Free Republic

Assimilating to the GOP The New Case Against Immigration: Both Legal and Illegal, Mark Krikorian Scott McConnell No contemporary American political movement has had more difficulty finding an effective tone than the immigration-reform lobby. Its aim of slowing down the rate of immigration has long been supported by popular opinion, but it has never found majority elite support in either party. The eloquent arguments pushed by National Review in the early 1990s, particularly Peter Brimelow’s powerful brief for the American nation as a product of shared culture and ethnicity, were for the most part rejected or shunned by the conservative...

California’s Illegal Nanny-State by: Bethany Stotts, September 25, 2008 The debate over illegal immigration—a culture war fought on the dual fronts of terminology and selective media coverage—reached another milestone this September, when the California state appeals court decided that a class-action lawsuit represented by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) was improperly dismissed by the Yolo County superior court. The out-of-state plaintiffs filed suit in 2006 after California passed a law providing in-state tuition for exemption holders, including foreign nationals and illegal immigrants. The complaint (pdf), issued by IRLI, argues that the California statute violates federal law and the U.S....

A new Spanish-language John McCain television commercial airing in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico attacks Barack Obama for not doing enough to support the so-called "comprehensive immigration reform" legislation backed by President Bush and Sen. Ted Kennedy that was defeated in 2007 after a national uprising in which it was characterized as a massive amnesty scheme. The English-language translation of the 30-second commercial, "Which Side Are They On?" is here: Announcer: Obama and his congressional allies say they are on the side of immigrants. But are they? The press reports that their efforts were "poison pills" that made immigration...

McCain Camp Slams Obama Ads Linking Candidate to Limbaugh by FOXNews.com Thursday, September 18, 2008 John McCain and Rush Limbaugh are both slamming Barack Obama’s campaign for linking the two in a series of newly released Spanish-language ads that blast McCain as a two-faced, anti-immigrant lawmaker intolerant of Hispanics. Limbaugh lambasted McCain for an entire summer two years ago over McCain’s sponsorship of an immigration reform bill that included a temporary guest worker program and path to citizenship for illegal aliens.

If immigration is your number one political priority, what should you do this election? We begin with the observation that Democrats will likely consolidate and expand their control of the Senate and the House. This is good news for the immigration cause. However, in spite of controlling Congress for the past two years Democrats have done virtually nothing on immigration benefits and have continued massive spending on immigration enforcement. So, even though most political analysts are agreed that Democrats are poised for significant gains in the House and the Senate, that alone does not portend any immigration benefits in the...

New McCain ad blames Obama and Democrats for death of immigration overhaul effort.(CNN) – John McCain’s campaign is running a Spanish language ad in battleground states that blames Barack Obama and Senate Democrats for the failure of attempts to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws — even though the Republican nominee and his Democratic counterpart cast identical votes in the key Senate showdowns on that issue last year “Obama and his congressional allies say they are on the side of immigrants. But are they?” asks the announcer in the 30-second spot, “Which Side Are They On?” “The press reports that their...

Speaking at the National Council of La Raza conference today, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) engaged in a lively give-and-take with several Latino activists who questioned his stance on illegal immigration. In one heated exchange with an audience member, a questioner asked McCain whether he, like presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama (Ill.), would make immigration reform a top priority as president and provide a pathway to citizenship for 12 million undocumented workers living illegally in the U.S. as part of a single immigration bill. McCain responded by defending his record on immigration against Obama's, saying the Democrat took his lead from...

SAN DIEGO – Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Monday vigorously disputed his opponent's assertion that he had backed away from his own comprehensive plan to overhaul the nation's immigration laws. “I do ask for your trust that when I say I remain committed to fair, practical and comprehensive immigration reform, I mean it,” the Arizona senator told the National Council of La Raza convention here. “I think I have earned that trust.” On Sunday, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, told the same group at the San Diego Convention Center that McCain backed off his...

"But I do ask for your trust that when I say, I remain committed to fair, practical and comprehensive immigration reform, I mean it. I think I have earned that trust." —John McCain

WASHINGTON - John McCain, angling to win a bigger share of the fast-growing Latino vote, is taking the risky step of placing an immigration overhaul at the center of his appeal. The presumed Republican presidential nominee, who trails Barack Obama among Latinos, had been focused on assuring conservatives that securing the U.S. border with Mexico would be his immigration priority. But McCain has adopted a message that gives equal weight to helping employers and immigrant workers and their families. That suggests that as president he would back the kind of legislation that has roiled many in his party -- most...

Underscoring the importance of the Hispanic vote, the McCain campaign is going on the air with a new ad that makes a specific appeal to the rapidly growing demographic. In the one-minute television spot, entitled “God’s Children,” Mr. McCain refers to the military service of Hispanics in wars, past and present. He asks Americans to “remember that these are God’s children. They must come into our country legally, but they have enriched our culture and our nation as every generation of immigrants before them." The ad, which will appear in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, features scenes of the Vietnam...

Team McCain has its latest ad out today, taken from a New Hampshire debate in June 2007, when John McCain soliloquized on the contributions of Hispanic citizens and residents to our efforts in Vietnam and Iraq. Titled “God’s Children”, the ad matches imagery to McCain’s impromptu salute: "My friends, I want you the next time you’re down in Washington, D.C., to go to the Vietnam War Memorial and look at the names engraved in black granite. You’ll find a whole lot of Hispanic names. When you go to Iraq or Afghanistan today, you’re going to see a whole lot of...

WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain told a major Hispanic group here Tuesday that he remains committed to passing the kind of immigration legislation that angered many Republican voters last year (snip)

SAN JOSE—In yet another sign of his pivoting toward the general election, Senator John McCain said at a roundtable with business leaders here today that comprehensive immigration reform should be a top priority for the next president. Mr. McCain’s willingness to address the issue was striking given how the topic became something of a third-rail for Republican presidential candidates during the primary. When Mr. McCain’s presidential bid stalled last summer, many blamed his advocacy for the immigration reform bill in the Senate, which included a pathway to citizenship for the illegal immigrants already here in the country. ....cont.

NION CITY - Republican presidential candidate John McCain joined Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in calling today for comprehensive immigration reform, including guest worker visas to bring employees to California's Silicon Valley and the state's vast agricultural fields. The two men brought up the issue at McCain's prompting during a global competitiveness roundtable featuring California technology executives and entrepreneurs. Asked by Silicon Valley panelists on what he would do to grant more visa for skilled technology workers, McCain broadly advocated the comprehensive immigration reform plan he had backed with Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy in Congress. The same issue brought McCain intense criticism...

I wonder if the proponents of amnesty and open borders would consider this nation xenophobic, nativist or racist?

Border Security & Immigration Reform Immigration is one of those challenging issues that touch on many aspects of American life. I have always believed that our border must be secure and that the federal government has utterly failed in its responsibility to ensure that it is secure. If we have learned anything from the recent immigration debate, it is that Americans have little trust that their government will honor a pledge to do the things necessary to make the border secure. As president, I will secure the border. I will restore the trust Americans should have in the basic competency...

The flavor-of-the-month immigration bill comes from a Democrat, North Carolina’s Heath Shuler and his bill, HR 4088, entitled the “Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement Act of 2007” or “SAVE Act.” (The text of the bill is available HERE, and other information HERE.)Shuler’s bill has three key parts. According to Shuler’s press release on the bill, these are “a strict emphasis on border security, employer verification, and interior enforcement.” No provision is made for amnesty for illegal aliens, which is why the House Democratic leadership views this bill as welcome as a case of smallpox.Within border security, it increases the...

April 02, 2008, 4:00 a.m. The Strange Case of SEIUDo unions prefer civil war to immigration reform? By Carl F. Horowitz If numbers were all that mattered, Andrew Stern would be America’s most successful labor leader, hands down. For over two decades, he’s led the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — first as president John Sweeney’s chief strategist, and since 1996 as Sweeney’s successor. Under Stern, SEIU’s membership has nearly doubled to around 1.9 million, a feat all the more remarkable given that most unions during that period shrank or held steady. Union members held nearly a third of...

WASHINGTON – In the wake of last year’s failed immigration reform efforts, twelve Republican Senators today introduced 15 specific enforcement bills, each designed to make important improvements to America’s immigration system. Each bill in the package represents a specific step toward securing America’s borders, increasing enforcement at the workplace, or restoring law and order to our nation’s immigration system. The coalition, led by U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), will call for full Senate consideration on each of the individual bills as amendments to any appropriate legislative vehicle or as stand-alone pieces of legislation. “The American people have made it clear...

GOP senators to introduce toughest-yet immigration package Bills would mandate prison time for illegal border crossings and compel English in dealing with federal agencies. March 5, 2008 WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans are set to announce today the hardest-hitting package of immigration enforcement measures seen yet -- one that would require jail time for illegal immigrants caught crossing the border, make it harder for them to open bank accounts and compel them to communicate in English when dealing with federal agencies. The bills give Republicans a way to put pressure on the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates to take a tougher...

So if McCain can come back from the dead on the campaign trail, does that mean immigration reform can be similarly resurrected on the Congressional agenda? No way, at least according to two key early-state House Republicans. Iowa Rep. Steve King, a Thompson backer who has rapidly become a leader on the issue, warned against reading too much into the early GOP primary results, particularly Huckabee's win in the Hawkeye State. ... He said that many of the Iowans who are stongly opposed to illegal immigration are also devout Christians and firmly anti-abortion, and that even "as they listened to...

I don't normally post up articles I get in email, mostly as I can't trace the source. This one however is worth reading and taking to heart! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In 1978/79, I was living and studying in Denmark. But in 1978, even in Copenhagen, one didn't see Muslim immigrants. The Danish population embraced visitors, celebrated the exotic, went out of its way to protect each of its citizens. It was proud of its new brand of socialist liberalism - one in development since the conservatives had lost power in 1929, - A system evolved in Denmark where no worker had to...

AS THE DEMOCRATS brought their weary road show to Vegas tonight, most analysts suspected that Hillary Clinton would get a mulligan on the illegal immigration question that she botched so badly at their last tussle. It played out as expected. Right out of the box, Campbell Brown asked the candidates about illegal immigration. Rather than focus on their own purported solutions to the crisis, they collectively decided to focus their ire on George W. Bush for not solving the problem first. This has become the default refrain for Democrats when they have nothing to say or no real means of...

ODESSA, Texas (AP) - President Bush's former deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove, says the government will need a temporary worker program to be successful with immigration reform. Rove said the program is needed reduce pressure on the nation's border security apparatus. But he says the details of such a program haven't been explained to the American public well. He also says the U.S. Border Patrol will need to be doubled and its budget tripled with 300 miles of fence built. The comments came yesterday as part of the John Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute's Distinguished Lecture Series at the...

While sometimes needling Bush, Fox applauds his onetime American counterpart for "cultural sensitivity." Several days before the attacks of Sept. 11, Fox writes, he and Bush hugged at Andrews Air Force Base after returning on Air Force One from an Ohio immigration reform rally. "We're going to get this done," Fox recalls Bush saying.

White House press secretary Tony Snow, during his last day on the job yesterday, lamented the state of modern political discourse and said President Bush is right about immigration and that his defeated plan will one day be the law.

Given the responses I got the last time I focused on this issue, I almost hate to bring it up…but here goes. I think Tony Snow is exactly right when he says here: “I deeply admire what [Mr. Bush] did on immigration and I think he’s right,” Mr. Snow said. “I think the policies the president outlined generally are the ones that eventually this country is going to adopt.” Let us hope so, because the alternative “solutions” out there - “let everyone in and register them all Democrat” on the left and “ship them all back to Mexico no matter...

Outgoing White House press secretary Tony Snow said today that the Bush administration had underestimated the ferocity of opposition to White House-backed immigration legislation. "I freely admit that we underestimated the (public) skepticism," Snow said over breakfast with a group of reporters on his final day on the job. Snow said that the White House was not prepared for the anger of foes of illegal immigration, who believed that government at all levels had failed to secure the nation's borders. While the public backlash is aimed "not merely (at) the Bush administration," he conceded that the White House "made some...

Statement of Attorney General Bob McDonnell on Republican Immigration Proposals For Release: August 29, 2007 Contact: J. Tucker Martin or David Clementson Website: www.vaag.com Phone: 804-786-2071 Email: Tucker.Martin@oag.state.va.us or dclementson@oag.state.va.us Richmond- Attorney General Bob McDonnell issued the following statement regarding today's immigration proposals announced by the Republican leadership in the General Assembly: "Today, the Republican leadership in the General Assembly announced the outline of a broad set of proposals to combat illegal immigration in Virginia. It has become all too clear that the federal government has failed to adequately secure our borders, failed to enact meaningful immigration reform, and failed...

Senator to assure that farm legislation is a priority in today's Fresno appearance. WASHINGTON -- Get ready for another ride on the immigration roller coaster. Today, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein will be assuring a San Joaquin Valley audience that Congress will once more take up a big agricultural guest-worker bill. A top priority for Valley farmers, the bill soon could resurface on Capitol Hill. "Agriculture is going to push this thing," Manuel Cunha, president of the Fresno-based Nisei Farmers League, said Wednesday. The agricultural guest-worker package is getting its second wind two months after comprehensive immigration reform collapsed in the...

Talk radio helped sink immigration reform By: Mike Allen Aug 20, 2007 09:19 AM EST Opposition from key talk radio and cable TV hosts helped kill the immigration bill in Congress, a study out today concludes. “What listeners of the conservative talk radio media were hearing, in large part, was that the legislation itself was little more than an ‘amnesty bill’ for illegal immigrants, a phrase loaded with political baggage,” it says. The study by the nonpartisan Project for Excellence in Journalism quantifies what White House and Capitol Hill phone lines and e-mail inboxes already indicated: Talk radio focused on...

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” This Mencken sentiment appears to be the guiding idea behind the administration’s announcement Friday of stepped-up immigration enforcement. After its relentless six-year campaign for amnesty crashed and burned in June at the hands of the common people, the White House has come up with a new plan: to start enforcing some of the laws they should have been enforcing all along, and so thoroughly scare the public with the consequences that there will be a popular groundswell for amnesty that...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A crackdown on illegal immigration will have to go forward without help from Congress, the Bush administration said Friday, asserting that an executive-branch-only approach is better than doing nothing. Two Cabinet secretaries -- Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff and Commerce's Carlos Gutierrez -- said they hoped to have new tools to combat illegal immigration before moving further to cope with the problem. But Congress could not agree on comprehensive legislation. The officials said they'll rely instead on tools already in their arsenal, some of which are already under way, including a plan to administratively sanction employers who hire...

(AP) WASHINGTON -- A crackdown on illegal immigration will have to go forward without help from Congress, the Bush administration said Friday, asserting that an executive-branch-only approach is better than doing nothing. Two Cabinet secretaries — Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff and Commerce's Carlos Gutierrez — said they hoped to have new tools to combat illegal immigration before moving further to cope with the problem. But Congress could not agree on comprehensive legislation to attack the problem. The officials said they'll rely instead on tools already in their arsenal, some of which are already under way, including a plan to administratively...

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Friday the administration has to be “realistic about what this Congress is going to be willing to do” with regard to comprehensive immigration reform, all but pronouncing chances for a bill dead. “I think that the leaders in Congress have decided that this is not something that they’re going to take up,” Perino told reporters. “And so I think the president, while he would like to have seen comprehensive immigration reform, does not believe that the Congress will be able to get that done.” The administration had announced earlier that it would use new...

Measures aimed at a crackdown popping up in both House and Senate WASHINGTON — Just weeks after it appeared immigration was off the table as a major issue for the 110th Congress, the topic is back with a twist. A temporary worker program and path to eventual citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants — key parts of the Senate bill that imploded in June — are dormant. But legislative efforts to crack down on illegal immigration are popping up with surprising frequency. Conservatives in Congress, particularly in the House, are using debate on unrelated bills such as the state Children's...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 — When a broad immigration bill failed in the Senate in June after a vitriolic national debate, many legislators said the issue was dead, perhaps until President Bush left office. But already some of the less contentious pieces of the bill are returning to life. Last week, the Senate approved $3 billion for border security as part of a Homeland Security Department spending bill. Democrats and Republicans have also begun laying ground for a bill to create a new temporary immigrant worker program for agriculture. Another bill, also with bipartisan support, would give a path to citizenship...

Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, an architect of the Democratic campaign that regained control of the House last year, says his party will not attempt comprehensive immigration reform until at least the second term of a prospective Democratic president. The congressman's statement was reported by a Hispanic activist and confirmed by Mr. Emanuel. "Congressman Rahm Emanuel said to me two weeks ago, there is no way this legislation is happening in the Democratic House, in the Democratic Senate, in the Democratic presidency, in the first term," Juan Salgado, board chairman of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told...

IN evident pain and remorse, a Republican senator confessed to a Hispanic group from Maryland that his vote to kill immigration reform was "a profile in political cowardice." It was exactly that - and not only for him, but for many senators who were terrorized by the political firestorm set loose by mainly right-wing radio and television talk-show loudmouths. The collapse of immigration reform on Thursday casts deep doubt on whether America's current political leaders can solve any large problem, especially when demagogues can stir up passion against it. The instant case is immigration, but, in 2005, President Bush tried...

Virginia's second-largest county is moving to enact strict measures aimed at denying services to illegal immigrants, including most forms of medical care and public education. The provisions that Prince William County supervisors are scheduled to vote on Tuesday include directing police to check the residency status of anyone who is arrested, regardless of the crime. County schools and agencies such as libraries, medical clinics and swimming pools also would be required to verify the immigration status of anyone who wants to use county services. "Citizens will no longer accept that our hands are tied and that responsibility lies with the...

Friday, June 29, 2007 Meditations on Immigration Reform In 1986 the Congress of the United States of America passed a comprehensive immigration law, otherwise known as the Simpson-Mazzoli Act. In 1986, the Senators of these United States and the Representatives of these United States stood in front of the people of the United States and declared that this new law was guaranteed to control our borders. In 1986, these Congress-critters stood in front of the citizens of the United States who had put them in office, and whom they were sworn to serve, and they solemnly promised that this new...

MASSET: REPUBLICAN EXCEPTIONALISM IS DEAD -- 1980-2006 RIP Long time RPT political director, Royal Masset mourns the death of the Party of Reagan and the dangerous future it portends The world is a better place because of those who made the Republican Party of Texas one of the finest institutions on the face on the earth. We Texan Republicans revived the national Republican Party after Nixon. But we now have to face one great truth. The party whose philosophy, articulated by Ronald Reagan, won the cold war and changed world history by promoting economic liberty and led the Unites Sates...

With the Senate immigration bill dead and buried, political activists say their next battle will be at the ballot box, where Republicans risk losing hard-earned votes among Hispanic immigrants. Lawmakers dealt a lethal blow to the immigration bill Thursday, making it highly unlikely Congress will enact any broad changes in immigration law until well after the presidential election in 2008. As policy analysts study the fallout, some say the defeat could prompt immigrants — the nation's fastest growing group of new voters — to swing toward Democratic candidates. Democrats could gain more Hispanic voters, who make up the nation's largest...

I asked one of the few conservative Republican senators who stuck with President Bush on immigration to assess how Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell handled the issue. Asking not to be quoted by name, he replied: "If this were a war, Sen. McConnell should be relieved of command for dereliction of duty." Not only did the minority leader end up voting against an immigration bill that he said was better than the 2006 version he supported, he abandoned his post, staying off the floor during final stages of the debate. Although I had never before seen a Senate party leader...

Immigration: The Senate's 53-46 defeat of the immigration bill Thursday was more than a victory for rule of law over alien amnesty. It was a triumph of citizens' will over politicians' disdain. Real reform must follow. The Bush-Kennedy immigration reform bill is dead and unlikely to be served up again before a new administration takes office. No wonder. It was a pork-laden spending bill that offered de facto amnesty to illegal immigrants, federal contracts to the usual contractors, spoils for businesses that habitually hire illegals, and new layers of bureaucracy, supposedly to speed immigration entries. The only people it didn't...

June 27 , 2007 Fellow South Carolinians -- Thank you for contacting me about immigration reform. Debate begins again this week in the Senate and I wanted you to have the facts about the bill. We both know this is a complex subject and the legislation makes many important and long-overdue changes in our nation's immigration policies. Below I have summarized the key provisions of the bill so that you will have all the facts. As my constituent your opinions and thoughts are very important to me. I have listened to your constructive input -- and as you will see...

Yesterday, a GOP aide, who is one of my sources in the Senate, gave me the rundown on what's currently happening with the Senate immigration bill (You can see my two previous reports from this source here and here). To begin with, the key thing to keep in mind about the upcoming vote on the Senate immigration bill is that the pro-amnesty forces have two key cloture votes that they have to win. The first is the vote on the so-called "clay pigeon" strategy. What this does is take the original bill and all of its amendments and reintroduce it...

This week the U.S. Senate is, once more, expected to come to some sort of compromise over what it calls Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The phrase sounds nice, doesn't it? Who could be against such a well-turned use of political rhetoric? In fact, everyone who questions the legislation's goals has to be a bigot or simply ignorant regarding the subject. Thankfully, a vast majority of Americans have seen through the media hype and the political subterfuge to recognize what President George Bush and his Democratic comrades are up to. The Democrats want as many illegal aliens as possible to receive amnesty....

There was a revealing moment in the White House recently when a reporter mentioned to George W. Bush that he had only 18 months left in office. "Who's counting?" he asked, laughing. "I'm going to sprint to the finish. I've got a lot to do. And I'm going to work as hard as I can to get it done." Mr Bush has become chief cheerleader for a bipartisan bill aimed at strengthening border security while also offering a route to citizenship for the estimated 12m illegal immigrants already in the US. "He will have angered his conservative base pushing for...