In a move he will probably long regret, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) challenged FAIR to a debate on immigration. FAIR immediately accepted. No date has been scheduled, but at least one debate will occur this summer.
McCain also said that immigration is the most important issue facing America today.
Somehow I don't expect this to go very well for the Kennedy-McCain camp. In fact, if it receives any attention it might scuttle that and similar legislation. The key is to make sure that it receives attention and isn't just shown on C-SPAN at 3am.
Details here and in "FAIR Accepts Senator McCain's Offer to Debate Comprehensive Immigration Reform".
Immigration2005b · Mon, 06/20/2005 - 16:19 · · Importance: 1
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Comments
Ask McCain his estimate of how many new federal workers it would take to process the applications for legalization and guestworker visas. The existing CIS bureaucracy is already overwhelmed.And I wonder what kind of "verifications" will be accepted from those many who are using fake id's and stolen social security numbers. My guess: easily faked affidavits will predominate.
Below an excerpt from an article in The National Interest on the CIS bureaucracy.
http://tinyurl.com/4mz47
(...)
The first assumption is that the Department of Homeland Security has the administrative capacity to properly screen and track millions of currently illegal aliens and millions more new foreign workers. Such an assertion is laughable to anyone with even a passing familiarity with our immigration bureaucracy. Even before 9/11, the old Immigration and Naturalization Service was choking on mass immigration. Last year, Eduardo Aguirre, head of the new agency that handles immigration services, told Congress:
"In any typical work day, our workforce of 15,500 (one-third of whom are contractors) will: process 140,000 national security background checks; receive 100,000 web hits; take 50,000 calls at our Customer Service Centers; adjudicate 30,000 applications for immigration benefits; see 25,000 visitors at 92 field offices; issue 20,000 green cards; and capture 8,000 sets of fingerprints and digital photos at 130 Application Support Centers.
And despite this effort there is still a backlog of four million immigration applications of various kinds."
Posted by: guaro at Jun 21, 2005 3:33 PM
I would like to see the debate because it might be interesting, but I have a feeling I already know the result. McCain will take the issue and address practical solutions to deal with the problem. FAIR will spew its normal rhetoric whick does not contribute to addressing the problems and challenges posed by immigration and then will declare itself the winner. In the end the debate will accomplish nothing
Posted by: Ralph at Jun 21, 2005 4:51 AM