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Author: RedDawn

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RedDawn

Posted by RedDawn on July 02, 2014 13 Comments
Florida's 18th Congressional District has an interesting contender: Calvin Turnquest. Born in Nassau, Bahamas, Turnquest cites one of his proudest moments as taking the oath to become a United States citizen. A citizen by choice. Having been through the tedious American immigration system, starting as an international college student at the University of Miami, Turnquest hopes to be the GOP's new face of legal immigration. Turnquest, hoping to represent Floridians in Allen West's old district, has lived and worked in the district for 15 years. During that time, he and his wife (a practicing physician) have owned small businesses and Turnquest served as a Councilman and Vice Mayor for the Village of Tequesta. "Those of us who have been through the process feel disenfranchised by those who get to jump in front of the line," Turnquest said in an interview with me. A sentiment held by many who have been through the American immigration ringer. He hopes that in being able to share his story of working hard to achieve the American dream, other immigrants will be emboldened to choose citizenship legally. Believing Republicans too often and too easily concede to Democrats when it comes to immigration reform, Turnquest said, "Pandering is a bad move, we're handing this country and the votes to the Democrats." He went on to say, "I'm so tired of hearing Republicans say, "let's take a page from the Democrat's playbook," that's ridiculous! We need to be changing the conversation and driving the narrative." "Experience the American dream like I have. Go to the back of the line, pay the fees, pay your taxes and then you'll be welcome with open arms," Turnquest proposed. He also indicated that there reasons we have certain immigration regulations in place, like protecting American citizens. "When I went through the process, I had to present the U.S. Embassy with a certificate of health. One problem I see with illegal immigration; we don't know who's been vaccinated for what," he mentioned.

Posted by RedDawn on July 01, 2014 40 Comments
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. If you haven't heard of it before now, you probably will as tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors flood across the border, having been "abandoned" by their parents in Central America. A Legal Insurrection reader tipped us off to what could be a coming legal onslaught to give these children a right to stay in the U.S. permanently:
"Special Immigrant Juvenile Status is something that we attorneys on the border have been getting CLE training in for a while, but largely it has not been well known outside of CPS attorney work. With the invasion now taking place, it is going to explode.  No parents means that any immigrant child under 18 can apply for a Green Card as soon as they are deemed "abandoned" by their parents for 6 months by the court system.  There are some other minor rules, but that is the big one.... The bill renewal was the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.  It modified and exempted application of certain rules which would normally result in inadmissibility....  Also, it set up an "expedited" review schedule that USCIS is REQUIRED to adjudicate SIJ petitions within 180 days of filing, and that interviews may be WAIVED for SIJ petitioners under 14 years of age or when it is determined that an interview is unnecessary. Further, per the Violence Against Women Act of 2005, a SIJ petitioner may not be required to contact an individual who allegedly abused, abandoned or neglected the Juvenile. What nobody is talking about (or maybe nobody has realized yet) is that this is going to flood the child welfare courts FIRST, before they get to the USCIS (certain findings of fact which can only be made by the state are prerequisites to SIJS applications) with a sudden influx of "abandoned" children, and put a strain on the CPS system like nothing that has ever been seen."
SIJS regulations are part of 8 CFR 204.11 Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) allows for children to obtain federal legal status in the U.S. if a state court deems they cannot be reunited with the parents and have suffered either abuse, abandonment, neglect or other similar offenses under state law. Children must also be unmarried, and it must be determined that it's not in the child's best interest to return to their country. SIJS is not the same as refugee or asylum status, which both bear very different legal tests.

Posted by RedDawn on June 30, 2014 34 Comments
In what appeared to be an attempt to divert the news cycle from another round of SCOTUS smackdowns, President Obama announced this afternoon that he will bypass Congress to enact "comprehensive immigration reform." However, at no point did he discuss what his plan would entail. Citing an attempt to work with Congress a year and a half ago, President Obama declared Congress' inaction and political posturing to be the reason he must take executive action. "I would sign an immigration bill into law today and Washington would solve a problem in a bipartisan way," President Obama said.  "For more than a year, Republicans in the house have refused to allow an up or down vote to fix our broken immigration system."  "I take executive action only when we have a serious problem and Congress chooses to do nothing," the President assured. The most chilling portion of his announcement was when he suggested,  "American cannot wait forever for them to act. That's why today, I'm beginning a new effort to fix our immigration system... on my own, without congress."

Posted by RedDawn on June 29, 2014 8 Comments
The Mississippi Senate Runoff election was viewed by the media as the last, best chance for a Tea Party inspired Republican primary challenger to unseat a Republican incumbent in a primary. But there remains the Kansas primary in which Dr. Milton Wolf is challenging Pat Roberts on August 5. Legal Insurrection supports Dr. Wolf as the type of inspirational next generation of conservative Republican we need to lead us, not merely go along to get along. Can Dr. Wolf pull off the upset? The two races, several weeks out from the primary, appear to have similarities: An incumbent Senator who's been in Washington, D.C., for over forty years, a seemingly unbreachable power machine with money to burn and years of experience winning, and all the makings of yet another Tea Party vs. Establishment showdown. On the surface, Dr. Wolf would seem to have a difficult climb. A Survey USA poll released last week shows Wolf with 23% to Roberts 56% among likely GOP voters. Unlike Mississippi though, Kansas has closed primaries, and Dr. Wolf's main problem is lack of name recognition. According to his internal polling, among people who know of both candidates, the gap is much, much closer, with Dr. Wolf actually leading. In Mississippi, early April polling showed Thad Cochran with at 17% lead for the June 3 original primary, but that gap closed quickly in the final weeks to a virtual dead heat on June 3.  Could the gap close in Kansas if national attention focused on the race? We sat down with Dr. Wolf to get his side of the story. Here's what he had to say:

Posted by RedDawn on June 26, 2014 11 Comments
A group of terrorism victims is seeking unsatisfied court judgements. How do they plan to obtain the cash they were awarded? By taking over Iran's internet. At the helm are Israeli civil rights attorney, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Robert Tolchin of New York. Darshan-Leitner has won over  $1-billion in judgments, frozen more than $600-million in terrorist assets and collected $120 million in payments, according to the National Post. She hopes to replicate her success in her latest effort. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is an agency of the US Department of Commerce in Washington, DC, which administrator the World Wide Web. ICANN licenses domain names like ".gov" ".ca" and in this case, ".ir". Countries are then able to allocate the domain names, effectively making ".ir" an asset.  Court papers have been served to ICANN and seek ownership of top-level domain names like .ir TLD, the ایران TLD and all Internet Protocol (IP) addresses being utilized by the Iranian government and its agencies. Darshan-Leitner believes these domains are worth the over $1-billion required to satisfy the outstanding debts owed by the Iranian government to the families participating in the civil suit.

Posted by RedDawn on June 25, 2014 45 Comments
I never see an immigration conversation on the right that doesn't include some form of, "but we must secure the border first!" And only once the border is secure are we free to discuss immigration reform in opaque generalities. To be clear, I don't disagree that border security is the paramount issue, where I deviate though, is that I don't believe border security should be conditional for immigration reform. The border should be secured at all times -- period. To be sure, the issues are somewhat related. Border security strengthens our ability to mitigate would be illegal crossers, but I'd argue secure borders are predominantly a function of national security, protection of national sovereignty, and Constitutional obligation, none of which should be used as a bargaining chip for eVerify (or any other piece of immigration reform). Reality doesn't provide a scenario where in the context of immigration reform talks, troops are sent to secure the border and then comprehensive immigration reform is implemented. This will never happen. Not in this manner, anyway. Of course it's worth mentioning such a promise was made as part of Reagan's 1986 reform package and we all know how that panned out. Yet the right collectively includes border security as a prerequisite to make other immigration concessions. I understand the logic, but why handicap ourselves right out of the gate? Reform without secure borders isn't fixing every problem we have and certainly doesn't address the influx of illegal immigration filtering through our southern border. However, using border security as a means to come to the immigration table seems short sighted and ineffective.

Posted by RedDawn on June 24, 2014 17 Comments
Yesterday, President Obama announced America should aspire to be more like France when supplying employee benefits. The Washington Examiner reports:
“Other countries know how to do this,” Obama said. “If France can figure this out, we can figure it out.” “Many women can't even get a paid day off to give birth,” Obama said. “There is only one developed country in the world that does not offer paid maternity leave, and that is us. And that is not a list you want to be on, by your lonesome.”
On the surface, this sounds like a fair enough argument, but then so does raising the minimum wage... until you consider the numeric reality. Unlike the United States, France's unemployment rate clocks in at a steady 10% for workers over 25. Under 25, the rate is closer to 25% unemployed. For perspective, the US and the UK both hover around a 6% unemployment rate. But that's not the only factor worth considering. Remember the infamous 75% tax? That was France, all France. Take a look at where France ranks in taxation comparable to the United States: [caption id="attachment_90228" align="aligncenter" width="639"]Source: Tax Policy Center Source: Tax Policy Center[/caption] Tax conditions in France are so horrid, that entrepreneurs are fleeing to countries with more agreeable taxation rates. The New York Times discussed this phenomenon. This aspiring entrepreneur left for the UK:

Posted by RedDawn on June 23, 2014 3 Comments
Tomorrow Mississippi decides which Republican will face off against Democratic Challenger, Travis Childers, in the bid for a coveted U.S. Senate seat. Easily one of the most bizarre primary elections I've witnessed, the final campaign pushes have produced more oddities. Yes, more. 

McCain encourages vets to support Cochran

Earlier today at a rally for Cochran at the War Memorial auditorium in Jackson, Senator McCain appeared to stump for Cochran. According to The State, "I call on my fellow veterans, I call on my fellow service members to send Thad Cochran, a good and decent and honorable senator, back to the United States Senate," McCain pleaded. This follows Senator McCain's 2008 criticisms of Senator Cochran on Meet the Press:
We all know as much as I love Thad Cochran, he's an appropriator and I have fought him hard time after time after time on these pork barrel projects he's been famous for, many of which in my view have been harmful to the economy and harmful to our environment. We've had strong words from time to time about pork barrel spending. He's one of the great pork barrelers and he's very proud of that.
Emphasis mine, because well, that's the money line. You can watch McCain's 2008 remarks here:

Poll released this weekend shows McDaniel lead growing

Chism Strategies released a poll Saturday that shows McDaniel with a 52-44 lead over Cochran with 4% undecided. As UPI reports:
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