David Copperfield and Immigration




Imagine if you will, putting millions of illegal immigrants on a stage and having David Copperfield transport them all back to where they came from.

I was in the audience last night at the 10 o'clock evening show in Las Vegas when I saw David Copperfield flip Frisbees into the audience to select random members for use in his show. The majority of those who caught the Frisbees were Hispanics, from Chile, Peru, Mexico, wherever. Now it very well could be that they were all tourists who just came to catch his magic show and will return to their respective countries when their vacation is over. Because Las Vegas gets about 40 million visitors a year it's no surprise to find tourists from all over the world but after Copperfield picked one Hispanic after another I began to pay more attention to those seated around me. I was amazed to notice that almost everyone was speaking Spanish.

I realize that Vegas is located in the epicenter of the immigration problem, but what I had not experienced before was how really bad it is.

The real problem of course is that even if we could get David Copperfield to use his magic to return over 11 million illegal immigrants back to their country of origin, without secure borders they would be back in short order. So I find arguments about returning illegals a waste of time. As well futile are questions about how we should frame amnesty issues and how to deal with the current immigrants illegal or otherwise. What's the point? I think everyone, Congress and citizens have to stop nit-picking every single item in the immigration problem. That is why we cannot get a decent immigration bill passed, we're buried in details.

President Kennedy Didn't Sweat the Details

jfk moon speechForty- six years ago on this day, President John F. Kennedy flung a challenge at the joint session of Congress: Send a man to the moon by the end of the decade. Do you know why America was able to land a man on the moon in less than a decade? Because JFK wisely left the details of how we would get there out of his speech. Here it is:

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth." -- Pres. Kennedy, May 25, 1961 [text of speech]

If JFK had to give his speech today, Congress would have turned his few minute speech into a 1200 page manual on what kind of fuel to use, if they're solid propellants then what will be the environmental considerations and impact on global warming, what states should be awarded with the research contracts, who should be employed, what contractors should be used, what metals and materials should be purchased for lunar modules, how much should those cleaning the floors of the research areas be paid, how many union workers should be employed, and on and on ad nauseum. In the end, we would never have reached the moon - ever.

Just Secure the Borders. Period

We should do likewise with immigration. We need the President to say that in less than a decade we WILL solve the immigration problem. To solve the moon problem, JFK did not have to go into a million details, he merely had to do one thing: dedicate this nation's resources to the task of sending a man to the moon. No details. Similarly we should secure the border - one thing. That is all. Let's stop bringing in every single piddling detail of who is here and what they are doing, what they are costing us in welfare, how to make them learn English, how to do this and that. Just plug the borders. One thing that we can do. Once the border is secure, we can at least control who's coming in. Once the border is secure, we can then determine who should go and who should stay. Once we secure the border we can deport those who we do not want. For god's sake stop arguing about skill levels of who should come in, what to do with anchor babies, all the other nonsense. These are red herrings meant to keep us from actually securing the borders.

New French President Nicolas Sarkozy has an interesting approach on how to solve France's immigration problem:

Spiegel Online,
24 May 2007,
France to Pay Immigrants to Return Home

France's new Immigration, Integration and National Identity Minister, Brice Hortefeux toured Charles de Gaulle airport on his first day on the job. He has said he intends to pay more immigrants to return home.New French President Nicolas Sarkozy made immigration a central issue of his campaign. Now, his new minister for immigration and national identity says its time to start paying immigrants to leave the country.

France's new Immigration, Integration and National Identity Minister, Brice Hortefeux [photo right] toured Charles de Gaulle airport on his first day on the job. He has said he intends to pay more immigrants to return home.

France is home to over 5 million immigrants -- and the new conservative-led government doesn't plan on making things any more comfortable for them. While the new regime in Paris is determined to curb illegal immigration, it is also looking to encourage legal migrants to reconsider their decision to stay in France -- by paying them to go back home.

New immigration minister, Brice Hortefeux, confirmed on Wednesday that the government is planning to offer incentives to more immigrants to return home voluntarily. "We must increase this measure to help voluntary return. I am very clearly committed to doing that," Hortefeux said in an interview with RFI radio.

Under the scheme, Paris will provide each family with a nest egg of €6,000 ($8,000) for when they go back to their country of origin. A similar scheme, which was introduced in 2005 and 2006, was taken up by around 3,000 families.

Hortefeux, who heads up the new "super-ministery" of immigration, integration, national identity and co-development, said he wants to pursue a "firm but humane" immigration policy.




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