Has anyone figured out why the Immigration push?

[tomneal]

One pundit suggested there must be money in it for the Senators.

My speculation is there are between 11 and 33 million illegals with no documentation. Since they have no Id, they can easily change their name each time they have a negative encounter with authorities. Is the same group that is pushing for Real Id (or a National Id)?

Just speculating.

[anygunanywhere]

Follow the money always works.

Follow the undocumented dumbocrat voters applies as well.

We are truly sunk if this makes it past the house.

Anygunanywhere

[Redneck_Buddha]

No laws like this are passed for benevolence to society or altruism anymore. You ALWAYS have to follow the money.

[A-R]

following ...

Money leads to cheap, legal, non-union labor for giant corporations

Politics leads to an overwhelming influx of "progressive" liberal voters that will guarantee a Democtat dynasty for generations to come

[karder]

"Immigration Reform" as it has been proposed here is an utter joke. The immigration system badly needs reform in my opinion. My wife is an immigrant and she did it the legal way, which was a proposteriously long, drawn out, expensive process. Think DMV on steroids. It does need major reform.

From what I have seen, there does not seem to be any real system reform being debated. It is just politicians pandering to special interest, porkbarrel buddies, and their voting base. The left says, "let's take 11 million illegal aliens and make them citizens". That is stupid. The right says "okay, sounds good, but first let's double the size of the border patrol". I don't know that expanding a federal agency has ever fixed a problem, but okay.

The illegal immigration problem is largly due to poor political decisions in the U.S. which create an natural need for illegal labor. There are a lot of low skill, low pay, hard labor jobs that we have a natural need to fill in this country--farm labors, domestic help, dishwashers and so on. That is normal in any society. In American society we have massive welfare programs which take the segement of the population who would normally be filling these jobs, and allows them to sit at home and live off the taxpayers.

Our politicans are literally paying this segment of the population to be professional voters and is leaving a huge gap in the workforce, which is being filled with illegal labor.

Here is how to deal with illegal immigration: kick everyone off welfare except the profoundly disabled. That will turn about 95% of the people on welfare back into the workforce and into the jobs currently being filled by illegals. The need for illegal labor will dry up and the motivation for immigrants to stream across the border will dry up with it.

The current plan being proposed is the worst of all worlds. If it works the way it is being proposed, 11 million illegals will become citizens. At this point, they will be crazy to continue working their low pay, hard labor jobs, and will get on welfare. Taxpayers will be on the hook to support them, as well as an additional 20,000 border patrol agents. We will still need lettuce picked, so new aliens will slip in to fill those jobs, no matter how high a wall we build.

This plan is the most dangerous thing we have floating around now as it will hasten the impending bankruptcy of this nation. Absurd in every way.

[bdickens]

Guaranteed Dumbocrat majorities in border states. Establishment of one Party rule nationally to enable the final steps on the road to complete Socialist tyranny.

[cb1000rider]

karder,
I generally agree with our assessment.

I think it's a great example of fear-mongering that has resulted in constituents with massively opposite views. As such, the Republican party can't do anything that doesn't include "increasing border security". I'd like it if they just framed it in reality: It's going to result in a tax increase. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But it will hit eventually. I'm bet some of those guys are smart enough to know that doubling our border patrols (again) isn't going to solve the problem, but they also know that they need a token for their constituents.

You can erect a huge wall. As long as we essentially look the other way once you're about 60 miles off the border in terms of employment, the size and difficulty of the "border security" just makes it a little harder to get here.

We should accept the things we either can't or are unwilling to change, such as real enforcement against people or companies that benefit from this labor, we could have a constructive discussion of what we should do about it. There is a lot we could do to make it easier to go back and forth, with an emphasis on the BACK. We could tax the privilege to work here, as these people are spending real money to get here illegally. We could limit benefits (excluding emergencies) and do something about the current "anchor-baby" policy that is the origin of welfare and support.

With that discussion, we have to recognize and look past the fear mongering. We (US citizens) get very real and tangible economic benefits due to these workers. If they magically evaporated overnight, we would all feel it in our wallets... But no one talks about that.

[tomneal]

New democrat voters wouldn't be added to the voter roles for 12-15 years.
This doesn't explain the urgency and it doesn't explain why republican's would vote for it.

I had forgotten that undocumented workers can't join (and pay dues) to Unions.

[TexasCajun]

Progressive (regressive, actually) Dems want to beef up their ranks by legalizing the 11million illegals & drop them onto the welfare rolls. Country club Republicans think that they can swing the Hispanic vote their way by signing on to this package. I'm for the fringe idea of secure the border, fix the immigration process, round up all of the illegals & send them back to wherever they came from to wait in line for legal entry. I'm a realist as well as a constitutionalist, though. So I know that the plan I favor won't happen. But I can hope for something as close to it as possible.

[TexasCajun]

New democrat voters wouldn't be added to the voter roles for 12-15 years.
This doesn't explain the urgency and it doesn't explain why republican's would vote for it.

I had forgotten that undocumented workers can't join (and pay dues) to Unions.

Sure they say that now. But if the current balderdash passes, it won't be long before the bleeding hearts hit us with "they are now citizens, all citizens should have the right to vote!". Then right before the next election, 11m newly registered Demicratos are being bussed to the polls.

[cb1000rider]

You guys that are dummy-crat bashing do remember that the last time this happened it was under Regan, right? Remember what his political party affiliation was?

The Republicans are certainly getting far from center and it's costing them some elections... They're between a rock and a hard place here. Politically, it's probably not a good idea to not approve "something" in terms of immigration reform because it'll be all over the news at election time. However, if they do it without looking tough on border security, they're going to have a problem with their base.

[karder]

Politically, it's probably not a good idea to not approve "something" in terms of immigration reform

I understand the philosophy behind this idea, but it is destroying us. Politicians from both parties who have built careers and fortunes pandering to special interest groups in return for votes and favorable media coverage have turned our entire system rotten and repugnant.

I choose to believe, perhaps incorrectly, that the American people will support politicians who make responsible decisions. Our country was not won by men who were taking the politically safest steps and racking up personal wealth along the way. Our founding fathers two options were victory or the gallows when they decided to seek independence from the British. I doubt there are many in Washington who step into those waters today.

We have an ever shrinking window of time to turn back from the path that we are on as a nation. I am not feeling confident that we will.

[TexasCajun]

You guys that are dummy-crat bashing do remember that the last time this happened it was under Regan, right? Remember what his political party affiliation was?

The Republicans are certainly getting far from center and it's costing them some elections... They're between a rock and a hard place here. Politically, it's probably not a good idea to not approve "something" in terms of immigration reform because it'll be all over the news at election time. However, if they do it without looking tough on border security, they're going to have a problem with their base.

Regan signed the 1986 reform bill with the promise from the "dummy-crat" congress that border security would be addressed at a later time with a comprehensive plan that would overhaul the entire immigration process. Much to everyone's shock & dismay (sic), the "dummy-crats" refused to take any further action on the issue.

[sjfcontrol]

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[MeMelYup]

2014 elections.