Immigration: Hooray For Arizona!

Finally, there's some sense out there on the immigration
front.

Fed up with the flood of illegal aliens, drugs and criminals
spewing forth from Mexico, the State of Arizona decided
to take action.

It took the unprecedented but necessary step of passing
a law making undocumented presence in Arizona a state crime,
and prescribing certain police methods and procedures for
compliance and enforcement.

And just what does the law prescribe? It prescribes that when
state and local police come in contact with a person that they
have "reasonable belief" is in the country illegally, then that
person is to be detained until he can be turned over to
federal immigration authorities.

That's it. No "sweeps" of areas of cities and towns with heavy
concentrations of Latinos. No arbitrary arrests for "driving
while brown". No roundups at day labor sites. And absolutely
no racial profiling.

Even though Maricopa County (Phoenix) Sheriff Joseph
Arpaio did all of these things and more, and he'll now be
legally prevented from doing so in future, he's solidly
behind the new law, as are 70% of all Arizonans.

And the punitive provisions of the law? They're directed
at those who employ illegal aliens - in violation of existing
federal law. In addition to the federal punitive provisions,
the law provides for fines, loss of business licenses, and
jail terms for repeat violators.

In fact, 95% of the law's provisions - especially the punitive
sanctions and the ban on "racial profiling", are copied
word for word from related federal statutes. And by
passing this law, Arizona now joins 23 other states that
mandate that state and local police also enforce federal
immigration law.

But to listen to the organized apologists for unlimited
illegal immigration you would think that Arizona had
created a state Gestapo, with guys in fedoras and
trenchcoats asking everyone for "papers, please" in a
German accent. And in truth, organizations such as La Raza,
the NAACP, the Urban League, the ACLU, the SEIU, and
the Southern Poverty Law Center have done much to
undermine respect and enforcement of current
immigration law.

But the principal culprits in the complete and widespread
non-enforcement of current law can be found in the halls
of Congress, among members of both parties.

Democrats want a malleable, racially distinct
ethnic bloc of voters that will reliably and lopsidedly
vote Democratic. Republicans and business interests
on the other hand want a cheap and easily exploited labor
force to take those service and manufacturing jobs that
can't be easily outsourced to Third World countries.

And amnestied and legalized immigrants are the
solution for both parties.

And of course, the costs of all of this are passed off
onto the general population, who can be silenced by
calling them bigots and racists. But, of course, it is
citizens and legal residents who are paying the higher
taxes for the educational, welfare, and policing costs
of unlimited illegal immigration.

And it was only a matter of time until some voters
somewhere stood up and said "enough!"

And Arizona is effectively "Ground Zero" for illegal
immigration. Estimates of the illegal immigrant
population of Arizona run from 460,000 to over a
million, in a state of six million people.

And in the Tucson area alone, over 250,000
illegal immigrants were apprehended last year,
with an estimate that for every immigrant caught,
another three get through.

And with Mexico facing an existential threat from
a drug war that has morphed into an all-out insurgency,
the crime and violence has spilled over the border.

Something finally had to be done.

And, in my opinion, this is only the first step that
state and federal governments need to take, working
together, to reclaim the borders and re-establish
American sovereignty in what is now a no-mans-land.

Herewith, therefore, is my prescription for immigration
reform:

1) NO AMNESTY, now now, not ever, for those here in
violation of existing immigration law;

2) Immediate militarization of the entire Mexican border,
from Matamoros to Tijuana. Bring the Army, National
Guard, and Marine Corps home from Afghanistan and
Iraq and put them on the border. Their skills in desert
fighting and patrolling and urban combat are desperately
needed here at home. Border Patrol and ICE detachments
can be embedded with combat units for law-enforcement
support;

3) Sweeps at places of employment to ensure that all employees
have legal status to work in this country;

4) Prosecution, with mandatory fines, forfeitures, and prison
time for employers knowingly hiring illegal aliens;

5) Denaturalization of "anchor babies" born to illegal immigrant
parents;

6) Making it a federal crime for states to give illegals driver's
licenses or access to educational or welfare benefits, including
access to higher education;

7) Requiring that arrested illegals forfeit any and all property
found in their possession before deportation;

8) Set numerical goals and targets for reduction of the estimated
23 million illegal immigrants currently here by at least half
over the next five years;

9) Impose a two-year "timeout" on ALL immigration, legal
and otherwise, until we can decide among ourselves who to
admit and who to keep out of the United States. In my
opinion, future immigration to the U.S. should be limited
to the highly educated and skilled and should come
primarily from China, India, Western Europe, Canada,
and Australia.

There will be a lot to do to put the current situation right,
but historically, Americans have always risen to a challenge.

And this may be the most important challenge of all.