I have posted on immigration issues in the past. I believe that every country has the right and duty to know who comes in and out of their country. I am opposed to illegal aliens (not immigrants) coming into America. Today I found out that we have had a policy in the past that allows foreign born members of the military to apply for citizenship three years after enlisting. President Bush, last year, signed an executive order to allow them to apply immediately after enlistment.  I think I prefer the latter choice.

 Did that get your attention? It sure got mine when I read the same headline from Yahoo! News. A study done by Alexander Ortega at University of California’s School of Public Health reports that “Illegal Latino immigrants do not cause a drag on the U.S. health care system as some critics have contended and in fact get less care than Latinos in the country legally.” The report goes on to break down the presumed nationalities of illegals and what percent of the population they make up. Here is the particularly interesting part of the report:

Congress, take the hint! An overwhelming majority of Americans do not want amnesty for the illegal aliens. Remove from the bill the sections that deal with amnesty and free trade of labor between nations, and we will have a decent bill. Stop the influx of illegals, then systematically deport the ones that are here.

While President Bush has been attending the G-8 summit, Congress has been debating the current illegal immigration bill. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like it is going anywhere fast. This bill would reduce the length of the proposed fence on the American/Mexican border in half and move twelve to twenty million illegal immigrants (unlawful citizens) to the front of the immigration line. America tried something similar in 1986, whereby granting amnesty to about twelve million illegal immigrants (lawbreaking people) allowing them to gain legal status and citizenship. That bill was supposed to end the flood of people crossing the Southern border because “everyone that wants to come here is already here”. Instead, it created what amounts to a Mexican Exodus, having the exact opposite effect of what was intended. I hope we don’t make a similar mistake now.