Michelle Malkin's Amnesty

Michelle Malkin and I couldn't disagree more!! She is fighting the Bush Kennedy Immigration Bill with all her heart and all her considerable influence.

And I am joining John McCain and the embattled Senators who have cobbled together a reasonable compromise approach to the reality of immigration reform.

Michelle outlines her problems with the proposed legislation in her typical clear, concise, staccato style arguments and massive numbers of links to other, mostly conservative, opponents. She is persuasive and she is persistent as hell! New arguments and updates appear nearly every day.

Meanwhile Ted Kennedy, John Kyle, John McCain and the Senators who crafted the legislation are a whole lot like John Wayne at the Alamo (pun and irony fully intended). No reinforcements are coming. And full siege is underway.

I can hear The Deguello playing in the background... sad, solemn and mournful.

John McCain gave a fiery and impassioned speech yesterday in Miami. He even reminded me of John Wayne. But you should read and thoroughly consider his comments: John McCain - Address on Immigration

This problem cannot be allowed to continue any longer. Finding an effective, just and practical solution is difficult, but it is our work to do, on our watch. The politics of Washington have encouraged us to leave solutions to the toughest problems for another unluckier generation of leaders. Illegal immigration and our porous borders are problems that we have, to our shame, ignored for too long because it was too hard and politically risky to solve. But the problem has grown too acute and dangerous to ignore any longer. To do nothing now would be an unconscionable abrogation of our responsibilities to defend the security, prosperity and values of our country. ...while we argue over the means to solve the problem, we should respect each other's intentions. We will increase the number of border patrol agents up to 20,000. We will complete 370 miles of border fencing, and 200 miles of vehicle barriers, which will not be, as some critics have suggested, all that will be constructed. We will institute a tough new employment eligibility verification system, tamper proof biometric cards to prove to an employer that foreign workers are in this country legally, and impose substantial fines on employers who hire someone without proper status. We will not admit one temporary worker or grant one undocumented worker a visa until the Secretary of Homeland Security can certify that these tough, new measures are in place. As imperative as these measures are, they will not alone ensure our control of immigration or enable us to know the identity, whereabouts and purposes of the millions of undocumented workers who are in our country now. The most difficult problem is what to do about the twelve million or more undocumented workers who live and work here now. No critic of our bill has offered a serious proposal to round up all these millions, many of whom have children born in this country, and ship them back to their countries of origin. There is simply no practical way to do that, and most Americans understand that. DHS Secretary Chertoff, who helped negotiate this legislation, has warned that two million people in this country illegally have committed serious crimes. If some of them attempt to legalize their status, we will apprehend them. If they don't, we can concentrate our efforts on locating them and not rounding up lettuce pickers, hotel maids, and babysitters. Most importantly, we can devote all the resources necessary to finding terrorists who have broken our immigration laws, like three of the terrorists who intended to attack our soldiers at Ft. Dix. Those undocumented workers who declare themselves, pass criminal background checks, prove their employment, pay fines, taxes, learn English and study American civics may be offered eventually, and I stress eventually, a path to citizenship. Critics of the bill attack this as amnesty and a special path to citizenship that is denied to lawful immigrants. Both charges are false. .... if the path to citizenship we offer them is 'special,' it is because it is harder, longer and more expensive than the path offered to those immigrants who come here legally. Those undocumented workers who attain legal status are not automatically provided a green card and citizenship. The process could take as long as thirteen years, and will cost them thousands of dollars, require them to learn English and understand our laws and culture, return to their country and get in the back of the line - not the front, not the middle, but the back of the line for a green card. The situation as it currently exists is de facto amnesty.

Michelle Malkin and her fellow opponents need to realize there are many sides to this issue. This bill, frankly, does not give anyone amnesty! In fact, it is so damn tough that the real risk is that many will not seek the path to citizenship it offers!

And the bill will strengthen the borders significantly and add real power toward documentation.

Michelle, don't you realize that if you defeat this bill then you will have granted amnesty to all 12 million illegals (or is it 20 million??) .

If this bill is blocked, then NOTHING WILL BE DONE!!! The borders will remain open, current illegals will remain here without much fear of deportation, and there will be even more cities who set themselves up as sanctuary cities.

What is perhaps most interesting of all is that the opponents on the left want you to succeed. They want no bill... no law... no change in the status quo. Just as the right has turned on President Bush and John McCain, the left has turned on Ted Kennedy.

In other words, if you win, you actually lose. Maybe we'll call this Michelle Malkin's Amnesty.

TECHNORATI TAGS: SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY GEORGE BUSH JOHN MCCAIN IMMIGRATION MICHELLE MALKIN IMMIGRATION REFORM SHAMNESTY

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