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Immigration Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 14, 2014 31 Comments

Even though some meaningful immigration changes could pass Congress, Democrats want full amnesty, and will settle for nothing else.  All other immigration reforms are held hostage to that demand. Unable to move the Republican House on amnesty (yet), the Obama administration has been going it alone...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 03, 2014 33 Comments
Ross Douthat, a columnist for the NY Times, is not someone people usually refer to as part of the Republican "base." Stephen Colbert describes him as the "conservative columnist at the NY Times, which also qualifies him to be the liberal columnist for the NY Post." But he's with the base when it comes to Republican immigration "principles" released on Friday:
THE debate over immigration reform, rekindled last week by House Republican leaders, bears a superficial resemblance to last fall’s debate over the government shutdown. Again, you have establishment Republicans transparently eager to cut a deal with the White House and a populist wing that doesn’t want to let them do it. Again, you have Republican business groups and donors wringing their hands over the intransigence of the base, while talk-radio hosts and right-wing bloggers warn against an imminent inside-the-Beltway sellout. Again, you have a bill that could pass the House tomorrow — but only if John Boehner was willing to live with having mostly Democrats voting for it. Except there’s one big difference: This time, the populists are right. They’re right about the policy, which remains a mess in every new compromise that’s floated — offering “solutions” that are unlikely to be permanent, enforcement provisions that probably won’t take effect, and favoring special interests, right and left, over the interests of the citizenry at large.
Among the many problems, any form of legalization prior to enforcement is folly. And therein lies the problem. Obama will not sign a meaningful "enforcement first" bill, so either Republicans repeat the mistakes of the past, or the "principles" go nowhere while disrupting Republicans focus for 2014. Greg Sargent of WaPo, reliable conduit of Democratic thinking, notes that Republicans don't trust Obama to enforce the law, so will impose preconditions that will be unacceptable to Obama:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 20, 2014 31 Comments
From Micky Kaus, a prediction as to what will be in the House proposals we will receive as soon as next week, The Coming GOP Amnesty Sellout Push
Lobbyists, on the march! The coming weeks will see the formal start of the GOP House leadership’s attempt to sneak an immigration amnesty through the Republican caucus and into law. We don’t know the exact details of the proposals, but we know enough: 1) There will be some form of legalization (conditional amnesty) for the 11 million illegal immigrants already here. It won’t give them a “special” path to citizenship, but they will likely be able to pursue citizenship through regular old channels. Either way, the message sent to potential future immigrants will be, “If you come here illegally, you’ll get to stay legally.” Plus, once the bill has passed the Democratic campaign to paint the GOP as racist for not granting general citizenship to the whole group will begin. 2) There will be an attempt to describe Speaker Boehner’s “piecemeal” collection of immigration bills as an “enforcement first” arrangement that will prevent another, future illegal wave despite the incentive created by what will be two successive amnesties.... That means a convoluted debate over “triggers,” the traditional playground for legislative legerdemain.*** Legalizers will try to make the prequisites look tough when they aren’t — certainly nothing that can’t be easily dismantled once the undocumented get their documents. Do not count on the press to correct this misimpression. They’re in the “fool the rubes” camp too.
An important part of all this will be Democrats pretending to fall on their swords just to get something passed. That's just a guess. Oh wait!

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 14, 2014 14 Comments
Any other "Bs" you can come up with regarding this? Lawmakers unveil massive $1.1 trillion spending bill in bipartisan compromise:
Congressional negotiators unveiled a $1.1 trillion funding bill late Monday that would ease sharp spending cuts known as the sequester while providing fresh cash for new priorities, including President Obama’s push to expand early-childhood education. The 1,582-page bill would fully restore cuts to Head Start, partially restore cuts to medical research and job training programs, and finance new programs to combat sexual assault in the military. It would also give all federal workers a 1 percent raise.... The White House and leaders of both parties praised the measure, which would fund federal agencies for the remainder of the fiscal year and end the lingering threat of a government shutdown when the current funding bill expires at midnight Wednesday.... The spending bill puts flesh on the bones of a bipartisan budget deal struck in December, when Republicans and Democrats agreed to partially repeal the sequester, heading off a roughly $20 billion cut set to hit the Pentagon on Wednesday and restoring funding to domestic agencies, which had already absorbed sequester reductions. Despite the increases, the bill would leave agency budgets tens of billions of dollars lower than Obama had requested and ­congressional Democrats had sought. That represents a victory for congressional Republicans, who, after three years of fevered battles over the budget, have succeeded in rolling back agency appropriations to a level on par with the final years of the George W. Bush administration, before spending skyrocketed in an effort to combat the recession.
So it's being portrayed as more of a Republican win? I think I'll need to digest it a little more before coming to that conclusion. One thing it does do is allow Republicans to focus like a laser on Obamacare for the 2014 elections.  Oh, wait:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 04, 2013 26 Comments
Amnesty for illegal aliens never seems to be really, truly dead, despite frequent pronouncements. The news that John Boehner has hired a former John McCain staffer involved in McCain's push for immigration reform has rekindled speculation that Boehner will go soft on the issue. Steve Dinan in The Washington Times write, Hola: Boehner prepares to push amnesty bill through House:
House Speaker John A. Boehner announced Tuesday that he has hired a longtime advocate of legalizing illegal immigrants to be an adviser, signaling that the Republican is still intent on trying to pass an immigration bill during this congressional session. Immigrant rights advocates cheered the move as a sign of Mr. Boehner’s dedication to action. Those who want a crackdown on illegal immigration said the top Republican in the House has moved closer to embracing amnesty by hiring Rebecca Tallent, a former staffer for Sen. John McCain and fellow Arizona Republican Jim Kolbe. Tallent’s hiring suggests he really does still want to push an amnesty through the House, which to me suggests that the immigration hawks still have their work cut out for them,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “She is a professional amnesty advocate.” Ms. Tallent is leaving a job as immigration policy director for the Bipartisan Policy Center and will join Mr. Boehner’s staff Wednesday, putting her in the center of one of the thorniest issues in Congress.
Roll Call reports, Boehner’s New Immigration Policy Director Has Deep Experience on Overhaul Efforts:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 02, 2013 40 Comments

We have been covering the case of the Romeikes, devout Christians from Germany who wanted to homeschool their children because of what they perceived as the secularist agenda in German public schools. They fled and sought asylum in the U.S. after they faced mounting fines...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 30, 2013 25 Comments
If Obama can do it, why can't I? A follow up to a prior question, What race is an illegal alien? Obama is pivoting back to immigration reform, which really amounts to an amnesty push, because without amnesty there could be "reform" of a wide variety of immigration issues. During a speech at DreamWorks, Obama curiously stated that he could tell who were immigrants based on their faces (transcript via RCP):
OBAMA: As I was getting a tour of DreamWorks, I didn't ask, but just looking at faces, I could tell there were some folks who are here not because they were born here, but because they want to be here and they bring extraordinary talents to the United States. And that's part of what makes America special. And that's part of what, by the way, makes California special, because it's always been this magnet of dreamers and strivers. And people coming from every direction saying to themselves, you know, if I work hard there I can have my piece of the American Dream.
I know exactly what he means. I spotted this immigrant from a mile away (the one on the left). Piers Morgan Mike Tyson Must have been the fear of deportation on his face:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 14, 2013 13 Comments
Immigration reform could pass easily if Democrats did not insist on holding the entire enterprise hostage to their demand for amnesty and  citizenship even for adults who knowingly and deliberately broke our immigration laws to get here.  (Does that make Democrats hostage takers and immigration reform arsonists?) Rationalizing the system by which people legally enter the U.S. so as to accomodate a variety of national objectives, including agricultural and high-tech workforce needs, is the equivalent of a 25-yard field goal. Not a gimme, but pretty close. Enforcement mechanisms are the potential gusts of wind that could throw the ball off course, but those could be overcome. The problem is that Democrats don't want reform, they want amnesty and more Democrat voters. Fundamentally transforming the electorate, not immigration reform, is the Democratic objective. John Boehner just said no to mixing reform and amnesty in one massive bill which mixes good reforms with bad amnesty provisions. The Washington Times reports:
House Speaker John A. Boehner on Wednesday flatly ruled out even entering into negotiations with the Senate on that chamber’s immigration bill, signaling that the issue is dead for this year — and setting up major hurdles for any action before the midterm elections. Emerging from a meeting with fellow Republicans, Mr. Boehner said he won’t be bound by President Obama’s timeline on action this year, and firmly rejected the Senate’s approach, which would legalize most illegal immigrants and rewrite the legal immigration system.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 07, 2013 25 Comments
It's broken windows theory, at a very personal level. If you hang out with people who have zero respect for our laws and who think it is their right to mock us openly and dare us to deport them in accordance with law (knowing full well the political theater that would create), why are you so surprised that they secretly record your meeting and then use it to help their cause even if it embarrasses you? Really, Democratic Representative Luis Gutierrez from Illinois, why did you think there would be any honor from these people and that they wouldn't break your window after breaking our immigration windows? Via Fox Latino, Leading Pro-Immigrant Congressman Severs Ties With DREAMer Groups; Calls Them Manipulative, Racists:
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, the vocal proponent in Congress for a change in policy that would give undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as minors a chance to legalize their status, has cut off ties with two groups that have coordinated provocative protests in recent months. Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois, on Monday evening issued a press release announcing that he was no longer going to work with the National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA) and their affiliated advocates at DREAMActivist.org. The congressman said the final straw in a series of actions by the groups that he has found unsettling was the secret recording by a NIYA representative of what was to have been a confidential discussion last week between Gutierrez and parents of immigrants who are being held in an immigrant detention center in El Paso, Tex. "It just shows me how dangerous they are," Gutierrez said in an interview Tuesday with Fox News Latino....
As to the racism part, you have enabled that too.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 26, 2013 23 Comments
Republican split! Rift! Schism! The media is already salivating, Immigration Poses Threat of Another Republican Rift:
A push to bring immigration legislation to the House floor, led by an unusual coalition of business executives, prominent conservatives and evangelical leaders, threatens to create another schism in the Republican Party and could have a noticeable effect on campaign contributions before the midterm elections. Several Republican executives and donors who are part of a lobbying blitz coming to Capitol Hill next week said they were considering withholding, or had already decided to withhold, future financial support to Republican lawmakers they believe are obstructing progress on immigration. “I respect people’s views and concerns about the fact that we have a situation in the United States where we have millions of undocumented immigrants,” said Justin Sayfie, a lawyer from Florida who said he helped Mitt Romney raise more than $100,000 for his presidential campaign last year, in addition to helping other Republican candidates. “But we have what we have. This is October 2013. And the country will be better off if we fix it.”
In reality, the split, rift and schism is mostly over one issue: Amnesty. Democrats repeatedly have said no amnesty, no immigration "reform." It's their hill to die on, much as no meaningful changes to Obamacare was their hill to die on when it came to the "shutdown" and debt ceiling. Republican business interests and money men are willing to give amnesty in order to obtain other non-controversial immigration reforms. And in so doing, the Republican business interests and money men make it less likely they will get anything.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 20, 2013 18 Comments

Looks like the chance of "comprehensive immigration reform" (a/k/a amnesty) passing the House just got a little less. From Greg Sargent at WaPo, In blow to immigration reform, House `gang of seven’ bill looks dead In a blow to the hopes of passing immigration reform anytime soon, the bipartisan House...

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