Lindsey Graham is back from serving a couple of weeks in Iraq with the Air Force Reserves. After dodging the Spartanburg GOP county Republicans, he showed up at the Richland County GOP Republicans. At the meeting he promised to continue to speak his mind, despite opposition. GOOD!
He received a mixed reception at Richland. He spent three fourths of the meeting talking about Iraq. Of course this topic and his opinions were warmly received. In my opinion, the war in Iraq is the one major issue that he is on the right side of. And he defends this very strongly and does a very good job communicating the need to support the war against terrorism in Iraq.
However, when he brought up the topic of illegal immigration, this is where things went south for him. He remarked, “I don't like someone being with me on Thursday and being on the other side Friday because of some newspaper article.” Apparently he did not read the censure from the Greenville GOP. The censure details several items that most people take to issue with Mr. Graham. The illegal immigration debate was just the final nail in the coffin for many people. Mr. Graham lost my support long ago.
But the real gem of his speech was the following. Mr. Graham said that preventing illegal immigrants from sneaking across the border is only half the battle. Forty percent of illegal immigrants in the country came with legal visas and never left. “If you don’t deal with the visas, four out of 10 of them you’re going to miss,” Graham said.
Assuming his numbers are correct, it is an irrelevant point and merely serves to confuse the matter. If these 40% are here on lapsed visas … they are now illegal and need to be sent back until they can reapply for a legal visa. How hard is this for him to understand? So, based upon my calculations that would be 10 out of 10 that are illegal.
To demonstrate the complete lack of knowledge regarding the seriousness of the issue, The Herald of Rock Hill pulled this quote from an individual at the meeting. Tommy Gregory of Columbia said he supported Graham and his position on immigration. "At least he had a solution. Right now we're not doing anything about it," Gregory said.
Following that logic, let’s relate this to another issue of our time, Social Security reform. Mr. Gregory is retired. What if Mr. Graham proposes a solution for the Social Security, by eliminating the program and any proceeds in the coffer, to be dispersed to illegal immigrants to enable them to improve their lot in life? Ludicrous, I know, but it demonstrates my point. How, do you suppose Mr. Gregory would like this idea? Just having a ‘solution’ does not mean implementing this solution is better than not doing anything. Sometimes, especially with government solutions, things get worse.
It’s quite simple, Mr. Graham, enforce the laws.