It's More Fun Being an Illegal Alien

How many other issues can you have with the immigration bill? It's being attacked from all sides. Can't say I blame everyone for being unhappy with the bill as everyone is slowly learning all the naughty bits contained therein. One could argue that this is the sign of a good bill as everyone comes away without getting everything they want, but then again, there isn't much that proponents of this bill can point to as being based on sound policy.

The bill is so complicated that for every positive step forward to deal with the problems, there are two steps back. Hugh Hewitt has a good overview of what the bill contains. A bill this complicated needs to be examined closely and yet it appears that no one is bothering to engage in hearings or other steps to discuss the merits of various parts of the bill. T

Well, this certainly doesn't help matters:

The Bush administration insisted on a little-noticed change in the bipartisan Senate immigration bill that would enable 12 million undocumented residents to avoid paying back taxes or associated fines to the Internal Revenue Service, officials said.

An independent analyst estimated the decision could cost the IRS tens of billions of dollars.

A provision requiring payment of back taxes had been in the initial version of a bill proposed by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat. But the administration called for the provision to be removed due to concern that it would be too difficult to figure out which illegal immigrants owed back taxes.

Why is the Administration bending over backwards to give illegal aliens a break that American taxpayers would love to have? The IRS will continue hounding US citizens who haven't paid their taxes in full while illegal aliens will be able to wash the slate clean under the provisions of this bill.

The excuse given is that it's too difficult to figure out the illegal aliens who might owe back taxes and that's the reason to eliminate the provision? This is the reason?

If that's the case, why not scrap the entire immigration bill considering the difficulties involved in tracking down the illegal aliens who are here and the problems with documenting all the different aspects of the package? After all, the existing immigration law hasn't exactly worked out and there are millions in the US illegally, and there's no reason to believe that this new version will improve the situation either.

I would liken the situation to contemplating the renovation of a kitchen knowing full well that there's a flooded basement and a busted pipe upstairs. You wouldn't do the kitchen work without fixing the other problems first. Yet, that's what any immigration bill would do unless it deals with the border control matters first.

This is yet another reason why I think that any immigration package must start first and foremost with securing the borders and entry points. After a period of time to secure the borders, Congress can revisit the existing law and enforce those provisions and deal with the 12 to 14 million illegal aliens in the US.

Meanwhile, certain employers aren't happy with the bill because they think it's going to raise their costs as cheap labor dries up. That's one reason why the Administration is so willing to go along with this compromised bill.

Illegal aliens talked to NYT reporters and lamented the trials and travails needed to get the Z visa under the proposed bill. Curiously, not enough attention was made of the reasons that these illegal aliens from Mexico were coming to the US in the first place - the horrible conditions and lack of opportunity in Mexico. Mexico pushed Mexicans to come to the US to find jobs and send money back to relatives in Mexico because the Mexican government has chosen the easy way out.

House Majority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi thinks that the bill doesn't go nearly far enough in providing enough rights to the illegal aliens who have already shown themselves to flout the law. One of the curiosities of this bill is that it provides a points-based system to put skilled laborers ahead of unskilled labor, yet we've repeatedly been told that the illegal aliens were coming to the US to do the jobs that Americans wouldn't do. Maybe that's why Pelosi doesn't like the bill.