I always read Alicia Colon´s articles and usually agree, however this time I think she is off just a little. I think the TRAP is a COMPREHENSIVE bill. This issue should be a series of small bills each setting goals to the next step, first is the issue of border security, after the border is secure as measured by certain metrics (written by House Republicans and administered by those actually on the border), the Republicans in the House can address the rest of this issue without jumping off a cliff. Those (dems) whos say we need to address the whole thing in one bill simply reply that we tried that in 1986 and it did not work.

There are, within a few miles of where I sit, 2nd generation immigrants who profess no English and who consider themselves to be Mexican, not American. And act accordingly.
We should reward this?
Please tell me, someone, of any other criminal activity that is to be rewarded in the expectation that such rewards will somehow deter further criminal activity by others. I am unaware of such.
There are numerous problems with the whole issue.
first of these is the manifest *REFUSAL* of the constituted public servants to "well and faithfully carry out the duties of the office". Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, and Obumble, all of them guilt of criminal dereliction of duty on this matter, and of that there is no doubt. (Recall Ramos and Compeon).
The deliberate misinterpretation of the Constitution that lead to the erroneous phrase "anchor baby", leading to all sorts of wrong decisions.
Allowing the officials of "sanctuary cities" to stay of of the prison cells their behavior demands.
and much more besides.
I love Alicia. But on this she is wrong.

Before too many of you jump up in horror at Alicia Colon´s opinion, please try to understand that she speaks from knowledge and life experience. She is Puerto Rican, a resident of NYC´s Spanish Harlem. We need to be quiet long enough to hear the reasonable voices.

Rubio and Cruz have similar life stories. We can do a better job with our Hispanic friends and neighbors. Please read Rubio´s plan. He is not offering "amnesty".

Obviously once again, conservatives missing the point. Alicia predicted this in her column. She addresses the cause of what this comment er is complaining about. It is the fact that these people are not becoming Americans just using our resources. Multiculturalists are behind this desecration of our culture. This is what has to stop.

Illegal is illegal, including for undocumented Democrats.

Sorry Alicia. I had respect for you, but no longer.

Your trap scenario is nothing but hogwash, and to be quite frank, the republican RINOs, of which you are now included, in my mind, that will be "blamed" under your scenario, NEED to be blamed, because they have been cowards who have given the left everything they want, even when they had the majority in the senate, the house and G.W. as president, for crying out loud.

I hope you got a good payout for joining the team against America, Alicia.

If Congress and the President would start expecting the laws on the books already to be enforced and our borders secure, we would not need to be in this situation again.

But the libs have been deliberately destroying their own voter base since Roe v Wade and now they are desperate for a quick refill. There will be so much bad that will result from letting the Democrat party win this.

Alicia nailed it and the bristlers are out already calling her a Rino and falling for the trap.

Goodness, there is a long list of "Republicans" just waiting to have the "trap" sprung on them. Let´s start with McCain and Graham. Maybe Dubya will pass the pens to Obama at the signing.

The 11,000,000 to 20,000,000 estimated illegal aliens, from many nations of the world, currently residing inside our national borders are, pure and simply, an "occupying army" that will eventually destroy our Judeo-Christian Civilization, established and sustained by the "rule of law," if not firmly and swiftly dealt with...For confirmation, look no further than Edward Gibbon´s 18th Century six volume classic study entitled, "The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire."

I, too, usually agree with Alicia but not this time. And it is not xenophobia. It is the fact that everytime we agree to do something like this, all the promises made to us are broken. They promise us the world and give us nothing. If these illegals really want to be Americans, tell them to go back to the country they think is so wonderful and get in line. They don´t love this country.

Ted Cruz and M. Rubio have 2 different ideas on the Illegals trying to stay here. The difference is like night and day.

Ms. Colon is hardly a RINO and has not gone to the dark side. Geez! However, she has to understand that, as right as she is, we´ve played Lucy, Charlie Brown and the football on this and are gun-shy now. we need to insist on the earlier poster´s idea of separate bills with piecemeal measures and realistic metrics. Otherwise, Lucy takes the football away again.

Well -- at least -- a conservative SEES the trap coming....

LZK

FTA: In the minds of many extreme right wingers, however, illegals are predominantly Mexicans who´ve brazenly crossed a porous border and end up committing crime only to be caught and sent back again and again.

I would not consider my self an extreme right winger but it is a fact that the bulk of illegal aliens in this country are Hispanic. Not saying that there aren´t illegal aliens from Asia, Africa, etc., but here in the metro DC area, even on the block where I live in Virginia, the majority of illeglas are Hispanic; Mexican, Central and South American. And many (most) do not assimilate. And I will say the same for the communities of (South) Koreans in northern Virginia: most stay to themselves, operate their own Korean businesses and when I enter one of their stores as an obvious non-Korean/Asian; one definitely feels unwelcome - well, my cash is welcomed.

So I´m all for allowing these illegal aliens who have roots here to have a path to citizenship but only if they want to become Americans in more ways than having a US naturalization certificate.

Oh and I have to laugh about Ms. Colon´s Puerto Rican heritage and ties to NYC´s Spanish Harlem giving her special insight. While living in Puerto Rico back in the 1980s, I found it amusing that native born Puerto Ricans looked their noses down on those "Ricans" who were not born on the island but in the states. And while growing up in South Florida, I was very familar with the attitudes of Cuban Americans towards their fellow Hispanics who were not of Cuban heritage.

If they agree to seal the border first, everything else is negotiable. But they won´t.

Democrats pretend to care about immigrants because they´re desperate for their votes. Democrats don´t care if the influx of impoverished and desperate people overwhelm our social safety nets to the point where nothing can sustain them. Then everyone those programs serve will be left unaided. Because they´re the compassionate ones donchaknow.

That being said, I don´t believe the immigrants here came here to stay poor and dependent. I believe Democrats are wrong about what appeals to immigrants other than the desire to stay here legally.

Our biggest problem is the integrity of the vote. Democrats would send absentee ballots to China if they thought they could get away with it. If Republicans could be assured that only citizens are voting and only voting once immigration reform would fly through. That´s a mighty big if I know.

The is already a roadmap to citizenship.

You might not like it. But, it is there.

Unspeakable corruption, the border will always be full of incoming holes, it´s like illicit drugs, you cannot stop a money making black market. So, the border remains more open than closed. All this blather about "amnesty" is just another cover up for millions of Catholic babies being pumped out daily as Catholics do, each one a full-on American citizen. It will be unnecessary to give amnesty to all these
parents of milliond of U.S. born American citizens. Why be concerned about amnesty of the aging, when it turns out that most Mexicans are official citizens?

One more comment. The inflammatory images of large parades in Los Angeles and elsewhere with Mexican flags flying high are anything but helpful to those who are trying to find a workable, acceptable, fair and enforceable way to redress our current illegal immigration situation. The Reconquista group makes every non-liberal, non-Hispanic´s blood boil. Those leaders should encourage a quieter voice and a lower profile instead of pretending to be Southwestern Al Sharptons.

I would add that the loudly demanding "Round ´em up and ship ´em out" voices are equally harmful to reasoned debate.

A thought provoking column.
FTA- " Republicans who try to discuss the issue rationally will be outed as RINOs or taking the party to the left. Eric Cantor´s announcement that he is shifting his take on immigration reform has brought
him the usual disdain and charges of betrayal to the cause."
Rubio´s principles outline a path to a green card .
His plan for a border security panel to rule on whether the border was finally secure would include ranchers and border state Governors.
Unfortunately, Limbaugh talked all over him and now mischaracterizes ( as he often does when talking about Republicans ) Rubio´s outline as amnesty.
The term RINO is so overused it´s meaningless and truthfully, sounds juvenile.
There are only two true RINOs- Colin Powell and Chuck Hagel.
Ronald Reagan would have been given the Rick Perry treatment had he said this today :
"I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back
they may have entered illegally."

Sorry, no sale Alicia. The "trap" will be legalizing tens of millions of new Democrat voters. The "trap" will include millions more illegals on the welfare and Social Security rolls. We´ve had Simpson-Mazzoli. Promises in the law are meaningless. Don´t try to fool us again. Do border security and a secure ID - make that secure ID required for voting or welfare - and then talk to me.

My parents were immigrants, too. But I´m an American first - hyphens need not be applied.

So why is there no temporary worker mechanism in place to get these people legal? Why are the only choices deportation or citizenship? Dam politicians! Both parties are responsible.

It´s ok to break the law if you´re the right color/ nationality. Thank you high school journalist!

"Any reform must demand assimilation and respect for our culture."

Yes, that´s the key. I´m told that my Scottish grandfather illegally entered the United States from Canada and then later entered legally, but he wanted to be an American and whenever people tried to get him to join a Scottish organization, his response was that if he´d loved Scotland that much, he would have stayed there. One needs to remember that Italians, Poles, Irish, and various other Catholic and Mediterranean European immigrans were the Mexican immigrants of their day but most of that faded when they assimilated.

Don´t forget that anything ´´reasonable´ is unlikely to get past the left-wing Senators. Not that I am implying that what McCain and Co. are peddling is ´reasonable´. I do not believe anything remotely close to good can come out of Harry Reid´s Senate. Any bill would be loaded down with special-interest provisions.

Unless it contains a ruthlessly efficient deportation policy for the inevitable latecomers looking for the next amnesty (oops, path-to-citizenship) it is just 1986 all over again. And the law won´t have a viable deportation policy because our over-lawyered legal system would never enforce it.

The three rounds of amnesty during the Bush years were defeated by a grass roots riot across the ideological spectrum. As then, there is no "trap," but merely another battle to defeat the Left´s attempt at creating a new American people.

The media will tar and feather anyone against amnesty with broad foul strokes. The accusations of "racism" and "xenophobia" are part of our zeitgeist, which in turn derive their power from decades of work by the Left to subvert Western culture. Both terms are absurd, yet even as Colon recognizes the term "multiculturalism" as a cancer, she solicits to her cause these two rhetorical ace cards of the Left. Colon needs to choose which side she´s on.

The best way to defeat this latest attempt at amnesty is to add so many common sense poison pills that the legislation becomes unsignable.

Here are a couple of ideas:
1. End anchor baby status. This provision alone would KO the bill.
2. Nationwide E-verify.
3. No welfare benefits of any kind to immigrants and their children.
4. Mandatory triple layer fence on the Southern border.

Any combination of the above would be enough to send Leftwing reactionaries into apoplexy. Let´s get it done.

There is no broken immigration system. Enforce existing laws. Problem solved.

illegals often have lots of documents.

Fake but...

Securing the border is a mirage. No matter what the laws say dems won´t enforce it. Look how Tyrant Obama the betrayer ignores the constitution and the rest of our laws.

The following should be required before amnesty

1) make illegal immigration and aiding illegal immigrants a felony punishable by years in fed prison.

2) deny all gov aid to illegal aliens and req active pursuit of illegals by all gov.

3) amend the constitution the end anchor babies.

4) make English the official language and end support for other languages.

If the US Government grants 11-20 million illegal aliens what amounts to amnesty, they will also be indirectly granting amnesty to another 11-20 million of the legalized aliens foreign relatives who they will be able to then bring here under the family reunification provisions that the liberal Democrats will insist be passed along with the direct amnesty. If the legalized aliens are put on what amounts to "a path to citizenship" as the Democrats want, once all are then granted US citizenship, and US voting rights, in the years ahead, they will be able to bring their elderly foreign parents here in unlimited numbers, who once they get here will have to be financially supported, many through the SSI program, receive "free" healthcare because they will not have the wherewithal to purchase their own health care insurance, with many of them as they age needing long-term care, the cost of which will have to be picked up by Medicaid.

While Ronald Reagan did sign an amnesty for almost 4 million illegal aliens in November, 1986, he is also reported to have said that was the worst mistake that he made as President. He was right, as that amnesty encouraged the 11-20 million illegal aliens here now to come here and see if they could wait out another such amnesty.

The author seems to think that it was Perry´s position on amnesty that tanked him, stating that anti-amnesty conservatives "viewed Perry as a bleeding heart unsuited to represent them." That´s odd. I thought that it was Perry´s inability to remember the third government agency he intended to abolish, even after prompting from a moderator, that instantaneousy turned him into a joke and crashed his candidacy. Ms. Colon must have missed that.

She also insists that any immigration reform include "a way for illegal immigrants to earn legitimate citizenship but only after paying penalties and going to the back of the line behind legal immigrants." Seriously? No, SERIOUSLY? This is right in there with Rubio´s statement that amnesty would be conditioned on FIRST securing the border.
Read my lips: Obama will not comply with any of your coditions.

How can anyone still not get it? This is NOT about anmnesty. Amnesty is just relief from enforcement of immigration laws. You won´t get deported. The only thing that prevents Obama from declaring a moratorium on enforcing ALL immigration laws right now, today, is the prospect of getting a bigger prize from gullible Republicans. What is the prize? A legislative path to citizenship that doesn´t currently exist and that Obama can´t do on his own. THAT is what he is after. THAT is the prize. Citizenship for illegals. Not amnesty. He would do amnesty now if that was all he wanted.

Want to have some fun? Pass a bill for immediate blanket amnesty that imposes a lifetime ban on U.S. citizenship on any illegal who accepts the amnesty. You can stay, but you can never vote. Watch Obama howl like a stuck pig.

FTA: Republicans need to stick together on this and make sure that any immigration reform bill includes border security, background checks, learning English...

Yeah, & 0bamacare doesn´t cover abortions either. I remember when 0bama said 0bamacare wouldn´t cover illegals & the guy yelled "You lie!" & I remember thinking, no, he´s probably not lying - by the time 0bamacare goes into effect, there will be no such thing as illegals. Looks like I might be right.

Because I get home late from work on weekdays, I´m always last to post.

Heads up, pubbies in congress on this amnesty trap! A wrong move buys the dimmies 15 million votes for 2014 and beyond.

Every time I hear "path to citizenship" or "back of the line behind legal immigrants" I want to scream. Do these people not understand that legal immigrants are in line sometimes as long as 30 years?

Right now illegal immigrants have the same path to citizenship as legal immigrants. If you really want them to get to the back of the line then no "reform" need be enacted.

Please, Ms. Colon, explain for those of us who have relatives waiting for legal immigration why illegal immigrants deserve better merely because they broke the law.

#15 you obviously don´t live in a border state. Here´s the thing, not all illegals Hispanics are the same. Illegal Cubans are generally hard working, learn English and try to assimilate into our culture illegal Mexicans do not. Here is an excellent resource y´all need to read if you have warm and fuzzy thoughts on illegals:

http://www.usillegalaliens.com/