WHAT'S IN THAT H.R. 4437 CHRISTMAS PRESENT? . . . AND WILL THE SENATE GRINCHES STEAL IT?
With just four shopping days left before Christmas, there’s a question on every immigration patriot’s lips: will America ever get to unwrap its H.R. 4437 Christmas presents? . . . or will the Senate Grinches steal them first?
The House of Representatives delivered the biggest sack full of immigration law enforcement goodies America has seen in ten years, by approving a heavily-amended version of H.R. 4437 on Friday, December 16.
Even without the border fence, it was an unexpected early Christmas present.
About the successfully hard-fought provision for building a fence along the entire southern border, Rep. Tom Tancredo said it best: "What would be the best Christmas present to the American people is pictures of concrete being poured." ["Mexico Criticizes U.S. Immigration Bill Focusing Mostly on Border Security," by Ioan Grillo, Associated Press, December 16, 2005.]
The House passed H.R. 4437 in record time—just nine business days from start to finish.
The "Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005" was introduced on December 6 by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wisconsin), Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary. The committee approved it two days later. The House debated a fistful of amendments to the bill on December 15 and 16 before calling it quits on a final version.
But [like Diggers Realm] I have just one question here: what exactly is in this bill?
The immigration reform group Numbers USA made an heroic effort covering the H.R. 4437 debate last week on an up-to-the-minute web page. But without the actual text of the amendments, us average citizens had no way of knowing whether the executive summaries of the bill actually amend the Immigration Act as promised, or whether the bill is just a lot of unenforceable hot air. (The text finally became available today [PDF] — Monday, December 19).
How was the man in the street expected to know what their elected representatives are really voting for?
The reality is that we weren’t supposed to know. We’re just supposed to take the Congressional staffers’ summaries at face value, read the newspaper headlines and feel good (or bad, as the case may be).
Anyone capable of reading the Immigration Act and connecting the dots — and finding out what the bill really says — need not apply. Congress to citizens so inclined: "Go away kid, you bother me!"
But even without the full text of H.R. 4437, I could tell you what’s NOT in the bill. I’ll even do it blindfolded, if you like:
To find out what the EOIR is (Hint: the Department of Justice’s dreaded Executive Office for Immigration Review) and why its head should be chopped off instead being soothed, read my absolutely definitive essay.
Basically, it’s the bone in the throat of our deportation process.
Furthermore, I can tell you one flaw that IS in the bill:
- As I wrote last week, H.R. 4437 actually undercuts the 1996 expedited removal authority already on the books. The new bill only allows the summary removal of illegal aliens found within 100 miles of a land border within 14 days of entry. . . the same standard already implemented in limited regulations by the Department of Homeland Security.
The "border crackdown" hype of H.R. 4437 conceals its destruction of the nationwide summary removal authority already on the books. H.R. 4437 institutionalizes the "get 100 miles past the border and you’re home free" game once and for all.
Here's a quick history lesson: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, and its various amendments, make up the spaghetti bowl of arcane language, convoluted standards and perverse incentives that make up the law of the land for immigration enforcement.
The last attempts by Congress at amending the Act for “reform” were in 1996 as a belated reaction to the February 26, 1993, bombing of the World Trade Center. Congress passed some very enforcement-minded legislation three years after the bombing called the "Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) of 1996." President Clinton signed the "anti-terrorism" immigration bill on April 24, 1996.
But during the second session of the 104th Congress, later that same year, Congress passed more changes called the "Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996." The IIRIRA was signed by President Clinton on September 30, 1996, and became effective on April 1, 1997.
The IIRIRA cut back on relief available for criminal aliens and known foreign terrorists, and called for the mandatory detention of more classes of convicted criminals who are foreign nationals. It also created the valuable expedited removal proceedings of Immigration Act Section 235(b), which allowed the summary removal of illegal aliens found anywhere in the United States within two years of entering illegally.
So without knowing the truth of what’s actually in the Immigration Act – or what’s really in the mysterious H.R. 4437 amendments as they're being debated – how would the American people ever know any better?
[Original posting in the Juan Mann Archive on VDARE.com]
