Amnesty is the magnet. Other magnets that you mentioned are anchor babies who get benefits in this country and employer deductions for employees, even if they are here illegally, which Mr. King is addressing.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Amnesty is the forgiveness of something. Amnesty is anything that says, 'Do it illegally, it will be cheaper and easier.'
Amnesty is a terrible policy, and it's terrible politics. It's a terrible policy because you are rewarding people for breaking the law.
Amnesty is a big billboard, a flashing billboard, to the rest of the world that we don't really mean our immigration law.
You know, when President Reagan, who was one of my idols, granted amnesty to about three million illegal immigrants it was based on the fact that the borders would be secured. That didn't happen. It didn't happen during the Bush administration.
Amnesty is as good for those who give it as for those who receive it. It has the admirable quality of bestowing mercy on both sides.
The recent, single-year influx of unaccompanied minors from foreign countries into the United States is a direct result of President Obama's policies of encouraging amnesty and failing to enforce existing immigration laws.
There are 12 million illegal immigrants in this country - drawing welfare benefits, sending their children to public schools, and pushing down wages for American workers - but the problem extends well beyond amnesty and open borders.
Every time anybody in Washington talks about legal status, amnesty, anything of that nature, it becomes a magnet that lures people in quickly into the United States.
People who have been hardworking, tax paying, those people ought to be given an opportunity to be on a track that leads towards citizenship, and if that happened, then they wouldn't be prey to the employers who say, 'We want you because we know that you work for a salary we could not lawfully pay anyone else.'
Amnesty is not the answer as it will only encourage more illegal immigrants to enter.