[[email protected]]

((Ted Kennedy has been a Senator for longer than most Americans have
been alive. He was sworn in at a time when two of his brothers were
President and Attorney General of the United States, and has survived
career-challenging threats which would have cost anyone else his
Senate seat and probably a prison term. Yet, the closest brush he has
ever had with defeat politically was more than ten points shy of
ousting him. It is a record that will probably go unbroken forever,
like Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak. Yet Kennedy is widely
acknowledged even in his own state as a loathsome individual.
Historians will study Kennedy as they now do the emporors of Rome in
its decay, men like Caligula and Nero. Bret.))

12 April 2006

Hes Baaack! - Senator Kennedy on Immigration Reform

[Peter Brimelow]

" Very few Senators heavily involved in passing a major piece of social legislation are still in the Senate forty years later when the subject comes up again. And absolutely none has looked as spectacularly foolish about it as Senator Edward Kennedy. As floor manager of the 1965 Immigration Act Kennedy assured the country

€œFirst, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants
annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration
remains substantially the same€¦ Secondly, the ethnic mix of this
country will not be upset€¦. Contrary to the charges in some quarters,
[the bill] will not inundate America with immigrants from any one
country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa
and Asia€¦.

€œIn the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the
proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics
seem to think.€�

Every one of Senator Kennedy�s assurances proved false - yet he has
never apparently felt the need to explain, much less apologize, for
his grotesque inaccuracy.

A reader kindly sent in the canned response she got from Kennedys
office about the current abomination. While it is obvious nothing
Kennedy says about immigration is worth any credence, I thought for
the record it should be analyzed [VDARE.com comments]:

From:
Subject: Thank you for contacting me about immigration reform.
To: [Name withheld] Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 09:57:34 -0400

Dear €”€”€”

Thank you for contacting me concerning the ongoing debate over
immigration reform. This is a complex issue [No, it isn't. The
question is simple: does America become a Spanish-speaking slum, with
the cultural traditions of the pre -65 nation obliterated, the living
standards of the majority eroded --but with an upper class including
the Kennedys benefiting from the regressive income distribution effect
of flooding the labor market?] , with many concerns, and it requires a
comprehensive solution. 12 million undocumented workers [Very likely
20 -- shouldn't we know first?] are currently living in the United
States, working, paying taxes, and raising children who are U.S.
citizens [Only because the Birthright citizenship anomaly is not
fixed]. These undocumented immigrants contribute to our economy [and
take most of the benefit for themselves], and it is long past time to
provide legal avenues to bring them out from the shadows.

Border enforcement has increased dramatically from 1990 to 2004. The
budget for the Border Patrol has increased from $263 million in 1990
to $1.6 billion today - a six-fold increase. [At the same time, the
Bush Administration has essentially abandoned workplace enforcement.]
During this period, between 480,000 and 660,000 undocumented
immigrants entered the U.S. each year. In all, nearly 9 million have
arrived since 1990. Our immigration system is broken, and enforcement
alone will not fix it. [It might, if it were tried.]

We need realistic and comprehensive solutions that will protect our
borders, enable temporary workers to enter the country legally, and
allow workers already here to earn legal status. I am proud to be a
sponsor, with Senator McCain, of the Secure America and Orderly
Immigration Act, a comprehensive reform [relaxation] of our nations
immigration system . Under our proposal undocumented immigrants who
wish to become citizens must show they are currently working, pay a
$2000 fine, work for an additional six years, pass security checks,
pay taxes, learn to speak English, learn about American civics, [Does
anybody seriously think this would be administered honestly?] and get
in line behind all other legal immigrants before being eligible for a
green card. [Except that they are already here, having "Anchor
Babies."]

Border Security is addressed in the bill. It establishes a National
Border Security Strategy, based on €œsmart€� border technology,
information sharing, and cooperation with our neighbors. A new
temporary visa will be created to allow foreign workers to enter the
U.S. The visa will be valid for 3 years, and can be renewed one time
for a total of 6 years. Enforcement of current laws will be
strengthened, improving fraud detection and allowing random audits of
employers to ensure compliance with existing labor laws. Unnecessary
obstacles preventing families from being together when immigrating to
the U.S. are also removed. [Which means more pressure on schools and
health care - and therefore taxes - eliminating the main efficiency
advantage to a society of using "temporary workers".] The bill will
enable undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows, submit to
background checks, and register for legal status. During this time,
they would have to continue working, play by the rules, and pay
substantial fines and back taxes. [Of course, if they did this,
raising their costs to their employers, only extremely draconian and
effective border enforcement would prevent them being undercut by
another wave of illegals. So why not try to perfect that first?] The
bill is not an amnesty, which implies that all is forgiven [Doesn't
Confession involve doing Penance normally?]. It is not. Undocumented
workers must pay fines and go to the back of the line before earning a
chance for citizenship.

By heritage and history, America is a nation of immigrants [No! It's a
NATION. Historically, immigration has been a relatively small
contributor to American population growth, with many long pauses
allowing for assimilation. And those immigrants were from easily-
assimilable backgrounds]. Our bill proposes necessary changes in the
law while preserving this tradition. These necessary changes will
ensure that immigrant families today, as in the past, continue to live
the American [or Mexican, or Asian] dream and contribute to our
prosperity, our security, and our values [by stealing and destroying
them].

Again, thank you for writing to me about this important issue [about
which I am determined to prefer my class and ideological
interests.]"

http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2006/04/12/1098/