Action soon on immigration reform

Americans have been talking for years about "immigration reform." In coming weeks Congress is finally poised to do something about it. Senate majority leader Bill Frist has scheduled two weeks starting March 27 for debate and passage of an immigration bill.

Unfortunately for our country, President Bush and many in the Senate disagree with most citizens about what constitutes reform. The congressional debate could produce a law that will improve our border security and control the flood of immigration; or one that will again reward border violators with some version of amnesty, and encourage further mass illegal immigration. Americans who want secure borders without another amnesty need to be especially vigilant during the coming weeks.

So far, sentiment in the House of Representatives has been in favor of increased enforcement of existing immigration laws. In December our representatives passed H.R. 4437, which would increase border security and penalties for illegal immigration. In addition, the House has over 80 cosponsors for H.R. 698. This bill goes even further by repealing the provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act which grants automatic citizenship to children born of illegal immigrants in the US. Bills like these can help us to get the flood of illegal immigration under control.

The Senate has something entirely different in mind. Two bills, McCain/Kennedy and Cornyn/Kyl, include "guest worker" or "earned citizenship" provisions. These are both euphemisms for amnesty in one form or another for people who are in this country illegally. The more extreme Senator Specter has come out in the open with an unabashed amnesty bill for illegals who have been employed in the US without being detected for a certain length of time.

Amnesty bills are bad medicine for several reasons. They encourage people to break our immigration laws, since everyone knows that sooner or later there will be another amnesty. This adds to the general climate of disrespect for law, and increases the inflow of illegal immigrants. Such laws are also unfair to the many would-be immigrants who have been following the rules and submitting to the process of getting visas and working toward citizenship.

Even more unfair, it takes years of red tape and thousands of dollars for an American couple to adopt and bring into this country a child from overseas. Contrast that with a woman who sneaks across the border just in time to have her baby on American soil, making the child automatically a citizen and the mother virtually impossible to deport.

Polls show that most Americans want border security, deportation of illegals who are caught, and no more amnesties. The president and the Senate are poised to defy the will of the people and move toward more open borders. If such a bill passes the Senate, there will be pressure on members of the House to go along.

Americans need to get behind our representatives and insist that they vote only for bills which increase security without offering amnesty no matter how it may be disguised. H.R. 4437 and H.R. 698 are good examples of the types of legislation that should be passed. The next few weeks are a critical time to exercise our "citizen oversight" over Congress.