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OPINION

America’s Choice: Arizona or Amnesty

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
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Arizona lawmakers, led by Senator Russell Pearce, have once again shown courage and boldness in their efforts to protect their citizens from the brutal consequences of an open border. Their latest measure is so tough and effective against illegal immigration that, if it is upheld in the courts, it could be the beginning of the end of massive illegal immigration in this country. Where Washington lacked the will to enforce the immigration laws of the country, Arizona may have come up with the means by which local communities will have the tools to do the job themselves. And there is no question; they do have the will.

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So it is no surprise that La Raza and the open-border crowd in Washington are up in arms, demanding their President pass a “comprehensive immigration” bill this year. It is their last hope. Americans are outraged at the failure of the federal government to do its job—and state and local governments have stepped in where the feds have feared to go. Arizona has raised the standard for laws against illegal immigrants—they have made it a state crime to be in Arizona illegally. They no longer need Washington to solve this problem.

President Obama had the audacity to call Arizona legislators “irresponsible” for passing the law, claiming it will lead to racial profiling. What about the massive invasion along our border that exposes Americans to ever-increasing levels of violence against Americans, including murder and kidnapping? What about their civil rights? Not so much as a footnote for them.

Their first goal is to give all illegals amnesty so none of those restrictive state and local laws against illegal immigrants apply anymore—they will have been made legal. But there is also a second aspect to their efforts. It is to open our country to even more foreign workers—an unlimited supply to come to this country and compete with Americans for American jobs.

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The latest version of “comprehensive immigration reform” that Obama and the Democrats hope to jam down our throats this summer is the one proposed by Congressman Luis Gutierrez. Even its name is a lie--“Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act.” What it does is put even more Americans out of work! Gutierrez has created a bill that takes great care of Mexican and other foreigner workers – at the expense of Americans. His bill would grant amnesty to millions of future illegal immigrants after giving the current illegal aliens amnesty and also creates a special visa to “prevent unauthorized immigration” by giving extra visas to the countries that are sending the illegal aliens here.

Lindsay Graham and Chuck Schumer have indicated that they will introduce their own immigration bill soon. Though they have not released the text, they’ve indicated that their bill will also increase legal immigration. It is not just Democrats and RINOs who push this line.

In an op-ed for the Mercury News titled “Amnesty isn't the problem, it's our immigration limits,” Alex Nowrasteh of the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute argues that the only reason that the amnesty of 1986 failed to stop illegal immigration is that “the flow of illegal immigrants continued because legal immigration opportunities were not expanded.”

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A lot of well-meaning Americans who are sympathetic to people who want to come to this country in search for a better life and who follow the rules are tempted to fall for this trap.

What they don’t know, and what open border fanatics try to hide, is that America is letting in more legal immigrants than ever before. Currently one out of every six workers in the country is foreign born.

The Department of Homeland Security recently released its legal immigration figures for Fiscal Year 2009 (October 2008 through September 2009). During this period, over five million people lost their jobs. Amazingly, we increased the number of green cards from 2008 to a staggering level of 1,130,818, over 800,000 of whom can compete against American workers. Outside of the 1986 amnesty, which led to millions of illegal aliens taking green cards, this is the second highest number of green cards we’ve issued since 1914.

While a few Republicans are talking about the problems of illegal immigration, not one politician in Washington has the guts to stand up for the American worker and say that we need to stop importing foreign workers until Americans get back on their feet.

We cannot let the politicians tell us we have a choice between importing foreign workers or being swamped with illegal aliens. Instead we have a choice between standing up for the American worker or betraying them for the business and ethnic lobbies. Any politician who claims to side with the former needs to call for securing our borders, cracking down on employers on illegal aliens, and instituting a moratorium on foreign workers.

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