THE EVER EXPANDING MEXICAN WELFARE STATE
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Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas, said the bill “encourages fraud and more illegal immigration on a massive scale.” He said the rush to a vote was “a desecration of the democratic process.”
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December 8, 2010
House Backs Legal Status for Many Young Immigrants
By JULIA PRESTON
A bill to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students passed the House of Representatives late Wednesday, giving President Obama an unexpected although largely symbolic victory in the final days of Democratic control of Congress on an issue he has called a top priority.
The bill, known as the Dream Act, passed the House by a vote of 216 to 198. But a vote in the Senate on opening debate on the bill was scheduled for Thursday, and the measure seemed likely to fail there.
Still, Democratic leaders celebrated the House vote, which gave them a triumph in the final days of the Congressional session before they yield the majority next year to Republicans. It also gave them something to show Hispanic voters, who strongly support the measure and could play a pivotal role in the 2012 presidential election.
The measure was supported by eight Republicans, including three Cuban-American representatives from South Florida, Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Thirty-eight Democrats voted against it.
Democrats supported it as a way to help young immigrants who were brought here illegally as children by their parents and have seen their lives stall after they graduate from high school because they lack legal status.
“They are American in everything but a piece of paper,” said Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois, perhaps the bill’s most fervent champion.
Republicans said the bill was amnesty for lawbreakers that would lead to a new wave of illegal immigration. They objected to expedited procedures Democratic leaders used to bring it to a vote with only one day’s notice.
Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas, said the bill “encourages fraud and more illegal immigration on a massive scale.” He said the rush to a vote was “a desecration of the democratic process.”
The House passage drew cheers from illegal immigrant students, who have shown support in marches, sit-in protests and hunger strikes, even sending their blood to lawmakers.
With Republicans holding a majority in the House and added strength in the Senate in the new Congress, the chances for any legislation legalizing illegal immigrants are dim.
In a last-minute press, President Obama made calls this week to undecided lawmakers from both parties, White House officials said. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and senior Pentagon officials spoke publicly to argue that the bill would create new taxpayers and help military readiness.
The bill, whose lead sponsor was Representative Howard L. Berman, Democrat of California, would give conditional legal status to illegal immigrants who came to the United States before they were 16, have been here for five years, have graduated from high school and have no criminal record, if they attend college or serve in the military for two years.
In a report issued Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that the House bill would reduce the federal deficit by $2.2 billion before 2020, but it could lead to costly health care and federal loan expenditures in the decade after that.
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THE ENTIRE REASON THE BORDERS ARE LEFT OPEN IS TO CUT WAGES!
“We could cut unemployment in half simply by reclaiming the jobs taken by illegal workers,” said Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, co-chairman of the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus. “President Obama is on the wrong side of the American people on immigration. The president should support policies that help citizens and legal immigrants find the jobs they need and deserve rather than fail to enforce immigration laws.”
LA RAZA HARRY REID’S STATE IS NOW 25% ILLEGAL!
The president’s attention is a favor to Senator Harry M. Reid, the Democratic majority leader, who faces a tough re-election battle in Nevada and promised to pursue immigration legislation in an appeal to his state’s growing Hispanic population.
MOST OF THE FORTUNE 500 ARE GENEROUS DONORS TO LA RAZA – THE MEXICAN FASCIST POLITICAL PARTY. THESE FIGURES ARE DATED. CNN CALCULATES THAT WAGES ARE DEPRESSED $300 - $400 BILLION PER YEAR!
“The principal beneficiaries of our current immigration policy are affluent Americans who hire immigrants at substandard wages for low-end work. Harvard economist George Borjas estimates that American workers lose $190 billion annually in depressed wages caused by the constant flooding of the labor market at the low-wage end.” Christian Science Monitor
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July 1, 2010
Obama Urges Fix to ‘Broken’ Immigration System
By PETER BAKER
WASHINGTON — President Obama pressed Congress on Thursday to pass comprehensive immigration legislation to fix a “fundamentally broken” system by toughening enforcement of existing laws while creating a path to citizenship for many of the 11 million people in the United States illegally.
In his first speech devoted entirely to the hotly disputed issue since taking office, Mr. Obama tried to navigate between what he called the two extremes of the immigration debate, defending his efforts to strengthen border security while rejecting the idea of mass deportations as “logistically impossible and wildly expensive.” But he said change could not wait, despite the political risks.
“In sum, the system is broken and everybody knows it,” he told an audience of lawmakers, activists, business executives and labor leaders at the American University in Washington. “Unfortunately, reform has been held hostage to political posturing, special-interest wrangling and to the pervasive sentiment in Washington that tackling such a thorny and emotional issue is inherently bad politics.”
Embracing legislation drafted by Senators Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, Mr. Obama said the solution was to take a “practical, common-sense approach” and put the onus on Republicans to step up and join him. He noted that some of the Senate Republicans who voted for immigration legislation when President George W. Bush was in office have backed off, and he attributed their shift to the politics of the moment.
“I’m ready to move forward, the majority of Democrats are ready to move forward and I believe the majority of Americans are waiting to move forward,” he said. “But the fact is, without the bipartisan support that we had just a few years ago, we cannot solve this problem.”
Several Republican lawmakers fired back, arguing that the real problem is an administration that does not do enough to enforce laws already on the books. Moreover, they said, with 10 percent unemployment, this is the wrong time to be loosening the laws on illegal workers.
“We could cut unemployment in half simply by reclaiming the jobs taken by illegal workers,” said Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, co-chairman of the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus. “President Obama is on the wrong side of the American people on immigration. The president should support policies that help citizens and legal immigrants find the jobs they need and deserve rather than fail to enforce immigration laws.”
The president’s speech, along with high-profile meetings earlier in the week with advocates for immigrants and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, was more about politics than legislation at least in the near term. Neither the White House nor the Democratic leadership in Congress has any expectation of trying to actually push through a law this year, given the major issues already on their plate, like financial regulation and energy.
But Mr. Obama’s public focus on the issue appeared aimed at framing the debate for the approaching midterm elections, when the Hispanic vote could be critical in several important states. The president’s attention is a favor to Senator Harry M. Reid, the Democratic majority leader, who faces a tough re-election battle in Nevada and promised to pursue immigration legislation in an appeal to his state’s growing Hispanic population. Mr. Obama invited Mr. Reid to meet with him at the White House after the speech.
Mr. Obama also used the opportunity to repeat his opposition to Arizona’s new law requiring law enforcement officers to question the immigration status of anyone they stop for other reasons if they suspect that they are in the country illegally, calling it “ill conceived” and “divisive.” But he did not announce the lawsuit that the Justice Department is preparing to challenge it.
“We face the prospect that different rules for immigration will apply in different parts of the country, a patchwork of different immigration rules where we all know one clear national standard is needed,” he said. “Our task then is to make our national laws actually work, to shape a system that reflects our values as a nation of laws and as a nation of immigrants.”
Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican minority whip, said the state’s law was a response to Washington’s failure to deal with the problem: “All Americans would be better served if this administration focused on implementing proven border security solutions rather than engaging in demagoguery and criticizing states that have been left to enforce immigration law because of the federal government’s unwillingness to do so.”
Mr. Schumer and Mr. Graham have proposed a plan to require Social Security cards with biometric data — like fingerprints or retinal patterns — to ensure that illegal workers cannot get jobs. They say the plan would also strengthen border security and interior enforcement, create a process for admitting temporary workers and establish a “tough but fair path to legalization” for those already here.
Under their plan, illegal immigrants would be required to admit that they broke the law and to pay fines and back taxes, pass background checks and prove that they can speak English before going to the back of the line of prospective immigrants seeking permanent legal residency and citizenship.
Republican critics said that still amounted to amnesty for millions of people who broke the law and would only encourage continued illegal migration.
“Part of the reason why we have been so successful in this country is because we live by the rule of law,” Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the second-ranking House Republican, said before the president’s speech. “We do live by its enforcement and transparency in our judiciary. And I think some of the ire right now surrounding the immigration issue is having to do with the illegal immigration and, frankly, the flouting of the law.”
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