Obama Reaches Out to Religious on Immigration

WASHINGTON -- The White House plans to host a discussion on immigration on Thursday with advocates, faith-based groups, businesses and law enforcement officials.

An administration official says that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will lead the discussion. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting is not public.

Last week President Barack Obama said immigration reform is important but that other priorities such as his health care overhaul and financial regulation are going to come first.

Obama said he expects to see draft legislation for an immigration overhaul by the end of the year, with changing the system waiting until next year.

I lived in a rectory in Chicago several years ago. The priests that lived there were against Islamic immigration to Europe (they were from Spain or the US), but thought that Mexican immigration was a "blessing" to the Church, and supported letting the illegals stay.

Catholics on this site may tell you otherwise, but there are many in the clergy and hierarchy who support the migration/invasion by folks from Mexico and Central America. You are lucky if you can find ONE priest who would speak against illegal immigration of folks from Latin America.

To be fair, however, the ELCA, ECUSA, and many independent evangelical churches are also big supporters of amnesty/open borders, particularly if the immigrants are at least culturally christian.

I wish the Catholic Church would criticize Mexico for its horrible civil rights record, concerning non-Mexicans in Mexico.

Considering the anti-clerical violence and outright banning of church activities during the first decade of the PRI regime, the Catholic Church has effectively been neutered as an anti-government entity.

Don't ever make the mistake of calling Mexico a "Catholic" country, particularly in terms of its politics. The government for many years was run by atheists/agnostics (Vicente Fox being the first openly Catholic president in decades when he was in power), and the 35% of the population that is culturally Amerindian practice a fusion of paganism and christianity.

Something I wasn't aware of....one of the groups VERY involved with the Tea Parties...Dick Armey's Freedom Works....is in FAVOR of a "path to citizenship" = AMNESTY. Freedom Works is NOW on my "enemies" list!! From their website:

"The FreedomWorks Position A combined approach of a temporary worker and border security program is the obvious way forward for Congress and America. Proposals like the plan offered by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) recognize that we will not be able to effectively secure our borders unless we also address economic realities. By providing American employers and temporary guest workers a legal way to operate, we can eliminate the source of much of the current lawlessness at the border. Reducing the overall flow of illegal traffic at the border will allow law enforcement to focus on stopping criminal gangs and capturing terrorists.
"
Sounds just like Bush's "in order to secure our borders, we MUST have comprehensive immigration reform".

An invitation to join Mike Pence and K B Hutchinson (touchback AMNESTY schemers)

"Please join FreedomWorks Foundation for an important discussion of immigration reform that will focus on the need to balance both security and economic concerns. In particular, the forum will examine options for strengthening our borders while establishing procedures that provide law-abiding workers a legitimate path to the American workplace. In addition, the speakers will discuss opportunities to use the private sector and market forces to create a more efficient temporary worker program that creates a ready pool of labor while reducing incentives for illegal immigration."

"law-abiding workers"????? "legitimate path to the American workplace"????

"We propose a new program with a private sector component that can solve the most difficult part of the problem – making guest worker status quick enough and easy enough that the workers (including those already illegally in the U.S.) will take the steps and get documented. The active involvement of the illegals themselves will make the program work, and resolve one of our nation’s most serious security problems. And the alternatives are clearly not working. Unless illegals already in the U.S. believe obtaining guest worker status will be quick and certain, they simply cannot be expected to apply.

The basis of this solution is simple. Separate the guest workers and immigrants in the debate, and in the legal system, on two completely different and unrelated paths. And use the powerful incentives of the free market system to guarantee the success of the guest worker program. The results will be:

• A much simpler process for controlling the border because most of the problem won’t be there any more,

• An easy path for businesses to find the workers they need,

• A simple path for workers to get the jobs they need,

• A safer and more secure America."

“Something I wasn’t aware of....one of the groups VERY involved with the Tea Parties...Dick Armey’s Freedom Works....is in FAVOR of a “path to citizenship” = AMNESTY. Freedom Works is NOW on my “enemies” list!! From their website:

“The FreedomWorks Position A combined approach of a temporary worker and border security program is the obvious way forward for Congress and America”

Thanks for mentioning that...these political hacks are always looking to climb on the most popular bandwagon at any given time. I’ll never forget a roundtable discussion on CSPAN, early 90’s with Dick Armey and Milton Friedman...who tried his best to tell Armey that NAFTA was NOT free trade, but ‘managed’ trade...Armey voted for it anyway.

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