Speech #1090120752

However. in most countries. people have fallen for the myth that government could solve all problems. and they have voted in liberal or leftwing governments or they have had dictators who forced big governments on them. and the economies have been ruined. You cannot blame so many people for wanting to come here. and we all admire the work ethic of many who come here from other countries. but we cannot take in half the people of the world. especially in a short time. We have to have a legal. orderly system of immigration. and it has to be enforced. Rush Limbaugh said a few months ago that if you do not have borders. you do not have a country. Thomas Sowell. writing about this a few days ago. said. "We could solve the problem of all illegal activity anywhere by legalizing it. Why use this approach only with immigration? Why should any of us pay a speeding ticket if immigration scofflaws are legalized after the fact for committing a Federal crime? "Most of the arguments for not enforcing our immigration laws are exercises in frivolous rhetoric and slippery sophistry. rather than serious arguments that will stand up under scrutiny." Mr. Sowell continues. "How often have we heard that illegal immigrants take jobs that Americans will not do? What is missing in this argument is what is crucial in any economic argument: price. "Americans will not take many jobs at their current pay levels. and those pay levels will not rise so long as povertystricken immigrants are willing to take those jobs." And he went on in this column to say. "The old inevitability ploy is often trotted out in immigration debates: it is not possible to either keep out illegal immigrants or to expel the ones already here. "If you mean stopping every single illegal immigrant from getting in or expelling every single illegal immigrant who is already here. that may well be true." Mr. Sowell said. "But does the fact that we cannot prevent every single murder cause us to stop enforcing the laws against murder?" Mr. Speaker. with the SimpsonMazzoli Act 20 years ago. we tried the same type of law that some who want to be soft on immigration are advocating today. but that law led to a quadrupling of illegal immigrants. We simply cannot afford to let that happen again. President Theodore Roosevelt said many years ago. in fact in 1919. "In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us. he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else. for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed. or birthplace. or origin." DJ 2030 But this is predicated upon the mans becoming in very fact an American and nothing but an American. And Theodore Roosevelt continued. He said. "There can be no divided allegiance here.