2nd shot at amnesty bill killed

And thank goodness for that. The bill, no matter what amendments were added, was still horrible legislation, which at best would have no effect (completely unenforceable and therefore ignored) and at worst, would reward illegal behavior; the added legalized foreign nationals completely overwhelming the already strained capacity of the FBI, DHS, etc., to process applications & background checks (I mean, come on, they already have backlogs in the hundreds of thousands and can’t seem to keep track of the files they’re currently processing); not to mention social and healthcare services (because with legalization comes greater access to welfare, food stamps, medicaid, etc., and the need to process even greater volumes of applicants than before).

No, the bill wasn’t “reform,” no, it wasn’t an “overhaul” and no, it wouldn’t have improved any immigration issues; it is just a misbegotten, voluminous mess and ultimately, a huge waste of taxpayers’ money. Illegals aren’t following the law anyway (either rushing the border or overstaying their visas), so what makes these yahoos think they would fall cooperatively in line and observe all the convoluted rules according to this proposed law (going back to their country, renewing guest-worker visas, etc.)? We have immigration laws on the books already, but what we’ve (the U.S.) shown them (the illegals), is that we’re willing to disregard our laws or unevenly apply them. To a person coming from somewhere like Mexico, wherein there are plenty of unenforced laws (rule of law is notional at best) and almost anything can be bought, maneuvered or extorted, this country and our governance thereof may only seem to be a better functioning variety of their native environment. And they have and will act accordingly.

Furthermore, because historically (read: after 1986 amnesty), such laws didn’t result in secure borders; because millions of tax dollars have been wasted on non-functioning systems (software, for instance) to track deportees, dangerous illegal alien criminals, or just visa over-stayers; and because even if the systems do work, they aren’t used consistently by agencies or available to and shared throughout law enforcement and intelligence agencies [read Michelle Malkin’s book Invasion for details about these fiascos], there is little hope that such a complicated, impractical scheme such as this bill would resolve anything at all. As it could make things a whole lot worse, I’m hoping this monster won’t be re-animated.

Read the WaPo article on its recent demise here.