Our Musts in the Immigration Reform Legislation

I am a fiscal conservative and amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants frightens me.  That being said, I have come to grips with the fact that we must have immigration reform, that if we put it off another year it will only get worse, and that the liberals will not let us have everything that we want.  More to the point, what we have now is defacto amnesty.

Last night I was motivated to look deeper into why Senator Rubio and others voted as they did on the Border Security legislation yesterday.  My gut reaction was , “Here we go again, on our road to unfettered amnesty without enhanced border security!”  As happens, my gut response was wrong.

Having looked into it, I now understand that Senator Rubio voted nay because it was not tough enough. In fact, he is working with Senators Hoeven and Corker on an amendment that will be even stronger on border security.  This legislation will include but is not limited to the following:

• 700 mile fence
• Addition of 20,000 border agents (almost 2x)
• Infrared sensors, drones, and other high tech devices
• eVerify
• Granting of a Registered Provisional Immigrant (RPI) status only to those people who can prove they have been here since a specific date in 2012.
• No welfare benefits for illegal immigrants in RPI status
• Putting a deadline on applying for RPI status
• Registered (RPI) immigrants cannot get a green card until all 20,000 new border agents and all the planned technology are in place.

This immigration reform bill is not perfect and will never be perfect for those of us who are fiscal conservatives — it can’t be because liberals in Congress must vote yea for it to pass.

What we need to do is make a list of and be clear about our MUSTS (what we absolutely must have) and our HIGH WANTs and LOW WANTS (want but can be negotiable).

What is not in the amendment that you feel is a MUST?

If we can produce a succinct list of MUSTS, taking the emotion and vitriol out of our communications,  we can make our voices heard.

Here are some articles on the amendment:

http://townhall.com/columnists/hughhewitt/2013/06/21/trust-but-verify-a-tentative-thumbs-up-for-corkerhoeven-and-the-700-mile-fence-it-allegedly-guarantees-n1624275

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/06/20/is-the-hoeven-corker-immigration-bill-amendment-enough-border-security

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/20/could-the-hoeven-corker-amendment-end-gang-of-eight-bill-gridlock/

http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/omnibus-immigration-amendment-in-the-works/

I look forward to your comments.

Yours in hope and action,

Pam Wohlschlegel