Obama Hopes Illegal Immigration Is Out of Sight Out of Mind

By George Rasley, CHQ Editor | 8/22/2014




Doesn’t it seem strange that the invasion of our southern border has suddenly stopped? Or is it that it has suddenly stopped making the front page of the major newspapers and the lead segment of the TV news?

But just because you don't see it in the establishment news that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot going on behind the media blackout.

Around the country illegal aliens have become more brazen in their protests against the deportation of detained illegal aliens. In Florida and other states groups of illegal aliens have chained themselves to the gates of transportation and detention centers using PVC pipe to make it harder for them to be cut free.

The groups sponsoring the protests say they are seeking relief for illegal aliens, and want the president to take action sooner rather than later.

And make no mistake about it, President Obama is considering unilateral changes in the nation's immigration system requested by the tech industry and other powerful interest groups, and he’s counting on their political muscle to stifle any Republican election-year criticism of a go-it-alone approach to granting amnesty to some portion of the 20 million illegal aliens currently in the United States.

According to AP, Obama's aides have held more than 20 meetings in recent months with business groups and other interest groups to discuss possibilities, ahead of an announcement about next steps the president is expected to make in September. Coordinating these "listening sessions," as the White House calls them, is its Office of Public Engagement, led by top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.

Our friend Matt Mackowiak, a Texas-based Republican strategist, told AP the moves on legal immigration might prompt businesses to praise the president, even if it's not enough to persuade the business community to side with Democrats in the upcoming elections.

"From the White House's perspective, this is an easy way for them to score some points," Mackowiak said to reporters Laura Wides-Munoz and Josh Lederman. "They'll say: 'We're arguing about substance, Republicans are arguing about process.'"

But the notion that the tech industry and other members of the cheap labor wing of the business community can muscle illegal immigration and amnesty by the voters doesn’t square with the findings of a new poll conducted by our friend top pollster Kellyanne Conway and her colleagues at The Polling Company.

Although the administration and their media allies have pushed Obama’s deportation record, Conway found that few Americans are buying the idea that Obama is enforcing immigration law strongly.

President Obama receives low job approval marks overall (40% approve/57% disapprove), but even stronger disapproval on his handling of immigration (32% approve/61% disapprove), so the cheap labor wing of the U.S. Chamber is going to have to find a more popular advocate if they want to sell amnesty.

Most pointedly, says Conway, likely voters were unequivocal in their support of immigration policies that protect the American worker.

Now here's the key: Their sentiment is the inverse of the oft-repeated phrase, “illegal immigrants do the jobs that Americans don’t want to do,” saying instead that these workers should have a fair opportunity to do the jobs that illegal immigrants currently do.

“Raise the pay” is a rallying call for these voters, who believe there are plenty of Americans to do the work and that better pay and more training is an elixir for labor shortages. Working class voters, married women, and political Independents agree with this in dramatic numbers noted Conway.

These results turn the often-heard statement that illegal immigrants do the jobs that Americans won’t do on its head. Over 8-in-10 respondents believe that American workers and legal immigrants already in the U.S. should get first pick at these jobs before illegals. As one can see from the graph below, blue collar workers support having the opportunity to take these positions more than the any other demographic group studied.

Perhaps the most important finding of Conway’s research was this data point: 75% want more enforcement of current immigration laws, including 63% of Hispanics and over 50% of Democrats (emphasis ours) meaning that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce line to the effect that Republicans are about to go extinct because they want our immigration laws enforced is a bunch of hooey.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., slammed the White House this week for meeting with big business to bring in more workers while "tens of millions of Americans are on welfare, unemployment and public assistance."

Sessions, who has been Capital Hill’s most reliable (and principled) defender of American workers said this in a statement released after the latest meeting of the Obama – Big Business Axis leaked out:

Even while they demand more foreign workers, these companies are laying off current employees in droves. Cisco, which Politico reports met with White House aides to advocate for more foreign workers, just last week announced its intent to lay off 6,000 employees. Last month, Microsoft declared it would lay off 18,000 workers. Overall, mass layoffs in the tech industry are up 68% from the prior year.

As for the construction industry, there are seven unemployed workers for every one job opening. According to a recent study released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, construction workers hit by the recession have seen their wages fall by 23 percent.

The increases in foreign workers demanded by corporate lobbyists would be in addition to the Administration’s plan to implement amnesty by executive fiat, providing work permits to 5–6 million illegal immigrants and visa overstays who will be able to take any job in any industry, public or private.

Senator Sessions went on to observe that “Tens of millions of Americans are on welfare, unemployment, and public assistance. Yet the White House and their Senate Majority seem more concerned about the economic demands of large corporations, or the citizens of other countries, than about getting our own citizens back to work into stable jobs that can support a family and uplift a community.” (emphasis ours)

Jeff Sessions has been right on the principles and right on the policy from the beginning of the amnesty debate, now Kellyanne Conway and her colleagues at The Polling Company have proven he’s right on the politics too. Isn’t it about time the rest of the Capitol Hill GOP got the message?

http://www.conservativehq.com/article/18084-obama-hopes-illegal-immigration-out-sight-out-mind