The headline on a news story reads, "Rupert Murdoch Calls for Amnesty for 'Law-Abiding' Illegal Immigrants." (Watch the congressional hearing where he said this, which also featured CIS Director of Research Steven Camarota, here.)
Like many other Americans, including New York Mayor Bloomberg, Murdoch apparently believes that sneaking into the United States or lying to a U.S. Consular Officer in order to obtain a visitor visa which they overstay are the acts of the law-abiding.
Once here, according to this line of thinking, the vast majority of illegal aliens apparently go about their lives never violating another law – just good, hard working, law-abiding people.
Of course this is pure bunk.
Illegal aliens routinely violate all types of laws, ranging from driving without licenses to obtaining and using fraudulent documents.
The vast majority of illegal aliens commit multiple felonies in order to get jobs with "reputable employers." These likely include the illegal immigrants who were working for the contractor hired by Lou Dobbs as well as Meg Whitman's maid, the poster child for job-related felonies.
In order to obtain employment, "law-abiding" illegal aliens obtain fraudulent documents (a felony), violate Social Security laws (another felony), falsify their I-9 forms under penalty of perjury (yet another felony), and commit identity theft when the Social Security number they are using belongs to another person (still another felony). And, in order to get to work, they drive without licenses and automobile insurance.
And it isn't just one or two illegal aliens who commit these job-related felonies. According to a senior Social Security Administration official, 75 percent of illegal aliens are estimated to be using (feloniously) a fraudulently obtained Social Security number in order to pay payroll taxes.
The New York Times and ACLU both tout this 75 percent figure and applaud illegal aliens for contributing to the Social Security System by using fraudulently obtained Social Security numbers.
Of course, neither the Times and ACLU acknowledge that three-quarters of "law-abiding" illegal aliens are committing felonies that do real harm to their victims.
The Murdochs and Bloombergs of the business community are unfortunately all too quick to put profit ahead of principle. The Times and ACLU are equally quick to put the interests of illegal aliens ahead of those of American citizens. Even more egregiously, they are all willing to sacrifice American children to illegal-alien-driven identity theft in order for illegal aliens to get the fraudulent documents that they need to be "law-abiding."
So, rather than talking about "law-abiding" illegal immigrants and the benefits that they bring to businesses and to government revenues, Murdoch and Bloomberg and the Times and the ACLU should be talking about the devastating damage done to literally millions of American men, women, and children who are the victims of employment-related identity theft.
Rather than talking about a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants that includes amnesty from job-related felonies, they all should be focused on making the victims of these crimes whole and holding accountable the illegal aliens wreaking the damage.
Rather than turning a blind eye to serious felonies, they all should be reflecting on the harm that their position does to the rule of law by sending the message to millions of illegal aliens that it is alright to commit document fraud, to falsify forms, to lie to U.S. government officials, and to steal American children's identities so they can make a better life for themselves and their children.
After all, the value of a child's good name that is destroyed by an illegal alien using her identity and maintaining the respect for the rule of law is worth more than all of the economic benefits and taxes that illegal aliens will ever bring in.