First in a Series: Senate Candidate Jim Bender

This is the first in a series on candidates writing on what issues they think are most important in this campaign.


Jim Bender is a candidate for U.S. Senate.  He's been a businessman and an entrepreneur for 25 years, and has been married to his wife Susan for the past 28 years.


The following post is in Bender's own words on the topic of illegal immigration.


by Jim Bender

We can’t fault people for wanting to come to America – it is the greatest country in the world.  We have excellent hospitals, a great education system, and an immense entitlement-driven welfare program – all of which is a further enticement for people to come into this country.  The incentives are so great, many will choose to come illegally, and many will succeed.

Legal immigration has always been an asset to our economy, and we need more of it.  We must streamline the process, allow more legal immigrants to come to America, and we must dramatically expand our guest worker and visitor programs.

But all of those efforts are for naught, unless we first address the problem of illegal immigration.  We must create jobs for citizens first.  We must restore the rule of law.  We must secure our borders.

There’s a lot of blame to go around, and we need to focus on where we can make a difference.  I’m campaigning to be a US Senator because I see the problems, and I’m ready to be part of the solution.  I won’t be pointing fingers at people and looking to the past.  I’m looking to the future.

For decades, the federal government has been promising to enforce our immigrations laws, but it has measurably failed to do so.  This has placed enormous pressures on the States, who are ultimately burdened with the immediate consequences. Government policy and lack of enforcement is responsible for this problem more than any other cause.  The Congress has been busy crafting legislation that distorts market forces and creates twisted incentives for employers and for immigrants to flout the law.

The employment laws and regulatory systems in America are so intrusive, complex, and costly that many companies are discouraged from hiring citizens.  They’re asked to absorb substantially higher costs of labor in the name of adhering to Washington policy.  Millions of small business owners are making hiring choices, and inexpensive, regulation-free labor is an insidious temptation.

To turn around these serious problems, I have a concrete plan to reduce unemployment, re-establish our sovereignty, and secure new hope for immigrants and employers who are willing to abide by the law.

In the Senate, I will spearhead the efforts to restore integrity to our government and to protect the rights of our citizens.  And I can say with full certainty that the very first step in our solution to the problem of illegal immigration will be to secure the border.

Securing the border is the only way to guarantee that our efforts can and will have any impact.  Then, we can look to reforming our policies to establish the proper incentives to encourage people to obey the law and work hard.

Possible End To "Anchor Babies?"

A Georgia lawmaker is proposing a law that would close this loophole.

U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, a Republican candidate for governor of Georgia, has proposed changing the long-standing federal policy that automatically grants citizenship to any baby born on U.S. soil, a move opposed by immigrant rights advocates.

Supporters of Deal’s proposal say “birthright citizenship” encourages illegal immigration and makes enforcement of immigration laws more difficult. Opponents say the proposed law wouldn’t solve the illegal immigration problem and goes against this country’s traditions of welcoming immigrants.

...

Deal and his supporters say the 14th Amendment wording was never meant to automatically give citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants.

“This is a sensible, overdue measure that closes a clause that was never meant to be a loophole,” said Bob Dane, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks tighter immigration restrictions.

The article states that the law was meant to apply to freed slaves, but that illegal immigrants today are making it harder for INS to deport them if they have a child born here in the states. According to the proposed law, the only way someone could be a citizen here if they were born here is if at least one parent is already a citizen.

I say go for it.