Jim Terry
May 28, 2007
Demand and supply
By Jim Terry

Last week I listened to Senator John McCain and President George Bush defend the current comprehensive immigration reform legislation now in the U.S. Senate. This legislation was filed May 9, 2007 as S 1348 and after a cloture vote passed with many Republicans voting in the affirmative, S.AMDT. 1150, an amendment which is actually a substitute bill for S1348, was introduced on May 21, and is now the center of debate. The text of S. AMDT. 1150, as of Memorial Day, is not available on the senate website or at Thomas, the Library of Congress legislative website.

This bait and switch tactic is not new in politics. Often, a law passed by a legislative body has no similarity to the bill originally introduced.

The "S" prefix on the legislation, is supposed to identify the bill as a senate bill. In this case, it stands for "surrender." The sponsors of the legislation, with the president's support, want to surrender the sovereignty of this nation to foreign interests. This should not be a surprise since they are globalists who believe in a world with no borders.

I have read S 1348 and if S. AMDT. 1150 is anything like its predecessor I agree with the president when he said in his press conference last week, "...those who are looking to find fault with this bill will always be able to find something." This assessment, by the most powerful man in the world, of a piece of legislation affecting the most powerful nation in the world, is a sad commentary on the political leadership in the United States. The American people deserve and should demand fault free legislation which protects the sovereignty of this nation, first and foremost.

The president also said in his news conference, "This bill does not grant amnesty. Amnesty is forgiveness without a penalty. Instead, this bill requires workers here illegally to acknowledge that they broke the law, pay a fine, pass background checks, remain employed and maintain a clean record." Of course all that may be moot since many of these criminals have at least one child born in the United States and are, therefore, immune from any penalty, including deportation, as a parent of an American citizen.

The proposed fines the president spoke of are insignificant. In this case, the punishment doesn't fit the crime. And as long as immigration reform ties guest worker programs with permanent residency and, ultimately citizenship, this is all about amnesty. From my reading of S1348, it contains more provisions to protect illegal aliens and their families than it does to protect American citizens.

If people are coming to this country to work, why not let them work for a specified period of time and go home? And guest workers don't need families here. Our American troops currently in Iraq and Afghanistan have been separated from their families for long periods of time. Why can't lettuce pickers be separated from their families for a couple of years?

Washington politicians, your congressmen and senators, and the president, appear to not understand a basic of our capitalist system-supply and demand. We are told a driving force behind the move to overhaul the immigration system is the need for labor in the form of immigrants. The business community demands laborers; the immigrants supply the labor. However, in actuality, the current economic model is demand and supply. Illegal aliens demand jobs; Americans supply jobs.

Yes, this includes you Charley, and you Bob. While you disdain the invasion of America by the hordes of criminals who have taken over your schools, public hospitals and your roads, you were not hesitant last Saturday morning to go to that drive-in grocery a few block away and pick up a couple of those guys standing around out front and pay them in cash for putting up your new fence.

The president also called the reform legislation "...a difficult piece of legislation." It will become more difficult and complex and non understandable as the senate continues debate this week. It currently has around thirty amendments pending.

© Jim Terry

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Jim Terry

Jim Terry has worked in Republican grassroots politics for 40 years. Terry was an administrative assistant to a Republican elected official in Dallas for twenty years. In 1996, he ran for and was elected to Justice Court 2 in Dallas County where he served eight years. Contact Jim at tr4guy@flash.net

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