Is someone listening to us?

[Zeke]

"With the failure of immigration legislation in Congress this year, federal officials are planning a new crackdown on illegal immigrants that would force businesses to fire them or face stiff penalties."

That came from an LA Times article from todays' edition.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-social3aug03,1,6419477.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

[pwd72s]

Wow! I needed some good news, thanks...

[Jeff Higgins]

Maybe the tide is finally turning. We can only hope.

[Tobra]

I don't believe they are really listening.

Link no worky, gave me some sign in page

[Porsche-O-Phile]

It's still a baby step, but at least a step in the right direction. Until we cut off these companies/employers at the knees and fine them or jail their corporate officers for this, start seizing the property and assets of homeowners/contractors who employ these people, aggressively start persecuting them for identity theft, start patrolling our borders in meaningful ways, start rounding up and deporting those already here AND change the "anchor baby" laws to prevent illegals from gaining permanent residency by simply squeezing out kids, we won't win this. We need to hit this issue HARD on all fronts - and be committed to it. Law enforcement AND new legislation are required. We need both. The gloves need to come off and not be restrained by politically-correct liberal pussydom. We need to hit this one HARD - right in the face.

[speeder]

I read that as well. It's kind of interesting if you are the conspiratorial type, (I'm not), meaning the theory that the amnesty legislation never had a chance and it's all one big grand design. If so, I'm certainly not complaining.

As someone pointed out here in an excellent post during the amnesty debacle, the one thing that both sides claim to agree on is the need for better enforcement of the border and current laws, so why not just start w/ that? Anyone who live in SoCal can tell you that ANY reduction in the #s of illegals would be a positive step, even when they deport or incarcerate 1 gang member it has a benefit. If they deported 1000 people, it's not spitting in the ocean. That is 1000 less cars on the road, 1000 less people using expensive taxpayer-funded services, a couple hundred apartments becoming available (potentially) for Americans of low income, etc., etc...

Let's get started. This could keep us busy for a decade, and if this country was a 5th grade class, I'd say we need a project right about now.

[Rick Lee]

I dunno if I believe stepped up enforcement right now means anyone is listening to us. If it did, why can't Congress get their approval rating above the mid-20's by tackling other low-hanging fruit that would make voters happy? Border enforcement is one fo those things we could do so easily IF the political will existed. This is nothing close to the scale of sending a man to the moon or inventing SDI. We have all the tools necessary to do this border job like tomorrow. My guess is the new enforcement is more of a primer to lend credibility to the next immigration reform push. We all know Bush, in his heart, is pro-amnesty. So why would he be ordering more enforcement unless it were part of a bigger strateegury?

[speeder]

I don't think that what is in Bush's heart has a whole lot of political currency these days.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by speeder

I don't think that what is in Bush's heart has a whole lot of political currency these days.

Then it's an especially good thing the amnesty bill didn't pass. Because Bush would have signed it into law in a cocaine heartbeat.