By Steve Levy
We have always liked Westchester Congressman Mike Lawler. He’s a commonsense conservative. He was not afraid to reach across the aisle and work in a bipartisan fashion — something that is very necessary, given he is from a swing district in New York.
His victory years ago helped flip the House into a Republican majority. Thus, we have enthusiastically encouraged his reelection. But in his quest to appear non-Trumpian, he is taking a leap too far in championing the Dignity Act, which, in essence, is amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.
Lawler, along with Florida Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, has become the face of this bill, which they tout as being a bipartisan, humane piece of immigration reform. These Republicans can spin it from here to doomsday, but the bottom line is that this bill would provide amnesty at a time when a majority of Americans want those who came across the border illegally to be returned to their land of origin.
Alarmingly, while no one was looking, another 18 Republicans signed onto the bill.
The bill provides legal status for millions of illegal aliens who entered the country before 2021. It also provides them with working papers and even makes them eligible for taxpayer-financed training. It goes further in providing a two-year moratorium on some deportations.
This, in essence, is a surrender to the left, which deliberately opened our border for the purposes of flooding blue states with illegal immigrants that could be counted in the census to prop up their districts and prevent losses in the electoral college. It’s also no secret that Democrats, upon taking the presidency and both houses, will immediately move these millions of people toward citizenship and give them the right to vote.
Why would Republicans act as useful idiots towards this nefarious goal that acquiesces to open borders?
Ten to twenty million illegal immigrants were allowed to cross the border during the Biden administration alone. But, remember, there were a huge number of illegal aliens already here. The total number of illegals in America is unknown, but it’s not far-fetched to say it may be between 30 and 40 million. Think about how providing legalization, citizenship and voting rights to millions of these illegal border crossers can seismically shift the political paradigm for generations.
We recognize it will be impossible to deport tens of millions of those who came here illegally. That’s why it’s wise to prioritize resources towards those with further criminal records. But that does not mean that those who haven’t committed further crimes should be given legal status. Doing so would basically declare America as an open-border haven.
The message sent to the rest of the world would be: Sneak over illegally, just don’t commit rape or murder and you can stay forever. It’s a terrible idea and will lead to horrific consequences down the road.
So, even if we aren’t able to deport all of the illegal aliens here, we must make sure that we don’t reward them for their transgression by providing them with legal status. Will they have to live in the shadows? Indeed, they will. That’s the price that is paid for breaking our law and entering our country without permission.
Rewarding those who crossed illegally will lead to even more people crossing illegally.