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Redstate
Gang
Plan: Perennial De Facto
Amnesty
By Daniel Horowitz
April 17th, 2013
One
of the most common bromides
regurgitated by Republicans in defense of ‘amnesty first, enforcement
later’
proposals is that we already have de facto amnesty with Obama not
enforcing the
laws. This was
always a dubious argument
even before the release of the gang bill.
We should not use Obama’s malevolence as
a baseline from which to craft
public policy. Instead
of rewarding
Obama for his insidious abuse of power by granting him the desired
outcome, we
should hammer him incessantly and fight for riders in appropriation
bills to
enforce the laws.
Moreover,
although illegal
immigrants are currently enjoying a liberal enforcement regime, they do
not
have a pathway to welfare and voting – something they will get with
amnesty de
jure. Legalization
and citizenship are a
lot more than amnesty.
However,
with the release of the
BS…EOIMA (Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration
Modernization
Act – S.744), there is now a more salient meaning to de facto amnesty. The 844-page
“comprehensive” bill,
reminiscent of other notorious comprehensive legislation, was dropped
at 2:25
AM, just two days before a scheduled hearing.
I just got through the first 100 pages
of the bill, and in addition to
the numerous issues that are emerging from the first reading, there is
one
overarching theme. This
bill will keep
our system in a perpetual state of de facto amnesty for years to come,
engender
the need for future amnesties, and never ensure true enforcement.
As
noted before, this bill fails to
mandate any specific trigger for legalization.
After Janet Napolitano
merely
submits a strategy for “achieving and maintaining effective control
between the
ports of entry in all high risk border sectors along the Southern
border”
within 6 months, everyone is eligible to apply for “Registered
Provisional
Immigrant” (RPI) legal status. That’s
it. From there, the
legal status will
never practically be revoked.
The
bill prescribes a 12-month open
enrollment process for the RPI status; however, like much of the bill
(reminiscent of Obamacare), it cedes a lot of power to the Secretary. She will have the
authority to extend the application
period for another 18 months (page 69).
Now, we know from the conditions of the
bill that almost every illegal
in the country could be eligible for RPI status until proven otherwise. In fact, even some aliens
already deported
can come back and apply for the status.
To that end, the bill requires DHS to
provide all aliens, even those who
are apprehended, “with a reasonable opportunity to file an
application...
Read
the rest of the article at
Redstate
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