Graham: Obama just paying lip service to immigration reform (TREASONOUS RINO ALERT)

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) may be working with the White House to craft an immigration reform proposal, but you wouldn't know it from his comments Sunday morning.

The South Carolina Republican had no kind words for the president's efforts on the topic, accusing him of ignoring immigration and paying lip service only for temporary political reasons.

Graham laughed off the president's claim that he's been "unwavering" in his support for immigration overhaul.

"This idea that the president has been unwavering on immigration doesn't really pass the smell test," Graham said on ABC's "This Week."

Graham, who has been invited to the Oval Office twice in recent weeks to discuss his work with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), said Obama's interest in the issue is only due to an upcoming march on Washington.

"A hastily called meeting Thursday because of a rally next weekend is not unwavering," he said. "This idea that this administration has been unwavering on immigration reform is just political spin and the people at the rally ought to know that."

Immigration reform proponents are planning a massive rally in Washington later this month. The rally is organized by Reform Immigration for America, a left of center group.

Graham even accused Obama of undermining the last attempt for immigration reform when he was in the Senate. The South Carolina Republican said Obama's proposal to sunset temporary worker provisions caused the fragile coalition supporting immigration reform to fall apart.

Schumer and Graham are set to unveil a framework for immigration overhaul that will serve as the basis for future legislation. Graham lamented that so far Obama hasn't offered a plan of his own.

"All you've done is talk about what we should do," he said. "Now is the time to lead."

Today from CIS:

Visa Waiver Program for Tourists from Near-Bankrupt Greece – Really?
By David North, March 11, 2010

DHS Secretary Napolitano decided earlier this week to allow Greece to join the Visa Waiver program, so beloved by our tourist industry and other Open Borders types.

As one consular official (who will remain unnamed) e-mailed: “Let me get this straight. In the middle of the biggest financial meltdown to hit a European country in decades, we have added them to visa waiver?”

The visa waiver program, which has been existence for many years, allows people from well-to-do countries to come to the U.S. as tourists without getting a formal visitor‘s visa. It is easy for them, and brings prosperous tourists to this country who might not come otherwise. The program operates country-by-country and most northern and western European nations are participants, along with Japan and several others. It is confined to countries that contribute only small numbers of illegal aliens to our population.

Americans, typically, travel to those countries without bothering to get visas.

Greece, and many other Eastern European nations, have not been allowed to participate, because the fear had been that once in the U.S., the one-time tourists from these places would become longtime (and illegal) residents.

As the consular officer complained in the e-mail mentioned above: “Do these things [the Secretary’s decision] coast on autopilot, irrespective of economic forces and current events? It would seem that with the new austerity moves [in Greece] and dramatically increased unemployment, a lot of these potential visitors may [drift into illegal status].”

I am worried, too, but I see it with a slightly different focus.

Secretary Napolitano’s decision came hard on the heels of the visit of Greece’s premier,
George A. Papandreou (who speaks flawless American English and looks like a prime minister from central casting). He was seen with Secretary Clinton at a joint news conference in which she said soothing things about our high regard for Greece.

Greece, after all, was on our side during World War II, and suffered terribly. It also fought off a home-grown Communist movement after the War. Lots of Americans have Greek names. There were many good reasons for Ms. Clinton’s friendly remarks.

My concern, however, relates to the use of what I call the “Migration Card,” which is sometimes played when a friendly nation is in trouble, and we are not, or cannot do much about it. In this case, perhaps we should, and perhaps we will, prohibit Wall Street from making many millions by betting against the finances of Greece, a policy discussed in a recent New York Times article.

Maybe we should encourage the International Monetary Fund to help Greece out of what can only be described as a self-created problem, caused largely by the free-spending policies of Papandreou’s predecessors. Maybe we should lend the country a little money directly, at least enough to calm the markets.

Given the enormous political power of Wall Street, and our own financial difficulties, we probably will do neither, but we can at least play the Migration Card to show Greece that we are fond of her. This may be the hidden meaning behind Secretary Napolitano’s recent decision.

There are precedents for the use of the Migration Card in other, somewhat similar situations. In addition to helping Haiti with money and troops right after the earthquake there, the U.S. played a slightly different Migration Card, giving all the illegal Haitian migrants in the U.S. a short-term (at least for now) legal presence, called Temporary Protected Status (TPS), as discussed in an earlier blog.

Similarly, during the Bush Administration, rather than intervening in Liberia’s civil war, our military being bogged down in the Middle East, TPS was extended to Liberians illegally in this country, and then extended again and again. For more on this see Mark Krikorian’s blog “’Temporary’ Status Means Never Having to Say Goodbye.”

There have been offers of TPS to numerous Central Americans for the same reasons.

So, maybe the consular officer is wrong; maybe we were not on automatic pilot; maybe, just maybe, the U.S. was playing the Migration Card to let Greece know that we are fond of that country, but cannot do much for it.

http://cis.org/north/greece-migration-card

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