Wow ... I go quiet for a few days and all hell breaks loose. The President gives a speech (which I have yet to read), and the blogosphere seems to be all over it. Of course, one of my favorites is always John Hawkins, and he has posed a few questions that he doesn't seem to be getting answers to. Of course, I'm up to the task of answering them ...

Questions Not Answered By Bush's Illegal Immigration Speech

Sometimes a speech can be important not just for what it says, but for what it doesn't say. For example, Bush's speech last night made no effort to address many of the thorniest issues surrounding illegal immigration.

Perhaps that's understandable. After all, you can't hit every high spot in an under twenty minute speech. However, there are a lot of very important questions that no one in the Bush Administration, no one in the Senate, and no pro-illegal pundit seems to be able to deal with in a straightforward and honest manner.

I'm not in the Bush Administration, the Senate, or the pro-illegal camp, but I'm an American, and I'm glad to take on these questions even if they won't.

Consider these questions....

-- If a guest worker/amnesty program is really worth doing, why does it have to be coupled with border enforcement, which almost everyone at least claims to support, in order to get passed? If it really represents what the majority of Americans want, as the pro-illegal crowd likes to claim, why can't an "earned legalization"/guest worker bill stand on its own merits?

An "earned legalization" program would certainly stand on its own merits. It's how most of our ancestors got here in the first place.

-- According to some estimates, the Senate bill will increase the number of legal immigrants coming into the United States by 400-1000 percent per year. Why do we need to so dramatically increase the number of legal citizens coming into the United States?

The question shouldn't be whether we need to, but whether we want to. We definitely don't need to. Most of the jobs these illegals are holding could easily be filled by Americans in the entry-level market, incuding many people who are currently on welfare because they say they can't find work. As to whether we want to, if we can streamline the process and only allow immigrants who are truly immigrants (desiring assimilation) and not just visitors looking for a paycheck into our to immigrate, then I'm all for it. These people waving Che signs have no place in American culture, as they advocate taking over a large portion of the country and claiming it in the name of Mexico or "Aztlan", which is clearly an act of war.

-- If we actually add a staggering and completely unprecedented 100 million plus legal immigrants to the United States over the next twenty years, which is something the Senate bill currently appears to do, what makes us think that we'll be able to assimilate them all? What makes us think that we'll be able to change them instead of their changing us?

In my opinion, if they are truly interested in assimilation, then there shouldn't be a problem with their taking responsibility for their own assimilation. The problem then becomes how to know who is "for real" and who isn't - and that may be too difficult a problem to solve.

-- How can it be said that the illegals currently in the United States are truly going to the, "back of the line," if they're being allowed to stay here while they wait to be made citizens?

Realistically, it can't.

-- If illegal aliens are rewarded for breaking our laws, aren't we just encouraging even more people to break the law in hopes of getting in on the next amnesty?

Yes. That's exactly what they're doing.

-- If we don't have the will to punish the illegals who are already here, why should anyone believe that we're going to have the will to punish illegals in the future, particularly since we've already had a "one-time" amnesty back in 1986?

We shouldn't.

Moreover, wouldn't the politicians be even less willing to deport illegals in the future if we allow the 12 million illegals that are already here (along with their extended families) to become citizens?

If the politicians perceive themselves as relying upon these people for votes, then this is exactly what would happen.

-- The Senate plan hands out amnesty to illegals based on how long they've been in the US. But, we're talking about people who snuck into the country, they use fake documentation, and we don't even have a reliable way to know their real names. So, how in the world can we really verify how long these illegal aliens have been in the US?

We can't - not in the real world.

-- Almost everyone acknowledges that the majority of illegal immigrants are coming here to get jobs. So, if we seriously crack down on employers of illegals (which is something the President claims he wants to do), why wouldn't the majority of illegals self-deport after the jobs dry up?

The majority of them probably would. Of course you'd also have every liberal who can get media access calling Americans "cruel" for doing this.

-- Even if we do a guest worker program, wouldn't it make much more sense to have it made up of people who respect our laws and didn't come to this country illegally? Wouldn't that reward foreigners who have respected our laws and take them seriously?

Yup and yup.

-- George Bush has been a do-nothing President on border security for his entire tenure, even though after 9/11, he knew leaving the border unguarded entailed huge security risks. So, why should anyone take him at his word now when he says he will secure the border and increase enforcement?

They shouldn't.

Folks, George Bush and a lot of the Republicans in the Senate are pursuing a bill that could cost us the House in 2006, the presidency in 2008 -- that has the potential to demographically destroy the GOP -- and that could even dramatically and permanently change the character of this nation for the worse if we're overwhelmed by 100 million plus, poor, uneducated foreigners over the next 20 years -- and that's not hyperbole or exaggeration.

Yet, the people who are most strongly behind this bill can't even give a sensible answer to many of the most basic questions about it that I posed above. That's why the brakes need to be applied on this bill...and fast.

I'm not so worried about the "character of this nation" if that means people from more diverse cultures being assimilated into our culture. That's largely what the "melting pot" is all about. I do worry, however, about the hijacking of our culture from within by people who have neither desire nor intention of actually assimilating.

That's why the real solution is to resolve to simply enforce existing laws, and follow through. If we need a wall to keep the illegals out, then so be it. If we need to crack down on those hiring them, then so be it. It's already against our laws to enter the country without following the proper process, and it's already illegal to hire illegal aliens.

How about THAT for a solution?

RWR