Comment & Debate
Todd Schnitt, who often discusses immigration policy on the Schnitt Show, said in a phone interview with KOMO News: “Everybody who broke into this country illegally knows they broke into this country illegally, and they’ve been siphoning off our system. […] I’m all for immigration. We’re a country of immigrants that came to this country legally. […] [But,] I don’t believe in amnesty. We need to send them back to their home countries, and then they can reapply, get in line, and enter this country legally.”[1]
Thomas G. Tancredo, US Representative (R-CO), in a June 12, 2007 press release titled “Tancredo Criticizes Bush’s Amnesty Push in Senate,” available at tancredo.house.gov, stated: “The President continues to ignore the will of the American people… He simply cannot accept the fact that Americans are not interested in rewarding illegal aliens with a $2.5 trillion blanket amnesty… It’s time the administration to put an end to this tired old ‘Groundhog Day’ routine and shelve this misguided amnesty plan once and for all… It’s time for them to start enforcing our laws.”[2]
Peter Skerry, PhD, Professor in the Department of Political Science at Boston College, in an Aug. 12, 2001 Washington Post article titled “Why Amnesty Is the Wrong Way to Go,” stated: “…amnesty is a bad idea both as policy and as politics. Amnesty is being pushed by those who stand to benefit the most from it, chiefly immigrant advocates, unions and the administration of Mexican President Vicente Fox. Democratic leaders in Congress are also enthusiastic about some sort of legalization program. Yet to many illegal aliens, amnesty offers less than meets the eye. And to Americans anxious about the illegal influx into the country, it is more like a poke in the eye.”[3]
Joe Guzzardi, English Instructor at Lodi Adult School, in a Nov. 10, 2006 VDare.com article titled “Joe Chides His Republican Immigration Reform Friends and Allies for Having Little Faith,” wrote: “To all my Republican immigration reform friends and colleagues, I have two words for you —’Chill out!’ During our movement’s moment of greatest triumph…, we should be basking in our glory at our collective victory. Instead, most of you are wringing your hands and speculating on a worst – case scenario that would include amnesty for illegal aliens and various guest worker programs that will add greatly to the legal immigrant population. But amnesty ain’t happening today, tomorrow or anytime soon.”[4]
The Constitution Party National Veterans Coalition, in its www.nvets.org section titled “Constitution Party National Platform” (accessed Sep. 14, 2007): “We affirm the integrity of the international borders of the United States and the Constitutional authority and duty of the federal government to guard and to protect those borders, including the regulation of the numbers and of the qualifications of immigrants into the country… We oppose the abuse of the H-1B and L-1 visa provisions of the immigration act which are displacing American workers with foreign. We favor a moratorium on immigration to the United States, except in extreme hardship cases or in other individual special circumstances… We oppose the provision of welfare subsidies and other taxpayer-supported benefits to illegal aliens, and reject the practice of bestowing U.S. citizenship on children born to illegal alien parents while in this country. We oppose any extension of amnesty to illegal aliens. We call for the use of U.S. troops to protect the states against invasion.”[5]
Michael W. Cutler, Former US Immigration and Naturalization Service Inspector, Examiner, and Special Agent, in a Sep. 1, 2006 transcript of the hearing before the US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary titled “Is the Reid-Kennedy Bill a Repeat of the Failed Amnesty of 1986?,”: “I believe that we’re here to explore what S. 2611, the Senate Bill, would do to our country, and I believe personally that it would be catastrophic… A nation’s primary responsibility is to provide for the safety and security of its citizens and yet, for reasons I cannot begin to fathom, the Members of the Senate who voted for S. 2611 are seemingly oblivious to the lessons that the disastrous amnesty of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, or IRCA, should have taught us.”[6]