Abundant misinformation in citizenship column

A May 18 op-ed in my local Montana daily packs abundant misinformation into 600 words. [Citizenship for Working Families Equals Stronger Families, Communities, by Al Ekblad and Brian McGregor, Bozeman Daily Chronicle, May 18, 2013]

Examples:“Immigrants founded this nation?” Nope: The U.S. was founded by colonists. Immigrants, instead, move to a country that’s already a going concern

The illegal aliens here are “11 million aspiring citizens?” Hardly. Fewer than half the 2.7 million aliens who attained legal status via the massive 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act amnesty had become U.S. citizens by 2009, two whole decades later. Read the Pew Hispanic Center Report, The Path Not Taken.

Today’s illegal aliens are similar to 1986’s bunch — there are simply four times as many now. We can conclude that they’ll be no more eager for the responsibilities of citizenship than that earlier cohort.

We can also conclude that the Senate’s bill S.744 that Ekblad and McGregor enthuse over will no more solve the problem than 1986’s attempt did. Just as back then, the bill gives amnesty essentially right away and promises “strict” enforcement against further illegal immigration “later … maybe.”

Let’s go on. Illegal-alien families are “living in fear?” Rubbish. Confident that our laws won’t be enforced, they even walk the halls of Congress and testify before congressional committees, pressing their demand for legalization despite their massive lawbreaking. They pay negligible taxes, but their children get free rides in our K-12 public schools. They draw upon other taxpayer-funded benefits such as food stamps, actively encouraged to do so by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which — amazingly — has partnered with Mexican consulates. And on and on.

Whether you live in Montana or elsewhere, if you don't aspire to live in an illegal alien nation, then phone your Senators to tell them that S. 744 must be killed on the Senate floor. Or use the CAPS Action Alert to FAX Congress here.