Here's a half-assed communique from Little Lord Lindsey (Graham). Please ignore the presumptuous "Dear Friend" greeting and the false assumption that I might share his views on immigration much less any other subject.
Note how he invokes the terrorists near the end. So here's my question: if we cut "them" off in the south, won't they just enter through the north? I mean, it's going to take every man, woman, and child to "protect" us.
Dear Friend:
I know from our previous communication that you are greatly concerned about immigration reform and the impact illegal immigrants are having on our nation. There is no doubt that we must get a handle on this pressing problem.
While the comprehensive approach to reforming our nation's broken immigration system failed in the Senate last month, the problems posed by illegal immigration have not gone away. There remain at least half a dozen major changes in policy we have to make as a nation to get the problems of illegal immigration under control.
I am pleased to report last week our nation took a major step forward in securing our nation's borders. We began the process of addressing our illegal immigration problem one piece at-a-time. The Senate, by a vote of 89-1, accepted an amendment I introduced to spend $3 billion on Border Security and Interior Enforcement.
Many of these provisions were contained in the Senate immigration bill as well as the Graham-Kyl-Martinez amendment which were debated last month.
My proposal -- the Graham Amendment -- provides and requires:
The U.S. government to establish and demonstrate operational control over 100 percent of the international land and maritime borders between the U.S. and Mexico .
Funding to construct the 700 miles of fencing required by the Secure Fence Act.
Funding for the hiring, training, and placing on duty 23,000 Customs and Border Patrol agents.
Permanently ends 'Catch and Release' by providing the resources necessary to detain up to 45,000 aliens per day.
Funding for 300 miles of vehicle barriers at the border.
Funding for 105 ground-based radar and camera towers.
Funding for the deployment of 4 unmanned aerial vehicles at the border.
Funding to handle the deportation of absconders and visa overstays.
In the age of terrorism, regaining operational control of our nation's borders is a national security issue of the highest order. We need more boots on the ground, more miles of fencing, better technology which acts as a force multiplier, additional detention beds, and unmanned vehicles. The Graham Amendment provides funding for these important and much-needed changes in federal policy.
'Operational control' is a military term, and I look at this effort to secure our border as a military operation. The vote on my amendment shows a seriousness and commitment to border security that our nation has lacked for some time.
But I also want to be clear, more work remains to be done to get a handle on our nation's illegal immigration problems. We still need a more robust Electronic Employee Verification System (EEVS), a visa tracking system, a merit-based immigration system, assimilation programs to ensure people learn English, a method to ensure everyone is paying taxes, a temporary guest worker program for people who want to come here, make money and return to their home country, and other changes.
The Graham Amendment on Border Security and Interior Enforcement is a solid first step on immigration reform. It also marks the beginning of what I expect will be a longer, more drawn out effort to reform our nation's immigration policies.
Thank you again for the opportunity to share this latest information with you. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this and other important issues facing our nation.
Lindsey Graham
U.S. Senator
Posted by hancock at August 10, 2007 08:48 AM
I thought the Repug's theme was "we're fightin em over there so we won't have to fight em over here". That's what my Repug representitve said.
Posted by JohnT at August 10, 2007 09:35 AMcould someone point out to Graham that airplanes can fly above a fence? These GOPers are Nazi's. Listen to the crap that comes out of them....a Military Operation to keep tomato pickers out of our dear nation. Why can't they just come out and tell the truth: Graham "I don't want any non-white people living aroung me".
Posted by T2 at August 10, 2007 09:40 AMI read where a group of 8 or 9 GOPer senators crawled before the Great Oz to tell him his refusal to support immigration law was costing Republican candidates in the polls. I guess Bush is tossing his party a few crumbs.
Posted by Christopher at August 10, 2007 10:06 AMThis is going to get interesting. At a time when even Republicans admit that our infrastructure is crumbling and in urgent need of repair or replacement the Smirk Jerk is going to crack down on employers who hire illegal aliens. Who is going to do all this repairing and replacing?
There will be precious little of it going on in Texas, I can tell you that. Down here it is darn near illegal for a legal to pour concrete.
Posted by PretzelsOne at August 10, 2007 11:02 AMyes PretzelsOne...I know of a job in TX that shut completely down when Mexico played in the World Cup....no cc finishers came to work. true.
Posted by T2 at August 10, 2007 11:11 AMWith all of the past spying, busco must have finally completed their list of DEM BUSINESS OWNERS who hire the undocumented.
Book dem, Dano.
Posted by TIKI AL at August 10, 2007 05:13 PMIt is an interesting gambit. First you pauperize a vast population of rural campesino's by dumping genetically engineered corn, their staple food, on their market.
Then when they cross the borders in desperate droves, you ratchet up the bigot pressure to ensure they will work for low wages under any miserable conditions you choose to impose so that we can roll back labor gains to something from the 1880's.
Nice trick.
Posted by Chris Rich at August 11, 2007 12:32 AM"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore;
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
How quaint, but no longer applies.
Because when his new found enforcement zeal fails, as it most assuredly will, with the Bush administrations typical competent implementation (meant to fail), he can ratchet up the extremist immigrant bashing to rile up the base and try to force the Democrats to choose Security over Mexicans and Mexican Americans.
Posted by Duckman GR at August 11, 2007 07:19 AM"I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Corporate America gets golden parachutes and gives us golden showers.
Posted by TIKI AL at August 11, 2007 11:36 AM