Amnesty By Any Other Name

Illegal immigration is perhaps the biggest problem we face as a nation. Donald Trump was absolutely right that countries without borders are not countries at all, and ours is wide open.

Illegal immigration brings drugs and crime into our communities, overloads our social services, and most importantly, makes a mockery of the very concept of the rule of law. You will be fined for speeding, arrested for being at the Capitol on January 6th, or jailed for making memes on Twitter, but crossing the border illegally and working without authorization gets you cash benefits and political representation.

Whose fault is this? Not necessarily the migrants themselves who are looking for a better life, but our federal government that encourages illegal immigration, the countless charities and NGOs which financially benefit from it, and most of all, too many businesses which want a never ending supply of cheap labor.

There are two responses to this crisis ruminating in the Idaho Legislature.

The Main Street Caucus wants to encourage illegal immigration, to manage it, to keep the gravy train flowing. They pushed a Senate memorial last year calling on the federal government to streamline the process of importing guest workers and give amnesty to those who were here illegally. Thankfully it got stuck in the House and did not pass.

The same people are back with a new memorial, without an explicit call for amnesty. Nevertheless, Senate Joint Memorial 102 once again comes from the perspective of big businesses that want to guarantee an endless supply of cheap labor.

Sen. Kevin Cook shared a newsletter last week lauding the new proposal, saying the memorial “underscores the urgency for a modernized approach that not only secures our nation’s borders but also meets the labor demands of domestic businesses.”

What kind of country are we when the “labor demands of domestic businesses” require a steady stream of cheap foreign workers? What happened to the idea of hiring Americans to do American jobs? Instead we encourage young people to spend years in college rather than learning the value of hard work.

On Monday, the McClure Center for Public Policy Research out of the University of Idaho gave a presentation on the supposed economic benefits of migration, both legal and illegal. According to the Center, more than 30,000 illegal aliens currently work in Idaho, which means that businesses and our entire economy depend upon their labor.

Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld brought this up during debate on the Senate floor on Tuesday. Even though SJM102 explicitly rules out amnesty, it doesn’t say what must be done about the illegal aliens currently working in Idaho. Without mass deportations, some form of amnesty is inevitable, which means SJM102 implicitly endorses amnesty.

Sen. Brian Lenney expressed his skepticism of the “no amnesty” clause on Twitter:

There are deeper questions here. What is the role of the government with regards to immigration? Is it to facilitate the pipeline of cheap labor for big businesses? Or is it to enforce our laws and protect the rights of the American people?

What does it mean to be an American citizen? Does it mean you have special rights and privileges, as recognized in the Constitution and a thousand years of English Common Law? Or does it mean you are interchangeable for a foreign worker who will work for cheap?

Do our heritage and culture matter? Does it mean anything if English remains the primary language of our country? Can the Constitution be adapted for a new population that developed with different social and legal traditions?

Unfortunately these questions are swept aside. Democrats see the potential of new voters who will support their agenda while Republicans see cheap labor for their biggest donors.

IACI, the Big Ag coalitions, and their Main Street Caucus puppets have no loyalty to the American people or citizens of Idaho. They would happily replace us all with a servile foreign population that works for less and votes how they’re told.

There is something perverse about American businessmen eschewing American workers for cheap foreign labor. “Illegal immigrants do the jobs Americans won’t do” is simply the modern incarnation of “Slaves do the jobs that white men won’t do.” At some point, the conception of America changed from being a nation, a country with unique people and heritage, to nothing more than an economic zone, a giant open air flea market where goods and services can be bought and sold. In this modern conception of America, there is no difference between a citizen and an alien, no difference between legal and illegal. Human beings are simply cogs in a machine that generates GDP and cheap goods.

Gem State Chronicle, “The Modern Plantation”

SJM102 represents the same bait-and-switch with which politicians have been bamboozling voters for decades. In 1986, President Reagan signed an act that gave amnesty to illegal aliens in the country at that time while promising better enforcement of immigration law in the future. That future never came, but the usual suspects are back with the same trick.

Watch the Senate floor debate over SJM102 and see how proponents of the bill come from the perspective that cheap labor is their most important concern:

In the end, only Sens. Cindy Carlson, Dan Foreman, Brian Lenney, and Glenneda Zuiderveld voted against the memorial.

Rep. Dale Hawkins and Sen. Zuiderveld have introduced their own resolution in the form of House Joint Memorial 8. This one calls for enforcing the law first, even to the extent of impeaching President Joe Biden for deliberately refusing to secure the border.

Watch Rep. Hawkins present the bill in committee last week:

The House memorial starts from the position that enforcing the border is one of the primary duties of our federal government, and doing so will stem the tide of illegal aliens as well as the drugs and sex trafficking that take advantage of weak border enforcement. It says that only after impeaching Biden and passing a strong border security bill with real teeth should Congress even consider streamlining the legal immigration process.

The desires of Idaho businesses for cheap labor must come second to enforcing our existing immigration laws. The purpose of the American government is not to provide cheap labor to big business, rather it is to protect the rights and liberties of American citizens.

Pay close attention to which lawmakers put the American people and the rule of law first, and which do the bidding of big corporations. This is the great question of our time, and the answer will determine whether we have a country to bequeath to our grandchildren.

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