What's the difference between amnesty and a path to citizenship? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    It is obvious to us that the Ruling Class in Washington really believe we are a bunch of ignorant doofuses. And maybe we are. We keep electing them. But next week we are going to be treated to a superdooper dose of it. A "bi-partisan" group of U. S. Senators will likely release an "immigration reform" will. They will vow and declare that it is not an amnesty bill but it will be. There would be no reason to even waster paper writing one if they did not intend to give amnesty to criminals who have broken into this country illegally. And in the process, we predict Sen. Marco Rubio will lose his chance to run for President as a Republican.

    Rubio, on one of the Sunday talk shows proclaimed that the bill will not be amnesty but rather a "pathway to citizenship." It's not amnesty he argued because there will be some hoops the illegal aliens who are now here will have to jump through in order to get a Green Card that will enable them to gain citizenship. That's BS.

    Here's the deal. We have a pathway to citizenship now and have had for many, many years. Millions of people have followed that pathway. The got visa's and came to this country according to the rules. They then worked to meet the requirements of citizenship and most ultimately obtained that prize. On the other hand, you have criminals who broke the law to enter the country and most of them continue to break the laws daily as they refuse to meet the same standards as other workers do. And many of them illegally steal benefits that legal aliens and citizens pay for.

    So it boils down to this: Are law breakers going to be given the benefits that people who obey the law don't get or are we going to enforce the "path to citizenship" that law abiding immigrants have followed.

    If you want it put in simpler terms, think about it this way. The next time you go to Wal-Mart or McDonalds, and there is a line, just ask yourself: Is it ok for someone to just break in line in front of everybody else and expect to be checked out?

    And if you want to put a more descriptive metaphor on it, imagine that when that line breaker got to the cash register that he demanded that the clerk give him his stuff free and take the money from those in line behind him.

    No, what all this is about is politicians pandering for votes. Both Democrats and Republicans. They want "Hispanics" to think that they should vote for them because they gave them something they wanted. But the joke will be on those who think they were given a "path to citizenship" by these two-faced politicians. What will be learned is that the hoops they set up will really mean that few will either be able to or choose to jump through the hoops. So we'll end up with millions of criminals in this country and nothing much will have changed.