Morning Bell

Immigration Bill Doesn't Secure the Border

Must Washington fix our broken southern border? You bet.

Will the comprehensive immigration reform bill help? You bet it won't.

The number one flaw of the bill is it starts by giving amnesty to the unlawfully present population in the United States. As soon as the bill passes, those in the country contrary to U.S. immigration law are granted status to stay.

Amnesty immediately creates an incentive for illegal border crossings and overstays. Thus, the bill's strategy would drive up the cost of securing the border. To make matters worse, the draft law states that anyone who was present in the U.S. before 2012 qualifies—creating massive opportunity for fraud, since there is no proof required that applicants have been here for several years.   While supporters of the bill trumpet its “border security” features, in reality, the law delivers nothing new—other than the promise of spending a lot more money and running up our debt.

The bill trashes fiscal discipline, exploiting “a loophole in the Budget Control Act (BCA) that allows Congress to spend more than allowed under the spending caps adopted in 2011.”

In other words, Washington is willing to draft a bounced check to justify an amnesty bill.

To make matters worse, there is very little likelihood that that Americans will get much for the next border security buck spent.   CONTINUE READING:  http://blog.heritage.org/2013/04/29/morning-bell-immigration-bill-doesnt-secure-the-border/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell