NationStates Jolt Archive

FACT BOX

Bill at a glance

A look at provisions in the border security bill approved Friday by the House.

-- Requires employers to use within six years a database to verify Social Security numbers of employees or face civil or criminal penalties for hiring illegal workers.

-- Requires mandatory detention for all non-Mexican illegal immigrants arrested at ports of entry or at land and sea borders by October 1, 2006.

-- Establishes mandatory sentences for smuggling illegal immigrants and for re-entering the country illegally after deportation.

-- Makes illegal presence in the country a crime.

-- Makes a drunken driving conviction a deportable offense.

-- Requires building five two-layer fences in parts of California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona on the U.S.-Mexican border. Places priority on fence at Laredo, Texas.

-- Requires the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to develop a joint plan on increased use of military surveillance equipment on the border.

-- Requires Border Patrol uniforms to be made in the United States, not Mexico.

-- Prohibits the attorney general from providing grant money to any federal, state or local government agency or entity that fails to provide the Department of Homeland Security with information on a person's citizenship or immigration status.

-- Eliminates the visa lottery program.

-- Makes wording of oath of citizenship recited in naturalization ceremonies law to prevent changes without congressional action.

-- The Associated Press


Here is the link :http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/16/border.security.ap/index.html

Well what you guys think of this new bill? Is there a chance to be passed by the senate??
I think some issues adressed are good but i think making illegal immigrants criminals, destroying the lottery is very dangerous. Bush said that its impossible to avoid terrorists without this bill. Well i thought every possible" terrorist" gets spied on anyway... I don't think that a good reason. An free and open society is the foundation of this country and this country was made by people from all over the world who brought good ideas to this place. The number of international students and also professional classes is declining very much. Without international "think tanks" the U.S. won't be as strong as it used to be.

Well what you guys think of this new bill? Is there a chance to be passed by the senate??

I think some issues adressed are good but i think making illegal immigrants criminals, destroying the lottery is very dangerous. Bush said that its impossible to avoid terrorists without this bill. Well i thought every possible "terrorist" gets spied on anyway... I don't think that's a good reason. An free and open society is the foundation of this country and this country was made by people from all over the world who brought good ideas to this place.
Preventing terrorism is a difficult task, if not a virtually impossible one. Anything that helps to do so without severely curtailing civil liberties is fair game for codification.

I think the bill will pass and soon become law.

And, btw, we're not talking rocket scientists here. Most illegals have little or no formal education.

making illegal immigrants criminals

I think we can take it as read that illegal immigrants are criminals. Doing something illegal tends to make one a criminal, indeed, it is the only requirement.

this country was made by people from all over the world who brought good ideas to this place

Mind telling me how this is germane to illegal immigration? No one is suggesting stopping immigration totally. Being against illegal immigration does not equal being against immigration.

If you want to argue for allowing illegal immigration, it is not enough to talk about legal immigration. You must argue why the people of the US, through their elected government, do not have the right to determine who joins them.

-- Requires employers to use within six years a database to verify Social Security numbers of employees or face civil or criminal penalties for hiring illegal workers.
Yeah, that one will hold up.

-- Requires mandatory detention for all non-Mexican illegal immigrants arrested at ports of entry or at land and sea borders by October 1, 2006.
Define detention before anything. Holding till deportation or acceptance? Or both?
-- Establishes mandatory sentences for smuggling illegal immigrants and for re-entering the country illegally after deportation.
That is good. Maybe the best part. Smugglers are endangering those people.

-- Makes illegal presence in the country a crime.
Wow. Doesn't that defeat the purpose? "You have been convicted of illegal immigration and sentenced to X years in jail." What!

-- Makes a drunken driving conviction a deportable offense.
Hmm. Hopefully only for illegal immigrants. :D

-- Requires building five two-layer fences in parts of California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona on the U.S.-Mexican border. Places priority on fence at Laredo, Texas.
Now really, we are trying to make this non-country specific, and yet . . .

-- Requires the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to develop a joint plan on increased use of military surveillance equipment on the border.

Its like getting Army/Navy joint co-op. Hah!

-- Requires Border Patrol uniforms to be made in the United States, not Mexico.
Why were they made in Mexico in the first place? Oh yeah, outsourcing!

-- Prohibits the attorney general from providing grant money to any federal, state or local government agency or entity that fails to provide the Department of Homeland Security with information on a person's citizenship or immigration status.
That'll work for sure. "Damn you Laredo. You didn't give me 6 names. No funding for you! But Wyoming, thanks for the name. Here's your money. Put it in the World's Largest Pile of Homeland Security Money!"

-- Eliminates the visa lottery program.
w00t? I guess. *cough Isolationism cough*

-- Makes wording of oath of citizenship recited in naturalization ceremonies law to prevent changes without congressional action.
Ignorance here, but why would you change it? Does it affect illegal, immigration or were they just slipping random line in there that would be passed with the good parts?
I do it with homework to make it longer. Writing about the Crucible, I added the line "I like mashed potatoes."

-- The Associated Press
Hmm. Anyone know what this code means? :D Sorry couldn't help myself.

OK. So this simply changes up some laws and pushes us towards isolationism.
Great.

w00t? I guess. *cough Isolationism cough*


Immigration lottery? how does that work?

Having had a look at the paranoia level, when it comes to US immigration, I'm better off looking at immigrating to Canada, Australia or the UK - atleast I won't be classed as some 'evil foreigner' and atleast I can get into the country without needing to 'beg for permission' like what is required when getting into the US.

YES! Finally, a bill to deal with all the illegals in our country. Take that you Corporate Slavers who lure illegals into our country and then use them as slave labour!!!