A Congressman's take on immigration

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett gives his take on the immigration issue today in a column [2] for Human Events:

America is a welcoming nation and there is already a "path to citizenship." The U.S. brings in more lawful immigrants than the countries of the rest of the world combined. Each year, we accept 2 million immigrants legally. We give a million legal immigrants permanent residency each year. We bestow citizenship on 700,000 people a year and provide almost half a million work-related visas a year.

Fool me once, shame on you. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act provided amnesty and a path to citizenship. At that time, there were about three to five million illegal immigrants. Americans accepted amnesty because they were promised that border control and employment enforcement would promptly follow. Today, that number has steeply increased to 10 to 20 million illegal immigrants, 60 percent of whom have been here five or more years. Why would the more generous amnesty in S. 1348 reduce, rather than increase illegal immigration?

The Senate bill violates our country's fundamental commitment to the rule of law and makes a mockery of our motto, E pluribus Unum -- out of many, one. It dishonors the sacrifices by our nation's founders and millions of our legal immigrant ancestors. It would be predictably and utterly disastrous for our children and our grandchildren and America's future. Kill this bad immigration bill before it kills our country.