Stumble it!Tancredo’s Goal Post
posted in Politics by themaiden |Colorado Republican presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo has decided to set the goalposts for handling immigration here in the good old United States and he’s presented some legislation highlighting his ideas. According to the Denver Post, that legislation “covers topics as varied as placing limits on family-based immigration, imprisoning employers of illegal immigrants and penalizing states that help illegal immigrants attend state-funded schools.”
Curiously, Tancredo admits that he “doesn’t expect U.S. House leadership to allow a vote on his legislation” which means, to me, that it is a god-damned stunt and not an honest attempt to address an issue. Tancredo is showboating.
:I’ve said before that I realize that “it simply isn’t possible to have unrestricted borders, however ideologically appealing that might be to some“, but I am quickly getting tired of the hype and the paranoia and the radical solutions we must implemented immediately or society as we know it will collapse beneath us.
Immigration is not that broken. Immigration is not that big of a problem.
Of course, there is the war on multiculturalism– odd for a man bearing an Italianized Germanic name.
The radical multiculturalism we have witnessed over the past forty years in America, I call it a cult of multiculturalism. It has, I think, been successful in destroying the ties that hold us together as Americans. There are certain ideas and ideals that should hold us together and a common language we should use in order to communicate those ideas and ideals. We are becoming a bilingual nation, which is not good from my standpoint. Individuals who are bilingual are lucky and it is a good thing to be an individual who is bilingual or multilingual. It is not good for a country
and we are, as I say, becoming balkanized, we concentrate on all the things that pull us apart as Americans instead of [what] holds us together and this does not help us in this greater issue of clash of civilizations. We’re losing sight of who we are.
Tancredo: Tough Immigration Reform Essential to Maintain U.S. Identity
Hoo weee! Boy! Them Mex-kins gonna make us not ‘Merican no more!
This, it seems, is Tancredo’s real motivation. We can’t let the “cult of multiculturalism” destroy America. I’m sorry, but “people who are different are bad” is not a political campaign I can get behind. Xenophobia is not a family value.
Tancredo’s proposal specifically:
- Eliminates family-based immigration for extended family members of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
- Changes the automatic citizenship granted to U.S.-born children. Those children become citizens only when one parent is a citizen or permanent legal resident.
- Prohibits states from granting in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants unless they offer the same tuition level to all U.S. citizens, regardless of state of residence.
- Requires the president to build border fences authorized by Congress in 1996 and 2006.
- Allows imprisonment of not less than one year of an employer who repeatedly and knowingly hires illegal immigrants.
As for the first:
If you are a U.S. citizen, you can petition on behalf of
* Your spouse, or your child under 21 years old.
* Your parent (if you are at least 21 years old).
* Your unmarried child over 21 years old, and their children.
* Your married child of any age, and their children.
* Your sibling and his or her spouses and children (if you are at least 21 years old).If you are a U.S. permanent resident, you can petition on behalf of:
* Your spouse, or your child under 21 years old.
* Your unmarried child over 21 years old.
We might stretch the waiting periods, thus slowing the process and reducing the numbers, before a new citizen can sponsor a relative, with the exception of spouses and children, but I see no sense in eliminating familial sponsorship of citizenship. This is reactionary on Tancredo’s part.
Tancredo’s point number 2:
This nation has a long history of accepting as a citizen anyone born on the nation’s soil. To me, that makes a statement. “If you are born on free soil, you are free.” I don’t want to ditch that sentiment. A child cannot petition for the immigration of his or her parents until the age of 21. That seems a sufficient barrier to me. The only problem then is what to do with the parents. The child could stay, while the parents are deported, but that strikes me a vicious and inhumane. Both child and parents could be deported, with the child granted the option of returning at twenty-one. This option, though, steps on the sentiment I am trying to preserve. Consequently, I’d probably go in the opposite direction from Tancredo and offer citizenship to the child and legal resident status for the parents conditional upon the parent’s finding of sufficient employment and of their abiding by US law. Failure to remain employed or a criminal conviction would void the whole thing for everyone.
Tancredo’s point number 3:
I completely agree.
Tancredo’s point 4:
That damned border fence is as stupid now as it was in ‘96 and in 2006. If we want to waste time and money and solve nothing, that’s the way to do it.
Tancredo’s point number 5:
Another time and resource wasting scheme. Enforcing this law would be a tremendous drain on a system that is already shamefully backlogged. Violent criminals are being kicked out of jail to make room for other violent criminals– partly due to the nations idiotic drug “war”– and Tancredo would exacerbate the situation by imprisoning people who run businesses? Where is the good sense in that?
In effect, Tancredo is wrong.
“While we often hear administration officials saying that they simply can’t enforce our laws when the truth is that they haven’t even tried, it’s not that they can’t enforce these laws, it’s that they don’t want to,” Tancredo said.
We can’t reasonable enforce this kind of nonsense without breaking our already strained justice system.
And sorry, Tom, a lot of people don’t want these kinds of laws.
* “We are a nation of immigrants.” (8.4 of 10, with 10 as complete agreement)
* “The nation’s immigration system is broken.” (8.03)
* “Keeping families together should be a priority in our immigration policies.” (7.74)
* “Immigrants come to the U.S. to work, not to do us harm.” (7.56)
* “Building more fences on the border will not stop the flow of immigrants to the U.S.” (6.90)
* “Politicians blame illegal immigrants for our social problems to avoid handling real solutions to the nation’s problems with jobs, education, and health care.” (6.97)
* “White supremacist groups use the immigration debate as a recruiting tool.” (6.87)
Tancredo may have set some goalposts, but they aren’t goalposts in the right direction and that they don’t seem to be goalposts that much of America wants.
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