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November 17, 2006
 Memo
To Mel: Forget Amnesty; The American People Have Spoken
By Joe
Guzzardi
Last week I predicted that, despite hand wringing from
distraught Republicans that
the recently elected Democratic Congress would hand over an
amnesty/guest-worker program to President Bush, no such thing
would happen.
And
today, even in light of Bush’s nomination of
Florida Senator Melquiades Martinez to head the
Republican National Committee, I’m sticking
firmly to my guns.
With or
without Martinez, amnesty will fail.
In the
first place, Martinez’s appointment is—in a
perverse way—good for us. Anything that infuriates the
Republican base as it relates to immigration is great. Let’s
keep the pot stirred!
And when
Bush snubs his nose
as callously toward Republicans as he did in this latest
move, so much the better.
As long
as Bush keeps rubbing salt in the
Republican Party wounds, he’ll have a hard time getting
a game of jacks on Capitol Hill—let alone major immigration
legislation reform—from the new Congress.
Let’s
look at what we have.
- First, assume we have four major amnesty players: Bush,
Martinez and Speakers
Harry Reid and
Nancy Pelosi. Bush wants amnesty—so what? Bush is the
lamest lame duck in
presidential history. Martinez certainly would prefer a
nice juicy amnesty—but is he willing to pay the political
price? Not up for re-election until 2010, amnesty is a dicey
platform on which to stake his nascent political career.
And, given two choices—holding Congress in 2008 or amnesty
for illegal aliens—which do you think Reid and Pelosi would
opt for?
- Second, no matter who in our treasonous foursome wants what,
the dynamic of immigration politics remains unchanged. Real,
honest-to-God
U.S. Representatives must be—at a frozen moment in
time—convinced that a “Yea” vote on amnesty will help
to get them
re-elected in 2008. That’s a tall, tall order.
Summarized: it doesn’t matter what Bush, et al want; Congress
has to vote for it.
Despite
agitating by the Hispanic activists like Armando Navarro—“But
if they (the Democrats) hope to capture the White House in 2008,
they better listen to us.” [
Immigrant
Groups Prepare Big Push for Reform, Are Hopeful Over Democrats'
Ascendance, Associated Press, November 16,
2006] and regardless of the fifty-odd hard anti-American core in
the Congress like
Mike Pence,
John McCain and
Teddy Kennedy, we’ll prevail.
History
is on our side!
Our
opponents have not moved one inch forward in more than six years
of amnesty battles. We have consistently repelled them.
In 2000,
Congress passed the
LIFE Act, a re-instatement of the rolling
Section of 245(i) for 900.000 illegal aliens. (Briefly, 245
(i) allows an illegal alien to apply for adjustment of status
and pay a $1,000 fine to become eligible for a green card. Full
details
here.)
Since
then, four separate attempts to extend
245 (i) have been voted down.
And at
least three major amnesties/guest worker bills died on the vines
for lack of broad-based support:
-
S. 1033, introduced by McCain in 2005
-
H.R. 2330, also introduced in 2005 by Rep. Jim Kolbe and
Rep. Carlos Gutierrez
-
S. 2611, the 2006 Martinez-Charles Hagel immigration and
amnesty acceleration bill.
Remember
that the circumstances surrounding those earlier amnesties were
identical to what we face to day—ethnic
lobbyists,
corporate interests,
churches, the
MSM and the
White House insisting that “
comprehensive
immigration reform” was inevitable.
Each
time, they were wrong.
Ours is a
tremendous record of resistance. The side that should be afraid
of failure is theirs—not ours.
Joe Guzzardi [
e-mail
him] is the Editor of VDARE.COM Letters to the Editor.
In addition, he is an English teacher at the Lodi Adult School and has
been writing
a weekly newspaper column since 1988. This column is exclusive
to
VDARE.COM. |
