Rossputin.com Rational Thinking About Our World

Thanks to Peter Boyles for posting this image of a Texas Democratic Party poster, showing Mexico and Texas merged.

I'm not paranoid about such things. But given the political situation at this time and the feelings in the US about illegal immigration (and especially in the border states), the willingness of the Democrats to pander to voters by encouraging something tantamount to a US without borders says a lot about why we should fear a Democrat takeover of Congress.

I am not an anti-immigration person. I am anti-illegal-immigration. In my view, we must enforce our immigration laws (including penalties on employers) while simultataneously massively increasing the number of work visas available for workers of all skill levels.

A big part of the problem in the immigration discussion comes from so much focus on "a path to immigration". There should be a way for someone to be here as a guest worker which includes a clear understanding that there is no such path for that worker coming in that way. Someone coming here to work, to send money home, and eventually to return home himself or herself should have no path to immigration nor access to any taxpayer-funded services. I believe that such a policy will still cause more than enough workers to want to come here for our economy not to suffer from a labor shortage, while preventing illegals from sponging off citizens who pay taxes.

On a separate note, we really need to have a national discussion about the 14th Amendment. It DOES NOT say that anyone born in the USA is automatically a citizen. What it says is: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States . There is a strong argument to be made that "anchor babies", i.e. children of people who come here illegally and specifically evade the jurisdiction of the United States, are not citizens of the USA.

In 1982, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling which contradicts my contention here, but I suggest that ruling is ripe for overturning. There is an interesting discussion on the history of the 14th Amendment, including the ruling that US-born children of American Indians are not automatically US citizens, nor are US-born children of occupying hostile forces (which some people claim is the case of illegal aliens), nor are the US-born children of foreign diplomats.

Dealing with issues like these are a real reason why voters should go to the polls to keep the Democrats from getting a majority in Congress despite the fiscal irresponsibility which the Republicans have brought us. Democrats want illegal aliens for their contributions to union coffers (which then go to Democrat candidates) and for the possibility of those aliens voting, legally or illegally, for Democrats. As I've said many times recently, the Republicans certainly deserve to lose, but Americans don't deserve to have to live through at least 2 years of Speaker Pelosi, and Chairmen Rangel, Dingell, and Conyers.