House GOP says: Put security first House GOP says: Put security first

Philadelphia Inquirer article: House GOP says: Put security first by House Majority leader John Boehner lays out the House Republican position on immigration reform. Any bill must:

• Provide additional resources to federal and state authorities to strengthen border patrol efforts.
• Stiffen penalties for those who break our immigration laws.
• Enforce the laws against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
• Oppose efforts to reward the behavior of those who have chosen to break our laws.
• Insist that newcomers obey the law, assimilate into American society by learning English, and embrace our common identity as Americans.

He then goes on to cricize the Reid-Kennedy Senate version, on the grounds that:

• Local law enforcement could detain illegal immigrants only on criminal violations of immigration law, not for civil offenses. It's important to remember that up until the morning of Sept. 11, the terrorists had only committed civil violations of the immigration laws. This type of loophole for terrorists cannot be tolerated.
• Illegal immigrants would be allowed to receive in-state tuition at a local college or university, while an American from a neighboring state would be charged out-of-state tuition.
• Illegal immigrants would receive Social Security benefits for the time they worked in the United States illegally.
• The United States would be forced to consult with Mexico on the construction of any border fence or barrier.
• The expansion of "prevailing wage rights" would force small businesses to pay illegal immigrants more than American workers for the same job.

To me, the folly of the Senate Democrat bill is self-evident. Requiring Mexican agreement to put up a fence would give them a veto over our national security. The "prevailing wage" idea is just another attempt to provide more union jobs - because union wages are what the federal government invariably defines to be the prevailing wage. Typical Democratic responses to problems: multilateralism and more union jobs.

The Majority Leader does not mention some other glaring problems with the Senate bill, in that it would apparently also greatly increase the number of potential citizens based on the illegals here being able to leverage their family ties to bring in much of their, typically rather large, families, including parents, children, and even siblings.

If the Senate bill ultimately becomes law, let's hope that the House bill has been law long enough that a decent fence can have been built, before we give the Mexican government a veto over it.