by Mark Thies
  We make a mockery of our laws when we allow those who break them first dibs on citizenship.

A couple of weeks ago a group of Upstate South Carolinians and I went to Washington, D.C., to visit our representatives in Congress. Our group, South Carolinians for Immigration Moderation (SCIM), was originally founded because of our concern about the effects of mass immigration (and the resultant rapid U.S. population growth) on our environment and green space, our schools and health-care system, and the wages of the most vulnerable Americans. However, since Sept. 11, the reform of our failed immigration policy has taken on a new sense of urgency.

Incredible as it may seem, the main purpose of our trip was to try to derail the efforts of our president and Congress to award amnesty to illegal aliens by extending a loophole in our immigration law known as Section 245(i).

This program allows illegal aliens, for a fee of $1,000, to apply for legal residence while in the United States without being required to return to their home countries for a background check by our foreign embassies. This means that the INS, who gives out visas to dead terrorists, will be responsible for running background checks on another 150,000 people a year -- people who have already broken our laws to even be here.

While President Bush and leaders of Congress declare on camera that our national security depends on controlling our borders, off-camera they have tried no less than six times to perpetuate a program that rewards people who come here illegally. Much disinformation has been promulgated on 245(i), but an excellent fact sheet is available from numbersusa.com.

Defenders of Section 245(i) argue that it is safer than a blanket amnesty, because only those with a sponsor (i.e., an adult relative, a spouse or an employer) are eligible. Residents in the Upstate should hardly be comforted by these assurances. For a few miles up the road in Charlotte, Mohamad and Chawki Hammoud were convicted on June 21 of operating a Hezbollah terrorist cell.

Along with other members of the cell, the Hammoud brothers engaged in sham marriages with American women. The leader of the terrorist cell, Mohamad, entered the country illegally on a counterfeit visa, making 245(i) the only viable avenue to gain a coveted "green card" and permanent residency in the United States.

A voice of reason in this madness of politics as usual, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WVa), declared "It is lunacy -- sheer lunacy -- that the president would request ... such an amnesty [as Section 245(i)] at this time. The point seems obvious to the American people, if not to the administration."

With Section 245(i) being extended several times since its inception in 1994, its insidious impact on the basic fairness of our legal immigration system is now being felt. In a recent press release, FAIR (fairus.org) points out that the number of legal immigrants who started off as illegals and used some kind of amnesty to "regularize" themselves has been steadily increasing over the years and now takes up 25 percent of all slots being allotted for legal immigration.

In other words, those who patiently wait at home in a line of 5 million applicants are punished for obeying our laws, while the illegal "line breakers" get to stay in the country indefinitely. It makes a mockery of our laws.

Sadly, our trip to Washington showed us that in spite of Sept. 11, "everything has not changed." The White House and the majority of Congress continue to put the interests of Americans behind those of big business and the political panderers.

However, perhaps something has changed since Sept. 11. According to the political pundits, we were supposed to already have an amnesty by now. But we don't, thanks to the grass-roots actions of thousands of Americans across the country, who called and faxed Congress during the latest 245(i) crisis.

Sources in Washington report that the White House will try several more times this year to push the 245(i) amnesty through. So what can we do?

First, say a word of thanks to those congressmen and women who have stood up to the arm twisting of President Bush and the Republican leadership in the house, including Upstate Reps. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). On the other side of the aisle, encourage Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.), who has an excellent record of supporting immigration reform, to speak out against any amnesties that may make it to the Senate. And finally, call the White House and tell President Bush to stop pushing 245(i) -- or to start planning on life after a one-term presidency.
 
 

Appeared in Greenville (SC) News