EDITORIAL IMMIGRATION LESSONS NOW, MORE THAN EVER, AMERICANS NEED TO KNOW WHO'S LIVING IN THEIR MIDST.IT'S time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a to get serious about immigration policy An immigration policy is any policy of a state that affects the transit of persons across its borders, but especially those that intend to work and to remain in the country. . For the better part of four decades, the nation's leaders have been unwilling to do that. In Washington, laziness, political correctness politically correct adj. Abbr. PC 1. Of, relating to, or supporting broad social, political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. and comfort with the status quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. have led to broken immigration policy and practices that are of little benefit to immigrants or the native-born. As of Sept. 11, that's inexcusable. America's broken immigration policy has resulted in millions of legally invisible people living within the nation's borders - people with no documentation or identification and none of the attendant rights or responsibilities. And then there are all the others - like the wicked thugs who took full advantage of our broken immigration policy to commit the Sept. 11 atrocities - who simply fell through the system without thorough checks or follow-up. Usually, the failures of American immigration policy aren't so pronounced - or horrific. Usually, they manifest themselves in smaller ways: immigrants who get scammed and exploited because they have no legal recourse, illegal aliens who endanger the roads by driving unlicensed and uninsured, the gross violation of tax and labor laws. But it's the unusual that has made this gross failure so clear. Americans have not only a right, but also a pressing need, to know who crosses our borders and who resides within our country. To that end, Attorney General John Aschroft has announced plans to work with Canadian authorities to tighten up Verb 1. tighten up - restrict; "Tighten the rules"; "stiffen the regulations" constrain, stiffen, tighten confine, limit, throttle, trammel, restrain, restrict, bound - place limits on (extent or access); "restrict the use of this parking lot"; "limit the the countries' shared border An area on two or more Web pages that contains the same content. Shared borders are used to place logos, titles and other common elements on multiple Web pages. See frames. . Other proposals include tripling the number of border agents and using military personnel to safeguard against illegal crossings. These are good first steps. The United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. must remain open to those seeking the American dream, while offering no quarter to those seeking to destroy it. That requires more vigorous border control. But the problem extends far beyond those trying to cross the borders - and to the roughly 10 million illegal aliens who already have crossed. Clearly, there is a need to identify and document as many illegal aliens as possible. Otherwise, their very invisibility continues to be a threat - to their own safety and to the nation's. Some sort of incremental legalization LEGALIZATION. The act of making lawful. 2. By legalization, is also understood the act by which a judge or competent officer authenticates a record, or other matter, in order that the same may be lawfully read in evidence. Vide Authentication. package is a key part of the answer to make sure we track immigrants in America as closely as we track our citizens. If illegal aliens are allowed to stay and work legally in the United States, they will have a powerful incentive to get documented and identified. The disincentive for choosing continued invisibility should be just as powerful: immediate deportation. To do anything less is to perpetuate a dangerous American shadow society that unnecessarily creates victims - and gives free rein to victimizers. |
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