Immigration Reform is Fine - But How About Government Accountability?

Recently, I've been researching and compiling my family's history. On a popular genealogy website, I found information about my grandparents & great-grand parents dating back to the mid-1800's. It has been a lot of fun. My mother's family immigrated from Germany and my father's from Italy. One interesting similarity I proudly noted is that the records I found always said "Date Immigrated," rather than "Date Snuck In."

The distinction between these two phrases is clear: There are no such things as "Illegal Immigrants." Immigration is a legal process supported by the Constitution, codified in laws, and {supposedly) enforced by the government. People who come here without following the rules are criminals. Why has this point been missed by our elected officials? The government was wise to put a set of milestones for the government of Iraq into the war funding bill. How about a set of milestones for OUR government in the immigration reform bill?

First, the government should be required to show measurable progress toward improved security - and that those steps are working. Not just checks in the box. Why not put the National Guard on the Canadian and Mexican borders? We use the Coast Guard to patrol our nation's wet borders. Certainly it's appropriate to use soldiers to also patrol the dry ones. Second the government must also show that it is actually starting to enforce the laws already on the books, and the new ones it is passing. Otherwise, they aren't worth the paper on which they are written.

We've too long in this country given the government (Democrat or Republican controlled) a pass on doing the job we ask it to do, or that it has promised to do. We've been settling for excuses and lip service rather than results. We are the bosses and they are accountable to us. It's time they start proving they are worth all the time we spend electing them. They need to be accountable for their responsibilities - especially when it comes to something like security.

Portions of this post were part of a recent letter to the editor of the Hartford Courant.