Something to think about!

“Although Barack Obama and like-minded tyrants profess to be driven by humanitarian compassion for non-English speaking, impoverished illegal aliens, the truth is far more cynical, perhaps even criminal.

Indeed, the overwhelming support for amnesty among liberals is based on simple electoral math: Granting citizenship to tens of millions of illegals would unquestionably alter the political balance of power in a manner favorable to nanny-state socialists, at the expense of capitalist, free-market American citizens.

Amnesty would have the intended consequence of immediately transforming predominantly conservative and Republican “red states” into “blue state” bastions of socialism, and worse, where welfare, food stamps, entitlements, and one-party (Democratic) tyranny would prevail.”

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/63632?utm_source=CFP+Mailout&utm_campaign=195a64f6db-Call_to_Champions&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d8f503f036-195a64f6db-291132961

GOP Will Bring Amnesty Back After Election

Conservatives are preparing to bolt the party and wipe the dust of the GOP off their feet on the way out

Canada Free Press, by J.D. Longstreet, Tuesday, February 11, 2014 

They’ve lost what little trust I had in them.  The Establishment Republicans in the US House of Representatives, I mean.

Let me be clear.  If the GOP manages to pass amnesty for illegal aliens through the House of Representatives before November of 2016, they will have to ram it down the throats of the conservative base.  If they are prepared to do that, then we invite then to, by all means, go for it.  But they should be prepared to assume minority party status in a three party system afterwards.

I say that because conservatives are preparing to bolt the party and wipe the dust of the GOP off their feet on the way out. 

If the conservatives pull out, you can stick a fork in the GOP, for it will be done.

t’s time also for the Tea Party to begin throwing it’s considerable weight around.  I would respectfully suggest that the Tea Party leaders need to huddle and come up with new plans to further the conservative cause within the GOP and the Congress as a whole.  We all know where “nice guys” finish.

READ IT ALL HERE!

You Can’t Trust Washington on Immigration

Obama has “already circumvented immigration law with respect to large numbers of unlawful immigrants already in the country.”

Heritage Foundation,  Amy Payne, February 7, 2014

President Obama can’t be trusted to enforce U.S. laws—and that makes many lawmakers hesitant to pass new immigration laws.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said yesterday that this was proving to be a roadblock:

Listen, there’s widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws. And it’s going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes.

READ MORE.  

The Scam of Amnesty, a Political Hot Potato

Calling an illegal alien an ‘undocumented immigrant’ is like calling a drug dealer an ‘unlicensed pharmacist.’

Canada Free Press, by Dr. Illena Johnson, February 4, 2014

“You can’t have open borders as long as you have a welfare state.” – Milton Friedman

As a legal immigrant who waited patiently across the ocean to receive my permission to immigrate to the U.S., I understand the plight of over four million forgotten legal immigrants who are awaiting patiently the disposition of their cases, while the Immigration office works the backlog of applications, some as old as twenty years.

But do pro-amnesty pundits, lobbyists, MSM talking heads, Republicans, Democrats, Big Labor, Big Corporations, and other interested groups refer to this situation when they label our immigration system “broken?”

I was curious and decided to do a random survey of people on the streets of D.C., in stores, and by written request on various social networks, assuring those polled that their answers will remain anonymous. My two questions were simple:

1.      Do you believe that the current immigration system is “broken” and why?

2.      Will amnesty of millions of illegal aliens hurt/help this country and why?

The large majority of Democrats polled believed that our immigration system is broken; they could not tell me why they thought it broken, with the exception of a few very confident individuals who blamed the current level of illegal immigration on former President George W. Bush.

CONTINUE READING.

Bracing for Amnesty--A jab at the Tea Party?

Canada Free Press, By Arnold Ahlert, February 1, 2014

Unbelievable as it may be to their core constituency, House Republicans are now embracing comprehensive immigration reform. Late yesterday, the Hill obtained a one-page document outlining the GOP’s “statement of principals,” that endorses a path to legal status, once “specific enforcement triggers” have been achieved.

In an apparent sop to their base, House leadership stopped short of offering a path to citizenship, citing unfairness to those who have emigrated here legally, and the “harm” it would do to the rule of law. “Rather, these persons could live legally and without fear in the U.S., but only if they were willing to admit their culpability, pass rigorous background checks, pay significant fines and back taxes, develop proficiency in English and American civics, and be able to support themselves and their families (without access to public benefits),” the paper states.

CONTINUED. 

Just How Many Illegal Aliens Are Here, and Who the Hell Are They?

Before considering amnesty, Government needs to determine how many illegals are here, what medical, criminal, financial, social questions must be answered before anyone is allowed to bypass the rule of law

Canada Free Press, By John Lillpop, February 1, 2014

As the Republican party continues to abandon the American people by morphing into a far-left wing of the Democrat Party on issues like immigration, many important questions about illegals are not being asked, to the potential detriment of American citizens.

For example, conventional wisdom(?) is that there are 11 million illegals in America.  That number has been bandied about for years, with little or no substantiation.

However, if the government’s ability to estimate is anything as pathetic as we have seen with ObamaCare, one can reasonably expect that there are many, many more illegals here than the Democrats are claiming.

Then, the question not being asked is: Who in the hell are these people?

FIND OUT HERE. 

Tea Party Legislative Update, January 26, 2014

House/Senate Action: Weeks of 1/13/14-1/26/14

The House will be in session Monday through Wednesday of next week.
The Senate will be in session Monday through Thursday of next week.

CALENDAR NOTES:

The President’s State of the Union Address will take place Tuesday evening at 9 PM. The House Republican retreat in Cambridge, Maryland will begin place the following day.

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington – the
highest-ranking Republican woman in the Congress – will deliver the official Republican response to the President’s State of the Union address.

As he did last year, Sen. Rand Paul will offer his own response, via YouTube and other social media channels. And Sen. Mike Lee will offer a Tea Party response, sponsored by Tea Party Express.

Note: In recent weeks, we've heard a lot about the content of the President’s address, with much speculation indicating that he would again focus on income inequality. But in the last few days, the White House has been leaking information suggesting that because polling by outside allies shows that “income inequality” leads too many people to think he’s really talking about income redistribution (which he is), the language has been tweaked, and instead he’ll talk about “expanding ladders of opportunity,” which is language right out of the old Jack Kemp/Ronald Reagan playbook.

REVIEW:

The House took up and passed H.R. 3362, the “Exchange Information and Disclosure Act,” requiring the Administration to provide regularly weekly updates on the status of the ObamaCare rollout. The measure passed by a vote of 259-154, with 33 Democrats joining 226 Republicans in support.

As we predicted two weeks ago, Senate Republicans – including the six who voted to proceed to consideration of the extension of emergency unemployment benefits – held firm in insisting that the $6.4 billion measure be paid for realistically. (You may recall, Majority Leader Harry Reid had offered to “pay for” the me asure by extending the Sequester for two more years – a joke of a “pay for” that the Senate GOP immediately rejected.) So far, there’s been no further movement.

DEBT CEILING:

As per the October agreement that reopened the federal government, the debt ceiling was suspended until February 7. That’s less than two weeks from now.

In the past, the Treasury has employed what it calls “extraordinary measures” to continue paying federal bills beyond the reaching of the national debt limit. In some cases, this ability has extended for literally months, and early projections this time around indicated that Treasury would be able to use these cash-management gimmicks to buy time through late spring – possibly as late as May or even early June. But February is typically a heavy deficit-spending month, as tax refunds are sent out by the Treasury, so Treasury Secretary Jack Lew sent a letter to the Hill last Wednesday informing Congress that Treasury’s ability to use these “extraordinary measures” to continue paying federals bills will run out by the end of February, and, therefore, Congress must take action early next month.  Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell – no doubt influenced by the fact that he faces a competitive
primary challenge from his right in his reelection campaign – appeared on FOX News Sunday this morning to reiterate his insistence that any debt ceiling increase also include policy riders.

Meanwhile, House Republicans – led by Speaker Boehner – are on the same page, and continue to search for consensus in the House GOP Conference as to what those policy riders might be. Among the possibilities: repealing the “risk corridor” provisions in ObamaCare, to ensure that taxpayers are not stuck with the bill for a massive bailout of health insurance companies; approval of the Keystone XL pipeline; and repealing the medical device tax in ObamaCare.

BUDGET:

The White House announced on Thursday that it would release the President’s budget proposal on March 4, roughly a month later than the February 9 deadline required under law. It attributed the delay to the December budget deal. News reports indicate his budget will propose higher taxes on wealthy Americans, and more spending on infrastructure and early education programs.

Meanwhile, there’s been some talk on Capitol Hill that Republicans in the House may decide not to propose and consider a budget for FY2015 at all. Near as I can tell, it’s coming from operatives at the National Republican Congressional Committee and associated consultants, who seem to think that taking votes on a GOP budget is unnecessary (since the budget deal concluded in December includes top-line spending guidelines for FY2015 already), so why risk giving Democrats campaign fodder?

Nevertheless, top House Republicans – including Speaker Boehner and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan – indicate that they plan to move a budget, as the law requires.

OBAMACARE:

Week before last, a study by McKinsey & Co. revealed that the ObamaCare exchanges had made little progress in actually extending insurance to those who had previously been uninsured. In fact, according to the study, of the roughly 2.2 million people who had signed up for insurance on the federal and state exchanges through the end of December, only 11 percent had been previously uninsured. Those who failed to use the exchanges to enroll cited two big reasons – the high cost of insurance premiums (cited by 52%), and the difficulty of navigating the web sites (cited by 30%).

That same week, Gary Cohen, the director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at HHS, testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that the back end of Healthcare.gov is still under construction, and he refused to pin down an estimated completion date. The “back end” is the automated system that sends payments to insurance companies after someone enrolls on one of the exchange web sites. Without this information, the insurance companies literally have no idea who’s enrolled, and who gets a subsidy. They’re flying blind.

Documents released by HHS last week show just how serious a problem this is – to justify firing CGI Federal (the main contractor on Healthcare.gov) and awarding the contract on a sole-source basis to Accenture, HHS revealed that they believe this problem puts “the entire health insurance industry at risk” … “potentially leading to their default and disrupting continued services and coverage to consumers.” Then the memo went even further, saying that if the problem isn’t fixed by mid-March, “they will result in financial harm to the government,” and went on to add that without the necessary fixes, “the entire health care reform program is jeopardized.”

Also that same week, Speaker Boehner announced that House Republicans would offer – and possibly vote on – a replacement for ObamaCare. That promises to be one of the main topics of conversation at the House Retreat that begins Wednesday.

Support for an alternative comes, generally, from the conservatives in the House GOP Conference, who want an issue agenda to run on, not just something to run against. And, as virtually always happens, the GOP consultant class, whose thinking generally runs along the lines of, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” opposes them. These consultants see a continued bad economy and a continued disastrous rollout for ObamaCare as their tickets to victory in the 2014 midterm elections, and they seek to minimize opportunities for the Democrats to turn things around.

IMMIGRATION:

As we discussed in our call two weeks ago, House Republican leaders have begun quietly circulating a set of principles on immigration reform that includes a proposal to offer legal status to illegal immigrants. Their thinking is simple – no one believes you can round up and deport 11 million illegal immigrants, so we’ve got to find a way to create a legal status for them short of citizenship.

We expect the one-page document will be released at the House GOP Retreat later this week.
The new principles will envision a legal process by which illegal immigrants can admit guilt and pay fines and any back taxes, and then gain the right to live and work in the U.S. and travel abroad. It will insist that no legalization provisions take effect until border security and other enforcement measures are in place, sources familiar with the draft said.

Unlike under the Senate bill, they will not automatically qualify for citizenship – what critics call a
"special path." But legislation being crafted by Republican lawmakers, apparently with the support of House leaders, would let newly legalized immigrants apply for legal permanent residence, also known as a green card, using the pathways available to anyone else. And here’s the problem for us – once someone has a green card, he or she is eligible to apply for citizenship.

Some House conservatives are planning to introduce their own alternative immigration proposal, which will focus on enforcement of current laws and providing economic assistance to unemployed citizens before providing legal status to illegal immigrants. The alternatives being circulated properly take note of the fact that the White House- and Senate-approved legislation isn’t problematic just because it creates an amnesty for the illegal immigrants who are already here, but it drastically increases the number of foreign unskilled guest workers who could be imported, which would depress wages across the board.

On Thursday, 15 of these conservative House Republicans met with Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama to discuss ways to block the House GOP Leadership’s efforts.

As a reminder, Tea Party Patriots put our own principles for immigration reform last summer. They can be found by clicking on this link.  Stay tuned as this plays out.

100 Million Americans - Boehner's Hit List

TPN—Marcia Wood, January 18, 2014

Don't mistake that sad face as an American Patriot - that is the face of a man who has turned against his Country. No real tears folks - he's laughing all the way to the back while we're trying to hold down two part jobs and put food on our tables.

Over 100 million American workers are on John Boenher’s hit list – that seems to be a very rash statement. John Boehner, Cantor Ryan and Goodlatte have placed the amnesty issue on the front burner - that's reality. 

Boehner intends to get his way by giving millions of illegal aliens a free pass to our Nation’s jobs, medical care, unemployment insurance, food stamps, free education and Federally funded housing - this won’t just be a conversation piece it will be a reality in 2014 if “we the people don’t stop him.” 

READ MORE!

Will 2014 Be the Year of Amnesty?

Republicans might want to reorder their own priorities. A viable opposition party is a terrible thing to waste

By Arnold Ahlert 

Canada Free Press, January 3, 2014

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) seems determined to undo the political advantage the GOP has gained from the disastrous implementation of ObamaCare.

According to the New York Times, Boehner “has signaled he may embrace a series of limited changes to the nation’s immigration laws in the coming months,” bringing up a series of bills to advance that agenda. Apparently Boehner is holding firm to the belief that the need for some kind of “reform” outweighs the risks of alienating his core constituency.

According to the Boehner’s aides, the Speaker is considering a “step by step” process, though they did not identify these steps in specificity. TheTimes, no doubt in an effort to be “helpful,” suggested that such an agenda might include fast-tracking legalization for agricultural workers, increasing the number of visas for high-tech workers, or embracing citizenship for young illegals whose parents brought them across the border.

Unsurprisingly, gaining control of the border failed to make the list.

READ THE ARTICLE!  

Exclusive: J. Christian Adams’ Explosive New Claims

Major crisis for those who do not want Amnesty!

I hope you have a drink in your hand to ease the pain. Because if you fear amnesty, watch this interview and fear it some more. All I have to say is the next president has to be one tough son of a gun. 

This policy/action will have devastating results that CAN NOT BE REVERSED!

PLEASE WATCH AND LISTEN CAREFULLY!

http://video.foxnews.com/v/2903095880001/exclusive-j-christian-adams-explosive-new-claims/

CCTA ACTION ALERT

 Numbers USA Action Alert:  In hiring a McCain open-borders expert, Boehner shows his commitment to forcing American workers to compete with millions more foreign workers

IF YOU WANT TO EXPRESS AN IMMEDIATE -- AND FREE -- OPINION TO CONGRESS ABOUT SPEAKER BOEHNER'S LATEST AMNESTY MOVE, YOU'LL FIND THE LINKS IN THE "RED ACTION BOX" BELOW.

House Speaker Boehner's latest staff addition indicates he plans to battle us throughout 2014 in trying to pass the amnesty he so much craves.

Adding Sen. John McCain's former chief of staff to his staff today signals that Boehner is not ready to bow to the majority wishes of voters who believe the U.S. does NOT have a labor shortage and does NOT need to add millions more foreign workers to the legal laborforce.

Russell Berman of The Hill was clear on the significance of Boehner's new hire:

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has hired a veteran expert on immigration policy, a move that could signal a renewed House effort to act on the issue in 2014.

Rebecca Tallent, director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, will start her new job as assistant to the Speaker on Wednesday. . . 

Tallent previously served as chief of staff to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and was deeply involved in efforts to pass immigration reform in 2006 and 2007.

Advocates for immigration reform cheered the hiring of Tallent, viewing it as a sign that Boehner was serious about pursuing legislation in 2014.

Many of us have wondered if Boehner has just made this hire merely as a gesture to appease corporate lobbyists who are distraught about ending this year with nothing to show for the $1.5 billion spent over the last four years to pass "comprehensive immigration reform." Perhaps he knows that the new hire won't have any success in selling an amnesty to the 118 Republicans needed to allow Boehner to have the majority of his party agree to let him bring an amnesty to the House floor.

But one of the strongest Republican amnesty supporters suggests to The Hill that Tallent wouldn't have taken the job unless she thought she could do for Boehner what she has done for McCain in getting amnesties to floor votes:

"She is bright, knowledgeable. She is as good as anybody in the city. Period. End of story," Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) said. "It's a huge, huge get for Speaker Boehner. . . She's not going to be doing this if it's going to be a waste of her time."

Our Chris Chmielenski posted an informative and alarming blog about Tallent's background and her comments this year supporting massive increases in lifetime work permits for foreign citizens.

You can read the blog and join a vigorous discussion in the Comments section.

Our concern is not with Tallent personally. She has her own reasons for spending more than a decade writing legislation with mass amnesties and increases in foreign workers and in promoting them.

Our concern is with Speaker Boehner. After months of saying that he has no interest in anything like the Senate's S. 744 bill, why has he hired as his chief immigration aide somebody whose career is based on pushing bills like S. 744?

This is what I have been telling the media about what the new hire means:

It shows that Speaker Boehner remains committed to the corporate lobbies' quest for more foreign workers to hold down the wages of their American workers. His new hire has done almost nothing the last decade except work for giant increases in foreign labor. But Boehner still has to persuade at least 118 Republican House Members that their constituents would be okay with an expansion of immigration during the seventh year of high unemployment.

If you would like Speaker Boehner to know what you think of his latest signal of support for mass amnesty, click on the phone button for our toll-free number and talking points.

ACTIONS

Call Speaker Boehner

or click https://www.numbersusa.com/phones?ID=15610

If you want to make sure that your own Representative and staff understand the anti-American worker signal that Speaker Boehner has made with his new hire, click on the following red button to find choices of messages to send over the internet:

 Fax your Representative

or click https://www.numbersusa.com/actionbuffet

Yes, grassroots Americans in 2013 defeated Boehner, Obama, McCain, Ryan, Rubio and Schumer in their drive for comprehensive immigration increases and amnesty.

But that was this year.

The only thing that stopped Boehner from bringing amnesty to the House floor and moving it to Pres. Obama's desk was his fear of the majority of House Republicans who were pushed so hard by the grassroots to stand up to Boehner and the greedy corporate open borders lobby.

That will be the only thing that protects American workers in 2014.

Make sure your Members of Congress understand that you aren't giving up your anti-amnesty fight any more than Boehner apparently isn't giving up his pro-amnesty fight.

Thanks,

Roy Beck

OBAMA TO HECKLER: IF I COULD BYPASS CONGRESS TO DEAL WITH IMMIGRATION, ‘I WOULD DO SO’

President Barack Obama told a heckler Monday that if he could deal with immigration without going through Congress, he “would do so.”

The heckler, just a few rows behind Obama as he spoke about immigration reform in San Francisco, demanded Obama “end deportation now.”

“I need your help. There are thousands,” the heckler said.

Obama responded, “That’s exactly what we’re talking about here.”

The heckler said, “Mr. President, please issue an executive order” and implored him, “you have the power to end.”

VIDEO AND MORE:  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/25/obama-to-heckler-if-i-could-bypass-congress-to-deal-with-immigration-i-would-do-so/

Soros funded group planning mass move on amnesty October 28

Get ready for the next onslaught. George Soros and his social media pals are going to go after this Immigration big time. We shall see how Boehner holds up under this one. Here is the plan on how they are going to do this.

The event will take place on Oct. 28, coinciding with President Barack Obama’s and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s renewed push against House Speaker John Boehner for amnesty. Now that Obama, Reid, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are publicly pushing for amnesty after many mainstream media outlets declared it dead earlier this year, Soros’ groups are trying to make it appear as though conservatives support immigration legislation like the Senate-passed “Gang of Eight” bill. Ultimately, the left’s goal is to get the House to pass a series of piecemeal immigration bills and then combine them with the Senate bill in a conference committee.

Read more:  http://bunkerville.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/soros-funded-group-planning-mass-move-on-amnesty-october-28/

RUSH EXPLODES ON 'IRRELEVANT' REPUBLICANS

Says GOP 'just made a decision not to exist'

Rush Limbaugh, the leading conservative voice in America, is scorching the Republican Party as an irrelevant disaster which has apparently made a decision “not to exist.”

“I was trying to think earlier today if ever in my life I could remember any major political party being so irrelevant,” the top-rated radio host said Wednesday on his national broadcast.

“I have never seen it. I have never seen a major political party simply occupy placeholders as the Republican Party is doing. There hasn’t been any opposition [to Democrats], not any serious opposition.”

Limbaugh was non-stop in his criticism of the GOP during his opening monologue, continuing, “I was thinking about this last night, too, while I was pondering if I could ever remember a greater political disaster in my lifetime, if I could ever remember a time when a political party just made a decision not to exist, for all intents and purposes.”

The radio star said the Republican Party now can’t wait to move on granting amnesty to illegal aliens.

CONTINUED:  http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/rush-explodes-on-irrelevant-republicans/#CYjJhhkfUQpYZK1c.99

Obama Sends ICE Agents to Southern Border

Obama Sends ICE Agents to Southern Border to Pick Up “Youths” Awaiting Amnesty, Deliver Them to Northern “Sanctuary” Churches

I’ve learned a new term created by the immigration amnesty bill currently before the U.S. Senate: “Reverse Escorting.” If you want a preview of what “border security” will entail under Senators Boobio’s and Corkbrain’s amnesty bill, you should become familiar with reverse escorting.

DebbieSchlussel.com has exclusively learned from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents based in Michigan–and confirmed from ICE agents around the country–that the Obama administration is spending gazillions of your money to “reverse escort” illegal aliens caught at the border into the interior of the United States to await amnesty, rather than deporting them. ICE agents from northern border and interior states are being sent to southern border states like Texas to pick up “juvenile” illegal aliens caught sneaking into the border. Instead of deporting them, taxpayers are funding the escort of the illegal aliens to interior and northern border states to seek sanctuary in churches and other such locations while awaiting the passage of amnesty. Again, the practice is called, “reverse escorting.”

Outraged ICE agents in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for example, say that ICE’s “Enforcement and Removal Operations” (ERO) is sending each of their immigration agents down to Brownsville, Texas at least once or twice a week to pick up the illegal alien juveniles that have been caught because–the excuse goes–”there is no place to house them down there” (when they shouldn’t be “housed,” they should be DEPORTED). The ICE agents say that there is currently a huge influx of unaccompanied juveniles on the Southwest border because they think amnesty is coming. The ICE immigration agents are ordered to bring the illegal aliens up to Grand Rapids and to other American cities far north of the Texas border, so that the aliens can be lodged with charities while they await the passage of immigration amnesty. As one disgusted ICE agent said, “Our tax dollars at work again.”

CONTINUED:  http://teapartyorg.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=4301673%3ATopic%3A1774695&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_topic

PHILLIPS: Get politicians' attention: Occupy the Capitol

WASHINGTON, August 8, 2013 — Since 2009, the Tea Party movement has been at the forefront of conservative politics. The tea parties have held rallies, conventions, protests and almost every imaginable type of event to try to influence Washington.

Most of Washington does not want to listen to the Tea Party. Most of the Republican establishment gives the movement lip service, but no more.

Congress is now in its August recess. It will not return until September 9. When it returns, it will be faced with the two most important issues of our lifetime.

The first is Obamacare. Either Obamacare is defunded by the end of September, or it will never be defunded. 

The second is amnesty for undocumented aliens.

The Republicans are already working overtime to sell conservatives out on amnesty.

MORE:  PHILLIPS: Get politicians' attention: Occupy the Capitol

What Labor Shortage?

What Labor Shortage?

The Heritage Foundation Morning Bell

5 Immigration Questions for Your Congressman

08/07/2013

During the August congressional recess, a pro-amnesty coalition of business and union interests is putting the squeeze on members of the House of Representatives to pass a “comprehensive immigration reform” bill similar to the Senate-passed monstrosity. But hard-working Americans also have a voice and can speak up in town halls with House members while they’re in the districts. Here are five questions to remind them of the wisdom and importance of taking a step-by-step approach to immigration reform.

1. How can we afford an amnesty for illegal immigrants? 

We can’t. Over their lifetimes, the estimated 11.5 million illegal immigrants would cost federal, state, and local taxpayers trillions of dollars, because they will consume significantly more in government benefits and services than they pay in taxes. Amnesty for millions of predominantly low-skilled illegal immigrants also will depress wages for low-skilled Americans and make a tough job market more difficult.

2. If illegal immigrants win amnesty, how is that fair to the 4.5 million who are waiting to enter the United States legally?

It isn’t fair. America prides itself on the rule of law. As Americans, we should not allow those who break our laws to be rewarded—especially at the expense of those who are abiding by the rules. Rather than adequately streamlining our legalization system, some in Congress are pushing a new “path to citizenship” that grants amnesty to those who broke the law.

3. Can we ensure that a House-passed immigration bill doesn’t become a vehicle, in a deal with the Senate, for blanket amnesty? 

No, we can’t. With massive costs to taxpayers and carve-outs for special interests, the Senate-passed bill eerily resembles Obamacare in its unnecessary complexity. Even House members who correctly view the Senate’s “comprehensive” bill as a failed approach must be cognizant of the push to use any House-passed measure as a means to enact the Senate provisions. If conversations begin between the House and Senate on a compromise, major sections of the Senate bill—including amnesty—will be part of that deal.

4. Does Congress need to pass new legislation to secure the border and strengthen interior enforcement? 

CONTINUED: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/08/07/morning-bell-5-immigration-questions-for-your-congressman/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell