FORMER MEXICAN
PRESIDENT ENDORSES BETO O’ROURKE
Saagar Enjeti | White
House Correspondent
Former Mexican
President Vicente Fox came out in support of Democratic Texas Senate
candidate Beto O’Rourke, in a Thursday evening tweet.
.@BetoORourke, what a candidate you are! You not only understand America, you know about
humanity. This is what the U.S. needs: someone compassionate yet firm. I stand
with you because I believe you’re what America needs. pic.twitter.com/xccqvXFfk9
Fox served as the
Mexican president from 2000 to 2006 and has been an outspoken critic of
President Donald Trump. The former Mexican president’s comments follow
O’Rourke’s appearance at a CNN town hall Thursday evening and a debate with
Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Fox has often unleashed
profanity laced pronouncements aimed at Trump,
particularly on Trump’s declaration that the U.S. will make Mexico pay for his
proposed wall along the southern border.
“I’m not going to pay
for that fucking wall,” Fox declared in a Fusion TV
interview. In another profane tweet Fox urged Trump to “get his shit together.”
.@realDonaldTrump, you’ve got to get your
shit together: migrants are people who have left everything behind – not by
choice, to pursue a better life. You must show compassion and humanity. your
golden head and a #FuckingWall won’t stop these
people’s dreams and hopes. https://t.co/JC1NETBKqP
Well, That's Different: Beto Is Campaigning For POTUS...In
Mexico
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2019/06/30/huh-beto-is-running-for-president-of-the-united-statesbut-hes-campaigning-in-mexico-n2549231
Source:
AP Photo/Richard W. Rodriguez, File)
According to the Associated Press, O'Rourke plants to head to
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico to meet with so-called asylum seekers who must wait in
Mexico while their application is processed. Ciudad Juarez sits right across
the Rio Grande River from El Paso, O'Rourke's hometown.
The goal of the trip,
according to O'Rourke's campaign, is to meet with “individuals and families
directly impacted by Donald Trump’s cruel and inhumane policies" and “shed
light on the desperate circumstances those who are seeking asylum and refuge
are fleeing, and the conditions these families and individuals are forced to
endure when they’ve been turned away from our borders.”
O'Rourke is supposed to
meet with illegal aliens, primarily from the Northern Triangle countries of
Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, CNN reported.
"In all of the
debate around immigration, we can't forget who it impacts most: the people
traveling thousands of miles, fleeing the worst kind of violence and
oppression," O'Rourke said in a statement. "Turning away refugees,
families and asylum seekers is not who we are as a country. But as long as
Donald Trump is president -- it will be."
Team Beto also plans to
hold a "Rally for the Children" outside of the Border Patrol Station
in Clint, Texas.
Here's how the event is being billed on his campaign website:
Join Beto to speak out
against the cruel, dangerous and inhumane treatment of immigrant children being
held at the Clint Border Patrol station as a direct result of Donald Trump’s
policies.
The conditions reported
at the Clint Border Patrol station housing migrant children are so unsafe and unsanitary
that it’s been declared a “public health emergency.” These children deserve
respect, dignity, and humane living conditions. Moving them out of these
facilities quickly, providing them adequate shelter and support, and uniting
them with family members immediately should be this administration’s top
priority.
Last year, on Father’s
Day, Beto led a march to raise awareness about the mistreatment and detention
of children at the Tornillo facility in El Paso who had been separated from
their families. He continued to return to the camp until all of the children
were successfully released and the facility was shut down.
Folks
should be prepared for the heat - please bring water, a hat, and dress for the
weather.
O'Rourke has positioned
himself as the "expert" on immigration issues because of his
experience growing up right along the United States-Mexico border. Instead of
enforcing our immigration laws, O'Rourke, however, wants illegal aliens
currently in the country to have a "pathway to citizenship." The
Democratic hopeful's immigration proposal includes sending $5 billion to
improve conditions in the Northern Triangle and deploying thousands of lawyers
to the southern border to help process asylum cases.
This is one of the greatest examples of political pandering.
O'Rourke is running for President of the United States, not Mexico.
Yes, it's important to get an idea of what's taking place on our southern
border. Yes, it's important to hear what our Border Patrol agents and those on
the front line have to say. But what's ridiculous is a presidential candidate
meeting with those who knowingly break our law to see
how he could help those people, should he secure the nomination, and
ultimately, the White House.
Talk about divided
loyalty.
Presidential
hopeful Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke proposed giving citizenship to large swaths
of illegal aliens present in the United States Saturday at a MoveOn.org “Big Idea”
event.
This
policy of flooding the market with cheap, foreign, white-collar graduates and blue-collar labor also shifts enormous wealth from young employees towards older investors, even as it also widens wealth gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, and hurts children’s schools
and college educations. It also pushes Americans away from high-tech careers and sidelines millions
of marginalized Americans, including many who are now struggling with fentanyl addictions. The labor policy also moves
business investment and wealth from the heartland to the coastal
cities, explodes rents and housing
costs, shrivels real estate values in the Midwest, and rewards investors for
creating low-tech, labor-intensive workplaces.
Beto
O’Rourke’s Plan Opens Borders for Migrants and Job Seekers
Beto O’Rourke’s immigration plan, which the presidential hopeful
released Wednesday, would open the nation’s borders to apparently unlimited
waves of unskilled needy migrants and would open the nation’s workplaces to
cheap workers when companies fear Americans’ wages might rise.
O'Rourke announces immigration plan ending family
separation, offering solution for Dreamers
In Our Own Image
Fake Hispanic
Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign is looking doornail dead … and let’s be
honest: it never really took off. But after peaking nationally with 9.5 percent
support in the Real Clear Politics poll of polls, he has now collapsed to just
3.2 percent support. And along the way, he dropped from third place (behind
275-year-old Bernie and 189-year-old Biden) to sixth.
Nolte:
Beto O’Rourke Says His Campaign Sacrifices Make Up for Miserly Charitable
Donations
AP Photo/Eric
Gay, File
Fake Hispanic Beto O’Rourke was confronted at a town hall about his
miserly campaign donations and responded in such a narcissistic fashion, I
suffered a Barry Obama flashback.
Beto: 'If Immigration Is a
Problem, It's the Best Possible Problem for This Country to Have'
The 2020 Democrats: Beto O’Rourke
Beto O’Rourke Immigration Plan: No Walls; Amnesty for Dreamers,
Parents, ‘Millions More’
Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) isn’t yet a candidate for the Democrat
presidential election, but he is already making clear his stance on immigration
— open borders and amnesty for all of the people in the country illegally.
What's Beto's Problem with
the Constitution?
O'Rourke's platform aligns neatly with Franklin D. Roosevelt's
"second bill of rights"
of the 1940s, which viewed the Constitution as inadequate and proposed a vast
expansion of federal power and reach as a correction. In more recent
times, FDR's view was embraced by Barack Obama, who described the Constitution dismissively
as a "charter of negative liberties." O'Rourke is only the
latest in a long line of progressives who plainlyhave trouble with
the Constitution.
Texas Finds 95,000 Non-US
Citizens Registered To Vote -- 58,000 Have Actually Voted In Recent Elections
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/timothymeads/2019/01/25/texas-finds-95000-nonus-citizen-registered-to-vote-58000-have-actually-voted-in-recent-elections-n2540285
Top 5 Voter Fraud Cases Along Texas Border in 2018… which are the only counties that voted for
La Raza Beto!
In a year fraught with voter fraud
allegations, many of which resulted in prosecutions across Texas, counties
along the Mexican border stood out as hotbeds for investigative activities.
Ann
Coulter: Surprise! That 'cheap' immigrant labor costs us a lot
The
2020 Democratic Candidates and Their Redefinition of American Citizenship
New citizens stand during a U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services (USCIS) naturalization ceremony at the New York Public
Library, July 3, 2018. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
What
a Border Crisis Looks Like
Migrants from Central America cross the Rio
Bravo river to enter illegally into the United States at El Paso, Texas, June
11, 2019.(Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)This is a similar border crisis
to the one Obama faced in his second term, with similar challenges.
The
Border as an ‘Attractive Nuisance’
Presidential
hopeful Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke proposed giving citizenship to large swaths
of illegal aliens present in the United States Saturday at a MoveOn.org “Big Idea”
event.
O’Rourke
began by revisiting his failed 2018 Senate bid in Texas against Sen. Ted Cruz
(R-TX) and thanking the MoveOn crowd for their support, saying they
“fundamentally changed the nature of democracy” in Texas. He sold the idea that
his campaign “unlocked” Texas’ 38 electoral college votes ahead of 2020. A
documentary on O’Rourke’s 2018 campaign recently aired on HBO.
He
then launched into his “big idea” for the crowd. “What if we said that we
really wanted to ensure every immigrant who has come to this country of
immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees was truly treated with the dignity
and respect that they deserved and we did not try to mirror Republicans by
saying ‘but first we’re gonna get tough on them, break up those families,
deport them, internal enforcement, walls, none of that stuff.”
“What
if we said…” O’Rourke said before breaking into speaking Spanish. He continued
in english hitting against detention centers, deportations, and proclaimed
“dreamers” to be as “American as anyone else in this theater here tonight”
while saying those individuals brought illegally to the U.S. as children “live
in fear of deportation to a country that they do not know.” He proposed making
them citizens.
O’Rourke
continued slamming President Donald Trump, calling his policies “bullshit” as
he claimed the president imposed a “Muslim travel ban.” The executive action
President Trump imposed that some deemed a ban on Muslims was not, but rather
named countries identified under the administration of President Barack Obama
as those President Trump would restrict immigration from temporarily for
national security purposes.
He
further proposed that the federal government cancel any citizenship application
fees for green card holders with permanent residency to become citizens and
mail them full filled out citizenship forms. O’Rourke then spoke of “11
million” illegal aliens in the U.S.
Michelle
Moons is a White House Correspondent for Breitbart News — follow on
Twitter @MichelleDiana and Facebook
This
policy of flooding the market with cheap, foreign, white-collar graduates and blue-collar labor also shifts enormous wealth from young employees towards older investors, even as it also widens wealth gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, and hurts children’s schools
and college educations. It also pushes Americans away from high-tech careers and sidelines millions
of marginalized Americans, including many who are now struggling with fentanyl addictions. The labor policy also moves
business investment and wealth from the heartland to the coastal
cities, explodes rents and housing
costs, shrivels real estate values in the Midwest, and rewards investors for
creating low-tech, labor-intensive workplaces.
Beto
O’Rourke’s Plan Opens Borders for Migrants and Job Seekers
NEIL MUNRO
29 May 201928
6:58
Beto O’Rourke’s immigration plan, which the presidential hopeful
released Wednesday, would open the nation’s borders to apparently unlimited
waves of unskilled needy migrants and would open the nation’s workplaces to
cheap workers when companies fear Americans’ wages might rise.
O’Rourke’s plan downplays
the interests of American wage-earners and parents as it promises to aid
migrants and investors by “reunit[ing migrant] families … and ensur[ing] they
have a chance to contribute more to our economy and our communities — and
pursue the American Dream.”
The
plan would spur migration by giving taxpayer-funded lawyers to migrants who
request asylum, by granting asylum to migrants who say they have suffered from
spousal abuse or fear of criminal gangs, and by creating a fast-track process
for migrants to get through the border and into U.S. jobs.
His
plan would revive the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) job
program and amnesty for younger illegals, would establish catch-and-release as
a national policy, would stop construction of a border wall, and would launch
an amnesty for the population of 11 million illegals.
The
plan does not mention safeguards to prevent tens or hundreds of millions of
ambitious migrants from using his pro-migration policy to walk into the United
States.
Instead,
it suggests that the U.S spend $5 billion in Central America to persuade
Central Americans from traveling northwards into the U.S. labor market.
O’Rourke
would prioritize family chain migration over the ability of would-be skilled
migrants to raise productivity and wealth for all Americans.
The
Texas Democrat’s plan would also create a new inflow of legal immigrants by
allowing “communities” to import their own populations of foreign migrants. The
plan does not mention safeguards to prevent migrant communities from importing
their own servants, service workers, and teachers, even when Americans want the
jobs. The plan:
Establishes
a new, first-of-its-kind community-based visa category. Beto’s proposal will
create a brand new category whereby communities and congregations can welcome
refugees through community sponsorship of visas. This program will supplement
the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which will be rebuilt and restored to
align with America’s tradition of welcoming vulnerable refugees from around the
world.
O’Rourke’s
plan argues that immigrants grow the economy — but it does not include any
evidence that migration or his plan would help grow Americans’ wages and
salaries or help Americans buy homes to raise their own families. It says:
This
[plan] is not just right but also essential to our shared prosperity.
Immigrants from every corner of the world — those who came here on
student visas and those seeking refuge from persecution — have been a key
driver of our economic growth.
The
plan does not use the words “wages” or “salaries,” but it offers business the
right to import more temporary workers for blue-collar jobs. The plan would
“ensure that industries that depend on immigrant labor have access to a program
that allows workers to legally come here and legally return to their home
country with appropriate labor and mobility protections.”
The
plan would also allow companies and universities to import more college-trained
foreign workers for jobs sought by U.S. graduates. The plan says O’Rourke
would:
Promote
STEM education by granting foreign-born students more flexibility to stay in
the U.S. and gain employment after graduating; and Allow foreign-born
entrepreneurs and U.S. patent holders the chance to stay in the United States
to grow their business, create jobs and raise families that will go on to
enrich our country.
Over
the last 20 years, U.S. immigration laws have allowed companies to bring in
many H-1B contract workers and also to provide green cards to favored workers.
That policy has flooded the white-collar labor market with foreign workers, so
slowing the growth of salaries for American graduates.
Currently,
companies employ roughly 1.5 million foreign contract workers in U.S. white-collar
jobs. The programs include the H-1B, L-1, H4EAD, OPT, and O-1 temporary worker
programs.
O’Rourke’s
Twitter account touted support from Todd Schulte, a D.C.-based advocate who
runs a pro-migration group founded by West Coast investors. Schulte is trying
to preserve and expand the various white-collar and blue-collar visa programs
which provide cheap labor to the investors, who include Mark Zuckerberg, whose
Facebook company already uses many H-1B workers in place of American graduates.
Reading through this now, but what sticks
out in this very strong plan is that it places immigration reform including a
broad legislative overhaul centered on a pathway to citizenship as a day 1
priority. This is critical and necessary. https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/29/politics/beto-orourke-immigration-plan/index.html …
O'Rourke announces immigration plan ending family
separation, offering solution for Dreamers
O’Rourke
claims his plan “fully reflects our country’s values,” but it puts the
priorities of foreigners above Americans’ normal desire that they and their
children get well-paid jobs.
We just announced a plan that would
implement the most sweeping rewrite of U.S. immigration law in a generation and
overcome years of inaction to finally advance a new vision of immigration that
fully reflects our country’s values.
Read it here:http://BetoORourke.com/immigration
Read it here:http://BetoORourke.com/immigration
In Our Own Image
This
claim of “our country’s values” echoes the “Nation of Immigrants” claims from
1965, which Democrats have almost uniformly adopted in the last few years.
O’Rourke’s
plan also echoes the progressive claim that racism is the root cause of the
United State’s economic and racial disparities and is the primary motivator in
the nation’s immigration policies. This moral fervor began around 2012 and
is dubbed “The
Great Awokening.” Politically, the claim allows wealthy progressives and
post-graduate professionals to elevate their perceived social status by
smearing many Americans as deplorable racists.
In
contrast, President Donald Trump’s “Hire American” policy has raised wages for
blue-collar and white-collar Americans and has also helped deliver jobs, wages,
and self-sufficiency to many Americans who were sidelined by disability, the
2008 recession, drugs, criminal record, or lack of investment in their
heartland states.
Immigration Numbers
Each
year, roughly four million young Americans join the workforce after
graduating from high school or university.
But
the federal government then imports about 1.1 million legal immigrants and
refreshes a resident population of roughly 1.5 million white-collar visa
workers — including roughly one million H-1B workers — and approximately
500,000 blue-collar visa workers.
The
government also prints out more than one million work permits for foreigners,
tolerates about eight million illegal workers, and does not punish companies
for employing the hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants who sneak across
the border or overstay their legal visas each year.
This
policy of inflating the labor supply boosts economic
growth for investors because
it ensures that employers do not have to compete for American workers by
offering higher wages and better working conditions.
This
policy of flooding the
market with cheap, foreign, white-collar graduates and
blue-collar labor also
shifts enormous wealth from young employees
towards older investors, even as it also widens wealth
gaps, reduces high-tech
investment, increases state
and local tax burdens, and hurts children’s schools and college educations.
It also pushes Americans
away from high-tech careers and sidelines millions of marginalized Americans,
including many who are now struggling with
fentanyl addictions. The labor policy also moves business investment and
wealth from the heartland to the coastal
cities, explodes rents
and housing
costs, shrivels real
estate values in the Midwest, and rewards investors for creating
low-tech, labor-intensive workplaces.
2020 ElectionImmigrationPoliticsasylumBeto O'Rourkecatch and releaseChain MigrationH-1BH4eadMigrantsNation of
ImmigrantsOPTTodd SchulteU.S. jobs
Nolte: 7 Reasons Beto O’Rourke’s Presidential Campaign Imploded
JOHN NOLTE
22 May 201962
5:31
Fake Hispanic
Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign is looking doornail dead … and let’s be
honest: it never really took off. But after peaking nationally with 9.5 percent
support in the Real Clear Politics poll of polls, he has now collapsed to just
3.2 percent support. And along the way, he dropped from third place (behind
275-year-old Bernie and 189-year-old Biden) to sixth.
It wasn’t supposed
to be like this.
If you
recall, Paddy O’Rourke was once America’s wunderkind, the next John or Bobby,
the phenom who could turn Texas blue, Mr. Charisma, the White Obama, the guy
whose youth, energy, charm, and wokeness would make him The Great Trump Slayer
who ushered in the next Progressive Era!
So what
happened?
How did the
Shamrock King get his Lucky Charms stolen?
- Ted Cruz Is No Longer the Villain
Beto is a
totally fabricated media sensation, and the reason the media fabricated that
sensation was in the hopes of defeating Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a Republican the
media hate with enough fury to turn Beto the Dweeb into Beto the
KoolKidFutureOfAmerica.
And to Beto
and the media’s credit, they nearly defeated Cruz. That election was
a lot closer than it should have been.
But without
Cruz as your villain, without Cruz as the standard upon which your cool factor
is measured, the leprechaun stands alone, and when the leprechaun stands alone,
he’s just a dweeby little leprechaun.
Without Cruz,
the media lost interest in protecting and shaping Beto into
something’s he’s not, and without the full force of the media pouring all of
their propaganda powers into one man to make him Bobby Kennedy, all that’s left
is Beto, and Beto is not all that impressive on his own.
- Beto
Is a Spaz
Look at
this….
I am running to serve you as the next president. The
challenges we face are the greatest in living memory. No one person can meet
them on their own. Only this country can do that, and only if we build a
movement that includes all of us. Say you're in: http://BetoORourke.com
Look at this…
And now look
at this…
I rest my
case.
- Beto Combines the Worst of Kerry, Biden, Ted Kennedy,
Obama, Warren
Beto married
an heiress like John F’n Kerry; he drives like Ted Kennedy (including his
attempt to drunkenly flee the scene); he is as miserly as Joe Biden in his
charitable giving; like Obama, he has no real experience but has a very high
opinion of himself; and he is an Irishman
posing as a Hispanic in the same way Elizabeth Warren posed as an American
Indian.
This is one
flawed leprechaun.
- Straight.
White. Male.
When you are
running to be nominated for president by a political party obsessed with
identity politics (because they have no ideas), being a straight, white guy is
a major deficit — especially when you are up against two other straight, white
males (Biden and Bernie) who already enjoy a sizable following.
On the
identity politics front, the only thing Beto has going for him is that he’s a
beta male, not at all masculine, but betas don’t win presidential elections.
If Beto the
beta were smart, he would reboot his candidacy for a third time by announcing
he is transitioning into a woman. This would not only shake up his campaign; we
would all believe him.
- Trump Has His Number and Everyone Knows It
“Pocahontas.”
“Low Energy Jeb.” “Little Marco.” “Crazy Bernie.” “Alfred E. Neuman.” “Crooked
Hillary.”
The key to
defeating someone is to define them before they can define you. Trump’s genius
is his ability to do this with a nickname that sticks … and has the additional
benefit of getting under that person’s skin because it’s true.
Trump never
bothered to hit O’Rourke with a nickname, but once he ridiculed Beto’s flailing
arm movements, everyone knew it was over.
“I think he’s
got a lot of hand movement,” Trump said. “I’ve never seen so much
hand movement. I said, ‘Is he crazy or is that just how he acts?’ I’ve never
seen so much hand movement. I watched him a little while this morning. … I’ve
actually never seen anything quite like it. Study it. I’m sure you’ll agree. ”
You cannot
win a presidential election if you are this easy to ridicule, and Beto is
absurdly easy to mock.
- Beto the Gaffe Machine
- Farmers
need to give up their fair share of crops to
fight global warming.
- Beto
eats dirt, literally.
- Illegal
aliens from Central America and Mexico are today’s cotton pickers.
- “I’m just born” to be president.
- “Nobody is born to be
president —
least of all me.”
- “Yes,
absolutely. I would take the wall down” that currently keeps illegal aliens from flooding into El Paso.
- Watch
me get my teeth cleaned.
- Watch
me get a haircut.
…and on and
on and on…
- No Vision
Other than
trying to appease the extreme left, I have no idea what Beto stands for, where
he wants to take the country. All he does is run around, stand on the places
where people eat their food, flail like a maniac, and spew platitudes…
He’s not a
presidential candidate as much as he’s a middle-aged child out on a journey to
explore himself.
Beto’s not a
leader; he’s a wanderer.
—
Without it
being Beto vs. Cruz or Beto vs. a Republican, the media are no longer
interested in protecting him from his spazzy self, and without those billions
and billions of dollars in corporate propaganda turning him into something he’s
not, Beto’s just a weird little entitled white guy leprechaun who married money
and still doesn’t give to charity.
Nolte:
Beto O’Rourke Says His Campaign Sacrifices Make Up for Miserly Charitable
Donations
JOHN NOLTE
17 Apr 20192,202
5:20
Fake Hispanic Beto O’Rourke was confronted at a town hall about his
miserly campaign donations and responded in such a narcissistic fashion, I
suffered a Barry Obama flashback.
According to
his tax returns, since 2008, the Irishman O’Rourke has donated less than one percent
of his considerable income to charity.
In 2017, he
earned a healthy $366,455, but his reported charitable donations totaled just
$1,166. In other words, he donated less than one-third of one-percent to
charity.
Over the last
ten years, the Irishman O’Rourke reported an average annual income of $340,613
but “donated an average of just $2,430 to charity per year during that time, or
0.7 percent,” reports The Washington Free
Beacon.
That gross
dollar donation of $2,430 is also less than half of what the average American
who makes considerably less than the Irishman donates to charity. The IRS
reports that those in the $200,00 to $250,000 tax bracket donate an average of
$5,472 annually.
“The most
egregious disparity between reported income and charitable giving occurred in
2015, when O’Rourke earned $377,151 but donated just $867 to charity—just 0.2
percent of his total income,” the Free Beacon reports. “His most generous
year—and the only time he came close to the national average of between two and
five percent of total income—was 2013, when he reported charitable donations of
$12,900 (4.3 percent) after earning $301,092.”
There are
also no reports anywhere of the Irishman O’Rourke donating any of his wealth to
the U.S. Treasury — in other words, living the change he wants for the rest of
us through tax increases.
In other
words, the Irishman O’Rourke is not donating much money to private charity and
not donating to the “common good” by way of the U.S. Treasury. But as a means
to save as much as he can on taxes, he is itemizing those meager donations.
What’s more,
the Irishman O’Rourke’s wife is an heiress whose father is worth hundreds of millions of
dollars. So it’s not like they are pinching pennies over there.
Anyway, in
another example of the American people doing the job the media won’t, the
Irishman O’Rourke was confronted with the news about his miserly charitable
giving at a town hall event in Virginia on Tuesday, and he responded by lecturing
the audience about how the sacrifices he’s making on the campaign trail, the
personal sacrifice he’s making in his quest for the presidency, should be good
enough.
The
questioner, a student at the University of Virginia, asked why her sister, a
woman just one year out of college and who makes a lot less money than the
Irishman O’Rourke, donated more to charity than he did.
I’ve served
in public office since 2005. I do my best to contribute to the success of my
community, of my state, and now, of my country. There are ways that I do this
that are measurable and there are ways that I do this that are immeasurable.
There are charities that we donate to that we’ve recorded and itemized, others
that we have donated to that we have not.
But I’m doing
everything that I can right now, spending this time with you — not with our
kiddos, not back home in El Paso — because I want to sacrifice everything to
make sure that we meet this moment of truth with everything that we’ve got.
Don’t you
see, America, the Fake Hispanic’s charitable gift to America is Beto: he is his selfless
gift to America; his very presence is a magnanimous act of charitable giving.
So far, at
least where it counts — in the polling — the Irishman O’Rourke’s presidential
campaign has failed to live up to the national media hype.
The shallow
media love the guy, the even shallower celebrity culture loves the guy, donors
love the guy, but this Hot New Thing remains mired in single digits, way behind two ancient
white guys — former Vice President Joe Biden and socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders
(I-VT). In fact, in the most recent national poll, he fell behind Pete
Buttigieg to fourth place.
The media
might find Beto all kinds of adorbs, but he’s also kind of a weirdo and
obviously not catching on despite the worshipful coverage.
This terrible
answer regarding his miserly charitable giving is not in and of itself
disqualifying, but the incompetence of the answer, the unpreparedness, will
worry those looking for someone tough and prepared enough to take on President
Trump.
- He
culturally appropriates like Indian Princess Elizabeth Warren.
- He
drives like Ted Kennedy.
- He
marries into money like John F’n. Kerry.
- He gives to charity like Joe Biden.
Sounds like a
winner!
Beto: 'If Immigration Is a
Problem, It's the Best Possible Problem for This Country to Have'
Beto O'Rourke speaks to thousands
of people gathered to protest a U.S./Mexico border wall being pushed by
President Donald Trump February 11, 2019 in El Paso, Texas.(Photo by Christ
Chavez/Getty Images)
(CNSNews.com) - Newly minted
presidential contender Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke wants to open
lawful paths of immigration to potentially millions more people.
"And all of us, wherever you
live, can acknowledge that if immigration is a problem, it's the best possible
problem for this country to have. And we should ensure that there are lawful
paths to work, to be with family and to flee persecution," O'Rourke, from
the border city of El Paso, said in his video announcement.
With continuous and energetic
hand-gesturing, and his wife Amy looking on, O'Rourke echoed the "Yes we
can" campaigns of Barack Obama:
"This is a defining moment
of truth for this country and for every single one of us. The challenges that
we face right now, the interconnected crises in our economy, our democracy and
our climate have never been greater, and they will either consume us or they will
afford us the greatest opportunity to unleash the genius of the United States
of America.
"In other words, this moment
of peril produces perhaps the greatest moment of promise for this country and
for everyone inside of it."
And here starts the "we can"
theme:
We can begin by fixing our
democracy and ensuring that our government works for everyone and not just
corporations.
We can invest in the dignity of
those who work and those who seek to work.
We can ensure that every single
American can see a doctor and be well enough to live to their full potential.
And all of us, wherever you live,
can acknowledge that if immigration is a problem, it's the best possible
problem for this country to have. And we should ensure that there are lawful
paths to work, to be with family and to flee persecution.
We can listen to and lift up
rural America.
We can work on real justice
reform and confront the hard truths of slavery and segregation and suppression
in these United States of America.
We can reassert our global leadership
and end these decades-long wars, and be there for every woman and man who has
served in them.
And perhaps most importantly of all, because our very existence
depends on it, we can unleash the ingenuity and creativity of millions of
Americans who want to be ensure that we squarely confront the challenge of
climate change before it's too late.
He promised to run a
"positive" campaign that seeks to unite a divided country.
The video announcement came out
just before the morning cable shows began at 6 a.m.; and it coincides with a
gushing profile in Vanity Fair, complete with photographs by celebrity
photographer Annie Liebovitz.
O'Rourke, a former U.S.
congressman, lost his 2018 campaign for the U.S. Senate to incumbent Republican
Ted Cruz.
SERVING THE
BILLIONAIRE CLASS
“Restructuring El
Paso: O’Rourke supported a plan in
2006 to redevelop downtown El Paso by taking down tenements and gentrifying the
area. His father, billionaire William Sanders, was involved in the project. The
plan angered barrio residents and small business owners, who feared they would
lose their homes through the eminent domain process.”
The 2020 Democrats: Beto O’Rourke
Source: AP
Photo/Richard W. Rodriguez
Who: Beto O’Rourke
State: Texas
Current position: Former U.S.
House Representative of Texas
Background: O’Rourke earned a
B.A. in English from Columbia University in New York. While studying, he worked
as an intern on
Capitol Hill for the office of former Rep. Ron Coleman (D-TX). After working a
few jobs, as an internet
service provider and at a publishing company, he returned to El Paso where he
was born. There he sat on the city council from 2005 to 2011. He served as a
member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019. O’Rourke ran an
unsuccessful campaign against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in 2018, despite running the
most expensive Senate
campaign in U.S. history.
The
Issues:
- Healthcare: O’Rourke
considers healthcare, “a basic
human right, not a privilege,” and opposed the idea
of repealing Obamacare. He supported expanding Medicaid coverage
to prevent childbirth-related deaths, as well as covering, “vulnerable
children, the disabled, and the elderly.” He wanted politicians to focus
on, “achieving universal healthcare coverage- whether it be through a
single payer system, a dual system, or otherwise - so that we can ensure
everyone is able to see a provider when it will do the most good and will
deliver healthcare in the most affordable, effective way possible.”
- Immigration: "Absolutely,
I'd take the wall down," O’Rourke told MSNBC's
Chris Hayes in February. The former representative supported the DREAM Act
and “modernizing” the visa system to allow U.S. businesses to seek employees
for jobs, “that American workers can’t fill.”
- Environment: O’Rourke
said in 2012 that he would work with members of the House to come up with
plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a level that can be absorbed
by the ecosystem. “I believe that in tackling climate change and the
greatest environmental threat we have ever faced,” he said.
“We need to take unprecedented action in building a foundation for a clean
energy economy. Harmful emissions that contribute to climate change also
pollute our air and water. Climate change threatens our food supply, our
security and the complex ecosystem that sustains humanity.” O’Rourke is
also a supporter of
the Green New Deal, calling it the best proposal he's seen to combat
climate change.
- Economy: O’Rourke supported federal
stimulus spending. He co-sponsored the Minimum Wage Fairness Act,
which requires a $10.10
per hour federal minimum wage by 2016. The former congressman said he
wanted, “policies that encourage companies to focus on returning
investments back to their consumer, their employees, and to the
community.”
- Criminal Justice: On Monday, O’Rourke told
supporters that he will push for completely legalized marijuana across the
nation and call for expunging records of people imprisoned for possession.
“Giving low-level offenders a second chance no matter the color of their
skin or the economic status they hold can create opportunity for all of
us,” he wrote in an email to supporters. O’Rourke also called for
non-violent offenders to receive alternative
sentences to prison and to get access to rehabilitation programs.
- Gun Control: O’Rourke
advocated for universal background checks to regulateonline and
gun-show sales. He also wants to ban the sale of, “weapons of war and
high-capacity magazines.”
- Abortion: O’Rourke
is pro-abortion. He
co-sponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act in 2013 as well as bills
S.217 and H.R.448 in 2015, which prohibit the passage of certain abortion
restrictions. He said that he want to ensure, “that a
woman’s right to choose is not compromised by limited access to safe and
legal abortion services or family planning help.”
Weaknesses/Controversies:
- Restructuring El Paso: O’Rourke supported a plan in
2006 to redevelop downtown El Paso by taking down tenements and
gentrifying the area. His father, billionaire William Sanders, was involved
in the project. The plan angered barrio residents and small business
owners, who feared they would lose their homes through the eminent domain
process.
- Denies Fleeing the Scene: In
his 2018 debate with Sen.Cruz, Beto claimed that he didn't attempt to flee
the scene of a crime back in August 1998. Beto was arrested on
DWI charges east of the New Mexico border. The Anthony Police Department
confirmed the authenticity of a 12-page police report attached to a Houston Chronicle article,
which states that an, "unidentified motorist ‘then turned on his
overhead lights to warn oncoming traffic and to try to get the defendant
(O’Rourke) to stop.'"
- Only Passed One Bill in
Congress: During his time as a House
representative, O’Rourke helped pass only one bill.
In 2016, H.R.5873 went into law, which designated, "the Federal
building and United States courthouse located at 511 East San Antonio
Avenue in El Paso, Texas, as the 'R.E. Thomason Federal Building and
United States Courthouse.'"
- Flip/Flop on Cop Support: Civil
rights groups were angered by O’Rourke’s votefor the Thin
Blue Line Act in 2017, which, “calls for death penalty to anyone who kills
or attempts killing ‘a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or other
first responder.’” O’Rourke also called modern
law enforcement, "The new Jim Crow," and last year expressed his
admiration for the NFL players who took a knee in retaliation to acts of
police brutality against black people.
- Demeaning Comments About Women: O’Rourke
wrote a review of the Broadway musical "The Will Rogers Follies"
while studying at Columbia University. In it, he criticized the,
"perma-smile actresses whose only qualifications seem to be their
phenomenally large breasts and tight buttocks." O’Rourke apologized
for his article, saying that he had, “no excuse for making disrespectful
and demeaning comments about women."
Beto O’Rourke Immigration Plan: No Walls; Amnesty for Dreamers,
Parents, ‘Millions More’
20 Feb 2019936
4:21
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) isn’t yet a candidate for the Democrat
presidential election, but he is already making clear his stance on immigration
— open borders and amnesty for all of the people in the country illegally.
Media
outlets, including the Houston
Chronicle, are reporting O’Rourke has released a “10-point plan.”
After
three terms in Congress and an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, El Paso
Democrat Beto O’Rourke has made clear his view that immigrants should be
welcomed as “human beings” and that “walls end lives.”
Now,
signaling that he may soon announce a 2020 White House run, O’Rourke is putting
a finer point on his immigration agenda, releasing a 10-point plan that calls
for citizenship for both “Dreamers” and their parents, as well as for “millions
more” who now live in the U.S. illegally.
And
not only is O’Rourke against building more walls along the U.S. border with
Mexico but he has expressed support for tearing down existing barriers that
divide El Paso from Mexico.
“Yes,
absolutely. I’d take the wall down,” O’Rourke said in an MSNBC interview.
One
politico scientist with the University of Houston quoted in the Chronicle report said this
position puts O’Rourke on the left side of the ever-growing Democrat
presidential field.
“That
is fairly to the left of where most of the people in the Democratic field are,”
Brandon Rottinghaus said.
The Chronicle noted that tearing
down walls was not on the immigration policy list, “an omission that is likely
to raise new questions about his border policy positions.”
One
strange point in O’Rourke’s immigration plan is the argument that a wall would
make it harder for people here illegally to return home.
“Here’s
why,” O’Rourke wrote, “as we made it harder for people to cross into the United
States, we made it less likely that once here they would attempt to go back to their
home country. Fearing an increasingly militarized border, circular patterns of
migration became linear.”
His
amnesty proposal is sweeping and includes all of the Dreamers, their parents —
whom he calls “the original Dreamers” — and would bring “millions more out of
the shadows and on a path to citizenship by ensuring that they register with
the government to gain status to legally work, pay taxes and contribute even
more to our country’s success.”
Republicans
may be cheering O’Rourke’s radical stance on immigration.
“He
is now showing, even more, how out of touch he is and how little he cares for
American citizens and those who have followed the law to seek to become
citizens,” Texas Republican Party Chairman James Dickey said. “Creating a whole
new class of citizens whose status is a direct reward for breaking the law is
just his latest dangerous extremist position.”
“O’Rourke’s
new policy paper does not call for abolishing ICE, but it does call for, an
‘end to the global war on drugs’ which he says has accelerated the erosion of
civil society in Latin America and helped produce the resulting flow of
immigrants and refugees,” the Chronicle reported.
During
his unsuccessful race to replace Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), O’Rourke’s Senate
campaign website
spelled out some of his immigration priorities:
•
End the militarization of our immigration enforcement system and close private
immigration prisons and detention centers that profit from locking up families.
•
Pass the DREAM Act and ensure that undocumented immigrants who were brought
here as children, known as ‘Dreamers’, find a permanent home and citizenship in
the U.S.
•
Ensure that those who come to our borders seeking refuge from violence and
persecution are given a fair opportunity to present their claims and guaranteed
due process under our laws.
•
Improve the immigration system to encourage and facilitate family
reunification, education, and the investment of talent in our country.
•
Modernize the visa system to allow U.S. employers to find workers for jobs that
American workers can’t fill.
•
Reform our immigration laws to legalize the status of millions of immigrants
already in our country and ensure a fair path to citizenship for those inspired
by the opportunity and ideals that we present to the rest of the world.
O’Rourke
recently met with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) about a different
kind of campaign in which he would toss his hat in the ring to unseat Sen. John
Cornyn (R-TX).
Nothing
in O’Rourke’s plan that was reported in the media addressed curtailing drug and
human trafficking at the border.
What's Beto's Problem with
the Constitution?
When "Beto"
O'Rourke recently questioned whether the
basic principles of the Constitution still apply in today's world, what exactly
did he mean? Which principles would he reject, and what new principles
would he substitute for our governance?
At a time when our
Constitution is increasingly attacked as unfair, immoral andobsolete, or
simply irrelevant,
the pronouncements of political figures such as O'Rourke
matter. O'Rourke is a rising star of the left and a presumed 2020
presidential candidate who, as it happens, comes
from Texas, a state with a large number of electoral votes.
To get an idea of O'Rourke's
principles, we might look to his recent failed Senate run. His campaign platform lists 17
major issue categories. Within O'Rourke's 17 categories are over 75
specific initiatives.
As might be expected, a
review of his platform's top initiatives reveals a strong alignment with the
progressive left on nearly every point: health care a "basic human
right," ensuring "guaranteed due process" as well as citizenship
for illegal immigrants, correcting "bias" in the criminal justice
system, increasing public funding for "underserved communities,"
"protecting" teachers' pensions, and much more.
Within this potpourri of
regulation, handouts, and carveouts, we can discern a common thread: a
larger role for government -- specifically the federal government -- tacitly
justified by a deluge of empathy.
Yet if O'Rourke's platform
contains any actual new "principles of governance" that are somehow
superior to the Constitution's and presumably should supersede them, they are
obscured by the gratuitous empathy that motivates his initiatives.
O'Rourke simply identifies numerous "victims" and makes himself their
gallant champion.
In the realm of civics, it
is vital to be skeptical of empathy. Viewed cynically, empathy is
politically useful inasmuch as it makes it easy to seduce the persuadable to
your side, and it opens the door wide to politically useful virtue-signaling.
But viewed realistically,
empathy in civic discourse is insidious and corrosive. It is wholly incompatible with
rational judgment and sober decision-making -- hallmarks of good
governance. Instead, empathy empowers a few individuals to hijack civic
priorities, irrespective of facts and in circumvention of just process.
Empathy demands compassionate action regardless of any obstacles -- never mind
that resources are always and everywhere limited. Empathy privileges
certain preferred choices over others, without regard to their relative
worthiness -- necessarily trampling the legitimate rights of the truly worthy.
Empathy silences opposing points of view, as its claim to the moral high ground
makes it virtually immune to criticism.
Does O'Rourke actually
understand the real principles at the foundation of the Constitution?
Does he appreciate their wisdom and importance?
The Founders were learned
men, keen students of human history and human nature, who had endured tyranny
firsthand. They understood human weakness and fallibility. They
observed the corrupting influence of power on leadership. They appreciated
the essential limits and inadequacies of every sort of governance and
authority. They respected that individuals, men and women -- and only
they -- are the proper guardians of their destiny.
These are durable,
unchanging, inherent principles of humankind, and the Constitution embodies
this found wisdom. In devising a new form of government, the Founders
incorporated these understandings through a variety of structural limitations,
controls and "checks and balances" upon government, and upon those
who hold office. The Bill of Rights further embodies key concepts of
liberty, most importantly the principle of inalienable rights, that
additionally restrict the powers of the federal government. This formula
of restrained government as an enabler of unprecedented social and economic
freedom, combined with individual enterprise, produced the wealthiest and most
beneficent nation on Earth, and we are its fortunate inheritors.
Beto O'Rourke is simply
wrong to declare these principles obsolete. Human nature has not
changed. The passage of "230-plus years" since the
Constitution's adoption makes no difference whatsoever.
Is O'Rourke merely ignorant
of this basic truth? O'Rourke calls for a "discussion" on these
principles, but it is hard to see this as anything other than their implicit
rejection. More likely, holding his own views as incontrovertible,
O'Rourke arrogantly seeks to control the affairs of American citizens and will
use the power of government to achieve his ends. For such purposes the
Constitution is decidedly an obstacle and not an enabler.
But who is Beto, or any of
his philosophical predecessors and cohorts, to make intimate decisions and
judgments for others' lives, families and destinies? Election to office
is not such a license, as the Founders understood. It takes stupendous
hubris, conceit, and a wholly unjustified sense of personal righteousness, to
usurp this privilege.
Only a sound and respected
republican Constitution will prevent people like O'Rourke from putting the
government in charge of literally everything.
Texas Finds 95,000 Non-US
Citizens Registered To Vote -- 58,000 Have Actually Voted In Recent Elections
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/timothymeads/2019/01/25/texas-finds-95000-nonus-citizen-registered-to-vote-58000-have-actually-voted-in-recent-elections-n2540285
On
Friday January 25, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that 95,000 individuals registered to vote in the Lone Star
State have been identified as "Non-US Citizens," meaning they are
illegally registered to vote. Further evidence brought forth by Texas Secretary of State
David Whitely confirms that
58,000 of these individuals have broken the law and voted in "one or
more" recent elections.
“Every
single instance of illegal voting threatens democracy in our state and deprives
individual Texans of their voice," AG Paxton said in a statement. "My
Election Fraud Unit stands ready to investigate and prosecute crimes against
the democratic process when needed."
VOTER FRAUD ALERT: The @TXsecofstate discovered approx 95,000 individuals identified by DPS as non-U.S.
citizens have a matching voter registration record in TX, approx 58,000 of whom
have voted in TX elections. Any illegal vote deprives Americans of their voice.
According
to a press release issued by the Attorney General's office, while non-US
citizens are legally allowed to obtain driver's licenses and other forms of ID,
"only citizens are eligible to vote." Furthermore, the Sec. of
State's office notes that "Voting in an election in which the person knows
he or she is not eligible to vote is a second-degree felony in the State of Texas. "
Sec.
of State Whitely discovered a "total of approximately 95,000
individuals" illegally registered to vote after a year-long evaluation of
Texas county voting registrars. Today, his office announced that 58,000 of
these individuals actually voted in one or more election.
"Integrity
and efficiency of elections in Texas require accuracy of our state's voter
rolls, and my office is committed to using all available tools under the law to
maintain an accurate list of registered voters. Our agency has provided
extensive training opportunities to county voter registrars so that they can
properly perform list maintenance activities in accordance with federal and
state law, which affords every registered voter the chance to submit proof of
eligibility," Sec. of State Whitely told the media.
The
report notes that Sec. of State Whitely "immediately provided the data in
its possession to the Texas Attorney General's office, as the Secretary of
State has no statutory enforcement authority to investigate or prosecute
alleged illegal activity in connection with an election."
"Nothing
is more vital to preserving our Constitution than the integrity of our voting
process, and my office will do everything within its abilities to solidify
trust in every election in the state of Texas. I applaud Secretary of State
Whitley for his proactive work in safeguarding our elections," AG Paxton
added.
Top 5 Voter Fraud Cases Along Texas Border in 2018… which are the only counties that voted for
La Raza Beto!
6:47
In a year fraught with voter fraud
allegations, many of which resulted in prosecutions across Texas, counties
along the Mexican border stood out as hotbeds for investigative activities.
Here are the top 5 voter fraud cases
along the Texas border in 2018:
1. Three arrested in
Starr County investigation for fraudulently filling in mail-in ballots–one for
a dead person.
Breitbart TV
In January, authorities arrested Ernestina
Barron, 50, a Rio Grande City school district employee, on three counts of
election fraud and three counts of a fraudulent application for a mail-in
ballot for filling out applications illegally for other voters in an earlier
election. Days later, officials charged Erika Lozano-Pelayo, 37,
after she purportedly submitted an absentee ballot for a voter who died but
remained on the voter registration rolls. A third woman, Belinda Garcia,
45, surrendered to the Starr
County Special Crimes Unit on a charge of fraudulently applying for a mail-in
ballot. She reportedly said the voter was disabled but this was not true.
2. 14 Hidalgo County residents
charged in voter fraud scheme.
A total of 14 residents were
arrested for their purported roles in a voter scheme that recruited people to
falsely claim residential addresses so they could vote in specific races and
manipulate the results of a 2017 Edinburg city election. Investigators with the
Hidalgo County DA’s office, the Texas Rangers, and Office of Texas Attorney
General Ken Paxton initially arrested four of the
suspects in May 2018, all of whom illegally voted in that 2017 election. One
was a convicted human smuggler serving probation who voted illegally. Two
claimed to live in the city’s limits, but, in fact, resided elsewhere. Another
suspect was only charged with making a false statement on a voter registration
form. In June, county officials charged a fifth person with two counts of
illegal voting. Then, in November, nine more were arrested. The investigation
continues and more arrests may come in 2019.
3. Non-U.S. citizen indicted
for leading “voter assistance” ring that targeted elderly and disabled voters
in Hidalgo County.
In June, a Hidalgo County grand
jury indicted Marcela
Guttierrez, a non-U.S. citizen on an illegal voting charge for misleading a
voter to believe she was demonstrating how to use a voting machine when,
actually, Guttierez voted for a slate of candidates she was paid to support in
a June 2016 Hidalgo city runoff election. Two of her fellow campaign workers,
Sylvia Arojano and Sara Ornelas, also were charged with seven counts of
unlawfully assisting voters. Reportedly, Arojano is married to a school board
member for the Hidalgo County school district.
4. Poll watcher accuses Hidalgo
city official of unlawfully assisting a voter in the 2018 midterm.
In December, the Texas Secretary of
State escalated a voter fraud
complaint to Paxton’s office. A poll watcher accused Hidalgo City
Councilman Rodolfo “Rudy” Franz of unlawfully assisting a voter during the 2018
midterm election’s early voting period. The complaint alleged that Franz
suggested and instructed the voter on who to vote for on their ballot even
though Franz was asked multiple times by election workers to stop.
5. Texas Democratic Party
accused of encouraging noncitizens to vote in 2018 November midterm in Rio
Grande Valley.
An October complaint accused the Texas Democratic
Party of mailing “altered” voter registration applications to noncitizens in
the Rio Grande Valley. The mailers allegedly had the U.S. citizenship box
pre-checked, creating false claims to voter eligibility. The document urged
recipients to vote in the November midterm election. The box asking if a voter
will be 18 years of age on or before election day also was pre-filled. The
Public Interest Legal Foundation, an election integrity law firm, alerted Starr
and Hidalgo county district attorneys, Paxton, Texas Secretary of State Rolando
Pablos, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) about the complaint.
Subsequently, Pablos referred the complaint
to Paxton’s office for further investigation.
While Texas border voter fraud
cases permeated Breitbart News
coverage, other high profiles cases in the
Lone Star State garnered honorable mentions:
Texas AG to prosecute three
indicted on nine counts of voter fraud in Nueces County 2016 Democratic primary
runoff.
Paxton announced his office
would prosecute three residents indicted by a grand jury on nine counts of
voter fraud stemming back to a May 2016 Nueces County Democratic primary runoff
election. County Clerk Kara Sands presented data to a
local commissioners court in January that unmasked the alleged voter fraud.
Salvadoran illegal immigrant
living in East Texas since the 1980s was indicted on voter fraud and
immigration violations charges.
In June, Texas prosecutors indicted Salvadoran
national Mario Obdulio Orellana, 57, who lived illegally in the state since the
1980s. Officials said Orellana purportedly falsified documents to obtain a U.S.
birth certificate, applied for and received a U.S. passport and a Social
Security number. Prosecutors said Orellano claimed to be a U.S. citizen when he
registered to vote and fraudulently cast a ballot in the 2016 presidential
election.
Mexican national faces
deportation after pleading guilty to voter fraud in Texas.
In September, Mexican national Laura
Janeth Garza, 38, pleaded guilty to voter fraud
charges for voting in three election cycles, including 2016. She did so by
stealing a Texan’s identity to obtain a U.S. passport and Social Security
number. The American citizen victim learned about the fraud when she tried
to apply for a passport in her own name and discovered Garza already did so.
Garza was sentenced to 10 years in jail, after which she will be deported.
Texas AG: Democratic Party
leader funded “voter fraud ring” in Tarrant County.
In October, Paxton’s office indicted four North
Texas women for their alleged roles in a “voter fraud ring” that targeted the
elderly in select northern Fort Worth precincts during the March 2016 Democrat
Party primary election. Subsequently released court documents revealed the
ringleader, Leticia Sanchez, 57, allegedly paid her co-defendants with funds
provided by the then Tarrant County Democratic Party Executive Director, Stuart
Clegg. The scheme reportedly intended to influence the outcome of certain
down-ballot races. Allegedly, they did this by “seeding” or proliferating
mail-in ballots through forged signatures and altering historical applications,
then resubmitting them without the voter’s knowledge.
In Texas, illegal voting is a second
degree felony punishable up to 20 years in $10,000 fine. Making a false
statement on a voter registration application is a Class B misdemeanor.
Ann
Coulter: Surprise! That 'cheap' immigrant labor costs us a lot
© Getty Images
We could pay
for every idiotic boondoggle proposed by the 300 Democratic presidential
candidates if the current president would simply keep his central campaign
promise to build a border wall and deport illegal aliens. (Back off —
“illegal alien” is the term used in federal law.)
A 2017 study by
the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) found that illegal aliens
cost the American taxpayer — on net — $116 billion a year.
That’s pretty
high, but the actual number is more likely triple that.
Straight out of
the chute, FAIR assumes that there are only 12.5 million illegal
immigrants in the country, approximately the same number we’ve been told
for the last 15 years as we impotently watched hundreds of thousands more
stream across our border, year after year after year.
The 12 million
figure is based on the self-reports of illegal aliens to U.S. census
questionnaires. (Hello! I’m
from the federal government. Did you break the law to enter our
country? Now tell the truth! We have no way of knowing the answer,
and if you say yes, you could be subjecting yourself to immediate deportation.)
More serious
studies put the number considerably higher. At the low end, a Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Yale study last year put the number of illegals
at 22 million. Yet Bear Stearns investment bank had it at 20 million back in 2005, and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporters Donald
L. Barlett and James B. Steele reported in 2004 that 3 million illegals were crossing each year — so simple math would put it at well over 60 million
today.
So, right
there, the FAIR study underestimates the tab for illegal immigration by at
least a factor of three, meaning the real cost is about $350 billion a
year. That’s triple what Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.)
free college tuition plan will cost in a decade.
I don’t mean to
bash FAIR. It’s sweet how immigration restrictionists always bend over
backward to be impartial. But their circumspection doesn’t mean the rest of us
have to ignore reality.
Journalists’
usual method of determining the cost of “unauthorized entries” — as they
say — is to phone some fanatically pro-illegal immigration group, such as
Cato or CASA, and get a quote sneering at anyone else’s estimate of the costs.
In a deeply
investigated 2017 Washington Post article, for example, the Post cited the “belief” that illegal aliens
“drain government resources.” Without looking at any facts or figures, the
reporter disputed that “belief” with a quote from Cathryn Ann Paul of CASA:
"It's a myth that people who are undocumented don't pay taxes."
So there you
have it! Cathryn Ann Paul says it’s a “myth.” Now let’s move on to
the vibrant diversity being gifted to us by illegal aliens.
Earlier this
year, The New York Times mocked President Trump’s tweet saying
illegal immigration costs "250 Billion Dollars a year" by quoting
big-business shill Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute: "There's no basis
to any of those numbers about the fiscal cost." Am I doing OK, Mr. Koch?
The Times
further explained that Trump’s figure “did not take into account the economic
benefits of undocumented immigrants” — for example, the surprisingly affordable
maids of some reporters.
Randy Capps of
the Migration Policy Institute told the Times that studies of the cost of
illegal immigration count only the costs or only the benefits. “They tend to
talk past each other, unfortunately,” he said.
Well, the FAIR
study counted both. For every dollar illegal immigrants pay in taxes —
fees, Social Security withholding taxes, fuel surcharges, sales and property
taxes — they collect $7 in government benefits: schooling, English as a second
language classes, hospital costs, school lunch programs, Medicaid births,
police resources and so on.
A few years
ago, the Heritage Foundation’s Robert Rector looked at the winners and losers
under our government redistribution system and found that in 2010, households
headed by illegal immigrants received $14,387 more in government services
than they paid in taxes.
Legal immigrant
households also were big winners, receiving $4,344 more in government services
than they paid in taxes. (Our government does a fantastic job deciding
who can immigrate here.)
Only with
nonimmigrant households does the government almost break even, doling out a
mere $310 more in benefits than those households pay in taxes. (Surprise! The deficit is on track to
hit $1 trillion next year.)
Like FAIR
estimates, Rector’s study accepted the U.S. Census Bureau’s allegation that
we’ve had the same number of illegal aliens in this country since the beginning
of the Bush administration. Also like the FAIR study, Rector’s examination
counted only the obvious costs imposed on us by illegal immigrants —
things such as health care, education, fire and police protection, parks,
roads, and bridges.
But there are
all sorts of costs that no one ever counts. What about Americans’ lost
wages to illegal immigrants who are willing to work for $7 an hour? Even
if they don’t apply for unemployment insurance, how do we count the cost of
suicide, opioid addiction or other anti-social behavior?
Why not count
the lost wages themselves? We want to know the cost-benefit ratio to those already here, not to
the new total that includes the illegal immigrants. If it's a net negative to
those already here — well, that's the point.
And what was
the tab of illegal immigration to the family of Kate Steinle, the young woman
shot dead by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco in 2015? There were
obvious, tragic costs, of course — but there also are hidden costs, such as the
lost productivity of the people close to Kate for years to come, the additional
police presence around the San Francisco pier where she was killed and the
reduction in tourist dollars.
We hear about
the great largesse bestowed upon us by illegal immigrants all day
long. The only hidden benefits are the warm feelings of self-righteousness
that the CASA spokesman gets when bleating about illegals and the happiness
that cheap servants bring to the top 10 percent.
In Maine,
overdose deaths from opioids, mostly Mexican heroin, have skyrocketed in the last decade, up from an
already catastrophic 100 to 200 deaths per year to more than double that — 418
in 2018. What is the cost of the state legislature spending weeks debating
a bill to provide heroin addicts with Narcan? The cost of more crime and more
police?
This isn’t to
gratuitously mention the fact that completely unvetted, self-chosen illegal
immigrants can, in fact, be rapists, drug dealers and cop-killers. It is
to say that no analysis of illegal immigration’s cost can ever capture the full
price.
Ann
Coulter is a lawyer, a syndicated columnist
and conservative commentator, and the author of 13 New York Times bestsellers.
The most recent, “Resistance Is Futile! How the Trump-Hating Left Lost Its
Collective Mind,” was published in 2018.
The
2020 Democratic Candidates and Their Redefinition of American Citizenship
·
Making the click-through worthwhile: How the 2020 Democratic
presidential candidates want to make being an American citizen simply a matter
of location and desire, instead of law; another allegation of hideous behavior
from Donald Trump from the mid 1990s; the promised big roundup of thriller
novels; and a heartfelt “thank you” to you, the readers.
The 2020 Democrats Want to
Redefine Citizenship
Sometimes our political debates are furious and deeply divided
because of demagogues, clickbait media, and hype. But sometimes our political
debates are furious because they reflect a conflict of fundamentally opposed
worldviews, where no compromise is feasible.
Many of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates want to
fundamentally redefine who is American — that is, if you show up from another
country and want to be here, you ought to enjoy the full rights of citizenship
and all of the benefits provided to American citizens.
Bernie Sanders put it clearly: “We’re going to make public
colleges and universities tuition-free and open that to the undocumented.” In
other words, if are a citizen of another country and you want a free college
education, all you have to do is show up in the United States and get accepted
at any one of the 1,626 public colleges in the United States.
Needless to say, if enacted, this would bring a flood of people
from all around the world, eager to enjoy the benefits of a college degree,
paid for by the U.S. taxpayer. (In case you’re wondering, there are a handful of other countries in Europe that offer very low
or nominal tuition rates to American students, but at most of those schools,
competition for the limited slots is high.)
It is not only Sanders. Beto O’Rourke says that the United
States should contemplate eliminating the
citizenship exam because
it is a structural barrier to immigrants. Indeed, it is meant to be a structural barrier to
those who lack English proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing, and
civics knowledge. There was once a broad consensus that English proficiency and
civics knowledge were required to be a good American citizen. The 2020
Democrats no longer believe this to be true.
Ten candidates, including Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julian
Castro, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren believe that crossing the border
or entering the country without permission should no longer be a crime. On May
7, 2018, the Department of Justice announced they would prosecute all adult
aliens apprehended crossing the border illegally, with no exception for asylum
seekers or those with minor children. (If that policy was repealed, border
crossers would still go through a civil legal process that could lead to their
deportation.)
Booker, Steve Bullock, Bill de Blasio, Kirsten Gillibrand,
Marianne Williamson, and Andrew Yang believe the federal government should NOT require the use of
E-Verify to check the
legal status of all hires by private employers. Another nine candidates said
they only support that idea as part of a “compromise” on immigration reform.
Sanders contends that adding the question “Are you a U.S. citizen?”
to the 2020 census would constitute “absolutely bigoted language.” Amy
Klobuchar contends that if the question is included, she would, as president,
require a “recount” and O’Rourke threatens that if it is included, he will
re-do the entire census a second time without the question. Even John
Hickenlooper, allegedly one of the centrists in the swarm of candidates,
contends that asking the question on the census for is “ corrupt and
illegal.”
We all have our notions of what constitutes an injustice. To
many Democrats, the longstanding practice of enforcement of immigration law
— policies in place throughout
the Obama administration —
is an inherent injustice. In their minds, being an American citizen is simply a
matter of wanting to be here.
Yet Another Ugly Accusation
against Donald Trump
I have no idea whether or not to believe E. Jean Carroll’s claim that
President Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990’s.
No doubt, Trump’s history with women is sordid and scandalous
and full of crass, crude, and objectifying behavior. On the other hand, we just
went through a Supreme Court nomination fight that illustrated the limited
options for a man who is accused of sexual assault with no evidence. We also
know how conditional the “believe all women” rallying cry is.
In Carroll’s account, sometime in “the fall of 1995 or the
spring of 1996” she ran into Trump in the early evening at Bergdorf Goodman, a
luxury department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York
City. After some small talk, she agreed to try on lingerie in front of Trump
for fun. She said there were no other customers or sales attendants in the
Bergdorf Goodman lingerie department, and no other potential witnesses. She writes
that she has checked and that the department store did not keep security tapes
from that time. She describes herself as laughing through much of the
experience. “I don’t remember if any person or attendant is now in the lingerie
department. I don’t remember if I run for the elevator or if I take the slow
ride down on the escalator. As soon as I land on the main floor, I run through
the store and out the door — I don’t recall which door — and find myself
outside on Fifth Avenue.” Carroll says did not report it to the police but told
it to two friends. The two friends, contacted by New York magazine and not identified,
confirmed Carroll described an experience like this.
Carroll is not seeking a police investigation or criminal
charges. She insists this is not just a ploy to sell books; if it were, the
book would be all about the president instead of the variety of creeps she’s
encountered in her life. She appears to believe that the country should know
about her experience and act accordingly.
“You don’t feel like a
victim?” Cooper asked.
“I was not thrown on the ground and ravished which the word rape
carries so many sexual connotations. This was not sexual. It hurt. It just — it
just — you know,” Carroll responded.
“But I think most people think of rape as — it is a violent
assault. It is not — ,” Cooper began.
“I think most people think of rape as being sexy,” Carroll said.
“Let’s take a short break,” Cooper said.
“Think of the fantasies,” Carroll interjected.
“We will take a quick break if you can stick around. We’ll talk
more on the other side,” Cooper continued.
“You’re fascinating to talk to,” Carroll said.
Do most
people think of rape as being sexy?
In her account, Carroll wrote, “the struggle might
simply have read as ‘sexy.’”
The Big Thriller Roundup
Last week on vacation, I finished Mark Greaney’s Agent in Place,
the 2018 addition to his wildly popular series about Court Gentry, the
CIA-trained “Gray Man” who can blend in just about anywhere and who has the
skills and instincts to survive just about any situation. I had heard good
things about the Gray
Man Series, but
until recently I was a bit wary: the strong, silent, brooding loner assassin
protagonist can be a little tough to warm up to and enjoy. But what Agent in Place does particularly well — besides
terrific research about the horrific situation in Syria as its civil war winds
down, the Syrian exile community in France, and the glamorous halls of the high
life in Paris – is set up a situation where the hero goes against his better
judgment and agrees to pursue a mission that is one step short of suicidal.
Greaney puts Gentry into a circumstance where any rational person would say,
“Nope, sorry, I can’t help you, I’d like to, but doing this will almost
certainly get me killed.” It’s the most desperate situation imaginable, the
risks are just a Dagwood sandwich of various dangers and menaces and precarious
gambles, his few allies are unreliable, and it requires sneaking into probably
the single most dangerous location on earth. But the life of an innocent child
hangs in the balance . . . and Gentry would have to look at himself in
the mirror if he choose to not try to save the child.
Back in May, I reviewed Matthew Betley’s Overwatch, which established his
recovering-alcoholic Marine officer Logan West and an ever-changing realm of
national-security threats that he and his out-of-retirement comrades must
chase. That’s the first in his series; the fourth book in the series, Rules of War, hits stores and ships in
mid-July. With a ripped-from-the headlines relevancy, much of Rules of War is set in a
rapidly-deteriorating Venezuela. Betley told me, “I wanted to set it in a
crumbling third-world country, and there’s no better example of that today than
Venezuela.” Last week on Dana Perino’s program on Fox
News, he talked a bit about the book, and
a class action lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs and his
recent experiences with the VA, attempting to get coverage for lung problems
stemming from the burn pits in Iraq.
Also last week, I finished John A. Daly’s Blood Trade. Set shortly after 9/11, Sean Coleman
is another protagonist who’s overcoming his battles with the bottle, looking
for a second chance and redemption for past mistakes. Blood Trade has a lot of atmosphere, high in the
Colorado mountains, with a mood of foreboding hanging over much of the action.
(Those who know my favorite television series will know I’m inclined to like
stories of rural small towns with secrets behind every door.) Daly takes what
looks like a mundane missing-persons stories and gradually reveals a chillingly
plausible plot with, a deeply relatable motive for the story’s villains, and a
vivid illustration of just how far some people will go to safe a life. This
book is accurately titled. Daly’s next is Safeguard, coming in October, featuring Coleman
guarding a defunct nuclear silo . . . and apparently attracting the attention
of a local cult.
Then there’s arguably the most anticipated thriller of the
summer, Brad Thor’s Backlash featuring
Scot Harvath, who’s ended up working for the U.S. Secret Service, Navy SEALs,
and as a CIA contractor over the course of 18 novels. As mentioned yesterday,
not only does it live up to the hype, it’s really striking for how different a
story this is from the previous books in this series. The last few Harvath
novels have featured him and usually a small team investigating or uncovering
some sinister plot by jihadists, or China, or the Russians. Backlash blows up that familiar rhythm
and is reminiscent of that Liam Nesson movie The Grey, and the classic The Fugitive, and some of Jack London’s classic
survival-in-the-most-hostile-wilds stories. Almost the entire story takes place
in a remote corner of the world that I suspect has never been featured in a
thriller before, and the story focuses as much on Harvath’s challenge to
survive psychologically intact as physically. Thor is to be saluted for willing
to experiment and move away from familiar territory, both literally and
figuratively.
And these are just the thriller novels I’ve gotten my hands on
recently. Daniel Silva’s The New Girl comes
out July 16, with Israeli spymaster Gabriel Allon crossing paths with a
ruthless Saudi prince who is likely to be compared to the real-life Mohammed
bin Salman.
ADDENDA: You guys really are the best
readers in the world. Yesterday I mentioned that reviews on Amazon help a book
find an audience, and this morning I find 27 reviews on the page, each one kind and offering some
sort of insightful observation. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Someone said
to me recently that I shouldn’t have said the book isn’t that political,
because it covers some big topics adjacent to our modern politics — “questions
of heroism, of identity, and of faith” as one reviewer put it, and “the fragile
line between chaos and sanity in a society” as another described it. This is
what happens when you start the creation of your villains with, “what frightens
me?”
What
a Border Crisis Looks Like
News flash: There’s a crisis at the
border.
This was discovered again over the past few days when
immigration attorneys talked to reporters about appalling conditions at a
Border Patrol facility detaining migrant minors in Clint, Texas.
According to the lawyers, many of the kids had to sleep on the
concrete floor, failed to get proper adult supervision, and didn’t routinely
take showers or brush their teeth. The details were hard to read.
Assuming the account was accurate, one wonders how we could
treat anyone this way, let alone children? But a lawyer who talked to the New Yorker mentioned a telling fact: The
facility previously had a capacity of 104 and had never held children before.
Yet it held roughly 350 children, apparently accommodated by placement of a new
warehouse at the site.
All this is consistent with vast numbers of migrants, many of
them families and children, flooding the border and overtaxing facilities never
meant for these kinds of numbers or this demographic of migrant.
Indeed, the immigration lawyer mentioned to the New Yorker that the personnel at the
Border Patrol facility were constantly receiving children and constantly
transferring them over to a Health and Human Services site, and stipulated that
the guards believed the children don’t belong there and should go someplace
more appropriate. (Under the glare of publicity, they did.)
The broader problem is that HHS, which is supposed to get
custody of migrant children from Border Patrol in short order, is itself overburdened
and backed up.
Since it’s 2019, what should be properly attributed to dire
circumstances and limited capacity is instead taken as evidence of President
Donald Trump’s malice.
If what’s happening at the border is a product of Trump policy,
it would have to involve an intricate and well-executed plan. The White House
would have to convince the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security,
Kevin McAleenan — who served as deputy commissioner of Customs and Border
Protection under President Barack Obama — to send word down through the
bureaucracy to treat children as callously as possible and not to leak word of
this explosive guidance.
In the real world, a migrant influx will test even an
administration more favorably inclined toward immigration. The reason that the
Left can’t keep their viral images straight — often misattributing to Trump
photos of kids in steel-cage holding pens during the Obama years — is that this
is a similar crisis to the one Obama faced in his second term, with similar
challenges.
A viral video of a Justice Department lawyer arguing before a
panel of judges last week that kids don’t need toothbrushes and soap to meet
the standard for “safe and sanitary” detention under the so-called Flores
settlement has caused outrage. But few have stopped to note that the underlying
case had to do with a district court finding that the Obama administration in
2015 was in material breach of the Flores standard (or that the DOJ lawyer was
offering a technical legal argument — not a defense of mistreating kids).
All that said, once these migrants are under our care, it is our
responsibility to make sure they are treated as humanely as possible. The
border needs more resources. The Trump administration has been asking Congress
to pass a funding package, and it should do so forthwith. To address the root
cause of the crisis, it should also change the bizarre asylum rules that have
forced us to release family units from Central America into the country,
creating an incentive for more to come.
As long as that’s the case, we aren’t going to be able to
control the border or process people coming across it in an orderly fashion.
What we’re seeing is what a border crisis looks like. If we don’t like it — and
we shouldn’t — it’s time for Congress to act to begin to bring it to an end.
The
Border as an ‘Attractive Nuisance’
If you have a swimming
pool, you can be held liable if a trespassing child falls in and drowns unless
you’ve taken reasonable steps to keep children from getting to the pool, like a
fence. An unfenced pool (or trampoline or a discarded refrigerator that locks
from the outside, among other potentially dangerous things) is thus called
an “attractive nuisance.”
The loopholes in our
asylum laws make our nation’s borders an attractive nuisance, as well. Of
course, no matter what we do, there will always be people who will try to
illegally infiltrate our borders, and it’s inevitable that some of them will
die in the process — whether by drowning, exposure, dehydration, or other
causes. But when we fail to take the most elementary steps to dissuade people
from trying to sneak in — heck, when we reward people
for sneaking in with kids in tow and making bogus asylum claims — we share the
responsibility for those deaths.
The heart-wrenching
photograph of a Salvadoran father and daughter who were found drowned Monday on
the banks of the Rio Grande forces us to face this issue. Julian Castro was
right when he said at last night’s Democratic debate, “watching
that image of Oscar and his daughter, Valeria, is heartbreaking. It should also
piss us all off.”
But once pissed off, how
to respond? How do we make our border not be an attractive nuisance?
Castro’s answer — and the
approach of virtually all Democratic candidates and elected officials — is open
borders. And I no longer mean that Democrats are, in effect, calling for open borders. At last night’s
debate there was no longer any pretense. Castro took the lead, followed by the
rest, in calling for repeal of the criminal law against border infiltration,
ending the practice of making asylum claimants take a number at ports of entry and
wait their turn, the complete abolition of immigrant detention, and amnesty for
every foreigner who manages to get past the border so long as they don’t commit
a “serious” crime
(whatever that means today). Though she wasn’t on the stage Wednesday, the
party’s leader, House speaker Nancy Pelosi, made clear that she’s on board,
asking at an event Monday “What’s the point?” of enforcing
immigration laws inside the United States. What all this represents is the
abolition of immigration limits.
This would certainly end
the attractive-nuisance problem. It would also lead to a rush for the border
that would make the 2015 border crisis in Europe (sparked by the photo of
another drowned child) pale by comparison. Gallup reported earlier
this year that 42 million people in Latin America want to move
here, and the share that would actually follow through would be a lot higher
than now if we were to formally convert the Border Patrol into a welcome wagon,
as the Democrats propose. And that’s not counting the Africans, Middle Easterners, and other “extra-continental” migrants
we’re seeing.
The other approach to
ending the attractive-nuisance problem is to fence off the swimming pool, as it
were. In some places that might actually mean a literal fence, but that won’t
address the reasons for the current surge. At the very least, that would
require plugging the three
most serious legal loopholes incentivizing people to
cross the border. It also would entail actually deporting people who’ve exhausted their due
process, been turned down for asylum, and received a deportation order from a
judge; until people in Central America see their fellows glumly stepping off
the plane, their asylum ploys having failed, they’ll rightly figure the trip is
worth it. More broadly, mandating the use of E-Verify, at least for new hires,
is imperative, to “fence off” the labor market.
There are two ways the
United States can limit its responsibility for deaths on the border: Unlimited
immigration, or limits that are actually enforced. The Democrats have
made their choice. They should be made to answer for it.
Texas Democrats asking non-citizens to
vote
The Public Interest Legal Foundation has alerted the Justice
Department to a gambit by Texas Democrats to get non-citizens to vote.
The state party sent out a voter registration form asking
non-citizens to sign up, with the citizenship box already checked
"yes."
The Public Interest Legal Foundation
alerted district attorneys and the federal Justice Department to the
pre-checked applications, and also included a signed affidavit from a man who
said some of his relatives, who aren't citizens, received the mailing.
"This is how the Texas
Democratic Party is inviting foreign influence in an election in a federal
election cycle," said Logan Churchwell, spokesman for the PILF, a
group that's made its mark policing states' voter registration practices.
The Texas secretary of state's office said
it, too, had gotten complaints both from immigrants [sic] and from relatives of
dead people who said they got mailings asking them to register.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to
investigate.
"If true there will be serious
consequences," he said.
This is an open invitation for voter fraud on a large scale, and
the way the Democrats went about it defies belief:
The applications were pre-addressed to
elections officials, which is likely what left many voters to believe they were
receiving an official communication from the state.
But the return address was from the State
Democratic Executive Committee, and listed an address in Austin that matches
the state Democratic Party's headquarters.
The letter is emblazoned with "Urgent! Your
voter registration deadline is October 9." It continues:
"Your voter registration application is inside. Complete, sign
and return it today!"
On the application, boxes affirming the
applicant is both 18 and a U.S. citizen are already checked with an
"X" in the Yes field.
The mailing also urges those who are
unsure if they're registered to "Mail it in."
Dead people were also being asked to vote.
Sam Taylor, spokesman for Texas's
secretary of state, said they heard from people whose relatives were receiving
mail despite having passed away 10 years ago or longer. One woman
said her child, who'd been dead 19 years, got a mailing asking to register.
"It looks like a case of really bad
information they are using to send out these mailers," Mr. Taylor said.
Mr. Taylor is being very charitable. I doubt very much
whether it's "bad information" being used by Democrats.
How many other state Democratic Parties send out similar requests
to non-citizens and haven't been caught? Are we to believe that one
party in one state came up with this idea all on its own? Perhaps,
but not likely.
Many liberals believe that anyone in the United States – citizen
or non-citizen – should be able to vote. If they want to make that
argument and change the law to make it happen, they are more than welcome to
try. Of course, if they run on that issue, they will get slaughtered
at the polls. So instead of going to the American people and working
to change the law, they try an underhanded dirty trick to achieve the same
goal.
Someone should go to jail for this ruse.
Safe Spaces: How Sanctuary
Cities are Giving Cover to Noncitizens on the Voter Rolls
Public Interest Legal Foundation, August
2018 https://publicinterestlegal.org/files/Safe-Spaces_Final.pdf
ICE Releases
Hundreds of Migrants in Texas over Christmas
26 Dec 201853
2:08
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has
released hundreds of migrants in El Paso, Texas over the past few days,
including 186 on Christmas Day.
Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX), who lost his Senate bid to incumbent
Republican Ted Cruz, is cited in the story as being instrumental in making sure
ICE informs city officials of impending releases.
“As a result, nonprofits were a bit
more prepared for the large intake,” CBS4 reported.
“They’re coming from immigration
cells, so they’re coming hungry, they’re coming thirsty, most haven’t bathed in
a long time. The situation is really difficult for them,” Dylan Corbett,
executive director of Hope Border Institute, said in the CBS4 story.
The report also includes comments
from “Ingrid,” who is from Honduras and brought her 4-year-old son with her to
the U.S. border.
“I mean, it’s unreal, like a dream,”
Ingrid said. “They gave us clothes, food, everything. I really didn’t expect
this, thank you so much.”
The CBS4 report included a statement
from ICE:
After decades of inaction by
Congress, the government remains severely constrained in its ability to detain
and promptly remove families with no legal basis to remain in the U.S. To
mitigate the risk of holding family units past the timeframe allotted to the
government, ICE has curtailed reviews of post-release plans from families
apprehended along the southwest border. ICE continues to work with local and
state officials and NGO partners in the area so they are prepared to provide
assistance with transportation or other services.
Many
thanks to volunteers & donors who ensure that we take care of families
being released by ICE in El Paso. 200 to be released today. Over 500 tomorrow. Please make a donation that will go to food and beds
here: https://annunciationhouse.org/financial-donations/ …
The CBS4
story includes photos of children eating Christmas cookies and candy.
The Real Beto O’Rourke
Although he said both before
and after losing the Senate race in Texas to Ted Cruz that he had no plan
to run for office in 2020, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke recently
left the door wide open. And
now he has met
with Obama at his home in Washington. In that context, I sent a
list of questions to his press spokeswoman, but never received an answer.
The first question dealt
with whether O'Rourke has any Hispanic heritage, or whether, as he is
in truth, fourth-generation Irish. As a child living in El Paso, O'Rourke was
given the nickname "Beto," which is a common Hispanic moniker for
Roberto, in order to delineate between him and his maternal grandfather, Robert
Williams. When O'Rourke attended Columbia in New York he used "Rob,"
but his father, then El Paso County Judge Pat O'Rourke, suggested that he
once again use "Beto" to increase his chance of winning political
office in the heavily Hispanic city of El Paso, which Robert readily agreed to
do.
He graduated from Columbia
in 1995, and later that month was arrested for burglary at UTEP (the University
of Texas El Paso) along with two others. He has previously explained it as
a prank from his college years. I asked his spokeswoman if it was true he
had already graduated from Columbia and never attended UTEP; what the purpose
of the burglary was; what his relationship with
Jose Prieto, Jr. and Jacob Barowsky whom he was arrested with was, and where
they were located today. I received no response.
Concerning O'Rourke's 1998
DWI, I asked his spokeswoman why he never admitted the incident also
involved a hit and run until the press obtained the arrest reports last
August. O'Rourke now claims it was not a hit and run, but I asked
the spokeswoman if the arresting officer and a witness who reportedly chased
him were lying after O'Rourke, going at an excessive rate of speed, struck a
truck on I-10 west of El Paso and ended up on the other side of the Interstate,
and then fled. Again no response.
About his campaign, I asked
why he had claimed that the record of more than 70 million dollars raised had
mostly come from Texas, when in reality less than a third did, while a staggering 75
percent came from ActBlue, the leftist fundraising group. I asked why
O'Rourke promised not to run a negative campaign, but he eventually ran some
highly inflammatory and personal attacks
ads against Ted Cruz.
Concerning President Trump,
on a number of occasions, O'Rourke has said he supports impeachment. I asked if
he still supports impeachment and based on what evidence. I also asked the
spokeswoman whether, if elected, his previous positions would taint any
potential impeachment vote. Current rumors are he might run against Senator
John Cornyn and Trump in 2020, which in Texas would be legal.
Still no response.
I noted that it's a matter
of record that he has heavily used marijuana and alcohol and asked if he still
does. I also noted that O'Rourke profusely
sweats even under perfect conditions, while at the same time others do
not, and if he would be willing to take a complete physical exam. No
response.
And now after saying he may
still run for office, as well as meeting personally with Obama, I asked if he
has any intention to be on the national ticket in 2020, but still
got no response.
A few days later, I sent a
follow-up email to the spokeswoman noting I had received no response and
intended to write an article regardless. So I added one more question.
O'Rourke used the f-word live on national television in his concession
speech, and used it as well at several other
points in his campaign. Does O'Rourke think it is appropriate as a
leader to behave in such a fashion? Still no response.
His language, along
with his use of skateboards to enter campaign rallies, shows a basic
immaturity and lack of seriousness to hold high public office. Considering
O'Rourke's misleading claims about his heritage and serious issues concerning
his controversial past, as well as his obvious desire to hold political office,
these kinds of questions would normally be asked of a potential
candidate.
But so far, his supporters
among the mainstream press have failed to do so. And after their recent fawning
coverage and the record millions raised for his campaign, O'Rourke still failed
to win. Time will tell if the public will learn who the real Robert Francis
O'Rourke is.
Beto: 2020 Will Be ‘Mother of All
Tests’ for Democracy
2:34
Saying “there’s never been a darker moment” in America in his lifetime,
Rep. Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke (D-TX), a potential 2020 presidential
candidate, said on Friday that President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign
will be the “mother of all tests for this democracy.”
Speaking at a town hall event in El Paso, Texas, O’Rourke
deflected questions about whether he will run for president, saying the 2020
questions were “interesting, speculative” questions that he wanted to “treat
with respect since this is an official town hall that is focused on my
responsibilities to you as a member of Congress.”
He said whoever runs against Trump in 2020 “may very well be
running against somebody who has not the slightest respect for our norms,
traditions, our institutions, civility, dignity, decency in public life.”
“This is the test, this is the mother of all tests for this
democracy–whether we can run a campaign and have candidates at all levels from
school board to the White House,” O’Rourke added before saying that though he
is hopeful that “something good is going to come out of all this at the end of
the day,” there has “never been a darker moment, at least in my lifetime, in
this country.”
He added that “there’s never been a greater, more open question
about rule of law, about whether our democracy can sustain the kind of attacks
on our institutions… on our press, our courts, this cynical display of power of
5,400 troops sent to the border in the lead up to the midterm elections.”
O’Rourke even suggested that the Trump administration could have
planned crowd control exercises in El Paso, Texas, to suppress his voters in
2018.
The failed Senate candidate spoke about the “crowd control
exercises proposed in El Paso by the Border Patrol on election day — in this
city that had the greatest turnout trying to perhaps suppress that turnout.”
“Who knows. You never want to ascribe motive, but it’s hard to
understand why you would pick that day of all days,” he said, adding that he
has lived in the El Paso area for most of his life and did not understand “the
need for doing that.”
O’Rourke blasted Trump for saying “anything you want to from the
highest perch in power” that had been revered for 242 years and said the true
test in 2020 will be whether Democrats can campaign on issues against Trump instead
of going for the most “bast impulses, instincts among us.”
He said the challenge in 2020 will be to not “succumb to the
smallness, pettiness, and divisiveness” that defines so much of the national
conversation under Trump.
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