Will the Virginia Delegation Sign the Anti-Amnesty Pledge?
There may be no better example of the deliberate ripping apart of our society and the methodical dismantling of our national identity than the contemplated immigration reform that passed the Senate last year. The fate of that legislation is now rattling around the House of Representatives, where the Republican leadership seems hell-bent on passing it in whole or in part.
On this single issue the gulf between America’s arrogant ruling class – the Washington elites – and average hard working Americans can’t be overstated.
The extremist left, which is to say the Democrat Party, their collectivist allies in the unions and the “progressive churches” must be pinching themselves at their good fortune that the entire top tier of elected Republicans are buying into this legislation which will radically change America forever – for the worse. Not only are leading Republicans pushing hard for amnesty and massive new legal immigration, they are publically demonizing, ridiculing and attacking fellow Republicans and conservatives who disagree with them far more viciously than they have ever attacked this failed president on any single issue. Go figure.
Just this past week, the new darling of the ruling class Republicans, Jeb Bush, followed up his previous assertion that illegal immigrants sneaking into the United States and breaking the law was “an act of love,” with a renewed attack on the party’s grass roots by stating the people opposing amnesty “makes no sense to me.”
The dripping condescension towards average Americans is equaled only by the lack of serious intellectual heft. Bush never discusses the nuts and bolts of the “reform,” or how we will merge what could be 40 or 50 million new immigrants in the next ten years into the overwhelmed “safety net,” the collapsing health care system, or the schools. Nor does he mention the fact that a new amnesty will encourage more illegal immigration, since it is obvious that “securing the border” is merely a legislative facade to provide cover for passing amnesty while sounding responsible. Instead Bush personalizes his attacks and ridicules those who suggest reasoned opposition.
This isn’t a hard problem for average Americans to understand at all though. In 1986 President Reagan passed an amnesty bill that rewarded almost 3 million illegal aliens with citizenship. Thirty years later, here we are again. There are at least 11 million, perhaps closer to 20 million illegal aliens in the country. Obviously, the first amnesty only encouraged further illegal immigration. Worse, the Congress promised Reagan, and us, that they would actually tighten up the border and put in selected fencing and walls and interdiction equipment; it never happened, of course.
Also, since 40% of the illegal aliens in the country are simply ignoring their visas and settling in like they own the place, Congress promised new controls for visas; nothing happened. You can’t have an overdue library book without getting a notice of a fine the next day. But, you can come into the country on a visa, and stay as long as you please and not only can’t we find you, we evidently don’t even know you’re here!
So the question is really this; why is the Ruling Class pushing immigration so hard? You would think that with 50 million people on food stamps; unemployment and underemployment north of 15%, with even higher black and Hispanic rates; education a disaster; poverty and child-poverty at post-war highs; 50,000 factories shut down in the last decade; and median incomes falling like Bill Clinton at a intern reunion – that this Congress would be interested in getting the country moving. Evidently, you’d be wrong.
Listening to Boehner, Cantor, Ryan and the rest of the leadership, the only thing they seem to really be passionate about is immigration reform. If only they had the same passion about killing Obamacare, or stopping the madness at the EPA, or bringing American businesses home to the U.S.
But, when you start listening to all the special interests talking about immigration, you realize that for the left it’s about capturing the orbit of the demonstrably liberal immigrant populations that want more free stuff; and on the Republican side you can draw no other conclusion than that it’s all about money. Neither side of the ruling class is discussing seriously the protection of our borders, or the threat of terrorism or the expansion of drug cartel activity; nor the best interests of American workers and taxpayers; or the future of individual liberty and representative government.
It’s the politics of the moment, and the lure of the dollar.
Jay Timmons, President of the National Association of Manufactures which is a major “deep pocket” for campaign cash, had a telling statement last week: “There are 600,000 jobs in manufacturing that are going unfilled today. This immigration bill [pending in the House] can go a long way toward helping us fill those positions.” Say what? Are you kidding? There are 600,000 open manufacturing jobs and you’re waiting for immigrants?
Then Timmons had the brass to say that creating some “pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens is “absolutely essential” for manufacturers to help bring skilled workers to the United States. So are we to assume that 600,000 manufacturing jobs are waiting for more illegal immigrants? Really? Will they never be filled by legal citizens? Or is he really saying they will only be filled at minimum wage.
The “reform” also greatly expands the infamous H1B visas, based on the now apparent canard that there are simply too few hi-tech workers available in the U.S. Ironically this week we have yet another of numerous recent studies that demonstrate that there are far more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) native born and immigrant STEM grads than there are jobs to be had to begin with! But, that is not what we’ve been told for years. The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) just reported that there were a yearly average of 105,000 STEM jobs created between 2007 and 2012. Yet there were 115,000 U.S. STEM graduates, and 129,000 STEM immigrants per year during those same years, and far less than half of those are currently employed in STEM jobs. So even the central rationale for the doubling of legal immigration is bogus, and it seems to be more about forcing wages down and eventual outsourcing of U.S. trained expertise for companies than anything.
Chamber of Commerce President and big-time amnesty proponent, Thomas Donohue, drifted even further into the weird when he was promoting the idea that the House should take up the Senate-passed bill, and then said that if amnesty didn’t pass, “You’re going to go in the nursing home and pick up your mother-in-law and bring her home.” You can’t make this stuff up.
But this is what happens when serious discussion of issues devolves into irrational emotionalism because the facts don’t compute with the reality that average citizens can clearly see – since they actually have to pay the price and suffer the consequences for every hare-brained scheme the ruling class in Washington comes up with.
When we elect people who say one thing and do another and accept it, and when we celebrate personality and party over competence and duty, then we end up with what we have. It is really a staggering thing to watch unfold. The vast majority of Republicans and Independents and even a majority of Democrats and of legal immigrant citizens are firmly against amnesty and desperately concerned about the economy, growth and incomes. But, who is listening?
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) recently issued a new candidates’ anti-amnesty that radio host Laura Ingraham has promoted. It’s one small step, but it is at least one step to start putting our public officials on the record.
It’s pretty clear that the disgust with the radical Obama regime is driving the upcoming mid-term elections, and Republicans are the default vote. The question is will Republicans wake up and re-take the mantle of the party for the average working American, or will they find it more comfortable to remain in the ruling class. Immigration will be the “tell.”
