Is California a Luddite Conspiracy?
California politicians continue to pass policies that, by all accounts, appear to be deliberately aimed at substantially reducing its residents’ ability to have reliable, on-demand electricity. At this point, it would not surprise me in the slightest if there was actually a Luddite conspiracy behind it all.
Apparently, local outcry over the banning of natural gas appliances (like stoves) in major cities in the Golden State was interpreted by California bureaucrats as clamor for more regulation. So, benevolent and wise as they are, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted unanimously to ban all new gas-powered space and water heating appliances by 2030. Although this latest ban doesn’t include gas stoves (yet), it will add additional load to the state’s already beleaguered and overloaded electrical grid.
While it may seem obvious, an explanation may be necessary for those of us who have not yet grasped the full extent of the energy lunacy on the West Coast.
California has, over the years, been a leader in “decarbonizing” their state. In their enthusiasm, Californians rapidly shut down coal, oil, and gas power plants over the years, at a rate that the installation of renewable replacements simply could not keep up with. Nuclear is on the chopping block as well, though the Diablo Canyon nuclear power station has just had its execution deferred for another few years. Diablo Canyon supplies California with 9 percent of its electricity, and represents 15 percent of its non-fossil fuel energy. It’s worth noting that the only reason Diablo Canyon was slated to close in the first place was because Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, embarked on a long quest to force Pacific Gas & Electric to close it prematurely.
Electricity prices in California have risen six times faster than the rest of the country since 2011, and are more than double the cost of neighboring states’ rates. The poor suffer the most, struggling to keep the lights on and constantly adjust their budgets due to skyrocketing electric bills.
Mandates to install rooftop solar panels on all new homes have also aided in increased energy prices. While people who can afford to have solar panels installed benefit from net metering policies, they are still using energy from the grid at night. Fixed costs associated with grid maintenance and other charges still need to be paid, so non-solar customers end up paying for both their fees and those of their solar-roof neighbors.
Renewables like wind, solar, and even hydroelectric, are weather-dependent and intermittent by their nature. What’s more, they are hastening the impending downfall of an already poorly maintained grid, as it now faces the growing struggle to manage the unstable energy. Renewables can’t react quickly to unexpected demand spikes, like what occur during heat waves or cold snaps.
As evidence of this, six days after California’s unelected bureaucrats on CARB voted to ban future sales of traditional gasoline cars, the state sent out Flex Alerts asking Californians to refrain from charging their electric cars during peak energy use hours. This occurred in the middle of a summertime heatwave, in which Californians needed to crank up the AC, but then couldn’t, as the grid struggled to manage the extra load. In addition, just to keep the power on, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed executive orders waiving clean air and water regulations so the state utilities could use diesel generators and ships at port idling off their fossil fuel engines.
Rolling blackouts are an acceptable price to pay, California bureaucrats seem to say, on the path to net-zero.
Additionally, last year, California passed a bill that “transitions” the sale of gasoline-powered lawn tools, like hedge trimmers and lawn mowers, to only electric versions. Of course, all these tools need to be charged on the grid.
The California Air Resources Board also banned the sale of gas-powered portable generators, starting in 2028. This way, Californians soon won’t even be able to run to the Home Depot to buy a generator that they can charge their electric equipment with when blackouts begin. How progressive!
There is only one explanation for this madness: California’s representatives are attempting to revert the state to the glory days of the gold rush era, like some version of Westworld. Think about it -- how well are those electric cars going to work if you can’t charge them reliably? With combustion engines banned as well, what’s left? Perhaps California politicos are secretly trying to push residents back to the horse and buggy. Maybe, due to the continuously growing list of firearm regulations, wheel guns and lever actions will become the only self-defense option.
I’m just reaching for an explanation here, but it looks an awful lot like a wild-west conspiracy to me. I’ll admit that I can’t imagine Gov. Newsom giving up his highfalutin luxuries for the duster and cowboy hat life, but like other California elitists, his life won’t likely be affected much. The rich and powerful in California can always afford to buy their way out.
A New-Old-West California does sound pretty cool, though, but just to visit.
Linnea Lueken (llueken@heartland.org) is a research fellow with the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute. Twitter: @LinneaLueken
Image: Public Domain
The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that California spends $22 billion (DATED - NOW NEARLY $50 BILION) on government services for illegal aliens, including welfare, education, Medicaid, and criminal justice system costs. STEVEN BALDWIN
Pelosi: More Migration Is ‘The Best Thing … for Our Economy’
HARDLY A SURPRISE TO ANYONE, THE 'CHEAP' LABOR FARM WORKER CLASS THEIR BIG AG DONORS DEMAND, IS COSTLY. IN PELOSI'S STATE ONE-THIRD OF ALL 'CHEAP' LABOR FARM WORKERS COLLECT WELFARE. AS SOON AS THEY JUMP THE WIDE OPEN BORDER, THE ANCHOR BABIES START COMING FOR GENERATIONS OF 'CHEAP' LABOR.
HALF OF THE POPULATION OF CALIFORNIA WAS BORN IN MEXICO AND THOSE NUMBERS ARE BREEDING FAST!
Study: More than 7-in-10 California Immigrant
Welfare
More than 7-in-10 households headed by immigrants in the state of California are on taxpayer-funded welfare, a new study reveals.
The costs of illegal immigration are being carefully hidden by Democrats. MONICA SHOWALTER
Migrant enclaves already are at the top of the U.S. lists for bad places to - 10 of the 50 worst places in America to live according to this list are in California, and all of them are famous for their illegal populations. MONICA SHOWALTER
33 Migrants Found in Human Smuggler’s Horse Trailer near Border in Arizona
Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents arrested two armed human smugglers who reportedly locked a group of 33 migrants in a horse trailer. Agents also seized two pistols and $16,000 in cash.
Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John R. Modlin tweeted photos from a human smuggling incident where 33 migrants were locked inside a horse trailer.
Agents contacted Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office deputies to assist in the traffic stop, Tucson Sector officials said in a written statement. The law enforcement team stopped the Ford pickup truck pulling the horse trailer at about 2 a.m. on Sunday morning.
During a search of the vehicle, agents found 33 migrants locked inside the trailer. Officials said the smugglers packed the migrants shoulder-to-shoulder inside the trailer.
The agents placed the driver of the Ford truck and the driver of a Dodge Ram pickup truck believed to be traveling with the smuggling vehicle under arrest for human smuggling. Agents found two handguns in each truck and approximately $16,000 in cash.
The two drivers, both U.S. citizens, are under arrest for human smuggling. The agents processed the 33 migrants for immigration violations.
Elsewhere in the Tucson Sector, Nogales Station agents found 88 pounds of fentanyl and 30 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in a sedan during an inspection at the Interstate 19 immigration checkpoint.
The agents found the drugs after a K-9 alerted to the vehicle. Agents arrested the driver, a U.S. citizen, for drug smuggling.
VIDEO: Nancy Pelosi Takes Heat for Claiming Florida Needs Illegal Immigrants to ‘Pick Crops’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Friday spoke about illegal immigrants and claimed Florida farmers needed them to pick crops, but her remarks drew much criticism.
While speaking during a press conference, she did note the U.S. needed to secure the border, according to the New York Post.
“Right now, the best thing that we can do for our economy is to have comprehensive immigration reform,” Pelosi said:
“We have a shortage of workers in our country and you see even in Florida some of the farmers and the growers saying, ‘Why are you shipping these immigrants up north? We need them to pick the crops down here.’ But that doesn’t mean that we don’t recognize our moral responsibility as well,” she continued.
Social media users were quick to respond to her comments, one person writing, “Elitist progressive and pious views.”
“When she said the word ‘moral’ I expected her to spontaneously combust,” someone else commented while another replied, “Apparently there are no crops to pick on Marthas Vineyard.”
Last month, Martha’s Vineyard saw the arrival of 50 migrants. However, that number was but a drop in the ocean compared to the nation’s border communities experiencing a massive wave of border crossings, Breitbart News reported September 16:
This week, Martha’s Vineyard officials deemed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) sending 50 illegal aliens to the elite coastal island a “humanitarian crisis.” The island is home to former President Obama’s vacation estate, which boasts 29 acres and seven bedrooms.
DeSantis, on Wednesday, announced he sent two planes carrying illegal aliens from Venezuela to Martha’s Vineyard after Texas and Arizona for months have been busing thousands to New York City, Chicago, and Washington, DC.
The group of 50 accounted for a mere 0.001 percent of the almost five million border crossers and illegal aliens who made it to the southern border since President Joe Biden (D) took office in January 2021.
Meanwhile, another user pointed to the looming midterm elections, stating, “Legal Hispanics will answer resoundingly in November and send Nancy and a lot of other radical democrats home.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) also weighed in, writing, “Nancy Pelosi wants illegal immigrants to be picking crops. RT if you want Pelosi gone!”
A recent poll found a majority of Republican voters believe the flow of legal and illegal immigration makes American citizens “worse off” overall, according to Breitbart News.
“A YouGov poll reveals that 56 percent of registered Republicans said immigration is making the U.S. “worse off,” while less than 2-in-10 Republicans said immigration is making the U.S. “better off.” About 15 percent said immigration has no impact,” the outlet reported.
Pelosi says that DeSantis should stop sending illegals to the north because Florida farmers ‘need them to pick crops’
As Hurricane Ian moved out of Florida, Nancy Pelosi’s first thought seems to have been the harvest (what crops are picked in October?) in Florida and the purported need for illegal immigrants to pick the mature plants. She claimed that farmers there are “angry.” Via the UK Daily Mail:
'We have a shortage of workers in our country,' Pelosi said as an argument for the country needing immigration reform.
'You see even in Florida, some of the farmers and the growers saying 'why are you shipping these immigrants up North? We need them to pick the crops down here,'' she claimed.
'But that doesn't mean that we don't recognize our moral responsibility as well,' the California Democrat added.
The video of her lurching through her remarks with bizarre hand gestures is worth watching just to see her stumble when she starts to refer to Trump as “the President,” catches herself and becomes slightly incoherent’
Do we really have a shortage of workers? The official unemployment rate is low, to be sure, but millions have sumply dropped out of the workforce, able to support themselves with public assistance and/or the help of loved ones (or crime).
Employment rate of men in the United States from 1990 to 2021
Source: Statista
Pelosi clearly wants an illegal underclass to work for low wages in order to keep idle a class of American layabouts.
That’s her and the Democrats’ version of compassion.
Hat tip: Arnold Cusumariu
Pelosi Deserves to be Booed and Fired
Few politicians are better deserving.
If there is one politician who deserves to be booed it is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). On Saturday night at Central Park in New York City among fellow leftists Pelosi received her just deserts.
As she was making a surprise speech to the crowd at the Global Citizen’s music festival, Pelosi was greeted with heckling and boos. This was a very unpleasant surprise for an audience that was hoping to hear music from Metallica, Mariah Carey, and the Jonas Brothers.
In her comments, Pelosi praised the action of Congress in passing funding for climate change. She said, “As speaker of the House, I am here to thank you for your dazzling advocacy, entrepreneurial thinking, and determination as global citizens…It’s thanks to your help that the United States recently enacted historic climate legislation, which will be a game changer…It will slash carbon pollution by 40% by 2030, it will give a historic, an historic $370 billion to fight the climate crisis.”
Even though she was championing an issue of importance to left-wing activists, the audience did not care. They responded with booing and chants of “Let’s go,” meaning they wanted Pelosi to leave immediately.
The catcalls continued as Pelosi told the crowd the legislation will create “better water and air for our children…. better paying jobs and lower energy bills for their parents.”
Eventually, she finished her speech after claiming that she promised her grandchildren, who were in attendance, that she would keep her remarks short. More likely, she left after realizing the depths of her unpopularity and a desire to limit the embarrassment.
Amazingly, even progressive attendees of a music festival that promotes globalism did not want to listen to a proponent of their ideology. They wanted to hear music, not a political speech from a political fossil.
Speaker Pelosi is 82 years old and has been in Congress for 35 years. She is in her 18th term as a United States Representative. She was Speaker of the House from 2007 to 2011 and resumed the role after Democrats took control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections.
During her first term as House Speaker, Pelosi helped President Barack Obama and fellow congressional Democrats pass the controversial, expensive, and bureaucratic Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. Incredibly, the country is still saddled with this legislation and Pelosi deserves a lion’s share of the blame.
She should have retired years ago, but her high profile and powerful position is too lucrative for her family. Her wealth has skyrocketed, almost tripling to nearly $115 million, during her “public service” between 2004-2019.
In 2008, there were reports that Pelosi and her husband financially benefited from her position in Congress. The CBS show 60 Minutes aired a report on several members of Congress, including Pelosi, who profited from financial transactions that raised the possibility of conflicts of interest. Of course, Pelosi denied the claims, but such questions have been raised multiple times in recent years.
Pelosi is the worst type of politician, who puts her needs before those of her constituents. During the height of the pandemic in September of 2020, while her district was suffering under draconian “health” mandates that Pelosi supported and implemented in the U.S. House of Representatives, she visited a San Francisco hair salon and was captured on camera without a mask. It was the height of hypocrisy, but typical of Nancy Pelosi.
Sadly, Pelosi has performed a horrible disservice to her constituents in her San Francisco, CA congressional district. During her 35 years in Congress, San Francisco has degenerated into an urban hellhole. As businesses have left the city, San Francisco has seen a major increase in crime, filth, homelessness, and blight.
While her constituents have been suffering, Pelosi has been busy traveling the world as Speaker of the House. She is more concerned about her “global” duties and couldn’t care less about the needs of her district.
Her recent junket to a variety of countries in the Indo-Pacific region, including Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, complicated U.S. foreign policy objectives. In fact, her trip to Taiwan might have been more to do with her family business interests than showing support for a country under constant threat from the communist mainland.
As leader of the Democrats in Congress, Pelosi has been viciously partisan. She never expressed one iota of interest in collaborating with President Donald Trump. As evidence, let us not forget her unprecedented and unhinged action of tearing up the written copy of his State of the Union address while standing behind him.
Instead of trying to forge bipartisan cooperation with President Trump, Pelosi was mostly concerned about impeaching him. She led the U.S. House of Representatives to impeaching President Trump twice, both on ridiculous charges that did not merit such proceedings.
As proof of her extreme partisanship and hatred of President Trump, Pelosi formed the “Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.” All nine members of this committee, seven Democrats and two establishment Republicans, are suffering from a severe case of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” The committee is not interested in uncovering the “truth” of January 6, 2021, only in politically damaging President Trump so he cannot run for the White House again in 2024.
Since Joe Biden became President, Pelosi has supported his socialist agenda 100% of the time. With Pelosi’s staunch support, Biden has passed the American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and, most recently, the Inflation Reduction Act.
None of these bills will help the economy. Instead, all of them have added trillions of dollars to our national debt. Thus, Americans can thank Nancy Pelosi for the unnecessary spending, the high inflation rate, and the funding of 87,000 more Internal Revenue Service agents.
Pelosi not only deserves to be booed, but she also deserves to be fired. Americans can accomplish that task in the midterm elections by removing Democrats from control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Reprinted From Townhall.
Reader Interactions
Pelosi: 'We Have to Have a Secure Border'; 'Protecting Our Border Is Our Responsibility'
(CNSNews.com) - At her news conference on Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was asked why she won't allow Democrats to speak out about the border crisis. "And do you believe the border is secure?" the reporter asked.
Pelosi did not like the question, and she made her displeasure known, as she used the opportunity to blast Donald Trump -- but not by name -- for his alleged "Muslim ban," which had nothing to do with the overrun southwest border.
She also refused to answer the reporter's first question because it was based on something House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy had said.
"Well, I believe that we have to have a secure border," Pelosi said. "And I think that we are trying to address -- the president has a plan to address that.
"Securing our border is part of our security, to protect and defend our country. Let there be no doubt."
"I don't respond to those kind of questions," Pelosi said, telling the reporter she would not answer his first question. But she did address the second question on border security:
“We have a responsibility to secure our border. We also have a responsibility to recognize the importance of newcomers to our nation. Right now, the best thing that we can do for our economy is to have comprehensive immigration reform.
“We have a shortage of workers in our country, and you see in Florida. Some of the farmers and the growers say, why are you shipping these immigrants up north. We need them to pick the crops down here."
(The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 makes it illegal for employers to knowingly hire or continue to employ undocumented workers.)
"But that doesn't mean that we don't recognize our moral responsibility as well," Pelosi said.
Pelosi sneered that the former president -- calling him "the occasional occupant of the White House who preceded President Biden."
"When he had the ban on Muslims, everybody came forward" (in opposition), she said.
Then Pelosi talked about the U.S. refugee resettlement program, which is not the same as the illegal immigration crisis at the southwest border.
"We have a responsibility to accept some of these people," Pelosi said. "But we have to know that they qualify for that. And what the administration is doing is increasing how we make sure that people come into our country in a timely fashion -- are either here to stay or not.
"But protecting our border is our responsibility, we all know that, and that is something we will work on. And again, my suggestion has always been to have the adjudication of some of this at the Guatemalan border, before people pay coyotes billions of dollars to risk their lives coming across Mexico and maybe are turned away at the border."
HE DEMOCRATS' VISION OF AMERICA: 49 MORE MEXIFORNIAS
Pelosi: More Migration Is ‘The Best Thing … for Our Economy’
Congress can best help the American economy by importing more lower-wage, lower-skill workers for companies that would otherwise hire Americans and invest in high-tech machinery, according to House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, (D-CA).
“Right now, the best thing that we can do for our economy is to have comprehensive immigration reform,” she told Capitol Hill reporters on Friday, adding:
We have a shortage of workers in our country and you see even in Florida, some of the farmers and the growers saying, “Why are you shipping these immigrants up north — we need them to pick the crops down here.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "We have a shortage of workers in our country—and you see even in Florida—some of the farmers and the growers are saying, 'Why are you shipping these immigrants up north? We need them to pick the crops down here.'" pic.twitter.com/aHIQC0WZAS
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 30, 2022
“When you import cheap labor, you take away the incentive for businesses to raise wages,” countered Art Arthur, a former immigration judge who now works for the Center for Immigration Studies. “So long as you have a steady supply of cheap labor, you don’t make the sort of investments in training and infrastructure that you would otherwise,” he added.
The U.S. government has long allowed the illegal migration that pressures farm companies to shamefully exploit stoop labor by tough, underpaid, hard-working migrants:
RT UFWupdates: Susana works at Pacific Triple E tomatoes in Merced, CA. Workers pick an average of 280 buckets per day & make some of the best wages in the industry under their #UFW contract. #WeFeedYou #Calor #Overtime4FarmWorkers pic.twitter.com/EsltERj26b
— Pier (@Pierovic01) September 13, 2018
Overseas, many governments downgrade migration and prefer to pressure companies to invest in modern productivity-boosting equipment. The equipment allows both companies and employers to earn more money each day.
In Italy, for example, some companies use harvesters instead of imported stoop labor to pick tomatoes:
Israel accepts few migrants and instead is developing high-tech glasshouses and robots:
After the shock of President Donald Trump’s low-migration, high-wage policy, more U.S. companies are buying high-tech farm gear to pick tomatoes and fruit:
Even in California, where the government has helped to push up the wages of farm workers, producers are increasingly using machines to raise the productivity of their workers:
Other companies are trying to develop machines that allow a few people to pick even more tomatoes. In Kentucky, for example, researchers at AppHarvest are developing robot pickers for use in huge greenhouses:
Pelosi also claimed that Americans have a moral duty to help migrants, whatever the cost to their fellow Americans, saying “We also have a responsibility to recognize the importance of newcomers to our nation.”
She added:
When the President — the former, well, occasional occupant of the White House who preceded President Biden — when he had the ban on Muslims, everybody came forward. Our military, our diplomats, our faith community … came forward and said the refugee resettlement program of the United States is the highlight of our humanitarianism … It is. We have a responsibility to accept some of these people.
“Our nation is great because we are a nation of immigrants,” she insisted, echoing the 1950s narrative that the United States is really a “Nation of immigrants,” not a nation of Americans.
“Productivity is really the key,” countered Arthur. He added:
The more productive workers are, the quicker that [economy] grows. Right now, we’re at an extremely low labor participation rate because we have [many millions] of Americans who should be working, but aren’t. In fact, we’re getting pretty close to the low percentages that we saw back during the Great Recession of 2008 when people just couldn’t find jobs. And when working-age men, in particular, aren’t working, that leads to any number of societal ills.
Easy migration reduces business pressure to improve Americans’ schools, Arthur added:
If employers were dependent upon the schools to produce graduates who were ready, willing, and able to join the workforce, they would demand that those schools provide a better education. But because of the high levels of immigration, legal and illegal, they don’t have to do that. That consigns kids to generational cycles of poverty.
Many polls show the public wants to welcome some immigration. But the polls also show deep and broad public opposition to labor migration and the inflow of temporary contract workers into jobs needed by young U.S. graduates.
This “Third Rail” opposition is growing, anti-establishment, multiracial, cross-sex, non-racist, class-based, bipartisan, rational, persistent, and recognizes the solidarity that American citizens owe to one another.
Business Lobbies Push for Lame-Duck Amnesties
Pro-migration groups are trying to win cheap labor and amnesty laws during the lame-duck session after the election.
“A negative ruling from 5th Circuit on #DACA -[Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] could impact nearly 700k [migrants] …. jeopardize their ability to work legally and possibly put them at risk of being separated from their families,” said a tweet from the FWD.us, an advocacy group created by billionaire investors including Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, and Mark and Priscilla Zuckerberg.
“Congress must act this year,” said the tweet, which ignored President Joe Biden’s policy of halting nearly all deportations.
The issue is bubbling up because a federal court in Texas is expected to block the award of work permits to the younger illegals by President Barack Obama.
FWD.us funds many of the progressive groups that tout amnesty and visa-worker programs. The high-profile DACA fight helps FWD.us protect its investor priorities, including the continued annual inflow of more than 250,0000 subordinate visa workers into the Fortune 500 jobs needed by U.S. professionals and their families.
“DACA has been threatened in the past, but the current case ahead of the 5th Circuit Court is the most severe threat to date,” FWD.us president Todd Schulte, told NBCNews.
The media outlet coyly described FWD.us as “a bipartisan political organization that advocates for progressive immigration reform.” The staff of the FWD.us group tries to hide the identity of the wealthy investors who founded and funded the group. But copies exist at other sites.
The chance of a lame-duck amnesty is rising fast, in part because the Senate GOP has agreed to pass a short-term spending bill that must be replaced with another spending bill before a new Congress is sworn in during January.
Pro-American GOP advocates warned months ago that the scenario would allow retiring GOP Senators — such as Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) or Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) — to betray Americans by pushing cheap-labor deals with businesses and Democrats just before they exit.
Huge changes in immigration laws can be created by very brief legislative language, which can be hidden from the public in complex end-of-year budget bills as corporate media outlets focus on other drama.
Additional advocacy groups are working to pass a cheap labor bill for agriculture companies.
A pending farm bill would exempt farm companies from the U.S. labor market by giving them a pipeline of foreign workers. The pipeline would minimize marketplace pressure to hire Americans or invest in American-made farm robots.
The bill would also allow farm companies to pay their foreign workers with a combination of low wages and the deferred bonus of U.S. citizenship. The bill would also reward the huge prize of citizenship to the sector’s current workforce of several million illegal migrants.
Farm-sector executives met recently to plan a post-election push, according to a September 28 report in the produce industry news site, ProductBlueBook.com:
The House of Representatives already passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which provides an effective solution for the agriculture labor crisis. It was supported by nearly all Democrats, which control the House, and about 30 Republicans. Now the Senate must pass the bill, and with the parties split at 50-50, it would take at least 10 Republican Senators to vote for it to get to a filibuster-proof majority.
During a September 27 education session at the [Washington D.C. business] conference, speakers conceded that a bill before the mid-term elections in November was impossible, which means they’re working toward a vote between the election in the new Congress in January, in what’s called the “lame duck session.”
“It’s our best strategy, but it’s not a ‘can’t-lose’ strategy,” said Chuck Connor, president, and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives.
So far, the bill has been held up by unspoken opposition from GOP Senators amid opposition from mainstream voters and activists in Idaho who fear it would hollow out many towns and communities.
Overall, legal and illegal migration prevents tight labor markets and so it shifts vast wealth from ordinary people to investors, billionaires, and Wall Street.
The tilted market for labor makes it difficult for ordinary Americans to advance in their careers, get married, raise families, or buy homes.
Extraction migration slows innovation and shrinks Americans’ productivity. This happens because migration allows employers to boost stock prices by using stoop labor and disposable workers instead of the skilled American professionals and productivity-boosting technology that earlier allowed Americans and their communities to earn more money.
Business groups need to get support from at least 10 Republican senators to pass an amnesty. One likely backer is Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC).
On September 22, RollCall.com reported:
Tillis said in a brief interview last week that the lame-duck period after the midterm elections would be the most likely time for Congress to take up any legislation on green card relief. He also said he sees increasing interest for such proposals in the Republican caucus.
“When you see the labor participation rates and you hear from various industries, and it’s agriculture, hospitality, leisure, construction trades. I mean, we’ve got chronic shortages and they have been sustained,” Tillis said. “So I don’t see how any reasonable person can get to a solution to the problem without this being a key part of it.”
Democrats are eager for a lame-duck amnesty. For example, Sen. Alex Padilla, (D-CA) has drafted a bill that would amnesty every migrant who stays in the United States for seven years. “If something terrible comes out of the Fifth Circuit [in the DACA decision], I think it could be an issue in November,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), told NBC News.
But GOP legislators need some political cover before they can vote for an amnesty. So President Joe Biden may offer token changes on the border to help GOP Senators disguise the giveaway to business interests.
“Not a single one of us — or at least me, I won’t speak for my colleagues — will unless we fix the underlying problem with border security,” Tillis said during a September hearing about bills to fill American healthcare jobs with cheap and compliant foreign nurses.
Wildcard Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) also suggested she would back a lame-duck push for amnesty, according to NBC News:
“The reality is that we have to address both our security needs and our workforce needs,” she said Monday in a speech at the McConnell Center. Referring to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, she added, “And I hope to be able to partner with my friend John and deliver something in the next few months or a couple of years.”
Sinema and Cornyn have jointly drafted a border bill that could accelerate migration through the border.
CALIFORNIA HAS THE LARGEST NUMBER OF ILLEGALS AND RANKS No. 48 OF 50 STATES AS FAR AS QUALITY OF LOWER EDUCATION.
Biden Border Crisis Burdens U.S. Education System — Taxpayers Foot the Bill
A new report found that the Biden administration’s immigration policies are costing the American education system tens of billions of taxpayer dollars every year.
The report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is titled “The Elephant in the Classroom: Mass Immigration Imposing Colossal Cost and Challenges on Public Education.”
The report contains a number of concerning findings. According to FAIR, one in ten students is considered “Limited English Proficient,” which has resulted in an annual expenditure of $78 billion to provide remedial English instruction.
Furthermore, the surge of illegal immigration during the Biden administration means that the need for remedial English instruction is “outpacing the nation’s education system’s ability to hire enough teachers qualified to meet the needs of LEP kids.”
Perhaps even more concerning, the $78 billion price tag only takes into account enrollment figures from 2020 due to a “two year delay in releasing official enrollment and detailed cost data in most states and school districts.” This means that the cost of the Biden border crisis on the American education system has not yet been fully realized.
This figure is up $18.8 billion since 2016. Additionally, the price tag does not include the cost of free or subsidized meals.
The report found that as of 2020, “5.1 million students in American public schools, roughly 10 percent of all K-12 enrollment, were classified as limited English proficient.”
President of FAIR Dan Stein noted, “By almost every metric, America’s education system is already failing our kids whose critical skills lag behind those of almost every one of our global competitors.”
Stein went on to say “As a nation, we are failing to adequately educate the next generation of workers and taxpayers – even those for whom English is their native tongue.”
“Under the Biden administration, our failing education system is being asked to cope with our failed immigration policies, which is a recipe for disaster,” Stein concluded.
Roughly three million economic migrants have been allowed across the southern border into America since Biden’s inauguration. Roughly two million additional legal migrants, temporary workers, and white collar illegals have been allowed in via U.S. airports.
A recent poll from Gallup found that a plurality of Americans would like to see immigration decreased.
A different poll found that a majority of Americans believe Biden’s border crisis is an invasion. Even 40 percent of Democrats believe that the crisis is an invasion, while 76 percent of Republicans and 46 percent of independents also believe that America faces an invasion on its southern border.
Spencer Lindquist is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerLndqst and reach out at slindquist@breitbart.com.
Soros-Backed Candidate for Maricopa County D.A. Wants to Prevent Deportation of Criminal Illegal Immigrants
Soros-backed Democratic candidate for Arizona’s Maricopa County District Attorney Julie Gunnigle has stated that immigration status should be considered before charging criminals in order to prevent deportation.
Gunnigle was asked in an interview what she thought about prosecutors shielding illegal immigrants from deportation.
Interviewer Meg O’Connor inquired, “Should prosecutors consider collateral immigration consequences in charging decisions, plea offers, and sentencing recommendations, and what effects should those considerations have?”
“When prosecutors make plea offers and argue for sentences, they do so within the interests of justice, and the interests of justice should be an individualized determination that is driven by all of the issues that are happening in someone’s life, up to and including immigration status,” Gunnigle responded.
Gunnigle has also stated, “I have adopted the American Immigration Attorney Council’s statement that there are ways to make plea offers as immigration-neutral as possible.”
Gunnigle misspoke in referencing the American Immigration Attorney Council, an organization that does not exist. Gunnigle combined the “American Immigration Lawyers Association” and the “American Immigration Council.” The American Immigration Council is an arm of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Like Gunnigle, the American Immigration Council (AIC) has received support from globalist billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF). The AIC has received at least $1.47 million from OSF since 2017.
Gunnigle is running against Rachel Mitchell, the Republican candidate for the position of Maricopa County District Attorney. Mitchell is currently the interim district attorney. In a debate between the two, Mitchell called out Gunnigle for calling to remove $25 million from the Phoenix Police.
Gunnigle has also received endorsements from multiple Soros-backed organizations that have sought to abolish Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and prevent deportation of illegal immigrants.
While Soros-backed candidate Julie Gunnigle voices support for policies that prevent the deportation of criminal illegal aliens, America is facing an unprecedented migrant crisis, not only in border states like Arizona, but even in Northern states like Maine.
Roughly three million economic migrants have been allowed across the southern border into the U.S. economy since Biden’s inauguration. Roughly 2 million additional legal migrants, temporary workers, and white-collar illegals have been allowed in via the U.S. airports. The combined inflow is huge — roughly 4 million immigrant workers join the labor force each year.
A recent poll from Gallup found that a plurality of Americans would like to see immigration decreased.
A different poll found that a majority of Americans believe that Biden’s border crisis is an invasion. Even 40 percent of Democrats believe that the crisis is an invasion, while 76 percent of Republicans and 46 percent of independents also believe that America faces an invasion on its southern border.
Spencer Lindquist is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerLndqst and reach out at slindquist@breitbart.com.
George Soros’s Open Society Foundation Puts Millions Behind Pro-Amnesty, Pro-Illegal Immigration Groups
George Soros’s Open Society Foundation donated millions of dollars to organizations dedicated to advocating for mass immigration and amnesty for illegal immigrants.
George Soros’s organization has offered millions in monetary support to organizations that advocate for unfettered mass immigration and amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Press Secretary of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Ron Kovach explained the role that globalist billionaire George Soros has had in the push for mass immigration and amnesty, telling Breitbart News “Soros and his shadow organizations have worked hand in hand with the Biden administration since Biden took office to not only shield, but encourage more illegal aliens to flock to the United States.”
Kovach went on to say “Soros has had a hand in almost every move the Biden administration has made to topple our immigration system,” pointing to the billionaire’s efforts to help “secure visas for those already illegally in the country through misinterpretations of Trump’s VOICE initiative, to assisting those attempting to avoid deportations,” and more recently “suing Gov. DeSantis for his Martha’s Vineyard flight.”
Spencer Lindquist / Breitbart NewsKovach added, “What’s worse is that most of his initiatives have had funding assistance through grants awarded by the Biden administration.”
The Federation for American Immigration Reform seeks “to reduce overall immigration to a more normal level.” The organization, which seeks to reduce legal immigration, states on its website “FAIR puts the interests of American citizens and future generations ahead of big business and partisan demands.”
Among FAIR’s detractors is Media Matters, a progressive watchdog group that refers to the organization as a “hate group.” Media Matters is not only funded by George Soros’s Open Society Foundations but has also received millions of dollars from the Ford Foundation, which Breitbart News revealed has spent over $100 million in support of amnesty and mass immigration.
New Virginia Majority
One organization, which has received $100,000 from OSF, is called New Virginia Majority. The organization seeks to build “a bloc of conscious, consistent voters to advance a new politics that is democratic, sustainable and just.”
They specifically work to mobilize “working class people of color in Virginia as the drivers of a bold new agenda for all.”
The organization’s board includes Charlene Sinclair, the managing director of the Groundswell Fund, a wealthy organization that funds progressive causes and has given over $100 million in donations since 2003. Another board member, Doris Crouse-Mays, Secretary, is the president of the Virginia chapter of The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
National Immigration Law Center
The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) received over $3.4 million from OSF between 2016 and 2020. A document from NILC titled “Strategic Framework for Transformational Change” lays out the organization’s plan to “consolidate immigrant power” and “forge consensus for culture change.”
NILC also intends to get candidates to get “candidates in key electoral races to center immigrants in their platforms and communications.” The organization hopes to increase “humanitarian admissions to the United States” and to take part in “enhancing citizenship pathways.”
NILC is a large operation, with nearly 70 different people working for the organization including leadership and employees.
Immigrant Legal Resource Center
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) has received over $2.3 million from OSF in eight different grants between 2016 and 2020. The organization seeks to encourage immigration and naturalization and then mobilize them as a newly imported voting bloc.
A grant for $350,000 in 2020 was intended to “encourage naturalization among eligible immigrants, assist them with the process, and mobilize their civic participation.” The same description is listed under a grant in 2019, which also totaled $350,000.
ILRC also attempts to prevent the deportation of illegal immigrants. The organization sells a book titled “Removal Defense: Defending Immigrants in Immigration Court.” One webinar from the ILRC, led by Executive Director Eric Cohen and Staff Attorney Kathy Brady, is titled “Drugs and Naturalization.”
The training discusses how attorneys can defend immigrants from deportation if they have been convicted of a drug offense such as drug trafficking. The webinar discusses “what drug conduct or convictions might make the person deportable” and explains “defense strategies” for immigrants who may be deported due to drug-related charges.
Meanwhile, fentanyl deaths in border communities have skyrocketed as much as 800 percent, and four times as much fentanyl has come across the border under Biden since fiscal year 2019 when Trump was in office.
Another guide from the organization discusses how defense attorneys may approach cases in which an immigrant may be deported due to committing a crime of domestic violence, stalking, or even child abuse.
ILRC has taken several steps to ensure that criminal illegal aliens are not subject to deportation. The organization encourages probation officers to end their collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement by taking measures such as “removing citizenship status and place of birth questions from internal forms” and prohibiting probation staff inquiries into the citizenship status of criminals.
The ILRC’s board of advisers has included both Nancy Pelosi and the Chairman of the California Democratic Party.
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) has received $600,000 from Soros’s OSF from 2017 to 2020. The organization has called Title 42, an immigration security measure, “racist.”
National Immigration Forum
Meanwhile, the National Immigration Forum (NIF) received $1 million from OSF between 2016 and 2020. The Soros-backed group supports amnesty for illegal immigrants.
While other Soros-backed organizations that enable mass immigration do so in order to import and mobilize a new voting bloc, NIF appears to be more interested in enabling the importation of immigrants for the benefit of corporations, who seek out cheap labor.
NIF runs a program called “New American Workforce,” the description of which reads “the Forum is a trusted partner when major companies seek to advance services to support and advocate on behalf of their new American workforce.”
Their Corporate Roundtable seeks to “advance strategies that integrate new Americans into the U.S. labor market.” One of the objectives of the roundtable is to “Advocate for pro-immigrant policies and integration programs.”
NIF’s officers and board of directors include religious officials and individuals in business and real estate.
Unidos US Action Fund
Meanwhile, Unidos US Action Fund, which received $300,000 from OSF across 2019 and 2020, uses ethnic identity politics to push liberal immigration policies. Their home page reads, “We’re building Latino Political Power.” The organization supports amnesty for illegal immigrants and engages in policy advocacy on immigration.
America’s Voice
America’s Voice (AV) has received nearly $1.6 million from OSF to support progressive immigration reform. Like the other Soros-backed organizations, AV supports amnesty for illegal immigrants and tracks ads from the Republican Party opposing Critical Race Theory or illegal immigration, which it calls “racist and xenophobic.”
Executive Director of America’s Voice Frank Sharry previously served as the Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, a position he held for 17 years.
United We Dream
An organization called United We Dream (UWD), which supports amnesty for illegal immigrants, received at least $700,000 in grants from OSF related to immigration. UWD is led by Greisa Martinez Rosas, who herself was an illegal immigrant.The group also advocates for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Patrol, and the police more generally, to all be defunded.
Equally as radical, UWD has called for detention camps to be closed so that illegal immigrants can be released into the interior. UDW also believes that illegal immigrants who have been deported should be allowed to return to the United States.
Several more organizations that endorse amnesty and mass immigration have received financial support from OSF. Grants to such organizations can be found here.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is now being sued for busing migrants to Martha’s Vineyard by Alianza Americas, a non-profit organization that is backed by Soros.
The Ford Foundation (FF) is another wealthy organization that has given large sums of money to nonprofits that support mass immigration and amnesty. A report from Breitbart News found that FF gave more than $100 million to various pro-amnesty groups, including some, like United We Dream and the National Immigration Law Center, that also received funds from OSF.
A Yale University study from 2018 reveals that there may be anywhere from 16 million to 29 million illegal immigrants within the United States, a figure that has undoubtedly shifted since the study was conducted. According to recent polling from Gallup, a plurality of Americans would like to see immigration decrease.
Roughly three million economic migrants have been allowed across the southern border into the U.S. economy since Biden’s inauguration. Roughly two million additional legal migrants, temporary workers, and white collar illegals have been allowed in via U.S. airports. The combined inflow is huge — roughly four million immigrant workers join the labor force each year.
Spencer Lindquist is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerLndqst and reach out at slindquist@breitbart.com.
EXCLUSIVE: Record 2.2 Million Migrants Apprehended by Border Patrol in FY22, 604K Got Away
Border Patrol agents apprehended a record-setting 2.2 million migrants who illegally crossed the southwest border with Mexico, according to a source within U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In addition, the unofficial year-end numbers show an estimate of nearly 604,000 migrant got-aways.
As the record-setting Fiscal Year 2022 came to a close at midnight, a source within U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Breitbart Texas that agents working the nine southwest border sectors apprehended more than 2.2 million migrants. This represents an increase of nearly 27 percent over last year’s record of 1.7 million migrant apprehensions. The source spoke to Breitbart under the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to journalists.
The Del Rio Sector jumped from second place last year to become the busiest of the Border Patrol sectors with the apprehension of nearly a half-million migrants this year. The number of apprehensions jumped from nearly 260,000 in FY21 to 480,000 this year — an increase of nearly 85 percent. The number of migrants apprehended in this sector in FY2020 was slightly over 90,000.
The Rio Grande Valley Sector fell to second place with the apprehension of 468,000 migrants. This is down from last year’s record of nearly 550,000.
In addition to the 2.2 million migrant apprehensions, Border Patrol officials classified another nearly 604,000 as got-aways. This number is a conservative estimate of migrants who are seen crossing the border but cannot be apprehended at the time, migrants that are part of a group that is partially apprehended, or by estimating numbers based upon tracks found in smuggling areas.
The number of got-aways is up from last year’s estimate of 500,000 in Fiscal Year 2021.
Agents previously told Breitbart the numbers of got-aways are likely much higher because of the constant flow of migrants being apprehended along the southern border impedes the agency’s ability to adequately patrol miles of the border. The absence of routine patrols is driving the got-away numbers up as there are no available Border Patrol agents to respond to electronic sensors, camera activations, and unmanned aerial surveillance sightings.
Editor’s Note: The Fiscal Year 2022 numbers above are from unofficial CBP reports reviewed by Breitbart Texas. Those numbers could change slightly when the official numbers are released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s year-ending Southwest Land Border Encounter report later this month.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
September Border Crossings To Set New Record, Internal DHS Data Show
Joseph Simonson • September 30, 2022 3:40 pmMigrant border crossings are on pace for a record-breaking September, preliminary Department of Homeland Security data obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show.
Customs and Border Protection recorded an average of 7,300-7,500 daily migrant encounters at the southwest border by the end of September.
Those averages come out to between 219,000 to 225,000 for the month. Any sum within that range constitutes the worst September for migrant border crossings in U.S. history, a review of public CBP data finds. September 2021 saw 192,000 border crossings, which held the previous record for the worst September in history.
The data come as red-state governors grow increasingly frustrated with President Joe Biden’s response to the border crisis. Govs. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) and Greg Abbott (R., Texas) began sending migrants to predominantly Democratic-voting cities and towns, such as Martha’s Vineyard and Chicago, in recent months in an attempt to bring attention to the White House’s lack of progress in controlling illegal immigration.
CBP did not respond to a request for comment.
The end of September also marks the end of the 2022 fiscal year. Fox News reported that total migrant encounters for the 2022 fiscal year crossed two million, the highest number ever recorded in U.S. history.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre brushed off criticisms of the administration’s handling of the border crisis earlier this month. When asked how to explain the flood of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers entering through the southwest border, Jean-Pierre said the White House has "taken unprecedented action over the past year and a half to secure our border and rebuild a safer and orderly process system."
"We agree that the border is secure, but there is still more work to be done," Jean-Pierre said.
Americans regularly rank the border crisis as a top issue of concern, polling shows. A survey from NPR in August found a majority of Americans believe the United States is facing an "invasion" on the southern border.
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