Let’s continue to break down the Secure America Pledge while we allow people more time to sign the petition.

If you haven’t read my original post, here is the background: The Secure America Pledge was proposed by Frank Gaffney, Jr. and The Center for Security Policy and contains 10 points intended to steer policy debate on immigration. Yesterday we looked at the first point. Here is the second:

Since immigration policy can profoundly shape a country, it should be set by deliberate actions, not by accident or acquiescence, with careful consideration to ensure it does not adversely affect the quality of life of American citizens and their communities.

[I]mmigration policy can profoundly shape a country — no arguments there I would think. It does shape a country in many different ways, positive or negative. It effects us in the area of security, economically, politically, socially. How long of a list would you like? As I’ve said repeatedly, those who are calling for strict enforcement of our borders are not anti-immigrant, we just want to see legal immigration carried out under the laws of the US.

The key point here is that policy, “should be set by deliberate actions, not by accident or acquiescence.” It’s almost a shame that something this obvious needs to be included, but so often our stance on immigration has been driven by circumstances and current events. This is true of both good and bad policy choices. It shouldn’t be left to the events and circumstances to drive debate on what would be good policy. It should be thought out and deliberate and certainly not left up to chance.

The final part of this point — with careful consideration to ensure it does not adversely affect the quality of life of American citizens and their communities — could be misinterpreted or misconstrued to refer to such things as the assertion that our economy “depends” on these workers, that they “do work Americans aren’t willing to do”, and other equally ridiculous notions.

Where illegal immigrants adversely affect us is when they cause emergency rooms to shut their doors or when schools and public offices are forced to conduct business in another language (and bare the financial cost to do so). The quality of life is lowered when illegals who are willing to work for a lower wage draw down the standard of living for a spider web of interconnected people.

We are all adversely affected when our borders are so open and subject to breaches that it should make everyone’s stomach drop just a little if they would only think of what that means to our security and safety.

The time to discuss these issues is here, now. Not when our security has been compromised and not because of the pressures of the moment. We need to encourage our representatives to make a clear policy on immigration that shapes our country in a positive way.

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let me know at what level you would like to participate.