Amnesty Advocates Seek Compromise

Congress Daily AM (5/3/07) reports that Senate negotiators, trying to craft an amnesty (legalization) bill for illegal aliens, have agreed to a "trigger" provision. Under it, amnesty provisions would not go into effect until "triggered" by immigration law enforcement reaching certain targets. Nevertheless, disagreements remain between Republicans and Democrats which may prevent a compromise before the end of the month when consideration of a bill is scheduled. If that happens, amnesty advocates may reintroduce the same bill that the Senate passed last year-one with few enforcement provisions.

Immigration reformers generally oppose any bill with amnesty for illegal aliens. Even with a "trigger" of enforcement, amnesty will weaken enforcement in the long run by rewarding lawlessness. Amnesty supporters claim that the only alternatives are a massive immediate round-up of 12 million illegals, or giving them legal status. A third-and appropriate-possibility is enforcement by attrition, i.e., a slow but steady tightening of immigration law enforcement so that many illegals will leave on their own.

For information on the attrition option, go to the website of the Center for Immigration Studies and read their panel discussion transcript Can Attrition Through Enforcement Work?

Sen. Graham Calls Amnesty Foes "Bigots"

Accepting an award at the 2007 awards banquet of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) in March, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) endorsed amnesty for illegal aliens, saying that the United States must "find a way to get people right with the law." To carry out this goal, Graham exclaimed, "We're going to tell the bigots to shut up."

The NCLR is a Hispanic advocacy group which consistently opposes efforts to enforce the nation's immigration laws. "La Raza" in Spanish means the race. Its 2002-2003 tax form (990) reveals that the NCRA gave funds to a campus branch of MEChA, a group which advocates the detachment of America's Southwest to create an Hispanic territory called "Aztlan." Source: NCLR website www.nclr.org