Alien Felony Provison Dropped

All the hubbub over the last couple of weeks has Republicans in congress rethinking the House version of the illegal immigration bill. This is a good thing. The felony provision was unnecessary and counter productive. It is difficult enough to get illegals to a deportation hearing as it is. Making it a felony only adds to that difficulty. The sanctions on helping illegals also needed clarification. A distinction should be made between helping a person in distress and helping a person violate the law. These changes would not significantly change the effort to address illegal immigration.

It is my hope that lawmakers in general don't follow the lead of French President Jacques Chirac and cave in to the demands of the mob. He at least caved in to his own citizens, the mob here includes a large contingent of non citizens. US politicians who are pandering to this crowd are denigrating the citizens they are supposed to represent. The changes they wish to make to the House bill are fine so long as they retain the provisions for increased border security, sanctions for employers who hire illegals and have no offer of amnesty of any kind at any time.

The insidious aspect to the felony provision is the Democrats blocked an effort to remove it when the bill was voted on. They obviously did so to have something to beat Republicans with.

House Democrats acknowledged they helped block Republican efforts on the floor in December to soften the Republican-crafted section declaring illegal immigrants to be felons, but they said ultimate responsibility for the bill rests with the Republicans, who voted overwhelmingly for its passage.

It is disingenuous for Democrats to blame Republicans for this provision when it was their efforts that kept it in. I'm not surprised the Republicans put themselves in a bind like this, or that Democrats are so manipulative. The pandering with offers of amnesty by members of both parties is just an effort to buy votes. Vote buying is nothing new, it's the primary motivation for legislation, but the contempt for the status of citizen reveals their self centered interest as few issues have so far.