Well someone had to say it! It’s no surprise it is the guy with guts from Virginia—former Congressman Virgil Goode writing at Frontpage magazine today in a column entitled, “The Real Immigration Solution.” I must admit I’ve been a big fan of Goodes ever since he bravely stared down the political correctness police and wimps at the Washington Post in 2006 when he linked immigration to Islamic terrorism (which he does in this article as well).
The Far Left targeted him in the 2008 Obama-sweep and a pipsqueak, Tom Perriello, took his place in Congress. Perriello is now a target of the Tea Party (that 5th Congressional District in Virginia is a hot bed of Tea Party activists) and he will likely end up a one-termer.
From Virgil Goode at Frontpage:
In the wake of Arizona’s SB 1070, illegal immigration is at the forefront of national discussion for the first time since the defeat of amnesty in 2007. Arizona’s law, which makes illegal presence a state crime, has rallied supporters of immigration enforcement. The open borders lobby is pretending that the sky is falling and using the law to demand that the federal government grant an amnesty.
Lost in this debate is any discussion of lowering legal immigration levels. In fact, many opponents of amnesty argue that while we need to stop illegal immigration, we should increase legal immigration.
Amnesty backers cannot deny that the 1986 amnesty failed to stop illegal immigration, so they now blame the problem on the fact that we did not increase legal immigration enough after the Act. They argue we can prevent future illegal immigration by simply increasing legal immigration alongside an amnesty. Luis Gutierrez’s amnesty bill includes a special visa to “prevent unauthorized migration” by simply increasing legal immigration from the country where illegal immigrants come from.
Most Americans do not know just how many legal immigrants we let in each year. The Department of Homeland Security just issued their statistics for new legal permanent immigrants in 2009. Last year, we issued 1,130,818 green cards, the fourth highest year since 1914. From 2000-2009, we issued over 10 million green cards, the highest decade of American history. Currently, there are 38 million immigrants, 24 million of whom are in the workforce. This does not include temporary workers. DHS did not release the 2009 figures yet, but they issued 912,735 temporary employment authorizations in 2008.
Most of these immigrants are low skilled and from the Third World. Less than 10% of new green card holders are from Europe. People of extraordinary ability, investors, and immigrants with advanced degrees made up less than 8% of the new immigrants.
Faced with these numbers, how can anyone argue with a straight face that we don’t admit enough immigrants?
Now! He says it—the ‘m-word! ‘ MORATORIUM!
Individual legal immigrants are not to blame for these problems. They came here in search of a better life and played by the rules. The real culprits are the politicians who put cheap labor ahead of the interests of the American people. With 25 million out of work, it’s time to put the American citizens first by issuing a moratorium on legal immigration.
Read it all and pass it along!