Immigration solutions, not empty promises
By U.S. Sen. JIM DeMINTTuesday, June 12, 20071 comment(s) | Default | Large
It will only take a moment. If Congress passes the current immigration bill being debated in the Senate, President Bush will sign the legislation, and in so doing, offer immediate amnesty to more than 12 million illegal immigrants who currently reside in our country. Bill supporters call it “probationary status,” but the effect will be to give lawbreakers legal status and thus access to Social Security, Medicare, some welfare services and our court systems. And just like that, the main purpose of this immigration bill will have been realized.
In the meantime, those persuaded by the bill’s window dressing will be forced to wait and hope that the provisions promised by the bill’s authors come to fruition. Indeed, the promises in this bill are plentiful.
We are told the bill will end the practice of chain migration by implementing a merit-based points system. But for this, we will have to wait eight years and hope that no future politicians change the law under immense pressure from left-wing interest groups.
We are told the bill will provide for a workable and truly-temporary guest worker system that will benefit our economy. But already, the Senate has gutted this provision by slashing the program by two-thirds.
We are told the bill will encourage legal immigration and assimilation into the traditional American melting pot. But this belies the fact that granting amnesty is the biggest possible incentive for future illegal immigration. Additionally, this bill does not make English the official language and does not require amnesty recipients to demonstrate any serious English comprehension for 12 years.
Most importantly, we are promised real border security with the construction of a partial fence along our southern border, thousands of new border patrol agents, and a new worker-verification system. This, we are told, is the number one priority of the bill.
As proof of the promise, the authors say no other provision contained in this bill (except the immediate “probationary” legal status) will be implemented until the border is secure. And how will we know the border is secure? The president – the bill’s chief proponent – will receive a letter from one of his top officials certifying that it is so.
If history is a guide, these promises will be proved empty.
Remember, we have been down this road before. In 1986 the government granted amnesty to more than 2 million illegal immigrants and promised border security in return. All we got then was increased incentives for illegal immigration and a continually porous border.
We can and must do better. We owe it to the American people to responsibly reform this broken system based on principle, not politics.
First, we must prove to Americans that national security is our top priority.
We should amend the bill to give the triggers teeth by forcing the administration to prove in public hearings that our borders have indeed been secured and Congress should have to vote to approve the certification. We must also close various loopholes that give rejected Z Visa applicants judicial review and that grant amnesty to terrorists, gang members and sex offenders.
Second, we must reject amnesty. Americans are pro-immigrant and believe in legal immigration. They want people to come here, respect our laws, embrace our values, and become American citizens. But we must reject amnesty if we ever expect that to happen. And that is why eliminating the amnesty provisions in this bill is the most compassionate, pro-immigrant thing we can do. Illegal immigrants should have to return home and get right with the law before being granted legal status.
Third, immigration reform must be a net plus for America, not a net loss. A merit-based point system is a good start but only if it is enacted in a timely manner. Our nation is already facing a fiscal crisis, and this bill will only worsen the situation by giving illegal immigrants access to government funded health benefits. In fairness to American taxpayers, Z Visa holders should have to maintain a minimum level of private health insurance to keep them off public assistance (Medicare and Medicaid) and out of emergency rooms.
Fourth, we must strengthen assimilation into the American melting pot. Congress must have the courage to declare English as our official language if we are going to be serious about assimilation. Also, Z Visa applicants should have to apply in English and show at least some level of English comprehension.
I have offered amendments to this bill in the Senate in an effort to fix it. I offered an amendment last week to strike the “Z” visa provision. Unfortunately, a majority of the Senate voted against it in favor of amnesty. Next week, I will work with my colleagues to offer more amendments in the hope that we can salvage this bill.
Congress still has an opportunity to improve this bill, but we cannot pass a bill based on political promises alone. Americans are tired of their government offering only empty rhetoric. It is time we offered real solutions to this very real problem.
Since last year’s gubernatorial primary concluded, I have been back at the front line of health care – practicing family medicine in rural Newberry County. Daily I see the ravages of tobacco on the health of our community. I am also watching the collapse of our health care delivery system – decreasing access to primary medical care, soaring health insurance costs and increasing numbers of citizens without health insurance.
As an aging baby boomer, I wonder how my children will ever afford the spiraling public health care costs facing our nation. Businesses are passing health care costs to their employees, and large corporations are losing ground to foreign competition due to rising health care costs.
Three-fourths of our nation’s health care bill is spent on the treatment of chronic illness. The first item of business when you are in a hole is – stop digging. Tobacco use is the cause of 30 percent of all cancer diagnoses and remains the leading risk factor for heart attack, stroke and chronic lung disease. We must act now!
Please call your state senator or representative and encourage him or her to support the cigarette tax increase. Here are four excellent reasons why:
1. Addiction medicine studies have shown that one out of three people who smoke their first cigarette will be addicted for life. It is no accident that smoking remains America’s No. 1 preventable cause of death, killing 400,000 people every year.
2. Forty-two states have increased their state cigarette tax and found it to be commonsense tax policy. South Carolina must join them. It increases revenue for health care costs caused by smoking, it lowers health care costs as fewer people smoke, and it saves lives as fewer teens start and more adults quit.
3. In South Carolina, one in five children does not have health insurance, while the national average is one in nine. One reason for this discrepancy is that we have failed to fully fund the CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program). This is a federal program that provides $4 of matching funds for every dollar our state provides toward indigent children’s health care. By not fully funding this program, we are subsidizing other state’s programs with our federal tax dollars while our own children go without health care.
4. The numbers simply don’t add up. The Medicaid and Medicare smoking-related health care costs are $7.66 per pack in South Carolina. Our current state cigarette tax is 7 cents per pack, and has not increased since 1977. The federal tax on a pack of tobacco is 39 cents. In other words, we are collecting 46 cents of tax revenue per pack for a $7.66 per-pack problem for taxpayers.
This cost calculation does not include the increasing costs of treating uninsured smokers.
So, the tobacco industry is running away with huge profits while bankrupting our health care system and creating spiraling tax increases. Tell your S.C. senator you are tired of footing the bill for those who choose to smoke.
Increasing the cigarette tax will actually lead to lower public health care costs and a healthier work force.
Honor the men and women serving now in Afghanistan and Iraq – call your senator and tell him/her to put an end to the principal mode of funding terrorist cells in America – interstate trafficking of cigarettes. In 2002 the U.S. attorney’s office in Charlotte convicted a group of Muslim Americans for selling N.C. cigarettes in Michigan through convenience stores, raising millions of dollars for the Hezbollah militia. The Hezbollah militia has been shown to be responsible for training insurgents in Iraq.
Cigarette trafficking has been linked to funding for al-Qaida and Hamas as well. There is no better way to stop this than for South Carolina to match the national average cigarette tax of $1.02 per pack.
Apparently the convenience store lobby and big tobacco have partnered in the last few weeks to fight this commonsense solution for the public good. Recent polls show that more than 70 percent of S.C. voters – Republicans and Democrats – support a dollar tax on cigarettes if it goes to fund health care.
Without your active participation at this critical time, big tobacco will use its millions to block this commonsense policy.
After remaining unchanged at a flat 7 cents per pack since 1977, there is no good reason our state cigarette tax should be any less that the national average of $1.02 per pack.
Chucktown wrote on Jun 7, 2007 10:59 PM: