Criticism of Gingrich proper

The Brunswick (Ga.) News: Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (of Georgia) is coming under a lot of fire these days, as well he should be. If elected president of the United States, he said during a debate among Republican presidential hopefuls recently, he will present a plan that would enable millions of illegal workers and their families to remain in this country.

What a slap in the face to struggling economies. Here we have states like Georgia doing everything in their powers to discourage illegal immigration, even passing laws that the federal government refuses to uphold, while Gingrich is going around telling them everything is going to be OK, that if he wins the White House in 2013, they can stay put.

That’s not right, regardless of how Gingrich tries to explain it. It is foolish to threaten to boot out illegals with the right hand while attempting to flag off fears of being caught and expelled with the other.

It was the federal government that got us all in the mess we’re in today, having to deal with at least 15 million illegal aliens in the country.

To be fair, Gingrich insists his automatic permission to stay, what some are calling amnesty, would apply only to those lucky enough to have not been caught for some yet-to-be-determined number of years.

Everyone else would be forced out. He says it would be more “humane” than just telling everybody to pack up and go back home.

The more “humane” thing to do would be not to make promises that will further jeopardize the nation’s security, force taxpayers into poverty by having to keep picking up the tab for illegal residents and encourage others to sneak across the border and successfully elude law enforcement for a certain number of years.