President George W. Bush promoted his plan to toughen border security on Saturday, saying illegal immigration was adding to crime and placing a burden on schools and police in border communities, according to this Yahoo! article.
That's good. Stepping up security to try to discourage illegal immigration is a good plan. Controlling access to the nation is something that we've supported for a while now.
So then why does he mix into his message denouncing illegal immigration a plan offering amnesty to illegal immigrants? The plan he proposed was a "guest worker" permit for illegals in this country. It would allow them to live in the States legally and work here for a period of time, provided they return to their home country at the end of the period. This would affect 11 million illegal immigrants (or is it undocumented, these days?). He said that this is NOT an amnesty program, and he's not offering a backdoor reward to people who entered this country illegally. That's right. Giving jobs to people who sneak across the border is NOT rewarding them for sneaking across the border. It's simply matching workers with employers. Because we don't already have unemployed Americans that could use work. If you break the law (being an illegal immigrant necessarily means you've broken the law, because you've entered or remained illegally), then you should be punished, not paid. If the President is serious about protecting our borders, then he needs to not grant immunity to the very people he's trying to keep out.
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