IMMIGRATION How to Fix Illegal Immigration We must create sufficient grass-roots pressure to force Congress to pass the necessary legislation to fix our illegal-immigration crisis in accordance with the Constitution. Utah s state capitol: An anti-illegalimmigration resolution (H.R. 6) very similar to the one shown on page 19 was introduced in the Utah House on February 1. by Larry Greenley Illegal immigration already has the elements that might constitute a tipping point in public attitudes a substantial majority are strongly concerned about a problem and believe the government has the power to address it. www.publicagenda.org, Fall 2007 As mentioned in the Public Agenda report quoted above, and discussed in the previous article, the American public has reached a tipping point over the illegal-immigration crisis. The overwhelming majority of Americans believes that the effect of massive illegal immigration into the United States is intolerable and that our government must fix it. Under our Constitution, Congress is the key to fixing illegal immigration. The Constitution gives Congress the sole power to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization (Article I, Section 8), and declares, The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion (Article IV, Section 4). Nonetheless, Congress has been very remiss in fixing the illegal-immigration invasion. Which raises the question, Why? While Congress has been debating and passing a wide variety of immigration bills in recent years, no major immigration reform bill has been passed by both houses. Until last year the pattern has been that the Senate has passed immigration reform bills based on amnesty and temporary (or guest) worker provisions, while the House has been passing immigration bills based on improving border security with fences and more Border Patrol agents. Then last year the public outcry against amnesty as a fix for illegal immigration became so overwhelming that the Senate could not pass its usual amnesty bill, but had to drop the subject. Why is Congress failing to perform one of its essential constitutional duties: securing and maintaining our national borders so as to preserve our nation s freedom and independence for the benefit of our citizens? John F. McManus succinctly answered this question in the preceding article: In short, the border remains open and the federal government is doing nothing of substance to close it because it is Bush administration policy to merge with Mexico and Canada and actually abolish both borders. In fact, a special issue of this magazine ( Merger in the Making, October 15, 2007) was entirely devoted to the convincing evidence that certain political and academic elites in the United States, Mexico, and Canada are working to merge the three nations into a North American Union (NAU) modeled after the EU in Europe. This NAU would create open borders inside North America, which would eliminate the problem of illegal immigration across our present national borders by legalizing all migration anywhere within North America. This helps explain why so many in Congress, particularly in the Senate, propose amnesty and temporary-worker legisla- THE NEW AMERICAN MARCH 3, 2008 15
Total Immigration Per Decade (millions) 1931-40 1941-50 1951-60 1961-70 1971-80 1981-90 1991-00 2001-10 Legal Immigrants Illegal Immigrants Source: Pew Hispanic Center, 2005 IMMIGRATION tion as a solution to illegal immigration. They know that the borders are slated to be open as part of the NAU merger process. In 2005, President Bush and his counterparts in Mexico and Canada established a Security and Prosperity Partnership of Both legal and illegal immigration have been increasing at a faster rate every decade since the 1960s. 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 North America (SPP), which serves as a transitional regional structure to facilitate the NAU merger. However, even with the SPP already established, Congress still has a role to play in the formation of the NAU by passing the necessary immigration laws to make unimpeded migration throughout North America a reality. Now in this election year, Congress What You Can Do Work with state legislators to get our Model Anti-illegal Immigration Resolution ( A Petition to Congress to Fix the Illegal Immigration Crisis ) introduced and passed in your state legislature (see www.jbs.org/freedom for a link to the resolution and tools to do this). Contact your senators and representative in Congress in support of anti-illegal immigration legislation based on the seven provisions discussed in the accompanying article; an editable, pre-written e-mail message, Congress, Please Fix the Illegal Immigration Crisis!, is available at http://capwiz.com/jbs/issues/?style=d&. Join or organize a JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup Group to work more effectively with others in your local area and state on creating sufficient pressure on Congress to fix illegal immigration. (Go to http://www.meetupalliance.com/jbs and http:// jbs.meetup.com and join or organize a JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup group as part of our national JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup Alliance.) Work with other citizens to demand that our politicians fix the immigration problem in the manner previously outlined to turn this into a major campaign issue for 2008 both at the federal and state levels. n is keeping a low profile on immigration. However, one significant anti-illegal immigration bill was introduced in the House and Senate in late 2007, H.R. 4088, the SAVE Act, which has managed to garner 134 cosponsors in the House. The problem with H.R. 4088 is that it is only a partial solution at best. It focuses on employer verification of the immigration status of prospective employees, but ignores other aspects of the problem that must be addressed. This bill has also been criticized for being a tool to implement the Real ID Act and ultimately a national ID system. Since the federal government has allowed the illegal-immigration problem to grow for several decades now (see the chart to the left), it s going to take more than a partial solution like the problematical H.R. 4088 to regain the trust of U.S. voters. What we need is broad-based legislation in accordance with the Constitution that addresses several important aspects of the illegal-immigration problem, including blocking the NAU open borders/merger process. What Congress Should Do We need Congress to honor its oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic by passing the necessary and appropriate legislation to fix the illegal-immigration crisis. Here are seven provisions that should be included in any legislative package to solve the illegalimmigration problem. These seven provisions are featured in a Model Anti-Illegal Immigration Resolution for State Legislatures, as shown on page 19. Securing our national borders. Since the overwhelming majority of Americans demands that our government secure our borders, virtually everyone who introduces immigration legislation claims to be promoting border security. However, very often such legislation includes temporary (or guest) worker and amnesty provisions that would in effect legalize what we now refer to as illegal immigration. This process would authorize very large increases in legal immigra- 16 THE NEW AMERICAN MARCH 3, 2008
tion, attended by many of the same problems we now associate with illegal immigration, without obtaining the informed consent of the American public. Therefore, Congress should pass legislation to improve border security, while rejecting temporary (or guest) worker and amnesty provisions in the same or subsequent bills. Congress should also avoid the tendency to constrict the constitutionally protected freedoms of American citizens with police-state measures in the name of border security as discussed in the next article (page 20). Stopping illegal immigration, including ending the economic incentives for illegal immigration. This provision is, of course, the heart of any legislation to fix illegal immigration. Under the Constitution, Congress has been given the power and responsibility to regulate immigration and prevent large-scale illegal immigration. While improving border security is an essential part of stopping illegal immigration, there are many other aspects of solving the problem to be considered. Although discussing, or even just listing, all the aspects that need to be included in any lasting solution to illegal immigration is far beyond the scope of this article, we would expect such legislation to include measures: (1) ending the medical, welfare, and education benefits currently provided to illegal immigrants; (2) preventing the hiring of illegal immigrants; (3) stopping the issuing of driver s licenses and other basic identification documents to illegal aliens; and (4) improving internal (away from the borders) enforcement through more immigration agents and detention centers, mandating federal responsibility for detention and disposition of illegal aliens identified by state and local jurisdiction, and ending the sanctuary policies of many local jurisdictions. Regarding the first measure, the high cost to taxpayers of illegal immigration has been quantified by Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation in testimony before a committee of the House of Representatives on May 17, 2007. His analysis for fiscal year 2004 showed that an average lowskill, illegal immigrant household received $30,160 in direct benefits, means-tested benefits, education, and population-based Last year the public outcry against amnesty as a fix for illegal immigration became so overwhelming that the Senate could not pass its usual amnesty bill, but had to drop the subject. services from all levels of government while paying only $10,573 in taxes, which means that each such household cost the taxpayers $19,587 ($30,160 minus $10, 573) in 2004. Furthermore, he estimated that if all current adult illegal immigrants in the U.S. were granted amnesty the net retirement costs to government (benefits minus taxes) could be over $2.5 trillion. Strictly enforcing all existing immigration laws. This provision should go without saying, but many of our illegalimmigration problems would be solved by merely enforcing the immigration laws we now have on the books. With strict enforcement many illegal immigrants would be deported, or in some cases, even selfdeport rather than face the penalties already provided by our immigration laws. Ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants. We must end the immensely attractive incentive for illegal immigration of awarding automatic U.S. citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants in the United States. Many Americans mistakenly believe that automatic birthright citizenship is required by Congressional oath of office: All members of Congress are required by Article VI of the Constitution to be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution. the U.S. Constitution, and that a constitutional amendment is therefore required to change it. Although a provision of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution is misinterpreted to justify birthright citizenship, it is not necessary to go through the rigorous constitutional amendment process to prohibit birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal immigrants. Instead, a bill can be passed by Congress to clarify those classes of individuals born in the United States who are nationals and citizens of the United States at birth.* A bill to do just this, H.R. 1940, was introduced in Congress last year. Rejecting any form of amnesty for illegal immigrants. The American public has already served notice to Congress in 2007 that amnesty is not an acceptable so- * The relevant part of the 14th Amendment, which was adopted during the post-civil War period, states, All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. The intent was to ensure citizenship for the emancipated slaves. THE NEW AMERICAN MARCH 3, 2008 17
IMMIGRATION We need Congress to honor its oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic by passing the necessary and appropriate legislation to fix the illegal-immigration crisis. lution to the illegal-immigration problem. However, this provision must be kept in mind when evaluating future immigration bills. Many powerful political leaders in league with numerous special interest groups are constantly promoting amnesty, usually concealed behind deceptive terminology, as an important aspect of solving the illegal-immigration problem. Nonetheless, the amnesty provided to millions of illegal immigrants by congressional action in 1986 has taught us that amnesties lead to higher rates of illegal immigration based on the expectation of future amnesties. We must steadfastly reject all forms of amnesty in any future immigration bills. Placing a moratorium on temporary-worker and guest-worker legislation until illegal immigration has been brought under control. Although temporary (and guest) worker legislation is usually introduced as a deceptive way to solve our illegal-immigration problem by increasing dramatically the level of legal immigration without obtaining the informed consent of the American people, it could be argued that certain very limited numbers of temporary workers could be beneficial for President Bush has consistently promoted amnesty and temporaryworker legislation ever since he introduced his temporary-worker program in January 2004. the United States. However, to prevent the deceptive inclusion of temporary-worker provisions in bills designed to fix illegal immigration, Congress should approve legislation with a moratorium on temporaryworker legislation until illegal immigration has been brought under control. Defunding, dismantling, or repealing any government program or agreement (such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, SPP, and the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA) that would lead to the creation of an open-borders North American Union. This provision is a necessary part of any legislation to fix illegal immigration because our national leaders have put us on a path toward the merger of the United States, Mexico, and Canada into a North American Union (NAU) with no borders between these three currently independent nations. Since this situation would nullify both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and mean the end of our personal freedoms and national independence, the American people must rise up and block the NAU and repeal NAFTA as essential measures in fixing illegal immigration. Sound Strategy As we all know, Congress will not do what it should do to fix illegal immigration until Americans exert sufficient pressure on Congress to take action. The question is how best to exert this pressure. The John Birch Society is asking its members and allies to focus on a two-pronged approach. First, work with state legislators to get the Model Anti-Illegal Immigration Resolution for State Legislatures introduced and passed by as many state legislatures as possible. (A copy of the resolution is reproduced on page 19 and is also available at www.jbs.org/freedom.) A similar campaign with anti-nau resolutions last year led to 20 states introducing NAU resolutions, resulting in both houses of Idaho, Montana, and Oklahoma passing their resolution, and one house passing a resolution in Arizona and Utah. Second, contact your senators and representative in the U.S. Congress with the same basic message as the model resolution for state legislatures and help exert directly the needed pressure to get action from Congress on fixing illegal immigration (see sidebar on page 16 for more information). In his last State of the Union address on January 28, President Bush appeared still to be promoting amnesty and guest- worker programs, as if blissfully unaware of the firestorm of opposition from the American public that doomed the Bush-Kennedy amnesty bill in 2007. In the speech, the president said: Yet we also need to acknowledge that we will never fully secure our border until we create a lawful way for foreign workers to come here and support our economy. Americans are increasingly seeing through this con, and American public opinion is overwhelmingly against illegal immigration and amnesty, and for a government solution to illegal immigration. In this case, both majority opinion and constitutional principles require that Congress must fix the illegal-immigration crisis. n 18 THE NEW AMERICAN MARCH 3, 2008
Fixing ImmigrationThe Right Way Whereas Article I Section 8 of the Constitution states The Congress shall have Power... To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization... ; and Article 4 Section 4 declares The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion. Work with state legislators to get this Model Anti-illegal Immigration Resolution ( A Petition to Congress to Fix the Illegal Immigration Crisis ) introduced and passed in your state legislature (see www.jbs.org/freedom for a link to the resolution and tools to do this). A Model Anti-illegal Immigration Resolution A Concurrent Resolution from the Legislature of the State of. To the Congress of the United States of America and to the Congressional Delegation of the State of. A Petition to Congress to Fix the Illegal Immigration Crisis Please honor your oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic by passing the necessary and appropriate legislation to fix the illegal immigration crisis by: securing our national borders, stopping illegal immigration, including ending the economic incentives for illegal immigration, strictly enforcing all existing immigration laws, ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, 1 rejecting any form of amnesty for illegal immigrants, placing a moratorium on temporary worker and guest worker legislation until illegal immigration has been brought under control, and defunding, dismantling, or repealing any government program or agreement, such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) 2 and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 3 that would lead to the creation of an open borders North American Union (NAU). 4 Whereas Article I Section 8 of the Constitution states The Congress shall have Power... To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization... ; and Article 4 Section 4 declares The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion. ; Whereas even conservative estimates of the number of illegal immigrants residing in the U.S. range from 12 million to 20 million with some estimates as high as 30 million; 5,6 Whereas the illegal entry into the U.S. by tens of millions of illegal immigrants, approaching 10 percent of our total population, should be considered an invasion; Whereas the federal government has allowed this illegal immigration invasion to occur at an accelerating pace for the last several decades; 5 Whereas the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) are being used as the legal framework to create a North American Union (NAU), which would erase the national borders between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and eventually permit unlimited movement of people throughout North America; 4 and Whereas such a condition of completely open borders throughout North America would constitute the end of national independence for the United States of America, nullifying the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; 4 Now therefore, be it resolved: by the Legislature of the State of, that the Congress of the United States, and particularly, the legislative delegation to Congress of the State of, are hereby urged and petitioned to honor their oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States by passing the necessary and appropriate legislation to fix the illegal immigration crisis by: (1) securing our national borders, (2) stopping illegal immigration, including ending the economic incentives for illegal immigration, (3) ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, (4) rejecting any form of amnesty for illegal immigrants, (5) placing a moratorium on temporary worker and guest worker legislation until illegal immigration has been brought under control, and (6) defunding, dismantling, or repealing any government program or agreement, such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), that would lead to the creation of an open borders North American Union (NAU). 1. http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:h1940ih.txt.pdf 2. http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:hc40ih.txt.pdf 3. http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:hc22ih.txt.pdf 4. http://www.thenewamerican.com/node/6230 5. http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/53.pdf 6. http://www.bearstearns.com/bscportal/pdfs/underground.pdf 19