March 24 Protest. We were there!
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It Isn't Amnesty
Editorial
New York Times
March 29, 2006
Here's one way to kill a cow: take it into the woods in hunting season, paint
the word "deer" on it and stand back.
Something like that is happening in the immigration debate in Washington.
Attackers of a smart, tough Senate bill have smeared it with the most
mealy-mouthed word in the immigration glossary - amnesty - in hopes of rendering it
politically toxic. They claim that the bill would bestow an official federal
blessing of forgiveness on an estimated 12 million people who are living here
illegally, rewarding their brazen crimes and encouraging more of the same.
That isn't true. The bill, approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a
12-to-6 vote on Monday, is one the country should be proud of. Four Republicans,
including the committee's chairman, Arlen Specter, joined eight Democrats in
endorsing a balanced approach to immigration reform. The bill does not ignore
security and border enforcement. It would nearly double the number of Border
Patrol agents, add resources for detaining illegal immigrants and deporting
them more quickly, and expand state and local enforcement of immigration laws. It
would create a system to verify workers' identities and impose tougher
punishments on employers who defied it.
But unlike the bill's counterpart in the House, which makes a virtue out of
being tough but not smart, the Specter bill would also take on the hard job of
trying to sort out the immigrants who want to stay and follow the rules from
those who don't. It would force them not into buses or jails but into line,
where they could become lawful residents and - if they showed they deserved it -
citizens. Instead of living off the books, they'd come into the system.
The path to citizenship laid out by the Specter bill wouldn't be easy. It
would take 11 years, a clean record, a steady job, payment of a $2,000 fine and
back taxes, and knowledge of English and civics. That's not "amnesty," with its
suggestion of getting something for nothing. But the false label has muddied
the issue, playing to people's fear and indignation, and stoking the
opportunism of Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader. Mr. Frist has his
enforcement-heavy bill in the wings, threatening to make a disgraceful end run around the
committee's work.
The alternatives to the Specter bill are senseless. The enforcement-only
approach - building a 700-mile wall and engaging in a campaign of mass deportation
and harassment to rip 12 million people from the national fabric - would be
an impossible waste of time and resources. It would destroy families and weaken
the economy. An alternative favored by many businesses - creating a
temporary-worker underclass that would do our dirtiest jobs and then have to go home,
with no new path to citizenship - is a recipe for indentured servitude.
It is a weak country that feels it cannot secure its borders and impose law
and order on an unauthorized population at the same time. And it is a foolish,
insecure country that does not seek to channel the energy of an industrious,
self-motivated population to its own ends, but tries instead to wall out "those
people."
It's time for President Bush, who talks a good game on immigration, to use
every means to clarify the issue and to lead this country out of the "amnesty"
semantic trap. He dislikes amnesty. Mr. Frist dislikes amnesty. We dislike
amnesty, too.
The Specter bill isn't amnesty. It's a victory for thoughtfulness and reason. |
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