Analysis: House Democrats March in Radical Lockstep on Immigration
House Democrats are in lockstep on attempting to pass expansions of legal immigration, crippling enforcement measures, and amnesty for illegal aliens, a new analysis finds.
The analysis conducted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reviewed ten pieces of legislation last year, including the amnesties known as the American Dream and Promise Act, the Venezuela TPS Act of 2019, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019, and the HEROES Act and how each member of Congress voted.
The average Democrat in Congress, the analysis found, voted 98 percent of the time for the legislation with just two percent of Democrats on average voting in opposition. Meanwhile, the average Republican voted against the legislation about 90 percent of the time.
While 119 Democrats voted to pass all ten pieces of legislation, 51 House Republicans, FAIR notes, voted 100 percent of the time against the legislation, including:
Mike Rogers (AL-03), Robert Aderholt (AL-04), Mo Brooks (AL-05), Gary Palmer (AL-06), Paul Gosar (AZ-04), Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Tom McClintock (CA-04), Neal Dunn (FL-02), Bill Posey (FL-08), Dan Webster (FL-11), Greg Steube (FL-17), Buddy Carter (GA-0), Drew Ferguson (GA-03), Barry Loudermilk (GA-11), Rick Allen (GA-12), Steve Scalise (LA-01), Mike Johnson (LA-04), Ralph Abraham (LA-05), Garret Graves (LA-06), Andy Harris (MD-01), Jack Bergman (MI-01), Bill Huizenga (MI-02), Trent Kelly (MS-01), Virginia Foxx (NC-05), Richard Hudson (NC-08), Adrian Smith (NE-03), Warren Davidson (OH-08), John Joyce (PA-13), Jeff Duncan (SC-03), Ralph Norman (SC-05), Dusty Johnson (SD-01), Tim Burchett (TN-02), Scott DesJarlais (TN-04), Mark Green (TN-07), David Kustoff (TN-08), Louie Gohmert (TX-01), Ron Wright (TX-06), Jodey Arrington (TX-19), Chip Roy (TX-21), Michael Burgess (TX-26), Michael Cloud (TX-27), Glenn Grothman (WI-06), Alex Mooney (WV-02), and Liz Cheney (WY-01).
Though none of the legislation was passed in the last Congress, FAIR President Dan Stein said with President-elect Joe Biden set to be inaugurated and Democrats regaining control of the Senate, he expects a major push for amnesty and an expansion of legal immigration levels.
Stein said in a statement:
Amid a crippling pandemic that threatens the health and economic security of the American people, it is highly likely that we will see a serious effort by congressional Democrats and the Biden administration to promote a mass amnesty for illegal aliens, significant increases in immigration admissions, and elimination of meaningful controls at the border.
Already, Biden is gearing up to introduce an amnesty plan that is likely to give a pathway to American citizenship to the majority of the 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the United States. The plan would come as 18 million Americans remain jobless and another 6.2 million are underemployed.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Joe Biden’s Amnesty Strategy Hides the Money by Denying Border Safeguards
President-elect Joe Biden’s draft immigration plan does not include any protections for Americans, while it offers the huge prize of American citizenship to at least 11 million migrants from around the world, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
The January 15 report says:
The proposed legislation would not contain any provisions directly linking an expansion of immigration with stepped-up enforcement and security measures, said Marielena HincapiƩ, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center Immigrant Justice Fund, who has been consulted on the proposal by Biden staffers.
“This notion concerning immigration enforcement and giving Republicans everything they kept asking for … was flawed from the beginning,” HincapiĆ© told the newspaper.
The measure “will not seek to trade immigration relief for enforcement, and that’s huge,” Lorella Praeli, who was brought to the United States as an illegal immigrant by her Peruvian parents. Praeli is a pro-migration advocate and has close ties to Biden’s pro-migration appointees.
But the shocking exclusion of safeguards may merely be a negotiating tactic that helps journalists and GOP legislators to keep the debate away from the economic damage caused by amnesty.
In 2013, pro-migration advocates minimized safeguards in the early draft of their “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill. This tactic helped the media to focus the deep public criticism of the bill around the security gap.
Just before the floor debate, the bill’s authors announced a big-spending security plan — the Hoeven-Corker amendment. The planned surprise allowed the advocates to claim they had answered all security criticisms of the bill — and it helped them rush the bill through the Senate, 68 votes to 32 votes, in June 2013.
In reality, the Hoeven-Corker amendment was a magicians’ trick intended to divert media attention from the legal loopholes in the bill, and the economic shift caused the bill’s deliberate inflation of the labor supply.
For example, the bill did not prevent the catch and release of migrants at the border, did not close the “Unaccompanied Alien Child” loophole, and did not protect American graduates from visa worker outsourcing. In fact, the bill allowed an unlimited supply of foreign college graduates into the jobs needed by American graduates, even as it promised to build just 350 miles of a claimed border wall.
The trick amendment was named after two GOP senators who claimed to be saving Americans from illegal migration — the now-retired Sen. Bob Corker from Tennessee and the still-incumbent Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND).
Most importantly, the Hoeven-Corker trick helped Democrats and reporters keep the public’s attention away from the money that would have been sucked from Americans’ wages and shifted over to investors’ stock portfolios.
A last-minute, little-mentioned report by the Congressional Budget Office revealed that the Gang of Eight amnesty bill would have reduced wage earners’ share of new national income and would have increased the share that went to investors.
Those investors included Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who was a major advocate of the 2013 bill and is now backing the planned 2021 bill.
“The bill would increase the rate of growth of the labor force, [so] average wages would be held down in the first decade after enactment,” the CBO report said. The flood of immigrant labor would boost corporate sales and revenues, and so spike the stock market, the CBO report said.
“The rate of return on capital would be higher [than on labor] under the legislation than under current law throughout the next two decades,” according to the report titled “The Economic Impact of S. 744.”
The same point about the supply, demand, and wages of American labor was repeated in a January 2020 CBO report: “Among people with less education, a large percentage are foreign-born. Consequently, immigration has exerted downward pressure on the wages of relatively low-skilled workers who are already in the country, regardless of their birthplace.”
Many polls show that cheap labor migration is deeply unpopular because Americans know that it is used by companies to displace Americans and to cut their wages.
Economists recognize that migration moves money from employees to employers, from families to investors, from young to old, from children to their parents, from homebuyers to real estate investors, and from the heartland states to the coastal states that are home to many investors and Democratic donors.
That economic transfer has shriveled the wealth and health of many red states, and so helped Donald Trump defeat the GOP establishment and get elected in 2016. The same economic shift boosted Trump’s support among working-class whites, blacks, and Latinos in 2020.
The multiracial, cross-sex, nonracist, class-based opposition to cheap labor migration coexists with generally favorable personal feelings toward legal immigrants and toward immigration in theory — despite the media magnification of many skewed polls and articles that still push the 1950’s “Nation of Immigrants” claim.
However, establishment journalists have ignored the evidence of deep and broad opposition to cheap labor migration — and the inflow of temporary contract workers — into the jobs young and old Americans need. Similarly, the reports by the Los Angeles Times and Politico ignored the huge economic impact of migration.
But few politicians believe the pro-amnesty tales offered by lobbyists, donors, and reporters — partly because Senate Democrats lost a net five Senate seats after Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D-NY), pushed the 2013 amnesty through the Senate.
That disastrous mistake by Schumer and his media allies kept the Democrats in the minority for six years — and it also persuaded the American public to back Donald Trump in 2016.
In contrast, GOP House Leader Rep. John Boehner bottled up Schumer’s amnesty in 2014, kept control of the House in 2014, and so provided Trump’s GOP with clear majorities in the House and Senate throughout 2017 and 2018.
But Boehner’s pro-migration successor, House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan, lost Boehner’s Houe majority in 2018 after opposing Trump’s populist agenda.
Many Democrats know their proposed amnesty is very unpopular. Politico reported January 15:
Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) said a “piecemeal” approach is not an option. “The administration has a very limited window of opportunity before House members begin running for reelection,” she said. “Every day that passes is a day that the window shuts just an inch more…We’ve got to get it done in one fell swoop.”
On January 19, GOP senators will have a chance to slow Biden’s amnesty push when they hold a confirmation hearing with Alejandro Mayorkas, who was nominated by Biden to run the Department of Homeland Security.
The Mayorkas hearing is being chaired by Sen. Rob Portman R-OH) and also includes Sen. Josh Hawley (D-MO) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL).
Another poll shows Americans overwhelmingly want companies to hire Americans before migrants.
Biz, progressives, media & GOP estb. pretend there is no gap b/w voters' sympathy for migrants and voters' solidarity-demand that Americans get jobs first.
https://t.co/TZKGWxKiay— Neil Munro (@NeilMunroDC) January 14, 2021
Tom Cotton Warns Republicans: ‘Don’t Be Fooled’ by Joe Biden’s Amnesty Plan
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is warning House and Senate Republicans not to be “fooled” by President-elect Joe Biden’s upcoming amnesty plan for the 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the United States, which he says will provide lip service to federal immigration enforcement.
Last week, open borders activists suggested that Biden’s upcoming amnesty plan is the “most aggressive agenda” they have seen in years. The plan is expected to provide amnesty to nearly all illegal aliens living in the U.S. and potentially expand legal immigration, a staple of the corporate lobby’s outsourcing goals.
Cotton, author of the RAISE Act to boost U.S. wages by reducing legal immigration, urged Republicans that the plan will likely “add a fig leaf of ‘security’ and ‘enforcement'” and will be labeled as a “‘compromise'” piece of legislation despite being “the most radical immigration bill in American history.”
Don’t be fooled by the endgame here. Later, they’ll add a fig leaf of “security” & “enforcement,” claim the most radical immigration bill in American history is really a “compromise.” No Republican should fall for this obvious lie. https://t.co/Xp265TxM93
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) January 18, 2021
Cotton slammed the plan as prioritizing the interests of corporate special interests pursuing cheap foreign labor over the needs of 18 million jobless Americans and another more than six million underemployed Americans.
“Joe Biden is wasting no time trying to enact his radical immigration agenda,” Cotton said. “He’s unveiling his draft immigration bill this week, and it’s what you’d expect from the party of open borders: Total amnesty, no regard for the health or security of Americans, and zero enforcement.”
Cotton continued:
The Biden plan is bad for American workers and bad for economic recovery. American unemployment is sharply increasing with over a million new unemployment claims in the first week of January. Bringing in more immigrant labor will only worsen the problem & further reduce wages.
[Emphasis added]Biden also plans to immediately undo pandemic border closures. The lack of testing and controls at the border will mean a massive increase in the spread of the virus. Americans understand this, which is why 78 percent support keeping the borders closed. [Emphasis added]
…
Let’s be clear: Joe Biden is prioritizing amnesty ahead of the pandemic or getting Americans back to work. We can’t let him get away with it.
[Emphasis added]
Joe Biden’s bill would provide amnesty & citizenship for millions of illegal aliens, allowing them to jump ahead of law-abiding immigrants who followed the rules. There are already thousands more rushing toward our southern border to take advantage of Joe Biden’s amnesty plan.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) January 18, 2021
Biden also plans to immediately undo pandemic border closures. The lack of testing and controls at the border will mean a massive increase in the spread of the virus. Americans understand this, which is why 78% support keeping the borders closed. https://t.co/w9wZmwUAc1
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) January 18, 2021
Cotton also noted that Biden is set to introduce his amnesty plan as a caravan of approximately 6,500 foreign nationals, primarily from Central America, is on the move across the region in an effort to rush the U.S.-Mexico border.
Guatemala’s security forces have attempted to push the caravan back.
“Joe Biden’s bill would provide amnesty & citizenship for millions of illegal aliens, allowing them to jump ahead of law-abiding immigrants who followed the rules,” Cotton said. “There are already thousands more rushing toward our southern border to take advantage of Joe Biden’s amnesty plan.”
Joe Biden promised amnesty throughout his campaign.
A surge of migrants headed to our border is entirely predictable, and it's a public health catastrophe. pic.twitter.com/EPIFlTTpvQ
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) January 17, 2021
Joe Biden will propose a massive amnesty and relaxed asylum standards on his first day in office.
Here's the reaction in Guatemala: pic.twitter.com/fIB7oxGA88
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) January 17, 2021
Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Susan Collins (R-ME) have previously suggested that they are open to working with the incoming Biden administration on striking an amnesty deal. Likewise, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reportedly told colleagues in November 2020 that finding “common ground” with Biden on immigration “would benefit all of us.”
An amnesty would flood the labor market with millions of legalized foreign competitors for U.S. jobs against a growing number of jobless working and middle class Americans.
Economists have found that their job opportunities and wages can be easily diminished by high immigration levels.
One particular study by the Center for Immigration Studies’ Steven Camarota revealed that for every one percent increase in the immigrant portion of American workers’ occupation, their weekly wages are cut by perhaps 0.5 percent. This means the average native-born American worker today has his weekly wages reduced by potentially 8.75 percent, since more than 17 percent of the workforce is foreign-born.
The high immigration policy is a boon for giant corporations, real estate investors, Wall Street, university systems, and Big Agriculture that can cash in on an economy that offers low wages to an inflated labor market where employers hold bargaining power over employees.
During his four years in office, President Trump sought to reserve this corporatist trend by tightening the labor market to hike U.S. wages for the lowest of earners and transferring bargaining power to American workers who could bid for jobs rather than employers bidding for workers.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Corporate Donor Class Pushes Alejandro Mayorkas DHS Confirmation
The donor class is urging a quick confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will meet on Tuesday for Mayorkas’s confirmation hearing. The former Obama administration official has the backing of corporate special interest groups and billionaire donors who regularly lobby to inflate the United States labor market via immigration to cut U.S. wages.
“He was also a key resource for the business community during his tenure as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Suzanne Clark said in a statement. “As Secretary, Mayorkas would on day one be a seasoned contributor to the Biden administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.” Clark then stated, “The Chamber strongly supports the nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas.”
Executives with the Chamber of Commerce, in statements this month, said they are interested in working with Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on amnesty for illegal aliens and expanding legal immigration levels.
Likewise, billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s New American Economy (NAE) group voiced its support for Mayorkas’s confirmation soon after Biden announced his nomination. NAE lobbies members of Congress on behalf of corporate special interests to expand immigration to the U.S.
“Alejandro Mayorkas understands the contributions immigrant communities make to our society and economy, and he has the experience to lead the Department of Homeland Security at such a crucial turning point,” the group’s executive director, Jeremy Robbins, said. “We look forward to working with him to build a smart, fair, humane immigration system that reflects American values.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us, which seeks more immigration to the U.S. to fill tech jobs with foreign workers, previously stated its backing of Mayorkas.
“He has previously been confirmed three times by the United States Senate, and we urge his swift confirmation to ensure there is a Senate-confirmed leader of DHS at this critical time,” FWD.us President Todd Schulte said.
The American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), which hosted Mayorkas for a seminar, has been actively lobbying Senate Republicans to approve Biden’s pick. ABIC is made up of Republican donors and business executives.
Mayorkas’s widespread support among the business lobby and donor class comes as they have fought President Trump’s asylum reforms, travel bans, visa rules, and refugee resettlement cutbacks. Mayorkas, oppositely, has had an exceptionally friendly relationship with corporate special interests.
In recent years, Mayorkas represented corporations such as T-Mobile, Sprint, Uber, Airbnb, Intuit, Cisco Systems, and the Wall Street firm Blackstone. Specifically, Mayorkas helped T-Mobile and Sprint during their billion-dollar merger, which has already resulted in thousands of layoffs of Americans while experts expect 30,000 Americans in total to lose their jobs.
Previously, Mayorkas served as deputy secretary at DHS under the Obama administration, during which time the Inspector General (IG) unveiled that he had improperly helped secure EB-5 visas for well-connected wealthy foreign nationals.
In 2015, the IG noted that multiple staffers at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had reported Mayorkas for intervening in three specific EB-5 visa cases in which foreign investors had been denied visas. In each case, Mayorkas intervened on behalf of the foreign investors to appeal the decisions and secure them visas.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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