Washington's Failed Immigration Policy

Less than a week ago, the second attempt at a bill granting amnesty to illegal aliens failed. This second bill was filled with more promises to the American people that we will be able to secure our borders, and the illegal aliens would be held accountable for breaking our laws. We didn't buy it. The citizens of this country are sick of hearing promises we know will be unfulfilled and we are speaking out. I anxiously awaited the outcome of this bill in the Senate and flipped through the AM stations on my radio to see how it would unfold. While listening to the Tom Marr show based out of Baltimore, something interesting happened. The switchboard in Washington went down. There were so many calls - and I'm only guessing here - by angry citizens wanting it to fail, that the switchboard collapsed. I believe this sent a clear message to everybody from Bush's administration, to Congress and the Senate that we do not believe that this bill would be beneficial to America (to say it mildly). There were many Senators that could have voted either way and I would figure that this incident swayed them to vote against it.

Recently my job sent me down to Texas for a two week class. One of the other people also in that class was a border patrol agent. Though he had many stories about his job and what he is allowed to do and not allowed to do, one story really caught my attention. He was out on patrol one day and noticed a whole group of people coming towards him rather quickly. At that point, the only thing for him and the other agent to do was to hide and call it in. The Mexican military was escorting what he believed were drug runners right into our country. They passed our border and continued inland until they felt the people they were escorting made it safely across. At that time, the Mexican military proceeded back into Mexico where they belong. He told us the only reasonable thing to do during a situation like that WAS to hide. Their military doesn't fool around and if they would have tried to stop them, they most definitely would have been shot. My friend said this happens more than you can imagine.

Here are some things that I feel would help deal with our illegal immigration problems:

Step One: The only way to stop illegal aliens - not undocumented Americans - from coming into this country, is to secure our borders. What ever happened to the money that was allocated to build that fence? With terrorists coming into our country - most likely on a daily basis - how is securing our borders a political issue? Isn't this more of a national security issue? Not if you ask the people in Washington.

Step Two: Enforce the laws on the books already. Adding more laws will do nothing if we aren't willing to enforce the ones we have. Deport all lawbreakers that aren't Americans. Seek out the ones that have already been convicted and released that we know are still in this country illegally and as new ones are caught, deport them also. This will curb the gang violence and send a whole lot of undesirable people out of this country. There is no place for them here.

Step Three: Work on some sort of plan that will allow people to come to this country to get educated or work for a specified amount of time. Make sure they leave once their time is up. Set up some sort of task force that only deals with ensuring "guests" leave our country. Force them to leave if they are still unwilling to do so. Arrest the individual, annotate his/her unwillingness to leave and the circumstances surrounding the incident, ensure that person does not come back because there is a strong possibility he/she would do it again. That individual knew that at some point he/she would have to leave. I am all for people coming to America to receive an education or to work for a specified amount of time. I believe that we are a country that wants people to come here (if they do it legally) and it shows the rest of world that we are an accepting, peace loving society.

Step Four: Deal with the illegal aliens that we have in our country already that besides being here illegally, have not broken any other laws. Yes they haven't paid a single dime of taxes, or paid their own health care, but a lot have been here for a very long time and to just deport everybody would be unreasonable. The logistics of that alone would be impossible. There's also the human factor here. A lot have started families and have kids that are Americans and a lot have set up roots whether we want to accept it or not. There are ways to allow these people to become citizens without putting their applications ahead of someone who is patiently waiting. A huge penalty would be to make them wait behind everybody else, pay the amount of taxes that they owe (this would most likely be a roundabout guess) and force them to know the English language before they could even apply.

Why Unions Are Hurting America

Back in the late 18th and well into the 19th century, working conditions were deplorable, wages were low, work days were unbearable and people were being abused. Laws didn't exist to protect the worker during that time and nobody had the best interest of the worker in mind. People worked for pennies a day and often worked 80+ hours a week just to afford the food they put on their table every night. There were no government handouts and everyone did what they had to do, to provide for their families. When unions stepped into the picture and promised better working conditions, more money, and less work hours, people naturally joined these unions without hesitation (and for good reason at the time).

Today, there are numerous laws to protect the employee. They vary from wrongfully firing an employee, to ensuring an employees safety while doing a dangerous job, to providing a mandatory lunch break for an 8 hour work day. There are laws against sexual harassment and discrimination based on sex, race, religious preference, ect. The list goes on and on. So why do we need unions today now that these laws exist? We don't, here's why.

Unions today force people to pay dues whether they want to or not. Where to these dues go?
They go right to the Democrats. Many unions support liberal causes. Most people don't even realize that their hard earned money is being used to support whatever it is the Democrats are supporting at the time. They also lower the productivity in every company that has them. There are no rewards for doing good. Two different people are paid exactly the same despite the amount of work being done for the same job. You still don't believe me?

Think about the teachers unions. Mr. "Slacker" English teacher doesn't care a lick about his students future and/or teaching them anything. His requirements for passing his class consist of being present half the time and that's it. His salary is $65,000 dollars a year and since he's been there over 10 years, he really doesn't need to worry about his job ever being in jeopardy. The paycheck will be there and as long as he doesn't rape or murder someone. Meanwhile, Mr. "Teacher of the Year" English teacher, makes his classes enjoyable for the students, gives them moderate amounts of homework that doesn't bore any of them. Every student completes his class doing extremely well, not only on his final exams, but the state testing as well. This teachers paycheck is exactly same as his lazy co-worker. Is that fair? If you ask a liberal it is.

Here's what would happen if unions became illegal: People would be accountable for how much they are actually helping their company. "If you don't perform, you don't get paid". It's as simple as that. Reward the individuals who stand out. Compensate him/her for their outstanding work and let the rest of the employees know that they could get the same thing if they step it up. Productivity would go up and force the "slackers" to step up their game and actually contribute to the company they are working for. Everyone knows the smell of money. There is probably no greater motivator than the promise of cold hard cash.

Why do the Democrats love unions? Democrats don't want people to be accountable for their own actions. If there is any time where blame can be passed, or you have the ability to make a democracy a socialist place, you'd better believe they want it happen. Their goal is to make everyone the same, regardless of who they are and what they are contributing to the company. I say, nix the unions. Everyone will benefit.