.
My disgust
with the failure to fix our broken immigration
system for so many years has most Americans of both
parties in agreement.
It is clearly a
bi-partisan problem,
ignored by elites in
both parties, including my
Democratic Party.
However, this
current administration`s continuing failure to enact an
extension of the most significant tool in the
immigration reform tool box,
E-verify, is just plain immoral.
The Obama
Administration has done many things to repair the damage
of the Bush years, but has apparently cast a blind eye
on what surely will become a political moral sore of
significant size as the
Depression of 2008 worsens into years of US citizen
distress.
Most recently,
as
reported by the Federation for American Immigration
Reform (FAIR) on June 3, 2009,
"For
the fourth time this year, implementation of an
executive order requiring that all federal contractors
use the E-Verify system to check worker`s eligibility
has been postponed. With no rule in place, federal
contractors will be accessing billions of dollars of
stimulus money while having the freedom to hire illegal
aliens and displace U.S. workers.
“The delay provides further evidence of the Obama
administration`s unwillingness to enforce U.S.
immigration laws and its intent to abandon even minimal
protections for American workers struggling to find jobs
as the economic crisis drags on. The move belies
administration promises to get tough on employers who
knowingly hire illegal aliens at the expense of American
workers and taxpayers."
President Bush
signed Executive Order 12989 on June 6, 2008, making it
mandatory for the federal government and its contractors
to use E-Verify to ensure that they are employing only
American citizens or legal immigrants with work visas.
E-Verify is 99.5% accurate and answers most
inquiries about legal status in seconds.
The political
image of the new Administration now could not be better.
President Obama is flying high and the Republicans are
looking mighty weak.
But as the Bible tells us in
Proverbs
16:18, "Pride
goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a
fall."
As a Democrat
who voted eagerly in 2008 for our present President, and
one who wishes his Administration every good wish for
success, my concern and dismay about its direction on
immigration reform is also one of puzzlement.
Surely with its record of elegant and highly
successful poll taking and political organization, the
Obama forces are aware that many immigrants, including
those US citizens and legal visa holders of recent
dominant ethnic Hispanic origin are just as concerned
about jobs, public services, education for their
children and our Rule of Law as everyone else.
As usual, FAIR`s
Dan Stein puts the compelling case for E-verify right on
the table:
"The same administration that rushed through the most
massive spending bill in history before anyone had a
chance to read it claims to need months of delay to
review regulations for a program that state and local
governments are already using successfully. Given the
magnitude of the employment crisis, and given this
administration`s record of swift action, the executive
order requiring that federal contractors use E-Verify
should have gone into effect months ago. The fact that
we are facing yet another delay demonstrates that
gaining amnesty for people who broke our immigration
laws remains a higher priority for President Obama than
the plight of millions of unemployed Americans."
Stein didn`t use
the word,
"Immoral", but as a Democrat who has such high hopes
for my party`s success, I feel impelled to brand this
latest delay as such.
My party controls the White House and the
Congress, so it can do the right thing with immigration
reform. My
party is also pushing for
"comprehensive
immigration reform" which we know is just another
major amnesty.
This is of course at present a politically
unpropitious proposition.
And will remain so, as any amnesty initiative
should, far into the future.
So crippling the one good instrument for just,
effective, and urgently needed control, which is now
working almost perfectly, makes the party in power`s
attitude doubly disturbing.
VDARE.com`s
Rob
Sanchez wrote about the
"The morality of
displacing American workers" in the spring of
2007.
"Who has the ethical right to balance the supply of
labor with the demand for jobs? The United States
government? Other nations? Employers? Or immigrants
looking for jobs?
“Illegal aliens comprise about 50 percent of the
annual immigration into the U.S. As they enter the labor
market minorities and unskilled workers at the bottom
end of the pay scale are displaced from the labor force.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black
adults suffer twice the unemployment rate of whites,
while black teens register 35 percent.”
As VDARE.com has
written,
black Americans unemployment rises with
each
immigrant admitted.
You have heard
from President Obama, over and over again, “We
do this (whatever the
issue) because it is the right thing to do!"
OK, Sir, the
obviously right thing to do with E verify is moral,
politically correct, and urgently required in these
troubled times.
Do your duty and stay on moral message!
Donald A. Collins [email
him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.
