 2003 — the latest year for which a number is available — workplace arrests of illegal immigrants for the entire year totaled 445. In 2004, just three businesses nationwide were fined for employing illegal immigrants.
Today, that flood is forcing our leaders to at least pretend to do something about illegal immigration. Johnny Isakson, the man who now holds Coverdell's Georgia Senate seat, has introduced legislation calling for hiring 1,500 new border-enforcement officers a year between 2007 and 2011, on top of the 2,000 additional officers a year already required under law. Administration officials have warned Congress that 2,000 new agents is the maximum they can recruit and train a year.
Jay Bookman is the deputy editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Political intervention to cease interior law enforcement efforts is a matter of record from California to Georgia.
Very few elected leaders actually represent this nation or the will of the majority regarding illegal immigration issues. Tough new laws proposed by Congress when old laws were meaningless is the same old tired theme in an election year.
There has never been a political will from the current President to past Presidents and elected officials to control this nation’s borders. Lawbreakers have always been rewarded by lawmakers.
The pro illegal alien marches nationwide were designed to protest new laws and they did bring attention to a long ignored problem. Fear of the law was hardly a reason for demonstrations, the Congress and Senate of the United States is working very hard to placate all illegal aliens. Immigration Regulations, Statues are perhaps an unnecessary burden which should be deleted along with Federal Income Tax.
Felony Codes 8 USC 1324 covers smuggling illegal aliens for gain, monetary consideration and criminal activity. 8 USC 1326 involves re-entry into the United States after formal deportation. The Immigration and Naturalization Laws of this country are fine, and cover everything from Employer Sanctions to Exclusions, Admissions standards for non-immigrants as well as legal immigrants.
Without the political will to enforce the law and actively interfering in every law enforcement effort to control illegal immigration for decades is now considered a problem in an election year. Déjà vu once again!
In 1986 Congress passed the Immigration and Reform Act. This Act imposed employer sanctions that made it illegal for employers to hire undocumented illegal workers, denied federal welfare benefits for illegals and it was a crime to work without immigration authorization. The Reform Act seemed to be law enforcement oriented, but only a few new Criminal Investigators were hired to enforce the new laws.
The Amnesty program also legitimized millions of illegal aliens already living and working in the U.S. By the process of chain migration, those legitimized could also bring their families, an endless situation that added additional millions of immigrants.
Lawmakers dreamed of ending future illegal immigration by making everyone legal and the problem was solved. A new tough law on employers was contained in the Reform Act of 1986. This law would stop all illegal entries in the United States.
Per the conditions of the IRCA, the Reform act, the Border Patrol and Investigators of I&NS made many cases across the nation with fines levied against employers of illegal aliens. These were large companies, such as meat packing plants in the heartland of the United States, to any smaller firm that hired undocumented aliens in violation of law. Investigators had many repeat offender companies that did not get the message.
The new Act despite an Amnesty program for the majority of illegal aliens in the United States seemed to work for a time. Employers were actually complying with the law enacted by Congress. A new government standard I-9 form was required by all employers to insure their employees were legal documented workers.
Farm and ranch checks by the Border Patrol were no longer authorized without a search warrant. Illegal aliens working in agriculture for most politicians was a beautiful thing, good for the country, their lobbyists, and their own self interests. Agricultural businesses wanted illegal workers who worked for low wages, without threat of law enforcement intervention.
Making all illegal farm workers legal would solve the problem in this nation with one small oversight; there were now suddenly millions of agricultural workers with the required time spent in the United States to be eligible under IRCA. Fraud was rampant.
Perhaps another small oversight, Congress failed to see is one very important point. Why should a new legal resident of this nation continue to work in backbreaking labor in the agricultural fields when they can work anywhere in the U.S. for higher wages?
From 1972 to the present, elected officials have placed every effective “road block” that can be imagined in effective law enforcement on the Borders and Interior of this nation regarding illegal immigration and crime to actual control of the “line”. Politicians have impeded efforts in every border state to enforce 8 USC statutes, laws on the books…
Enforce the laws, but “back off” is a politician’s directive if the nation’s laws are in conflict with Special Interests or Business concerns.
The Atlanta Georgia Journal presents a side of the immigration issue, those in immigration law enforcement have known since the “failed 1986 IRCA Amnesty, Guest Worker nonsense.
This is the real world of politics “illegal immigration” and total disregard of all laws depending on individual states and “who cries Foul" to elected leaders.
ATLANTA ,GEORGIA
On 3/13/98 about 45 federal immigration officials launched a raid on the Vidalia onion fields of southeast Georgia, where thousands of workers — 70 percent to 90 percent of them illegal — had been brought to pick the crop.
But instead of being lauded for enforcing the law, the Immigration and Naturalization Service came under blistering attack from Georgia's congressional delegation.
Sen. Paul Coverdell, who took the lead with Rep. Jack Kingston, condemned the INS for its "military-style" raid "against honest farmers," calling it "an indiscriminate and inappropriate use of extreme enforcement tactics."
The political heat became so intense, with Cabinet officials dragged into the mess, that INS officials were forced to halt the raid and take the extraordinary step of granting "temporary amnesty" to the illegal workers it had arrested so they could go back to picking onions. That unconditional surrender was the moment that everything changed. From that point forward, the INS abandoned any serious effort to enforce federal law.
In fact, just a few days after the aborted raid, top agency officials issued a memo to field offices nationwide, telling them that they had to give employers 24 hours' warning before they launched future raids on their workplaces, and demanding that top officials in Washington be notified before any further raids were launched.
Before that incident, the INS had been arresting and deporting almost 1,500 illegal immigrants a month. Afterward, the number dropped to almost nothing. By 2003 — the latest year for which a number is available — workplace arrests of illegal immigrants for the entire year totaled 445. In 2004, just three businesses nationwide were fined for employing illegal immigrants.
Today, that flood is forcing our leaders to at least pretend to do something about illegal immigration. Johnny Isakson, the man who now holds Coverdell's Georgia Senate seat, has introduced legislation calling for hiring 1,500 new border-enforcement officers a year between 2007 and 2011, on top of the 2,000 additional officers a year already required under law. Administration officials have warned Congress that 2,000 new agents is the maximum they can recruit and train a year.
Jay Bookman is the deputy editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Political intervention to cease interior law enforcement efforts is a matter of record from California to Georgia.
Very few elected leaders actually represent this nation or the will of the majority regarding illegal immigration issues. Tough new laws proposed by Congress when old laws were meaningless is the same old tired theme in an election year.
There has never been a political will from the current President to past Presidents and elected officials to control this nation’s borders. Lawbreakers have always been rewarded by lawmakers.
The pro illegal alien marches nationwide were designed to protest new laws and they did bring attention to a long ignored problem. Fear of the law was hardly a reason for demonstrations, the Congress and Senate of the United States is working very hard to placate all illegal aliens. Immigration Regulations, Statues are perhaps an unnecessary burden which should be deleted along with Federal Income Tax.
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