A slow, steady trickle of folks are signing The Secure America Pledge petition. Information can be found here and the petition itself is here. If you would like to help promote the petition you can find out how at this post.

Signing update:
05.14.06 09:45 EDT 40 confirmed | 19 States (TX leads with 9; CA has 8 )

There are 19 folks who have signed, but who have yet to follow through with the confirmation email.

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.

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

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

The purpose of U.S. immigration policy is to benefit the citizens of the United States.

Simple enough, but also key to any rational debate on immigration.

Recently in Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue signed state Senate bill 529 — the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance act. The provisions of the bill — holding employers responsible for hiring illegal aliens, disallowing the ability to claim their wages as a state tax deduction, and not allowing access to certain taxpayer-funded services by illegals — come back to the idea that sound immigration policy should, “benefit the citizens of the United States”.

This has the Mexican government in a twist.

Ruben Aguilar, spokesman for President Vicente Fox, said implementing parts of the Georgia bill could result in “acts of discrimination” against Mexicans in Georgia.

“It’s the position of (Fox) that the half-measures in this law are insufficient to resolve the complex phenomenon of immigration between Mexico and the United States,” Aguilar said.

Some analysts in Mexico also worried that the passage of the bill, which prevents undocumented adults from accessing state benefits, signaled an unwelcome direction in the debate over immigration reform in the United States.

Unwelcome by the Mexican government and open border activists perhaps, but an amazingly rational step in my mind.

Opponents try to portray reform such as this as racist. That is not the case. It is merely stating what should be self-evident, that the rights and privileges we have as Americans are for Americans.

Why, WHY, should American taxpayers be forced to pay for services for those here illegally? Why, why, WHY should business who knowingly employ illegal aliens be given an advantage over those who compete legally instead of being held accountable?

Let’s put this one to rest. The purpose of U.S. immigration policy is to benefit the citizens of the United States. At least it should be.

The statistics from the first 20 hours or so aren’t exactly overwhelming. I don’t believe it’s because people aren’t interested in the subject of illegal immigration, the pledge, or the petition. It’s just been a very slow traffic day. Any bloggers want to jump on board an promote it?

19:00 EDT (04.15.06) — 3 confirmed signings.
23:03 EDT (04.15.06) — 4 Confirmed signings.

Read more here. Add your name here.