Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., stands out both as one of only four Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee who backed its immigration bill, and as a social conservative who isn’t demagoguing this issue. Brownback has an op-ed piece in today’s opinion pages explaining his support for the bill and arguing that its combination of increased enforcement and a guest-worker program is "a conservative solution that the Republican Party should embrace."
He writes: "Economic conservatives should support the benefits from immigrant workers, as studies show that over time, immigrants and their children generate a net benefit to the American economy. Social conservatives should appreciate the values these immigrants bring to America and also recognize that we are called to help the widows, orphans and foreigners among us."
Brownback also argues that just focusing on enforcement, as the House plan does, won’t solve the problem and could make it worse. "The government will fail if it makes laws that ignore the law of supply and demand," he said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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29 Comments
Dang maybe this guy IS a viable GOP candidate for President.
Sammy says:
“Economic conservatives should support the benefits from immigrant workers”what he hopes the GOP hears
WE NEED MORE CHEAP LABOR TO BUST THE UNIONS AND REPEAL LABOR STANDARDS. ENOUGH WITH THE 40 HOUR WEEK, OVERTIME, DISABLITY, FMLA, SOCIAL SECURITY AND OSHA! I”LL GIVE YOU THE SLAVE LABOR YOU HAVE ALWAYS WISHED FOR!
Sammy says:
“Social conservatives should appreciate the values these immigrants bring to America”
He hopes the GOP hears:
THESE FOLKS WILL WORK WITHOUT QUESTIONING YOUR AUTHORITY! THEY ARE USED TO IT! THEIR FAITH TELLS THEM AND RIGHTLY SO THAT THEIR STATION IN LIFE IS DIVINELY DECIDED AND THAT THEY SHOULD BE THANKFUL FOR IT!
Ol’ Sammy aint adressing a clear problem to the nation. He is pandering to the sick greed that is causing it.
AMEN
Guests or gate crashers
By Thomas Sowell
Mar 28, 2006
Immigration is yet another issue which we seem unable to discuss rationally — in part because words have been twisted beyond recognition in political rhetoric.
We can’t even call illegal immigrants “illegal immigrants.” The politically correct evasion is “undocumented workers.”
Do American citizens go around carrying documents with them when they work or apply for work? Most Americans are undocumented workers but they are not illegal immigrants. There is a difference.
The Bush administration is pushing a program to legalize “guest workers.” But what is a guest? Someone you have invited. People who force their way into your home without your permission are called gate crashers.
If truth-in-packaging laws applied to politics, the Bush guest worker program would have to be called a “gate-crasher worker” program. The President’s proposal would solve the problem of illegal immigration by legalizing it after the fact.
We could solve the problem of all illegal activity anywhere by legalizing it. Why use this approach only with immigration? Why should any of us pay a speeding ticket if immigration scofflaws are legalized after the fact for committing a federal crime?
Most of the arguments for not enforcing our immigration laws are exercises in frivolous rhetoric and slippery sophistry, rather than serious arguments that will stand up under scrutiny.
How often have we heard that illegal immigrants “take jobs that Americans will not do”? What is missing in this argument is what is crucial in any economic argument: price.
Americans will not take many jobs at their current pay levels — and those pay levels will not rise so long as poverty-stricken immigrants are willing to take those jobs.
If Mexican journalists were flooding into the United States and taking jobs as reporters and editors at half the pay being earned by American reporters and editors, maybe people in the media would understand why the argument about “taking jobs that Americans don’t want” is such nonsense.
Another variation on the same theme is that we “need” the millions of illegal aliens already in the United States. “Need” is another word that blithely ignores prices.
If jet planes were on sale for a thousand dollars each, I would probably “need” a couple of them — an extra one to fly when the first one needed repair or maintenance. But since these planes cost millions of dollars, I don’t even “need” one.
There is no fixed amount of “need,” independently of prices, whether with planes or workers.
None of the rhetoric and sophistry that we hear about immigration deals with the plain and ugly reality: Politicians are afraid of losing the Hispanic vote and businesses want cheap labor.
What millions of other Americans want has been brushed aside, as if they don’t count, and they have been soothed with pious words. But now the voters are getting fed up, which is why there are immigration bills in Congress.
The old inevitability ploy is often trotted out in immigration debates: It is not possible to either keep out illegal immigrants or to expel the ones already here.
If you mean stopping every single illegal immigrant from getting in or expelling every single illegal immigrant who is already here, that may well be true. But does the fact that we cannot prevent every single murder cause us to stop enforcing the laws against murder?
Since existing immigration laws are not being enforced, how can anyone say that it would not do any good to try? People who get caught illegally crossing the border into the United States pay no penalty whatever. They are sent back home and can try again.
What if bank robbers who were caught were simply told to give the money back and not do it again? What if murderers who were caught were turned loose and warned not to kill again? Would that be proof that it is futile to take action, when no action was taken?
Let’s hope the immigration bills before Congress can at least get an honest debate, instead of the word games we have been hearing for too long.
Thomas Sowell is the prolific author of books such as Black Rednecks and White Liberals and Applied Economics.
True conservatives should expose senator yellowback and his ilk for what they truly are, coeards and traitors!
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
Immigration is an old issue, many an native American has wished that the greeting the Pilgrims had received were war clubs and spears. My dad use to tell those complaining about foreigners ruining this country, “Yeah and I wish all you foreigners would go back to Europe so we could get the good land back!”.
But the fact that seem to get over looked and has become a game of words. Immigration is not the problem. Those that go through the process to come to this country legally is not those that cause the problem.It is the illegal immigrates that this is all about, the new bill is close to this scene: I like you house…. I break a window…. I am now in your house…. Well since I am in the house you might as well let me stay, because the Police will not come and it is such a hassle to push me out the door!
Some thing I just watched on this week on ABC, that the new bill might make employers pay minim wage to guest workers (Illegal immigrates). I see no chance of such a prevision being in place, it would defeat the purpose of those wanting to have the illegal in the country. If you have to pay the same wages to everyone, there would be no point in hiring an illegal!
As to Brownback, God will someone help him with his aim the boy just keeps trying to shoot himself in the foot! So far he keeps missing and hitting everyone else!
NEW FLASH: NEW POLL STATES 74% OF AMERICANS SUPPORT GUEST WORKER BILL.
the poll was done among the 34% that think Bush is doing a good job.
ASK ME…..ASK ME!!!!!
Where would we be without these poor immigrants just trying to make better lives for themselves and doing the jobs that Americans won’t do?
“A homeless man charged with raping a 4-year-old girl faces new charges after Collier County investigators learned he gave them a fake name.
Carlos Eduardo Alfaro was arrested March 22 under the alias Tito Zavala. He was working for an area day labor company, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators charged him with raping a girl whose family let him sleep under their trailer porch on Bayshore Road just east of Naples.
Alfaro is a convicted sex offender in Virginia, where he was sentenced to five years in prison, the sheriff’s office reported. He served one year and was then deported back to El Salvador…”http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060330/NEWS01/60330036/1075http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/033106dnmetfwarrest.7834508b.htmlhttp://www.immigrationshumancost.org/
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
Looks like the GOP is finding out they can’t pander to the hoi-polloi and serve their corporate masters at the same time.
Sweet.
So it would be americans vs immigrants. Who are the americans ?US citizens, right. What about their parents ? They were US citizens too. Ok. And their parents ? Also. Very good. And their parents ? Believe me, there will a point where you will have to answer that their parents were immigrants. This is what this country is !!! If you want to protect americans against immigrants, do something for the native americans…
The stupid leftist demorats end up doing the bidding of the globalists and the cheap labor loving, enron republicans!
sweeter!
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
The senator should have realized that the government did fail when it starting ignoring the fact that the laws of supply and demand also apply to the labor force. They failed when they refused to enforce the current immigration laws, and now wish to once again grant amenesty to the unfortunate individuals they tricked into becoming criminals, by providing incentive to enter the country illegally. They failed to recognize that they, themselves are guilty of the same illegal dumping they so willingly accuse other nations of, but the difference is our government is unloading people instend of goods.I can’t believe I ever supported this guy and find the very thought of him being president laughable. How is it possible for a government (both republican and democrats) to be so completely detached from reality that they have no clue people are not buying their sales pitch any longer?
One of the more interesting signs displayed during the protest in Los Angeles read, “It’s OUR country, you stupid Americans.”
Senator Brownback,
As I read your article in the Sunday Wichita Eagle titled, “Sam Brownback: Conservatives Should Back Immigration Bill” I experienced both dismay and an incredible sense of betrayal.
Stop trying to cover up an issue of illegality with out of context Reganesque prose. Surely you are not suggesting that we have open borders. When the lifeboats were lowered from the bow of the Titanic the people realized that if they tried to squeeze too many aboard they would capsize and no one would survive. The same is true of your shining city, whether it is on the hill, in a valley, or at the bottom of the ocean. The city will only hold so many people and there has to be a controlled and orderly way to admit those who want to come aboard.
I, as are most Americans, am proud of the fact that our country has had a welcome mat out for immigrants since its founding two hundred forty years ago. Legal immigrants are welcome. However, you seem to have a problem distinguishing between those immigrants that follow the rules and jump through every hoop placed before them and those that ignore our laws with impunity. Throughout your article your failure to distinguish whether you are talking about legal or illegal immigrants serves your purpose well. Ambiguity enables you to paint anyone opposed to your immigration bill with such a broad brush that they must either be ignorant or prejudice.
You ignore the facts when you assert that we are not being inundated by criminals and freeloading illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are putting an enormous strain on our education, health care, criminal justice, and welfare systems. They are keeping wages low and exporting billions of dollars to Mexico.
If you believe studies that show that the economy reaps a net benefit from illegal immigrants than you have picking your studies very selectively. Wasn’t the “net benefit” argument the same one the South made to justify slavery at the birth of our nation? Southern states claimed they needed the slaves, otherwise the Southern economy would collapse. I guess that to many, their economic well being justifies morally reprehensible policies. It took us 80 years and a civil war to realize they were not only morally, but also economically wrong. Slavery was abolished and the South survived. How long will it take for people to wake up and realize they are wrong on illegal immigration also?
It may be true that illegal immigrants are hardworking people who want to contribute to American society and prosperity. However, judging from the demonstrations that I witnessed on television it seems that many came to this country with no intent to melt into the pot. When you hear California referred to as Mexifornia; when you hear statements like “we didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us; and when you see the American flag flown upside down below the Mexican flag, you have to question the wisdom of allowing these people to flaunt the law.
You state that you believe that a plan that combines robust enforcement with a guest-worker program is a conservative solution that the Republican Party should embrace. The problem with this is that the Republican Party is full of spineless politicians whose primary concern is getting reelected. Pandering self interest will trump principle every time. It is impossible to have confidence that any new laws will be enforced when politicians lack the will to enforce those that have existed for decades.
You assert that if we enforce our laws it could make matters worse! Since when do you support people having the right to pick and choose what laws they will obey? You say that the government will fail if it makes laws that ignore the law of supply and demand. Does this mean you are against our drug laws? Afterall, there is a tremendous demand for illegal drugs. Perhaps we should just ignore these laws also since as you say, the government is bound to fail.
You state that social conservatives and people of faith should welcome what these new immigrants bring to America. Once again you fail to distinguish between legal or illegal. Americans have always welcomed legal immigrants and you are insulting us all by insinuating that we are prejudice if we draw a distinction between the two. Americans are the most welcoming people in the world. God forbid we expect those wishing to enter the country obey our laws.
You say that the greatness of a society can be measured by the compassion it shows to its least fortunate. If that is the criteria used to judge our greatness then America, composed of the most generous and compassionate people on the face of the earth, is the greatest nation that ever existed. To insinuate otherwise based on our drawing a distinction between legal and illegal recipients of our compassion is blatantly dishonest and accomplishes nothing more than to shed the spotlight on your desire to win national office by pandering to those most likely to put you there.
Sincerely,
Mike Elliott
Thiery..
Couple of problems with your logic. First, there is a clear difference between legal and illegal immigration. My ancestors came thru Ellis Island, learned the language, and became part of the country…not isolating themselves from it.
Second, “Native Americans” are the descendants of immigrants as well. Archeological evidence demonstrates that Mongols traversed the Bering Strait land bridge about 25,000 years ago. Yes, they were here before the Europeans, but they are no more “Native” than later arrivals are.
I tell you, the the Mexican agenda is not just for the USA to support their poor but also to take over the entire country and they are well on their way.
Just thought a single post was necessary on the fact that some of the comments in this string have been signed, “Viva La Raza Blanco!”
Which translates into “Long Live The White Race!”
Which,You don’t hang around here much, do ya?
???? ???? ???????? ???????? ???? ????? ????????? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ????????? ?? ??? ???? ?? ???? ???????? ??? ?????? ??????? ???? ??????? ???? ??? ?????? ??????? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ???????????.Would you please translate this?
Reagans amnesty just resulted in more illegals, waiting for the chance to become legals with another amnesty program. But face it, all our jobs can’t be outsourced, so we need to bring in cheap labor.
I love it !!!!!
IAN Exposed!
That last should have read
IAN “exposed”
Hey Which race? Thanks the info. We figured IAN out a long time ago.
If you are new here “which” welcome to the fray and post again.
Which,
I am an “open book”; if you have any questions just feel free to ask. :)
God, Guns and Gold Baby!!!
Illegal aliens who have the audacity to brazenly raise the Mexican banner reminisent of the Spanish conquistadors of old do not belong in my country. Let those crazy Mexican conquistadors think what they want, there ain’t no way they’re gonna take down old glory from my flagpole! It’s about to get middle-eastern in the good ol US of A pretty damn soon! I’m an American in every sense of the word, I’m also a minority which means I don’t apologize for the shit my country does! F*ck those Mexican shitheads! F*ck em all!
Oy Gevalt!!!!
I’m serious. F*ck those Mexican fatherf*ckers! Shit! I don’t understand whenever anyone talks about Mexicans they do so in hushed whispers… We’ve all talked shit about other immigrant groups and we’ve had others talk shit about us, so why should the Mexicans be any different? Those f*cking, unclef*ckers!
Why are we providing instate college tuition to illegal immigrants if the purpose for not deporting them is that they do work that no one else will do at a lower pay.
Of course Conservatives should support illegal EMPLOYMENT of helpless people.
For most anti-immigrant Americans, the issue has nothing to do with legality or illegality. If it did, they would have supported doubling or trebling legal immigration. The only real issue is job displacement and the immigrants’ lowering American workers’ own standard of living. Outsourcing is legal. They hate that too.
I’ve been hit by legal immigration. I can complain about this. No one likes to have to compete against people who are willing to work for less, and make working conditions unpleasant. Why don’t we admit foreign-educated lawyers and give them law licenses, and then watch American lawyers eat the dirt they stuff down other Americans’ throats.
We have a massive trade imbalance. If we don’t want this, we have to develop our own energy resources, and conserve, to eliminate our connection to terrorist-producing states.
We have to give up cheap Asian goods. Convince Wal-Mart to sell Made in America products by not shopping there until they do. Or else check labels and buy only their Made in America goods. If you say, “I’ll do that”, and then you “cheat a little”, you’re only cheating yourself.
What will happen to big-business’s precious cheap labor if these illegal immigrants are given amnesty and become AMERICAN CITIZENS? Does anybody know? It means that the labor laws will apply to them. It means, employers who hired illegals while paying them next to nothing will have to pay them minimum wage at least! It means the price of your precious vegetables will INCREASE ANYWAY! What would be the proposed solution by the pro-amnesty group then hm? More illegal aliens to exploit!? The only way they can get cheap labor is if illegal aliens STAY ILLEGAL. That way, our labor laws will technically not apply to them. twelve million illegals and counting…
Comparing Mexicans to Americans is like comparing bears to jackrabbits. Majority of Americans practice contraception and are open to undergoing abortion. Mexicans on the other hand do not practice contraception, they are virtually unanimously opposed to abortion, both due to their traditionalist uber-conservative Catholic upbringing. Catholicism in the US is kept alive by immigration. As more and more American Catholics become increasingly secularized or as the Vatican puts it “Americanized” or “Westernized,” the Church needs to find traditionalist immigrants to be strong proponents of the Catholic faith. Mexicans are the ideal group to fill the void of a Church that is suffering diminishing Sunday Mass attendance. They are not quick to adopt political ideologies out of step with their religious traditional views; hence they are vehemently anti-abortion, anti-contraception, anti-gay marriage. The total American Catholic population is 25% of the total population at present. This does not include illegal Catholics, and if the 15% Hispanic population continues to swell to 25% by 2020 (as predicted by polls) then the voting power of the Catholic Church nearly doubles. The result: more opposition to abortion and gay marriage. That is fine with me since Im a Catholic, though I don’t think this will sit too well with the secular-progressives. hahaha!
12,000,000 NOW, 12,000,000 MORE!!!
CruX,
It seems that you have fallen for the myth of Non-White “hispanic family values”! Non-White “hispanics” are almost as morally and intellectually bankrupt as negroes.
“We all know that Hispanic immigrants are going to turn into conservative Republicans because of their “Hispanic Family Values.” We know this because the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page keeps telling us so.
“Unfortunately, what we know has this unfortunate drawback: it’s not true.
Overall, Hispanics show a significantly higher level of social pathology than American whites. There are even signs that, as a group, Hispanics may displace American blacks and form a new underclass.
Illegitimacy rates: unmarried Hispanic women aged 15-44 are about one-third again as likely to have a child as unmarried black women in that age bracket – 93.4 per 1,000 vs. 71.5 – and more than three times as an unmarried white women (27.9 per 1,000). [Source: Centers For Disease Control, pdf file]
Abortion: Hispanic women are two and a half times more likely to have abortions than white women (33 per 1,000 annually vs. 13) and nearly-two thirds as likely as black women (49). [Source: Guttmacher Institute]
Teenage pregnancy: Hispanics are high (about 94 per 1,000 vs. 32 for whites) and relatively worsening – they’ve now surpassed blacks (83 per 1,000). [Source: Centers For Disease Control, pdf file]
Dependency: Nearly one-third (30.6%) of Hispanics receive means-tested benefits, compared to less than a tenth (9.2%) of non-Hispanic whites and just over a third (35.0%) of blacks. [Source: U.S. Census, pdf file]
Criminality: just over one in every hundred adult male Hispanics (1.2%) was imprisoned in 2001 – almost a third of the non-Hispanic black rate (3.5%) and well over twice the non-Hispanic white rate (0.5%). [Source: Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, 2001, pdf file]
Risky behavior: The Hispanic death rate from HIV disease is 2.5-times that of whites (7 per 100,000 vs. 2.8), and about one-third of the black rate (24). [National Center For Health Statistics, pdf file]
If current trends (and immigration policies) continue, Hispanics will clearly soon replace blacks as America’s most disadvantaged ethnic group. On some key indicators they are already in last place.
In 2001, for example, Hispanic median income ($16,705) was nearly a tenth below the corresponding figure for blacks ($18,437) and a quarter below white median income ($22,418). As recently as 1992 Hispanic median income exceeded that of blacks. Back in the mid-1970s, Hispanic median income was nearly 20% larger than the black median. [Source: U.S. Census.]
Education seems unlikely to help Hispanic acculturation. Just over half (56.5%) Hispanics over 25 had a high school degree or more, compared to nearly nine-tenths (88.7%) of whites and nearly four-fifths (79.5%) of blacks. [Source: Digest of Education Statistics 2002, pdf file, my calculations]
Younger Hispanics show no sign of catching up. They are four times more likely to be without a high school degree than young whites, and 2.1 times more likely than young blacks.
This relative underperformance is persistent. Buried in Supplemental Table 3.3b in the Department of Education’s recently issued Status And Trends in the Education of Hispanics [pdf file] is the interesting information that second-generation Hispanics aged 16-24 are nearly twice as likely to drop out of high school as other second-generation immigrants (15.9% vs. 8.2%).
In other words, some immigrants are better than others. In fact, some Hispanic immigrants are better than others, or at least different. For example, Mexican-American women are estimated [pdf file] to average 3.32 births over their lifetimes, versus only 1.7 births for Cuban-Americans.
Which suggests that, rationally, immigration policy should distinguish on the basis of national origin – exactly the much-denounced principle repudiated by the influx-unleashing 1965 Immigration Act.”
Edwin S. Rubenstein (email him) is President of ESR Research Economic Consultants in Indianapolis.http://www.vdare.com/rubenstein/family_values.htm
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
—–
Pretty good Ian. Hispanics breed like jackrabbits, secularized run-of the mill Americans breed like bears, (thanks to the nuclear-family nonsense that they embrace with open arms.)
Your research bolsters my point that as far as numbers are concerned, Hispanics are the champs! Also, suicide rates for whites are the second highest in the country second only to native Americans. I don’t understand why white people seem to think suicide is a viable option, it is sad really.
http://www.mayorno.com/aztlan2.html
We got the Mexican version of the black panthers and the kkk.