Time to act now in Montana on illegal immigration

Rep. Mike Jopek, D-Whitefish, has proposed a bill that will make things harder on businesses that hire illegal immigrants. The bill is to be applauded, and should have the support of Republicans.

Republicans should, however, link support for this bill to other key areas where illegal immigration directly hurts a state. As former Montana Secretary of State Bob Brown pointed out in a guest opinion in the Billings Gazette a month ago, there are a host of measures that Montana should take now, before the inevitable wave of illegal immigration hits our state.

As Brown pointed out, there are common-sense bills that Montana can pass now, without controversy -- bills that are being passed in other states, but painfully, since they amount to taking things away from illegal immigrants. If we pass them now, we will be setting the rules first.

Laws requiring proof of citizenship to receive welfare benefits or get a driver's license are starting points that Brown mentions, and creative thinking can help Montana think of other laws that will protect our economic interests and protect legal laborers of all races from wage depression and job losses.

Labor unions support Jopek's legislation, as they should. They should also support a broad-based package of legislation to help prevent Montana from having to go through the illegal immigration pains that the rest of the intermountain west has experienced. Montanans should be able to come to agreement on such measures, regardless of politics or party.

Dan Quixote tilts at lobbying law

Sen. Dan McGee, R-Laurel, has decided to take on Initiative 153, passed by Montana voters in the last election. There was nary a Sancho Panza in sight, however, as he appears to stand alone for the time being.

He believes that this law, which prohibits legislators and certain other state government officials from becoming lobbyists for 2 years after leaving state government, is unconstitutional since it restricts free speech.

It certainly seems to be a restriction of free speech on the face of it -- but then so do the term limitations that made this initiative an especially bad idea.

Term limitations have created a revolving door that leaves the Montana legislature chronically short on experience in its lawmakers. Learning the legislative ropes takes time -- certainly more than the 90 days of a scheduled session.

Enter bureaucrats and lobbyists, who are the ones who understand the process better than the legislators themselves, and who have no term limitations. Like the inestimable "Permanent Secretary," Sir Humphrey Appleby, in the BBC television series "Yes, Minister", unelected government employees pull the strings when elected officials are uncertain of themselves and of the process.

By restricting legislators from becoming lobbyists during the time period when their understanding of the legislative process is freshest, the playing field is tilted even further in favor of the state bureaucratic apparatus, which is skilled at lobbying the legislature for what it wants and which has no restrictions on it whatsoever.

McGee is right. Which is a part of the reason why he has no chance at success.