Sunday, March 4, 2012

OBAMA'S ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN WORKER: Obama at Master Lock: “insourcing” for cheap labor

Obama at Master Lock: “insourcing” for cheap labor

THE ENTIRE REASON OUR BORDERS ARE LEFT OPEN AND UNDEFENDED IS TO ASSURE HORDES OF MEXICANS EASY LOOTING IN OUR BORDERS!

KEEPING WAGES DEPRESSED KEEPS WAGES DEPRESSED AND WALL ST HAPPY AND GENEROUS!

NO ONE WORKS HARDER FOR WALL ST AND DEPRESSED WAGES THAT OBAMA!

16-to-24-year-olds continue to face tough labor market | Economic Policy Institute POSTED! NO LEGAL NEED APPLY!

16-to-24-year-olds continue to face tough labor market Economic Policy Institute



http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2011/11/mexicos-biggest-export-drugs-criminals.html

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MEXICO EXPORTS THEIR POOR! WE ARE MEXICO’S WELFARE AND PRISON SYSTEM!

the cost of illegals to arizona (fairus.org)

The cost of illegals to the taxpayers of Arizona comes to $ 1.3 billion per year for education, Medicare and incarceration. Even when the estimated tax contributions of illegals workers are subtracted the amount still comes out to $1.3 billion EDUCATION: Arizonians spend approx. $820 million annually on education for illegals. HEALTHCARE: uncompensated medical outlays for healthcare provided to the states illegal alien population is now estimated at about $400 million a year. INCARCERATION; the cost of incarcerating the illegal aliens in Arizona prisons and jails amounts to about $80 million a year, (not including the monetary costs of the crimes that led to incarceration)

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“What employers really want in many cases by hiring immigrants is to hold down wage costs, experts say.”

 “Democratic Party executives from President Obama to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have said that their priority for the year ahead is to create good jobs that pay decent wages. As the experience of this deceitful decade demonstrates, the need never has been more urgent.”






THE BELOW WAS PUBLISHED IN 2008, SINCE THEN THERE HAVE BEEN THOUSANDS OF ILLEGALS MURDER AMERICANS, AND MILLIONS WALK OVER OUR BORDERS FOR “FREE” ANCHOR BABY BIRTHING, AND OUR JOBS!



ROMNEY PROMISES TO MAKE E-VERIFY A NATIONWIDE LAW! OBAMA PROMISES HIS LA RAZA PART BASE of ILLEGALS TO MAKE IT ILLEGAL FOR EMPLOYERS TO USE E-VERIFY!

POSTED! NO LEGAL NEED APPLY! CALL IT OBAMANOMICS! KEEPING WAGES DEPRESSED WITH HORDES OF ILLEGALS KEEPS OBAMA’S WALL ST DONORS HAPPY AND GENEROUS.






AMERICA – POSTED! NO LEGAL NEED APPLY! BUT WE STILL GET THE BILLS FOR THE LA RAZA WELFARE AND CRIME STATE IN OUR BORDERS!

REALITY OF THE AMERICAN WORKER IN MEX-OCCUPIED STATES LIKE MEXIFORNIA:

THERE ARE ONLY EIGHT (8) STATES WITH A POPULATION GREATER THAN LOS ANGELES COUNTY WHERE HALF THE JOBS OR MORE, ARE HELD BY ILLEGALS USING STOLEN SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS. THIS SAME COUNTY PAYS OUT $600 MILLION PER YEAR IN WELFARE TO ILLEGALS AND HAS A TAX-FREE MEX UNDERGROUND ECONOMY CALCULATED TO BE GREATER THAN $2 BILLION PER YEAR!




If job creation is the goal, make E-Verify mandatory - TheHill.com




ALIPAC - Fighting the LA RAZA OBAMA WELFARE STATE FOR ILLEGALS!

Friends of ALIPAC,

While this has been an encouraging week with a new web traffic record being set at ALIPAC 2.0 and with a flood of new supporters joining in response to the Indiana and Obama forgery news, we have to apologize for the delay to all the campaigns and candidates who are encouraging us to launch our national candidate operations for 2012.

We had hoped to avoid this, but we must now go into EMERGENCY MODE because there are only 16 days left for us to raise the remaining $16,000 that we must raise to reach our minimum operations budget.

At the time of this email we do not have enough funds to meet our obligations for March and we do not have enough funds to pay the $5,000 we owe for the needed upgrades to www.ALIPAC.us

We have letters that should all be arriving to our prior donors this week. Each is hand assembled and signed or initialed by me. If our past donors respond to these letters, we may survive and be able to continue the fight. We need our past donors back on board and hope they are reading and will get those reply envelopes heading our way fast.

If you have never donated to ALIPAC before, now may be one of your LAST CHANCES. Other great Americans have carried this organization forward for 7.5 years and it is time for more people to step up with donations which are a required part of running a national organization effectively.

We will try to work in 1-3 more activism alert emails between now and our funds deadline of March 20, 2012, if possible. We will try to continue fighting while in Emergency Mode, but we may have to stop all non fund raising activities. That all depends on YOUR RESPONSE LEVEL TO THIS EMAIL AND OUR LETTERS!

If we fail to reach $30,000 by March 20 there is no fallback position. This is a sudden death round for ALIPAC. We will be forced to permanently shut down all operations by April 1, if we fail this time.

Please take immediate steps to keep ALIPAC in the fight against illegal immigration and amnesty by proceeding to our secure online donations page right away to donate by MAIL or CREDIT Card here...

DONATE ONLINE
http://www.alipac.us/donations/

Personal checks may be sent to

DONATE BY MAIL

ALIPAC
PO Box 30966
Raleigh, NC 27622

DONATE BY PHONE
(866) 703-0864

We have all fought very hard to do what you want done about illegal immigration. Now, we need you to be there for us to DONATE and keep us in the fight. Keep an eye on your mailboxes and please contact me if I can provide you with any information or assistance.

Sincerely,

William Gheen
President, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC
WilliamG@alipac.us
www.alipac.us
AMERICANS FOR LEGAL IMMIGRATION PAC
Post Office Box 30966, Raleigh, NC 27622-0966
Tel: (919) 787-6009 Toll Free: (866) 703-0864
FEC ID: C00405878


PS: Please give us your feedback on how you feel we are doing by voting in these six online polls at the top of our Polling section at this link. We will release our final poll results in 72 hours....
http://www.alipac.us/f18/


Yes, I want to see one of America's most effective national illegal immigration fighting organizations remain in the fight and I am donating by mail, credit card, PayPal, or phone now via
http://www.alipac.us/donations/



http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2011/11/mexicos-biggest-export-drugs-criminals.html

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MEXICO EXPORTS THEIR POOR! WE ARE MEXICO’S WELFARE AND PRISON SYSTEM!

the cost of illegals to arizona (fairus.org)

The cost of illegals to the taxpayers of Arizona comes to $ 1.3 billion per year for education, Medicare and incarceration. Even when the estimated tax contributions of illegals workers are subtracted the amount still comes out to $1.3 billion EDUCATION: Arizonians spend approx. $820 million annually on education for illegals. HEALTHCARE: uncompensated medical outlays for healthcare provided to the states illegal alien population is now estimated at about $400 million a year. INCARCERATION; the cost of incarcerating the illegal aliens in Arizona prisons and jails amounts to about $80 million a year, (not including the monetary costs of the crimes that led to incarceration)

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“What employers really want in many cases by hiring immigrants is to hold down wage costs, experts say.”

 “Democratic Party executives from President Obama to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have said that their priority for the year ahead is to create good jobs that pay decent wages. As the experience of this deceitful decade demonstrates, the need never has been more urgent.”






THE BELOW WAS PUBLISHED IN 2008, SINCE THEN THERE HAVE BEEN THOUSANDS OF ILLEGALS MURDER AMERICANS, AND MILLIONS WALK OVER OUR BORDERS FOR “FREE” ANCHOR BABY BIRTHING, AND OUR JOBS!



ROMNEY PROMISES TO MAKE E-VERIFY A NATIONWIDE LAW! OBAMA PROMISES HIS LA RAZA PART BASE of ILLEGALS TO MAKE IT ILLEGAL FOR EMPLOYERS TO USE E-VERIFY!

POSTED! NO LEGAL NEED APPLY! CALL IT OBAMANOMICS! KEEPING WAGES DEPRESSED WITH HORDES OF ILLEGALS KEEPS OBAMA’S WALL ST DONORS HAPPY AND GENEROUS.






AMERICA – POSTED! NO LEGAL NEED APPLY! BUT WE STILL GET THE BILLS FOR THE LA RAZA WELFARE AND CRIME STATE IN OUR BORDERS!

REALITY OF THE AMERICAN WORKER IN MEX-OCCUPIED STATES LIKE MEXIFORNIA:

THERE ARE ONLY EIGHT (8) STATES WITH A POPULATION GREATER THAN LOS ANGELES COUNTY WHERE HALF THE JOBS OR MORE, ARE HELD BY ILLEGALS USING STOLEN SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS. THIS SAME COUNTY PAYS OUT $600 MILLION PER YEAR IN WELFARE TO ILLEGALS AND HAS A TAX-FREE MEX UNDERGROUND ECONOMY CALCULATED TO BE GREATER THAN $2 BILLION PER YEAR!


If job creation is the goal, make E-Verify mandatory - TheHill.com




OBAMA vs ROMNEY vs JOBS FOR LEGALS! Daily Presidential Tracking Poll - Rasmussen Reports™

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll - Rasmussen Reports™




ISN’T OBAMA REALLY JUST A WORSE VERSION BUSH THIRD TERM??






“Despite the bitter recriminations and mudslinging between the parties, what dominates the 2012 elections is the inability of either party to offer any proposals to address mass unemployment and mounting poverty. They have no differences on the need to destroy the living standards of working people, wage aggressive war and gut democratic rights in an attempt to halt the decline of American capitalism and protect the wealth of the financial elite.”

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OBAMA’S HISPANICAZATION of AMERICA – THE NATION HE SEEMS TO HATE!




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The American “left” and Obama’s State of the Union address

By Janel Flechsig
7 February 2012

The response of representatives of left-liberal and pseudo-socialist circles to Barack Obama’s January 24 State of the Union address confirms their role as adjuncts of the Democratic Party and supporters of Obama’s reelection campaign.

The speech itself was as dishonest and cynical as it was reactionary. Billed as a populist response to the economic crisis, it was nothing of the sort. Rather, it was an exercise in jingoism, economic nationalism, and election year myth-making. Its centerpiece was Obama’s blueprint for an “economy built to last,” with the supposed success of the auto bailout as its model.

What Obama did not mention is that the revival of US auto industry profits is based entirely on the abolition of decent wages and benefits for auto workers and the establishment of poverty-level wages as the benchmark for American manufacturing. His auto task force imposed a 50 percent pay cut for all newly hired General Motors and Chrysler workers, along with a no-strike clause and drastic cuts in benefits for new workers as well as retirees.

(OBAMA HAS REPEATEDLY REMOVED BORDER GUARDS ON THE NARCOMEX BORDER TO ASSURE HIS LA RAZA PARTY BASE EASY MOVEMENT BACK AND FORTH OVER  OUR BORDERS. THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS ENDORSE OBAMA’S OPEN & UNDEFENDED BORDERS AGENDA FOR THAT REASON. IT’S ALL ABOUT KEEPING WAGES DEPRESSED FOR HIS WALL ST PAYMASTERS. )

This economic plan was, moreover, presented within the context of a celebration of American militarism. Obama praised the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and the murder of Muamar Gaddafi, as well as extra-judicial drone assassinations in Africa and the Middle East. He threatened China with economic war, Syria with diplomatic war and Iran with military attack. He concluded by invoking the Navy SEAL hit squad that assassinated Osama bin Laden as the apotheosis of American values and a model for US society as a whole.

David Corn, former Washington editor of the Nation who now heads the Washington bureau of Mother Jones magazine, published a full-throated endorsement of Obama’s speech almost immediately after it was delivered. Perhaps the most revealing aspect of Corn’s rave review was his enthusiastic response to Obama’s appalling peroration.

“Obama did not cite this success [the murder of bin Laden] as a reply to GOP charges that he's an appeasing wuss,” Corn wrote. “Instead, he used it like a national-security version of an Amish barn-raising—defining the American story as one of communal action: We’re not individual actors being bounced around by market forces; we band together for the greater good. It’s worth a read.”

These are the words of a man who, whatever connections he may have once had to anti-war and anti-imperialist sentiments, has joined the camp of American imperialism body and soul. His transition is not simply that of an individual. He represents an entire milieu of middle-class ex-radicals and liberals who have benefited personally and financially from decades of political reaction and attacks on working class living standards. This affluent social layer has grown alienated from and hostile to the working class.

This is fundamentally what underlies Corn’s enthusiasm for Obama and his economic blueprint. “The 2012 race,” he writes, “is shaping up as a titanic face-off between a president who advocates using government to bolster the economy and address inequities and Republicans who have one answer to everything: Smother government and let the markets run free. In his speech, Obama called for ‘great projects.’ Republicans call for no projects—that is, nothing outside the private sector. This is a damn clear contrast.”

Corn’s claim that there exist huge policy differences between the Democrats and the Republicans is a rather obvious lie, and he knows it. Despite the bitter recriminations and mudslinging between the parties, what dominates the 2012 elections is the inability of either party to offer any proposals to address mass unemployment and mounting poverty. They have no differences on the need to destroy the living standards of working people, wage aggressive war and gut democratic rights in an attempt to halt the decline of American capitalism and protect the wealth of the financial elite.

“Obama,” Corn continues, “is pitching a patriotic, quasi-populist progressivism (while conceding the need for deficit reduction and government cost efficiencies).” A “progressivism” based on austerity and chauvinism—such is the reactionary program applauded by Corn.

An editorial posted January 25 on the web site of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) likewise tail-ends Obama, although in a less overt and crude manner. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this multi-page excavation of the speech is what it does not talk about. It mentions neither the wage-cutting that underlies Obama’s economic plan for manufacturing nor the sinister militarism of the speech.

The basic outlook is summed up in the first lines of the statement: “Barack Obama talked tough about Wall Street in his State of the Union speech. But look behind the rhetoric, and his economic proposals fall short of what’s needed.”

Obama’s timid and empty swipes at Wall Street—meant to obscure a policy that is dictated by the banks and corporations—evidently impress the ISO. But his proposals “fall short.” This formulation is significant. It is not a matter of a brutal anti-working class offensive, but rather a positive program that just doesn’t go far enough. This, of course, implies that Obama and the Democrats can be pushed by applying more pressure from below to go further and carry out genuinely progressive policies. Here, in a nutshell, is the ISO’s real perspective of channeling popular opposition behind the Democrats and Obama’s reelection campaign.

This is spelled out more explicitly in the following passage:

“To some extent, the sharper edge in Obama’s speech is another result of the rise of the Occupy movement and its impact on US politics. Even mainstream Washington politicians have had to acknowledge the increasingly vocal discontent about a society divided between the super-rich 1 percent at the top and the rest of us. This shift has been a breath of fresh air…”

In other words, the Occupy protests have shifted Obama and the Democrats to the left, proving the efficacy of a perspective that rejects a break with the two parties of big business and the development of an independent movement of the working class fighting for socialism.

As is frequently the case with this supposedly socialist tendency, the editorial concludes with a formal injunction not to “place any hopes in the Democrats” and an assertion of the need to “remain independent of both capitalist parties.” This, however, is rhetorical window dressing for a political orientation and practice aimed at promoting illusions in the Democrats and their allied organizations, beginning with the trade unions.

The United States is entering a new period of great class struggles. This is, moreover, an international phenomenon. It is driven by a historic crisis of American and world capitalism and the increasingly obvious failure of the profit system. Millions are beginning to recognize that this system and all of its political parties and representatives have nothing to offer except war, depression and the destruction of democratic rights. They are looking for an alternative and moving into struggle.

The single-minded focus of left-liberals and fake-socialists such as the ISO is to prevent the emergence of an independent movement of the working class fighting for a socialist program. They are not opponents of the capitalist status quo, but rather its left flank of defenders.




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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.”

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“Obama’s rejection of any serious jobs program is part of a conscious class war policy. Two years after the financial crisis and the multi-trillion dollar bailout of the banks, the administration is spearheading a campaign by corporations to sharply increase the exploitation of the working class, using the “new normal” of mass unemployment to force workers to accept lower wages, longer hours, and more brutal working conditions.” WSWS.ORG

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 “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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Michelle Malkin
The U.S. Department of Illegal Alien Labor


President Obama's Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is supposed to represent American workers. What you need to know is that this longtime open–borders sympathizer has always had a rather radical definition of "American." At a Latino voter registration project conference in Los Angeles many years ago, Solis asserted to thunderous applause, "We are all Americans, whether you are legalized or not."
That's right. The woman in charge of enforcing our employment laws doesn't give a hoot about our immigration laws –– or about the fundamental distinction between those who followed the rules in pursuit of the American dream and those who didn't.
While in Congress, she opposed strengthening the border fence, supported expansion of illegal alien benefits (including driver's licenses and in–state tuition discounts), embraced sanctuary cities that refused to cooperate with federal homeland security officials to enforce immigration laws, and aggressively championed a mass amnesty. Solis was steeped in the pro–illegal alien worker organizing movement in Southern California and was buoyed by amnesty–supporting Big Labor groups led by the Service Employees International Union. She has now caused a Capitol Hill firestorm over her new taxpayer–funded advertising and outreach campaign to illegal aliens regarding fair wages:
"I'm here to tell you that your president, your secretary of labor and this department will not allow anyone to be denied his or her rightful pay –– especially when so many in our nation are working long, hard and often dangerous hours," Solis says in the video pitch. "We can help, and we will help. If you work in this country, you are protected by our laws. And you can count on the U.S. Department of Labor to see to it that those protections work for you."
To be sure, no one should be scammed out of "fair wages." Employers that hire and exploit illegal immigrant workers deserve full sanctions and punishment. But it's the timing, tone–deafness and underlying blanket amnesty agenda of Solis' illegal alien outreach that has so many American workers and their representatives on Capitol Hill rightly upset.

With double–digit unemployment and a growing nationwide revolt over Washington's border security failures, why has Solis chosen now to hire 250 new government field investigators to bolster her illegal alien workers' rights campaign? (Hint: Leftists unhappy with Obama's lack of progress on "comprehensive immigration reform" need appeasing. This is a quick bone to distract them.)
Unfortunately, the federal government is not alone in lavishing attention and resources on workers who shouldn't be here in the first place. As of 2008, California, Florida, Nevada, New York, Texas and Utah all expressly included illegal aliens in their state workers' compensation plans –– and more than a dozen other states implicitly cover them.


Solis' public service announcement comes on the heels of little–noticed but far more troubling comments encouraging illegal alien workers in the Gulf Coast. Earlier this month, in the aftermath of the BP oil spill, according to Spanish language publication El Diario La Prensa, Solis signaled that her department was going out of its way to shield illegal immigrant laborers involved in cleanup efforts. "My purpose is to assist the workers with respect to safety and protection," she said. "We're protecting all workers regardless of migration status because that's the federal law." She told reporters that her department was in talks with local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials who had visited coastal worksites to try to verify that workers were legal.
No word yet on whether she gave ICE her "we are all Americans, whether you are legalized or not" lecture. But it's a safe bet.
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MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com

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FAIRUS.org

The Administration's Phantom Immigration Enforcement Policy

According to DHS’s own reports, very little of our nation’s borders (Southwestern or otherwise) are secure, and gaining control is not even a goal of the department.

By Ira Mehlman
Published on 12/07/2009
Townhall.com

The setting was not quite the flight deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln with a “Mission Accomplished” banner as the backdrop, but it was the next best thing. Speaking at the Center for American Progress (CAP) on Nov. 13, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared victory over illegal immigration and announced that the Obama administration is ready to move forward with a mass amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens already living in the United States.

Arguing the Obama administration’s case for amnesty, Napolitano laid out what she described as the “three-legged stool” for immigration reform. As the administration views it, immigration reform must include “a commitment to serious and effective enforcement, improved legal flows for families and workers, and a firm but fair way to deal with those who are already here.”

Acknowledging that a lack of confidence in the government’s ability and commitment to effectively enforce the immigration laws it passes proved to be the Waterloo of previous efforts to gain amnesty for illegal aliens, Napolitano was quick to reassure the American public that those concerns could be put to rest.

“For starters, the security of the Southwest border has been transformed from where it was in 2007,” stated the secretary. Not only is the border locked up tight, she continued, but the situation is well in-hand in the interior of the country as well. “We’ve also shown that the government is serious and strategic in its approach to enforcement by making changes in how we enforce the law in the interior of the country and at worksites…Furthermore, we’ve transformed worksite enforcement to truly address the demand side of illegal immigration.”

If Rep. Joe Wilson had been in attendance to hear Secretary Napolitano’s CAP speech he might well have had a few choice comments to offer. But since he wasn’t, we will have to rely on the Department of Homeland Security’s own data to assess the veracity of Napolitano’s claims.

According to DHS’s own reports, very little of our nation’s borders (Southwestern or otherwise) are secure, and gaining control is not even a goal of the department. DHS claims to have “effective control” over just 894 miles of border. That’s 894 out of 8,607 miles they are charged with protecting. As for the other 7,713 miles? DHS’s stated border security goal for FY 2010 is the same 894 miles.

The administration’s strategic approach to interior and worksite enforcement is just as chimerical as its strategy at the border, unless one considers shuffling paper to be a strategy. DHS data, released November 18, show that administrative arrests of immigration law violators fell by 68 percent between 2008 and 2009. The department also carried out 60 percent fewer arrests for criminal violations of immigration laws, 58 percent fewer criminal indictments, and won 63 percent fewer convictions.

While the official unemployment rate has climbed from 7.6 percent when President Obama took office in January to 10 percent today, the administration’s worksite enforcement strategy has amounted to a bureaucratic game of musical chairs. The administration has all but ended worksite enforcement actions and replaced them with paperwork audits. When the audits determine that illegal aliens are on the payroll, employers are given the opportunity to fire them with little or no adverse consequence to the company, while no action is taken to remove the illegal workers from the country. The illegal workers simply acquire a new set of fraudulent documents and move on to the next employer seeking workers willing to accept substandard wages.

In Janet Napolitano’s alternative reality a mere 10 percent of our borders under “effective control” and sharp declines in arrests and prosecutions of immigration lawbreakers may be construed as confidence builders, but it is hard to imagine that the American public is going to see it that way. If anything, the administration’s record has left the public less confident that promises of future immigration enforcement would be worth the government paper they’re printed on.

As Americans scrutinize the administration’s plans to overhaul immigration policy, they are likely to find little in the “three-legged stool” being offered that they like or trust. The first leg – enforcement – the administration has all but sawed off. The second – increased admissions of extended family members and workers – makes little sense with some 25 million Americans either unemployed or relegated to part-time work. And the third – amnesty for millions of illegal aliens – is anathema to their sense of justice and fair play.

As Americans well know, declaring “Mission Accomplished” and actually accomplishing a mission are two completely different things. When it comes to enforcing immigration laws, the only message the public is receiving from this administration is “Mission Aborted.”



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IS OBAMA REALLY THINKING OF “ECONOMIC IMPERATIVES”? OR THE ILLEGALS’ VOTES? WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT A PRESIDENT THAT HISPANDERS FOR ILLEGAL VOTES? THE ARE SIMPLY JOKES?



In a speech at the Chamizal National Memorial, Obama also sought to link the challenge of illegal immigration with another major political concern: economic anxiety. He said immigration reform "is an economic imperative."… “ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE” FOR WHOM? LET’S LOOK AT THE FACTS WE WILL NEVER HEAR FROM OBAMA: WE ARE MEXICO’S WELFARE, FREE BIRTHING, FREE EMERGENCY ROOM HEALTHCARE, JOBS AND JAILS PROGRAMS. THIS IS AN ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE FOR MEXICO, BECAUSE THAT NATION HAS MORE BILLIONAIRES THAN SAUDIS ARABIA! THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD IS NO LONGER BILL GATES, IT IS MEXICAN CARLOS SLIM.

ALSO DEMANDING OBAMA’S NON-ENFORCEMENT AND BIT BY BIT AMNESTY IS THE U.S. CHAMBER of COMMERCE, THE FASCIST FRONT FOR BIG BUSINESS THAT DEMANDS WAGES BE DEPRESSED. MOST OF THE FORTUNE 500 ARE GENEROUS DONORS TO THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA! IN FACT YOU ARE A DONOR TOO! OBAMA HANDS OVER A FORTUNE TO THIS MEXICAN SUPREMACIST ORGANIZATION BENT ON OPEN BORDERS AND PUSH 2 FOR ENGLISH!

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"One way to strengthen the middle class in America is to reform the immigration system so that there's no longer a massive underground economy that exploits a cheap source of labor while depressing wages for everybody else," he said……OBAMA COULD EASILY END THE EXPLOITATION OF ILLEGALS, AND ALSO PUT JOBS BACK IN THE HANDS OF AMERICAN SIMPLY BY ENFORCING THE LAWS! INSTEAD HE’S HABITUALLY SABOTAGED E-VERIFY AND RELEASE THOUSANDS OF  ILLEGALS RATHER THAN DEPORTING THEM. HIS ADMINISTRATION IS INFESTED WITH LA RAZA PARTY MEMBERS!
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But he said that illegal immigration requires a "comprehensive" solution that would also provide a path to legal status for the 11 million people living illegally in the United States. He also made another pitch for the Dream Act, which failed in the lame-duck session of Congress in December.

EVEN IF NO AMNESTY IS IN THE FUTURE, OBAMA WILL CONTINUE TO KEEP BORDERS OPEN AND UNDEFENDED, AS MEXICO DEMANDS, AND CONTINUE TO CATCH AND RELEASE ILLEGALS, CUT FUNDS FOR BORDER SECURITY, REFUSE TO ENFORCE LAWS, FILL HIS ADMINISTRATION WITH LA RAZA SUPREMACIST LIKE THE OBAMA SEC. OF LABOR, HILDA SOLIS, AND HISPANDER FOR THE ILLEGALS’ VOTES EVERY WHERE HE GOES. ARE YOU GETTING THE PICTURE THAT OBAMA DOESN’T DO MUCH OF ANYTHING FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE? IT’S ALL ABOUT HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTER DONORS, AND LA RAZA!!!
OH, AND FAR AS ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE, CALIFORNIA ALONE PUTS OUT $20 BILLION PER YEAR IN SOCIAL SERVICES TO ILLEGALS. LOS ANGELES COUNTY PUTS OUT $600 MILLION TO ILLEGALS ON WELFARE… RIGHT OUT OF YOUR PROPERTY TAXES. DO THE MATH!



latimes.com

At southern border, Obama calls immigration reform an 'economic imperative'

By Peter Nicholas and Michael A. Memoli, Washington Bureau

12:59 PM PDT, May 10, 2011

Reporting from El Paso and Washington


President Obama visited the southern border Tuesday to push for an overhaul of the immigration system, part of a renewed effort to shore up his standing among Latinos and paint Republicans as hostile to a minority group that is a growing force in U.S. politics.

In a speech at the Chamizal National Memorial, Obama also sought to link the challenge of illegal immigration with another major political concern: economic anxiety. He said immigration reform "is an economic imperative."

"One way to strengthen the middle class in America is to reform the immigration system so that there's no longer a massive underground economy that exploits a cheap source of labor while depressing wages for everybody else," he said.

The chances of passing an immigration bill are low, but the White House is taking high-visibility steps to show it is not abandoning a goal that has its roots in the 2008 campaign.

In his appearance, Obama said his administration has made great strides in stopping immigrants from illegally crossing the southern border, even as Republican critics say he can do more.

"We have strengthened border security beyond what many believed was possible," he said.

But he said that illegal immigration requires a "comprehensive" solution that would also provide a path to legal status for the 11 million people living illegally in the United States. He also made another pitch for the Dream Act, which failed in the lame-duck session of Congress in December.

The speech comes after a series of meetings between the president and various stakeholders and reform activists in the past months. It was heavily promoted by the White House on a range of social media platforms, and Obama made a campaign-like pitch for the crowd to visit the White House website to sign up in support of his call for reform.

With Obama actively running for reelection, Republicans have questioned the sincerity and timing of his immigration push.  House Speaker John A. Boehner's office said it hasn't even heard from the White House on the issue, evidence that immigration is not a serious legislative priority.

White House aides have not released a timetable for passing a bill, nor have they put forward a draft that could be the basis for congressional action.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement: "It seems President Obama has once again put on his campaigner-in-chief hat. The president's push to legalize millions of illegal immigrants is purely political. The president wasn't able to pass his version of immigration reform when he had large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate because of bipartisan opposition."

Following the speech, Obama was to travel to Austin for a pair of fundraisers for his 2012 reelection campaign.




IT'S THE ECONOMY! WALL ST-owned OBAMA vs LEGALS! - Rasmussen Reports™

Importance of Issues - Rasmussen Reports™


ISN’T OBAMA REALLY JUST A WORSE VERSION BUSH THIRD TERM??






“Despite the bitter recriminations and mudslinging between the parties, what dominates the 2012 elections is the inability of either party to offer any proposals to address mass unemployment and mounting poverty. They have no differences on the need to destroy the living standards of working people, wage aggressive war and gut democratic rights in an attempt to halt the decline of American capitalism and protect the wealth of the financial elite.”

*

OBAMA’S HISPANICAZATION of AMERICA – THE NATION HE SEEMS TO HATE!




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The American “left” and Obama’s State of the Union address

By Janel Flechsig
7 February 2012

The response of representatives of left-liberal and pseudo-socialist circles to Barack Obama’s January 24 State of the Union address confirms their role as adjuncts of the Democratic Party and supporters of Obama’s reelection campaign.

The speech itself was as dishonest and cynical as it was reactionary. Billed as a populist response to the economic crisis, it was nothing of the sort. Rather, it was an exercise in jingoism, economic nationalism, and election year myth-making. Its centerpiece was Obama’s blueprint for an “economy built to last,” with the supposed success of the auto bailout as its model.

What Obama did not mention is that the revival of US auto industry profits is based entirely on the abolition of decent wages and benefits for auto workers and the establishment of poverty-level wages as the benchmark for American manufacturing. His auto task force imposed a 50 percent pay cut for all newly hired General Motors and Chrysler workers, along with a no-strike clause and drastic cuts in benefits for new workers as well as retirees.

(OBAMA HAS REPEATEDLY REMOVED BORDER GUARDS ON THE NARCOMEX BORDER TO ASSURE HIS LA RAZA PARTY BASE EASY MOVEMENT BACK AND FORTH OVER  OUR BORDERS. THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS ENDORSE OBAMA’S OPEN & UNDEFENDED BORDERS AGENDA FOR THAT REASON. IT’S ALL ABOUT KEEPING WAGES DEPRESSED FOR HIS WALL ST PAYMASTERS. )

This economic plan was, moreover, presented within the context of a celebration of American militarism. Obama praised the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and the murder of Muamar Gaddafi, as well as extra-judicial drone assassinations in Africa and the Middle East. He threatened China with economic war, Syria with diplomatic war and Iran with military attack. He concluded by invoking the Navy SEAL hit squad that assassinated Osama bin Laden as the apotheosis of American values and a model for US society as a whole.

David Corn, former Washington editor of the Nation who now heads the Washington bureau of Mother Jones magazine, published a full-throated endorsement of Obama’s speech almost immediately after it was delivered. Perhaps the most revealing aspect of Corn’s rave review was his enthusiastic response to Obama’s appalling peroration.

“Obama did not cite this success [the murder of bin Laden] as a reply to GOP charges that he's an appeasing wuss,” Corn wrote. “Instead, he used it like a national-security version of an Amish barn-raising—defining the American story as one of communal action: We’re not individual actors being bounced around by market forces; we band together for the greater good. It’s worth a read.”

These are the words of a man who, whatever connections he may have once had to anti-war and anti-imperialist sentiments, has joined the camp of American imperialism body and soul. His transition is not simply that of an individual. He represents an entire milieu of middle-class ex-radicals and liberals who have benefited personally and financially from decades of political reaction and attacks on working class living standards. This affluent social layer has grown alienated from and hostile to the working class.

This is fundamentally what underlies Corn’s enthusiasm for Obama and his economic blueprint. “The 2012 race,” he writes, “is shaping up as a titanic face-off between a president who advocates using government to bolster the economy and address inequities and Republicans who have one answer to everything: Smother government and let the markets run free. In his speech, Obama called for ‘great projects.’ Republicans call for no projects—that is, nothing outside the private sector. This is a damn clear contrast.”

Corn’s claim that there exist huge policy differences between the Democrats and the Republicans is a rather obvious lie, and he knows it. Despite the bitter recriminations and mudslinging between the parties, what dominates the 2012 elections is the inability of either party to offer any proposals to address mass unemployment and mounting poverty. They have no differences on the need to destroy the living standards of working people, wage aggressive war and gut democratic rights in an attempt to halt the decline of American capitalism and protect the wealth of the financial elite.

“Obama,” Corn continues, “is pitching a patriotic, quasi-populist progressivism (while conceding the need for deficit reduction and government cost efficiencies).” A “progressivism” based on austerity and chauvinism—such is the reactionary program applauded by Corn.

An editorial posted January 25 on the web site of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) likewise tail-ends Obama, although in a less overt and crude manner. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this multi-page excavation of the speech is what it does not talk about. It mentions neither the wage-cutting that underlies Obama’s economic plan for manufacturing nor the sinister militarism of the speech.

The basic outlook is summed up in the first lines of the statement: “Barack Obama talked tough about Wall Street in his State of the Union speech. But look behind the rhetoric, and his economic proposals fall short of what’s needed.”

Obama’s timid and empty swipes at Wall Street—meant to obscure a policy that is dictated by the banks and corporations—evidently impress the ISO. But his proposals “fall short.” This formulation is significant. It is not a matter of a brutal anti-working class offensive, but rather a positive program that just doesn’t go far enough. This, of course, implies that Obama and the Democrats can be pushed by applying more pressure from below to go further and carry out genuinely progressive policies. Here, in a nutshell, is the ISO’s real perspective of channeling popular opposition behind the Democrats and Obama’s reelection campaign.

This is spelled out more explicitly in the following passage:

“To some extent, the sharper edge in Obama’s speech is another result of the rise of the Occupy movement and its impact on US politics. Even mainstream Washington politicians have had to acknowledge the increasingly vocal discontent about a society divided between the super-rich 1 percent at the top and the rest of us. This shift has been a breath of fresh air…”

In other words, the Occupy protests have shifted Obama and the Democrats to the left, proving the efficacy of a perspective that rejects a break with the two parties of big business and the development of an independent movement of the working class fighting for socialism.

As is frequently the case with this supposedly socialist tendency, the editorial concludes with a formal injunction not to “place any hopes in the Democrats” and an assertion of the need to “remain independent of both capitalist parties.” This, however, is rhetorical window dressing for a political orientation and practice aimed at promoting illusions in the Democrats and their allied organizations, beginning with the trade unions.

The United States is entering a new period of great class struggles. This is, moreover, an international phenomenon. It is driven by a historic crisis of American and world capitalism and the increasingly obvious failure of the profit system. Millions are beginning to recognize that this system and all of its political parties and representatives have nothing to offer except war, depression and the destruction of democratic rights. They are looking for an alternative and moving into struggle.

The single-minded focus of left-liberals and fake-socialists such as the ISO is to prevent the emergence of an independent movement of the working class fighting for a socialist program. They are not opponents of the capitalist status quo, but rather its left flank of defenders.




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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.”

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“Obama’s rejection of any serious jobs program is part of a conscious class war policy. Two years after the financial crisis and the multi-trillion dollar bailout of the banks, the administration is spearheading a campaign by corporations to sharply increase the exploitation of the working class, using the “new normal” of mass unemployment to force workers to accept lower wages, longer hours, and more brutal working conditions.” WSWS.ORG

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 “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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Michelle Malkin
The U.S. Department of Illegal Alien Labor


President Obama's Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is supposed to represent American workers. What you need to know is that this longtime open–borders sympathizer has always had a rather radical definition of "American." At a Latino voter registration project conference in Los Angeles many years ago, Solis asserted to thunderous applause, "We are all Americans, whether you are legalized or not."
That's right. The woman in charge of enforcing our employment laws doesn't give a hoot about our immigration laws –– or about the fundamental distinction between those who followed the rules in pursuit of the American dream and those who didn't.
While in Congress, she opposed strengthening the border fence, supported expansion of illegal alien benefits (including driver's licenses and in–state tuition discounts), embraced sanctuary cities that refused to cooperate with federal homeland security officials to enforce immigration laws, and aggressively championed a mass amnesty. Solis was steeped in the pro–illegal alien worker organizing movement in Southern California and was buoyed by amnesty–supporting Big Labor groups led by the Service Employees International Union. She has now caused a Capitol Hill firestorm over her new taxpayer–funded advertising and outreach campaign to illegal aliens regarding fair wages:
"I'm here to tell you that your president, your secretary of labor and this department will not allow anyone to be denied his or her rightful pay –– especially when so many in our nation are working long, hard and often dangerous hours," Solis says in the video pitch. "We can help, and we will help. If you work in this country, you are protected by our laws. And you can count on the U.S. Department of Labor to see to it that those protections work for you."
To be sure, no one should be scammed out of "fair wages." Employers that hire and exploit illegal immigrant workers deserve full sanctions and punishment. But it's the timing, tone–deafness and underlying blanket amnesty agenda of Solis' illegal alien outreach that has so many American workers and their representatives on Capitol Hill rightly upset.

With double–digit unemployment and a growing nationwide revolt over Washington's border security failures, why has Solis chosen now to hire 250 new government field investigators to bolster her illegal alien workers' rights campaign? (Hint: Leftists unhappy with Obama's lack of progress on "comprehensive immigration reform" need appeasing. This is a quick bone to distract them.)
Unfortunately, the federal government is not alone in lavishing attention and resources on workers who shouldn't be here in the first place. As of 2008, California, Florida, Nevada, New York, Texas and Utah all expressly included illegal aliens in their state workers' compensation plans –– and more than a dozen other states implicitly cover them.


Solis' public service announcement comes on the heels of little–noticed but far more troubling comments encouraging illegal alien workers in the Gulf Coast. Earlier this month, in the aftermath of the BP oil spill, according to Spanish language publication El Diario La Prensa, Solis signaled that her department was going out of its way to shield illegal immigrant laborers involved in cleanup efforts. "My purpose is to assist the workers with respect to safety and protection," she said. "We're protecting all workers regardless of migration status because that's the federal law." She told reporters that her department was in talks with local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials who had visited coastal worksites to try to verify that workers were legal.
No word yet on whether she gave ICE her "we are all Americans, whether you are legalized or not" lecture. But it's a safe bet.
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MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com

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FAIRUS.org

The Administration's Phantom Immigration Enforcement Policy

According to DHS’s own reports, very little of our nation’s borders (Southwestern or otherwise) are secure, and gaining control is not even a goal of the department.

By Ira Mehlman
Published on 12/07/2009
Townhall.com

The setting was not quite the flight deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln with a “Mission Accomplished” banner as the backdrop, but it was the next best thing. Speaking at the Center for American Progress (CAP) on Nov. 13, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared victory over illegal immigration and announced that the Obama administration is ready to move forward with a mass amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens already living in the United States.

Arguing the Obama administration’s case for amnesty, Napolitano laid out what she described as the “three-legged stool” for immigration reform. As the administration views it, immigration reform must include “a commitment to serious and effective enforcement, improved legal flows for families and workers, and a firm but fair way to deal with those who are already here.”

Acknowledging that a lack of confidence in the government’s ability and commitment to effectively enforce the immigration laws it passes proved to be the Waterloo of previous efforts to gain amnesty for illegal aliens, Napolitano was quick to reassure the American public that those concerns could be put to rest.

“For starters, the security of the Southwest border has been transformed from where it was in 2007,” stated the secretary. Not only is the border locked up tight, she continued, but the situation is well in-hand in the interior of the country as well. “We’ve also shown that the government is serious and strategic in its approach to enforcement by making changes in how we enforce the law in the interior of the country and at worksites…Furthermore, we’ve transformed worksite enforcement to truly address the demand side of illegal immigration.”

If Rep. Joe Wilson had been in attendance to hear Secretary Napolitano’s CAP speech he might well have had a few choice comments to offer. But since he wasn’t, we will have to rely on the Department of Homeland Security’s own data to assess the veracity of Napolitano’s claims.

According to DHS’s own reports, very little of our nation’s borders (Southwestern or otherwise) are secure, and gaining control is not even a goal of the department. DHS claims to have “effective control” over just 894 miles of border. That’s 894 out of 8,607 miles they are charged with protecting. As for the other 7,713 miles? DHS’s stated border security goal for FY 2010 is the same 894 miles.

The administration’s strategic approach to interior and worksite enforcement is just as chimerical as its strategy at the border, unless one considers shuffling paper to be a strategy. DHS data, released November 18, show that administrative arrests of immigration law violators fell by 68 percent between 2008 and 2009. The department also carried out 60 percent fewer arrests for criminal violations of immigration laws, 58 percent fewer criminal indictments, and won 63 percent fewer convictions.

While the official unemployment rate has climbed from 7.6 percent when President Obama took office in January to 10 percent today, the administration’s worksite enforcement strategy has amounted to a bureaucratic game of musical chairs. The administration has all but ended worksite enforcement actions and replaced them with paperwork audits. When the audits determine that illegal aliens are on the payroll, employers are given the opportunity to fire them with little or no adverse consequence to the company, while no action is taken to remove the illegal workers from the country. The illegal workers simply acquire a new set of fraudulent documents and move on to the next employer seeking workers willing to accept substandard wages.

In Janet Napolitano’s alternative reality a mere 10 percent of our borders under “effective control” and sharp declines in arrests and prosecutions of immigration lawbreakers may be construed as confidence builders, but it is hard to imagine that the American public is going to see it that way. If anything, the administration’s record has left the public less confident that promises of future immigration enforcement would be worth the government paper they’re printed on.

As Americans scrutinize the administration’s plans to overhaul immigration policy, they are likely to find little in the “three-legged stool” being offered that they like or trust. The first leg – enforcement – the administration has all but sawed off. The second – increased admissions of extended family members and workers – makes little sense with some 25 million Americans either unemployed or relegated to part-time work. And the third – amnesty for millions of illegal aliens – is anathema to their sense of justice and fair play.

As Americans well know, declaring “Mission Accomplished” and actually accomplishing a mission are two completely different things. When it comes to enforcing immigration laws, the only message the public is receiving from this administration is “Mission Aborted.”



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IS OBAMA REALLY THINKING OF “ECONOMIC IMPERATIVES”? OR THE ILLEGALS’ VOTES? WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT A PRESIDENT THAT HISPANDERS FOR ILLEGAL VOTES? THE ARE SIMPLY JOKES?



In a speech at the Chamizal National Memorial, Obama also sought to link the challenge of illegal immigration with another major political concern: economic anxiety. He said immigration reform "is an economic imperative."… “ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE” FOR WHOM? LET’S LOOK AT THE FACTS WE WILL NEVER HEAR FROM OBAMA: WE ARE MEXICO’S WELFARE, FREE BIRTHING, FREE EMERGENCY ROOM HEALTHCARE, JOBS AND JAILS PROGRAMS. THIS IS AN ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE FOR MEXICO, BECAUSE THAT NATION HAS MORE BILLIONAIRES THAN SAUDIS ARABIA! THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD IS NO LONGER BILL GATES, IT IS MEXICAN CARLOS SLIM.

ALSO DEMANDING OBAMA’S NON-ENFORCEMENT AND BIT BY BIT AMNESTY IS THE U.S. CHAMBER of COMMERCE, THE FASCIST FRONT FOR BIG BUSINESS THAT DEMANDS WAGES BE DEPRESSED. MOST OF THE FORTUNE 500 ARE GENEROUS DONORS TO THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA! IN FACT YOU ARE A DONOR TOO! OBAMA HANDS OVER A FORTUNE TO THIS MEXICAN SUPREMACIST ORGANIZATION BENT ON OPEN BORDERS AND PUSH 2 FOR ENGLISH!

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"One way to strengthen the middle class in America is to reform the immigration system so that there's no longer a massive underground economy that exploits a cheap source of labor while depressing wages for everybody else," he said……OBAMA COULD EASILY END THE EXPLOITATION OF ILLEGALS, AND ALSO PUT JOBS BACK IN THE HANDS OF AMERICAN SIMPLY BY ENFORCING THE LAWS! INSTEAD HE’S HABITUALLY SABOTAGED E-VERIFY AND RELEASE THOUSANDS OF  ILLEGALS RATHER THAN DEPORTING THEM. HIS ADMINISTRATION IS INFESTED WITH LA RAZA PARTY MEMBERS!
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But he said that illegal immigration requires a "comprehensive" solution that would also provide a path to legal status for the 11 million people living illegally in the United States. He also made another pitch for the Dream Act, which failed in the lame-duck session of Congress in December.

EVEN IF NO AMNESTY IS IN THE FUTURE, OBAMA WILL CONTINUE TO KEEP BORDERS OPEN AND UNDEFENDED, AS MEXICO DEMANDS, AND CONTINUE TO CATCH AND RELEASE ILLEGALS, CUT FUNDS FOR BORDER SECURITY, REFUSE TO ENFORCE LAWS, FILL HIS ADMINISTRATION WITH LA RAZA SUPREMACIST LIKE THE OBAMA SEC. OF LABOR, HILDA SOLIS, AND HISPANDER FOR THE ILLEGALS’ VOTES EVERY WHERE HE GOES. ARE YOU GETTING THE PICTURE THAT OBAMA DOESN’T DO MUCH OF ANYTHING FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE? IT’S ALL ABOUT HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTER DONORS, AND LA RAZA!!!
OH, AND FAR AS ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE, CALIFORNIA ALONE PUTS OUT $20 BILLION PER YEAR IN SOCIAL SERVICES TO ILLEGALS. LOS ANGELES COUNTY PUTS OUT $600 MILLION TO ILLEGALS ON WELFARE… RIGHT OUT OF YOUR PROPERTY TAXES. DO THE MATH!



latimes.com

At southern border, Obama calls immigration reform an 'economic imperative'

By Peter Nicholas and Michael A. Memoli, Washington Bureau

12:59 PM PDT, May 10, 2011

Reporting from El Paso and Washington


President Obama visited the southern border Tuesday to push for an overhaul of the immigration system, part of a renewed effort to shore up his standing among Latinos and paint Republicans as hostile to a minority group that is a growing force in U.S. politics.

In a speech at the Chamizal National Memorial, Obama also sought to link the challenge of illegal immigration with another major political concern: economic anxiety. He said immigration reform "is an economic imperative."

"One way to strengthen the middle class in America is to reform the immigration system so that there's no longer a massive underground economy that exploits a cheap source of labor while depressing wages for everybody else," he said.

The chances of passing an immigration bill are low, but the White House is taking high-visibility steps to show it is not abandoning a goal that has its roots in the 2008 campaign.

In his appearance, Obama said his administration has made great strides in stopping immigrants from illegally crossing the southern border, even as Republican critics say he can do more.

"We have strengthened border security beyond what many believed was possible," he said.

But he said that illegal immigration requires a "comprehensive" solution that would also provide a path to legal status for the 11 million people living illegally in the United States. He also made another pitch for the Dream Act, which failed in the lame-duck session of Congress in December.

The speech comes after a series of meetings between the president and various stakeholders and reform activists in the past months. It was heavily promoted by the White House on a range of social media platforms, and Obama made a campaign-like pitch for the crowd to visit the White House website to sign up in support of his call for reform.

With Obama actively running for reelection, Republicans have questioned the sincerity and timing of his immigration push.  House Speaker John A. Boehner's office said it hasn't even heard from the White House on the issue, evidence that immigration is not a serious legislative priority.

White House aides have not released a timetable for passing a bill, nor have they put forward a draft that could be the basis for congressional action.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement: "It seems President Obama has once again put on his campaigner-in-chief hat. The president's push to legalize millions of illegal immigrants is purely political. The president wasn't able to pass his version of immigration reform when he had large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate because of bipartisan opposition."

Following the speech, Obama was to travel to Austin for a pair of fundraisers for his 2012 reelection campaign.