Posted on 05/15/2013 4:46:34 PM PDT by forty_years
The mere thought of granting amnesty to 11 -- 20 million illegal immigrants should frighten any common sense American citizen. Amnesty means that wannabe tyrants like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Michael Bloomberg, and Barack Obama will achieve their "dream of a permanent Democratic majority" in the U.S. The entire political, cultural, social, and economic landscape created by our Founding Fathers will be destroyed by amnesty. Concerned citizens must engage in the democratic process to stop the current immigration "reform" madness. This article provides them with all the tools they need to do so by clicking here. Please take action NOW or read on before doing so. NOW is the time to act as:
... opponents are gearing up to flood Congress with calls condemning any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to gain legal status or citizenship.
The same tactic helped defeat immigration reform the last time lawmakers considered passing bills in 2006 and especially 2007, when a flood of angry calls shut down the switchboard in Congress. ...
Most of you are the descendents of immigrants who came to this great nation legally, who built decent lives by living according to decent values, and passed those values unto you. Your ancestors assimilated. Most of you were raised to believe that the American dream is the chance -- the opportunity -- to achieve your full potential by working hard, being honest, treating people as you would have them treat you, believing in the common sense law of the land (based on the Constitution), having core values, and having faith, all to build a better life for yourself, your family, your friends, your community, your nation, and even the whole world. Your conscientious legal citizenship -- your patriotism -- is about to be thrown in the trash.
Because of the plague of leftist and "progressive" politics -- the politics of laziness and entitlement -- the American dream has devolved for many into: "Gimme! I demand it all now! I deserve it!" This perversion of the American dream is now fully represented by Senate Bill 744 or the "Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act." This 900-page aberration does not promote a "path to citizenship" for illegals as its proponents claim, but actually "would grant amnesty to the approximately 12 million illegal aliens currently living in the U.S., admit hundreds of thousands of new agricultural and low-skilled guest workers, and significantly increase legal immigration," according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the same group who estimated the number of illegals in the U.S. as high as 20 million. How many senators have read and understand the 900-page bill? How many citizens have read and understand it?
It is obvious that the U.S. must address the problems associated with hosting 12 -- 20 million illegal immigrants with more pouring in each day. Senate Bill 744 is being peddled as a measure to secure our borders first, then create a pathway to citizenship for illegals, but it is just the opposite. This premise was just proven true in the Senate:
A bloc of 12 pro-immigration senators blocked a GOP amendment to freeze the proposed legalization of 11 million illegals until the border is secured, highlighting a fundamental political divide on the first day of voting on the far-reaching Senate immigration bill.
"The bill is ... legalization first and enforcement later, and just opposite what the people think they're getting, and opposite to what many members of Congress think is in the bill before us," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, the leading Republican on the Senate's Judiciary Committee.
The defeat, however, gives critics an obvious argument during national debates over the immigration bill. Numerous polls show strong public demand for a secure border with Mexico. ...
Indeed, a poll conducted by FAIR shows Americans' "Strong Preference for Immigration Enforcement Over Legalization of Illegal Aliens." So why the rush to shove a massive piece of immigration legislation through Congress before Americans even notice? Because "Democrats and many Republicans view the current immigration legislation now being considered in Congress primarily through a political prism:"
... For Democrats, the new legislation presents the opportunity to add many millions of new immigrants -- sympathetic to their party's perspective of larger and more "helpful" government -- to the country's voting rolls and thus help bring about their dream of a permanent Democratic majority. ...
On the Republican side, some are in a state of acute panic. Even-handed and astute political reporter Josh Kraushaar has written, without a hint of either irony or snark that, "On immigration, Republican leaders are all but begging for a deal so they can improve their outreach with Hispanics well before the 2016 presidential election." ...
The Democrats will likely have their dreams fulfilled if SB 744 passes:
The immigration proposal pending in Congress would transform the nation's political landscape for a generation or more -- pumping as many as 11 million new Hispanic voters into the electorate a decade from now in ways that, if current trends hold, would produce an electoral bonanza for Democrats and cripple Republican prospects in many states they now win easily. ...
Republicans who are going along with the amnesty madness have betrayed their party's principles, betrayed their constituents, and are wasting precious time. They are sowing the seeds of their own destruction. Republican dreams of courting the majority of the Latino vote are false dreams. The GOP "would have had to win 73 percent of the Hispanic vote to prevail in [the] 2012 [presidential election]" -- a certainly unattainable goal.
To be sure, attempting to turn 12 -- 20 million illegals into Democrats carries an extremely high price tag:
... An exhaustive study by the Heritage Foundation has found that after amnesty, current unlawful immigrants would receive $9.4 trillion in government benefits and services and pay more than $3 trillion in taxes over their lifetimes. That leaves a net fiscal deficit (benefits minus taxes) of $6.3 trillion. That deficit would have to be financed by increasing the government debt or raising taxes on U.S. citizens. ...
Given the U.S. debt of $17 trillion, the fiscal effects detailed in our study should be at the forefront of legislators' minds as they consider immigration reform. ...
Knowing that the immigration bill would cost American taxpayers $6.3 trillion when our country is already drowning in debt and unemployment is high, how do we skirt issues like "Immigration: Fueling U.S. Income Inequality (2013):"
... While legal immigration contributes to a shrinking middle class by disproportionately adding both high income and low-income earners, illegal immigration exacerbates income inequality by adding mostly low-wage earners and thereby, depressing wages for those workers. This is especially harmful to minorities -- often immigrants themselves -- that have larger shares of their populations living in poverty. ...
Even worse for those working legally in the U.S., amnesty:
... proposals promise some sort of workplace enforcement to make sure that illegal aliens are not able to find work. Why should we believe them? The 1986 law promised workplace enforcement but failed miserably. Since then, proposals to improve workplace enforcement, such as E-Verify, a simple system that allows employers to verify employee eligibility, have been opposed by all the same groups that today support amnesty.
To make matters worse, the Obama administration has prohibited any meaningful workplace enforcement. This administration will not allow ICE to arrest and deport illegal workers. The number of employers who have faced criminal sanctions can be counted on one hand. So why should anyone believe promises made by an administration that has gone out of its way to ignore its duty to enforce current law? No immigration reform will work unless we close the workplace. Making E-Verify mandatory for all employers and all current workers would do that, which the president could have done with the stroke of a pen on the first day he took office.
Do you want to pay for the permanent rule of the U.S. by people like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama? What about longtime, legal American citizens without jobs, or those who are underpaid? What does a future ruled by amnesty hold for their financial security -- and will they even recognize the society in which the U.S. morphs into?
Do you want to see the American spirit and culture destroyed by people who refuse to assimilate into our society? Mexicans, "by far the most numerous nationality of immigrants," are not doing a very good job of assimilating. Look at the Boston bombers, immigrants welcomed into the U.S. with open arms, given all sorts of nice perks, and treated with respect: They ended up hating, killing, and maiming Americans. How many other Muslims here already or clamoring to immigrate here are also deluded by extremist Islamist poison-ideology, planning to kill as many Americans as they can? Given the reticence of many Mexican immigrants for accepting American culture, or "an abysmal United States image in Muslim countries" -- with Muslims streaming into the U.S. and being radicalized -- SB 744 should convince you to act to oppose it given that:
... The bill:
- Grants amnesty to illegal aliens simply after the Secretary of Homeland Security submits plans to secure the border;
- Grants amnesty to criminals and gang members;
- Does not require amnestied illegal aliens to pay back-taxes;
- Does not require amnestied illegal aliens to learn English;
- Allows illegal aliens to sue the government for amnesty;
- Allows the open borders and pro-amnesty lobbies to sue to prevent enforcement measures from taking place before illegal aliens can receive green cards;
- Requires taxpayers foot the bill for illegal aliens to fight deportations at the Attorney General's sole and unreviewable discretion;
- Requires only 3 of 9 southern border sectors to have a 90% apprehension rate, leaving the rest in the porous status quo;
- Grants green cards and citizenship after 5 years to illegal aliens claiming to have come to the U.S. before the age of 16 who meet certain criteria; and
- Effectively halts all deportations for years by requiring Homeland Security to allow every illegal alien its agents intercept to apply for amnesty and prohibiting agents from deporting them until the illegal alien's application is adjudicated. ...
There is not enough space or time to cover every issue which amnesty will affect. If you've heard enough and are ready to act, click here. Otherwise, read more selected points meant to highlight the dangers of amnesty.
Here are points brought to light by David Seminara, a "former foreign service officer who has issued thousands of visas to immigrants who played by the rules" and who believes "there are several things Americans need to know before they decide where they stand on immigration reform:"
It's not just 11 million people. A substantial percentage of illegal immigrants are here alone, and once they get green cards, they will be able to petition for their wives and children to join them in the U.S. And if they become U.S. citizens, they will also be able to petition for their siblings and parents. Those migrants, in turn, can petition for their relatives and so on. Not all of the immigration preference categories are immediate, but within 10 to 15 years, legalizing 11 million migrants could result in possibly 30 million new arrivals.
Shadowy people aren't going to "come out of the shadows." One of the primary justifications for the so-called path to citizenship is that it's unwise for us to have people living here who might want to do us harm and not know who they are. But the notion that criminals or terrorists will come forward and submit to a series of government background checks is fanciful.
Jobs Americans won't do? Proponents of an amnesty for illegal immigrants often claim illegal immigrants do tough, low-paying jobs that Americans and legal immigrants won't do. This notion is flawed now but will be demonstrably false after an amnesty. Illegal immigrants are currently limited to working for employers who pay in cash and don't ask questions, but with an amnesty, they'll be competing for jobs in the mainstream labor market with less educated Americans, who are already struggling with wage stagnation and a tight labor market.
Affirmative action. Once immigrants from Latin America and Africa have legal status, they'll benefit from affirmative action programs. A 2009 Pew Research poll revealed that just 22 percent of white Americans support giving preferential treatment to minorities to redress discrimination. And I suspect that a huge majority of Americans would oppose allowing preferences in employment or college admission for illegal immigrants.
We already have guest worker programs that don't work. The Senate plan calls for more guest workers with the hollow promise that employers will be able to petition for them only if they can demonstrate that Americans are "unavailable or unwilling" to fill the positions. We already have the H-2A visa, a numerically unlimited guest worker program for farm workers, the H-2B visa for unskilled workers, the H-1B visa for high-skilled workers and a host of other visa opportunities for investors, entrepreneurs and even religious workers. Employers know how to game the system to create a phony case that American workers are unavailable. The new system will only intensify the "in-sourcing" trend where U.S. employers import cheaper guest workers for jobs they can't outsource.
Strain on social services. Legalizing millions of mostly poor people, many of whom have no job security or health insurance, will put a strain on already strapped social services agencies. A study by the Center for Immigration Studies estimated that 57 percent of immigrant households (legal and illegal) used at least one welfare program in 2009. Illegal immigrants aren't eligible for most benefits, but once this group has legal status, they'll be eligible for the full range of benefits.
A surge of document and identity fraud. Amnesty applicants will have to jump through a number of bureaucratic hoops to secure green cards, and those who don't qualify will scramble to create a paper trail to meet the requirements.
Half the problem won't be addressed. Up to half of all illegal immigrants in the U.S. are visa overstays. Most abuse tourist visas, but the Senate plan won't fix the overstay problem. The framework calls for an entry-exit system, but it doesn't specify how overstays will be located and removed. In 2012, about 75 percent of all tourist visa applicants were approved, and in Mexico the figure was 90 percent. Even if the border is secured, rampant abuse of temporary visas will continue as long as lax visa issuance is the norm.
Amnesty beneficiaries won't be "joining the back of the line." The plan refers to a "line" even though no such thing exists. In most cases, migrants qualify to live here based on a family relationship or a job. The Senate plan speciously claims that illegal immigrants won't receive their green cards until "every individual who is already waiting in line for a green card ... has received their green card."
When an American citizen files a petition for a foreign sibling to join him in the U.S., for example, the average wait time for that migrant to get a green card is 12 to 14 years. No serious plan is going to ask amnesty beneficiaries to wait a decade or longer to get a green card.
The plan will vindicate those who broke the law. I had the pleasure of issuing immigrant visas to applicants who jumped through all of the hoops and waited years in their home countries to come to the U.S. legally. Any plan that provides the same prize to those who flouted the law is a mistake. The message to the hundreds of millions around the world who aspire to live in the U.S. will be clear: Those who broke the law still got green cards. Their decision to come illegally will be perceived as a smart one in their home countries, which will only encourage more illegal immigration.
It is up to common-sense American citizens to determine the long-term destiny of this nation. Do we take a path in which we have sustainable immigration in which honest people legally apply for citizenship and contribute to the beauty and strength of the world's greatest nation? Do we keep America a beacon of light unto all nations, setting an example for how people enjoy peaceful and prosperous self-government? Or do we allow cowardly, greedy, and power-hungry politicians to make a grab for permanent control, thus allowing our nation to descend into banana-republic status, becoming a has-been, a civil and economic disaster? Do we let future history books highlight the U.S. as a lesson into how a once-great nation descended into obscurity, lost its leading role on the planet, and allowed the world's tyrannical forces to triumph? It's your choice. Please oppose amnesty using the tools below:
Targeted action links
General action links
Effective Immigration Watchdog Organizations
Use the action links above on your own website
Lots of interesting references ping
Yes use these references. call your congressmen
this bill must be stopped
Thanks both of you for your kind words. Please distribute as widely as possible. Note that there’s a tool at the bottom of the page that lets you embed the action links on ANY website (no JavaScript, AJAX, special characters, etc.).
Thank you for this!
Amberdawn: You’re welcome! Please distribute. With all of Obama’s scandals raging, this would be the best time to stop this bill.
I’ve just sent the link to all my contacts.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.