Another Voice / Immigration reform
Daniel Stein: Schumer rates amnesty for illegals over security
One thing we know for certain: International terrorist organizations have not given up their quest to attack this country. They will exploit any vulnerability in order to murder innocent Americans and destroy infrastructure.
One thing we know with reasonable certainty: New York will be in the terrorists’ cross hairs.
Given these realities, it would be reasonable to assume that New York’s powerful senior senator would be using his considerable political clout to make sure that all glaring threats to America’s security are addressed. Instead, Sen. Charles Schumer stated in late June that securing America’s borders would have to wait until after enactment of a massive amnesty for illegal aliens.
Schumer, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Refugees, issued a seven-point outline for “comprehensive immigration reform.” Schumer’s second point states, “Operational control of our borders — through significant additional increases in infrastructure, technology and border personnel — must be achieved within a year of enactment of legislation.”
In that statement Schumer makes some troubling admissions. He concedes that we do not have operational control of our borders, and that we have failed to commit the resources necessary to restore control. Schumer is willing to make restoration of control of our borders contingent on political considerations.
Why, eight years after 9/11, do we not have operational control of our borders? And why should reasserting control have to wait for anything? Congress and the president have a moral and constitutional obligation to use all resources already available to protect the security of the nation.
Unfortunately, Schumer and many in Washington seem prepared to use homeland security as a bargaining chip to leverage another massive amnesty for illegal aliens that the American public does not want and cannot afford. In doing so, he and others are gambling with the security of the nation and the lives of innocent people.
For political reasons and reasons of personal conviction, Schumer may want to legalize millions of illegal aliens. But as chairman of the relevant subcommittee, and as an elected representative of the people who would most likely suffer in the event of another terrorist attack, Schumer has an obligation to put other considerations aside.
As a member of the House in 1986, Schumer was instrumental in passing similar legislation that granted amnesty to illegal aliens in exchange for government commitments to control future illegal immigration. Some 3 million illegal aliens got amnesty while the American people got fooled. This time, the security and interests of law-abiding Americans must come first.
Daniel Stein is president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks better border security, an end to illegal immigration and reduced immigration levels.
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