July 10, 2006

Rick Santorum on Immigration

Last Wednesday's event about immigration reform was hugely successful. All seats were filled in the Monroeville fire hall, and the banner displaying the words "Border Security First" really set the stage for the question-and-answer session with Senator Rick Santorum.

The Senator first stated his position on the bill that recently passed in the U.S. Senate, and then moved in to discussion of the amendment that he co-sponsored. Santorum also discussed the Border Security First Act.

The Senator gracefully fielded questions both written and spoken by audience members. It was really inspiring to hear the concerns of other Pennsylvanians. Immigration--specifically illegal immigration--is a huge issue for any American citizen, or at least it ought to be... especially since Casey thinks that Pennsylvanians don't care about immigration, or that Senator Santorum votes for active measures to prevent amnesty and secure our borders.

Oh, but we do care, Mr. Casey. And thinking that we don't really isn't helping your cause, now is it?

I'll leave you with a couple statistics that really floored me.

  • One-third of all foreign-born persons in the U.S. are Mexican.
  • Overall, the number of Mexicans in the U.S. has increased from 760,000 in 1970 to 10.6 million in 2004.
  • Nine percent of all Mexicans now reside in the U.S.
  • Over half of all Mexicans in the U.S. are illegal immigrants, and in the last decade 80 to 85 percent of the inflow of Mexicans into the U.S. has been illegal.

    And someone thinks that amnesty will somehow help? There are entirely too many issues housed within this one massive problem called illegal immigration to ignore the effects of a magic-wand solution like amnesty.

    Posted by KarissaKilgore at July 10, 2006 12:28 PM