Letter: Enforcing laws in place is a good start

Sunday, July 1, 2007 | 7:06 a.m.

It would seem that Congress has finally heard the voice of the American people. They handily defeated the attempts of the troubled and ineffective executive branch to spin the truth of its so-called comprehensive immigration plan so we would swallow it.

What next? I suggest that we try something novel and entirely new for the next year while proponents of amnesty regroup. Let's try enforcing the perfectly good immigration laws that are already on the books and stop building ridiculous, ineffective fences with our money.

Then when a bill resurfaces in Congress, all Congress will have to do is add a provision to fine or jail any employers who hire anyone who is not a legal resident or a citizen. And, more importantly, change our outdated birthright laws to provide that babies born here will retain the mother's country of citizenship unless the father is a citizen or legal resident with a mandatory DNA sample.

Proponents of next year's amnesty attempt will argue that it is impossible to create yet another costly government agency to jail, fine or remove those in our country illegally, since there are about 12 million to 20 million of them. But correct me if I'm wrong; isn't it just as impossible in the United States of America to forgive 12 or 20 million lawbreakers? At last assessment, wasn't our Constitution designed specifically to include three branches in order to protect against violations of our Constitution? And weren't all of our representatives sworn to uphold that Constitution?

Our Constitution is our foundation, and deserves proper respect. Much more respect than people who circumvent its very fiber and assume that our laws do not apply to them . It does not, however, provide any "rights" to people who come here from other countries illegally and are not here to become Americans, but want to bring the culture of their former country here.

Let's hope that we get it right next time!

Frank Musaraca, Henderson