Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants Is a Bad Idea Right Now

I think that White House-sponsored illegal immigrant amnesty — which passed the House by a single vote — was a bad idea.

I'm a big supporter of Mexican immigration to this country. I think Mexicans make a mighty contribution. If President Bush wants to help out President Fox by whamming through an amnesty for Mexicans living illegally in the U.S., that's fine.

The Mexicans don't bomb us or hijack planes. Some break some laws while they're here, and whether it's murder or drugs... they ought to be prosecuted. But granting blanket amnesty for millions of illegals of a zillion different national origins is a bad idea right now.

We have no idea who these people are. Mohammed Atta could be in this group. In fact, if we are to believe the president of Egypt — who says members of Al Qaeda are in the U.S. waiting to strike — it's almost certain that they will take advantage of this, become legal residents, and give us almost no way to find them out.

Have amnesties in the past been good ideas? Probably, but not now. We have a terror problem. We can be fairly certain that it is a problem of visitors, not legal residents and not citizens.

What we should be doing is launching a selective campaign to find dangerous illegals, and then send them home. The INS should not waste much time on the Mexicans and the Puerto Ricans and the Canadians. Face it. They're not the ones who are going to attack us.

The top priority should be visa violators from the seven terror countries. Next on the list should be visa violators from the countries that gave us the 19 suicide hijackers.

A Saudi overstaying a visa? Bye bye...

An Egyptian overstaying a visa? Bye bye...

A Muslim cleric overstaying a visa? Bye bye...

I'm sure that thousands of people will be denouncing me as a racist for targeting certain ethnic or religious groups, but it's not racism. It's realism.

Who is conducting this jihad against us? The Russians? No. The Irish? No.

We need to get real. We can go back to bending over backwards to be accommodating and nice to everyone later... after we've shipped the bad guys home.

That's My Word.

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