DrewM:
The battle over amnesty is fought on a number of grounds that often get intermingled. Very rarely, at least on the Republican side, is the case for amnesty made explicitly on moral grounds. You’ll hear someone like Rubio talk about treating illegal aliens humanely (as if we are doing what now? Shooting them down in the streets?) or as part of a call to be charitable but mostly it’s couched in terms of security or “getting people out of the shadows”.
Rand Paul is giving a speech this morning and according to the previews he’s released, he’ll be making a fairly explicit appeal to the moral causes for immigration reform, if not specifically for the current Gang of 8 proposal.
Paul’s speech, which was obtained by National Review Online, is part of his push this month to both amend the Gang’s legislation and improve the GOP’s standing with Latinos. That means calling for beefed-up border-security measures, as well as calling out conservatives who use incendiary rhetoric. “We’re not talking about criminals,” he says. “We’re talking about immigrant workers caught up in a failed government-visa program.”Paul will also voice support for granting work visas to millions of undocumented workers as part of a larger package that includes carefully monitored improvements to border security. “The solution doesn’t have to be amnesty or deportation,” he says. “A middle ground might be called probation, where those who came here illegally become legal through a probationary period.”
…
“Common sense and decency have been neglected for far too long,” Paul says. “Let’s secure our borders, welcome our new neighbors, and practice the values of freedom and family for all to see.”
Sounds pretty much like the current plan on offer in philosophy if not detail. I guess I’ll just wait to see how he votes.
I think arguments like this miss the point however. There is nothing moral about amnesty.
First, the people who came here illegally did so knowing they were breaking the law of this country and that they would not be able to do things that citizens or legal immigrants can do.
We as a country didn’t perform some bait and switch maneuver where we said, “No, we’re just kidding about that pesky legal system we set up. Just hop on over the border however you can and you’ll be treated like the suckers who wait at home and play by the rules”.
They made their choices and like all choices there are consequences.
My concern and compassion is for the sucker who have and continue to play by the rules we’ve set up. Does the process we’ve set up need reform? Desperately. But the fact that we didn’t come up with a plan that would enable anyone who wants to come here to just walk on in mean that people are entitled to walk on in.
Once illegals have ”won the lottery,” by getting a free pass to citizenship who thinks they will be held back because they fail to learn English, pay back taxes, pay fees or fines, etc?
Really?
Not only will they get citizenship, but they will NOT pay for it or wait until others get it first or qualify as citizens who know the ways of THIS country.
By NEXT YEAR the majority of children under age 5 in the USA will be non-white.
And blacks will be the big losers in that.
If anyone needs to address racism it is the racism seen between blacks and browns.
In CA they had to deal with constant fights and deaths when they ”integrated” their prisons.