Immigration Reform: Historical Congressional Irresponsibility

Poll after poll, year after year for nearly 30 years, showed that American citizens:

1. Want their representatives to DO SOMETHING to stop illegal immigration and
2. Oppose amnesty AND any new path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

But our so-called representatives haven't wanted to do that. So, what HAVE they done? Since we won't let them do what they want, they've chosen to do nothing ... except grant more amnesties, each time promising never to do it again. I guess they showed us, huh? Question is, why do you suppose they've chosen to ignore us?

Mostly, their reason for not doing what we want is about getting re-elected. No one, Republican or Democrat, wants to risk losing the Latino vote. The sad bottom-line is, Special Interests have more influence with our politicians than the majority of Americans. That's a whole other subject for another day but it's crucial to this issue.

They obviously figure if they can just wait long enough and avoid getting locked into legislation they really don't want to pass, the percentage of Americans who oppose their approach will eventually decrease to a point where they CAN eventually have their way. If they actually passed legislation that citizens wanted in the meantime then they'd have to follow it and it would be difficult to change later. It's easier to just wait us out and do it their way later. Waiting is almost as good as passing legislation that illegal immigrants want. For sure it's better to wait than alienate people who are here illegally.

For reference, from my 05/02/09 post, here is what most Americans want:

1. NO MORE Amnesties ... period. To say that means we don't care ignores the FACT that we've approved MANY amnesties. We're just saying we've reached our limit.
2. NO new/faster path to citizenship. Existing laws have worked fine for two hundred years and we therefore have no justifiable reason to change them.
3. Implement a Guest Worker Visa.
4. Close the border and enforce border security ... ASAP.
5. Enforce existing immigration laws. Sanctuary cities are by definition against the law. Communities aren't immune to federal law.