Thread: Obama presses for immigration reform

Mark Silva Washington Bureau

April 23, 2010 | 8:21 a.m.


WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama, urging Congress today to press forward on "comprehensive immigration reform,'' warned that the absence of federal action will only encourage "misguided efforts'' such as those in Arizona.

With support from some Republicans as well as Democrats in the Senate, the president is attempting to renew a long-simmering debate over immigration reform in Congress. His goal, he maintains, is not only strengthening the borders, but also addressing the fate of the many millions of immigrants who already have arrived in the U.S. illegally.

"Surely we can all agree that when 11 million people are living here illegally, that's unacceptable,'' Obama said today at a naturalization ceremony for 24 members of the Armed Forces on the South Lawn of the White House. "The American people deserve a solution.''

In Arizona, a legislative attempt to crack down on undocumented immigrations has spurred protests and counter-protests, with the governor there weighing a bill that allows authorities to check the documents of anyone suspected of being an illegal immigration.

"Our failure to act responsibly at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others,'' Obama said. "And that includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threatened to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.''

The president said he had instructed his administration "to closely monitor the situation'' in Arizona and "examine the civil rights and other implications'' of the Arizona legislation. It points to the need for federal legislation, the president said.

"But if we continue to fail to act at a federal level, we will continue to see misguided efforts opening up around the country,'' Obama said.

The president used an address to 24 new citizens from 16 other nations at the naturalization ceremony outside the White House to call for immigration reform.

Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security secretary from Arizona, swore in the newest American citizens on the South Lawn.

"It takes a very special individual to serve and defend a nation that is not yet fully your own,'' Napolitano told them. "Since Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. ... has naturalized over 58,000 members of our Armed Services.''

Obama opened by thanking Napolitano for her efforts in seeking "comprehensive immigration reform.''

"Some of you came to America as children... some of you came as adults,'' the president told his audience. All of them, he said, embody the dream that many immigrants before them have sought. "We celebrate the spirit of possibility,'' Obama said. "If you believe in yourself and you play by the rules, then there is a place for you in the United States of America... We celebrate the true meaning of patriotism.''

Today, he said, "we celebrate the very essence of the country we love... an America where so many of our forbearers came from someplace else...

"We are also reminded of how we must remain both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws,'' he said. "This means fixing our broken immigration laws.''

The government has a responsibility to enforce the law, strengthen border security, the president said, and those here illegally have a responsibility to pay back taxes, learn English and "get right with the law'' before they can apply for citizenship.

The president cited progress that is being made on "a framework on moving forward'' in Congress and encouraged leaders to continue working. In the Senate, leaders are weighing whether to take up immigration reform or an energy bill after finishing work on new financial regulations for the nation's banking and investment industry.

mdsilva@tribune.com


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 1381.story

Mr. Obama is totally misguided, and any efforts to bring an amnesty forward, will only outrage the American people, sick of seeing this nation spiral into destruction from the White House and Congress.

The only action that this present government desires, is to legalize their needed 12-20 million voters, who will follow them into the darkness of socialism. They have no desire to secure the borders or enforce immigration law. Arizona has them in a pickle, because they know that other states will do the same.

John 14:27 (King James Version)
It is written,... Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Reposting my post on another thread to this thread to spread the word:

You know we've all been thinking a lot about our Constitution, and I have as well and something occurred to me today which I'd like your thoughts on, which concerns states rights and immigration, legal and illegal.

Under the US Constitution when it was ratified, states controlled foreign immigration into their state. In fact until 1808, the US government had no control over foreign immigration into a state.

After 1808, the US government had the right to restrict immigration into a state by restricting it into the country, but I can't find anywhere in the US Constitution where the US government has the constitutional authority to permit foreign immigration into a state without the state's permission which means Federal Immigration Law has overlooked the constitutional requirement to obtain prior formal consent from a state before it permits aliens to enter a state or our country.

Under the US Constitution, the Feds can prevent immigration by states but they can't authorize immigration into states without the prior formal consent of a state legislature.

Can any of you find any constitutional authority of the US government to flood our states with foreign immigrants, legal or illegal, without prior permission from the states?

There's been a Catastrophic Unconstitutional Immigration Accident in the United States that is on the verge of destroying our nation.

To correct it, every state needs to pass the AZ bill to enforce existing US immigration law as it is, then the US Congress needs to introduce a bill that requires an act of the individual state legislatures to approve the immigrants the US government wants to permit to enter every year, prior to issuing a permit for entry, both for the state involved at their point of entry as well as for every state that the permit would allow them to enter subsequently.

We're a sovereign nation of sovereign people residing in sovereign states. The permitting of new people by a federal government that burdens the states the people will actually be entering and residing in that have responsibility for those immigrants with whom the citizen residents of those states will now have to compete for jobs, incomes, housing, culture, language, resources, benefits, educations, medical care, votes, political access and futures is immigration tyranny by the federal government unless it has prior formal consent from the states approved by the elected representatives of the states accountable to the citizens of that state or states.

If anyone can find a section of the US Constitution where the states lost their right to limit foreign immigration into their state, please let me know.

Thanks.

Here is the section of the US Constitution on legal immigration:

Article I

Section 9.

The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person.

Then here is the section of the US Constitution on invasions into the states:

Article IV

Section 4.

The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.

So where does the US government gain the constitutional authority to a) permit aliens and foreign immigration into a state without the consent of the state or b) deny protection to states battling an illegal invasion?

Nowhere. The US government has no authority under the US Constitution to permit a soul, outside of a foreign diplomat to step one foot on the soil of the US without the prior consent of the state legislatures of the states involved with the people permitted and at no time can the US government ever refuse to provide protection to states being illegal invaded by foreign nationals.

The only authority the US government has with regards to immigration is to restrict it, not grant it, permit it or expand it without prior consent from the states affected by it.

Get busy folks, we're taking our country back. We can take this position all the way to the US Supreme Court and every state in the Union needs to join a legal action to overturn the US government's illegal practice of permitting foreign nationals to enter the US without prior consent from the states they would be entering.

I wonder why Obama doesn't know this? Isn't he a "constitutional scholar" of some sort from Harvard?

How can he or any member of Congress be pushing for "immigration reform" when the US government under the US Constitution has one sole authority with regards to immigration and that is to restrict it and charge the states $10 a person for every person they decide to admit to their state?

The US government has no authority to admit by permit a soul except a foreign diplomat without the prior formal consent of the state legislatures.

its enforcement moron. we dont need reform we need enforcement of existing laws. there is absoluterly nothing wrong with the laws on the book unless you happen to be an illegal or a liberal bastard in government. you want to keep cost down lower the budget stop pouring money down the hole that illegal immigrations uses up. a more accurate total for the count of illegal immigrants in ths country is around 50 million. that is one in six of the people you pass by everyday. multiply out the cost to the legal citizens of this country for those losses.

what does comphrensive reform look like? are we expected to go to mexico and pick them up in a limo with a wet bar and transport them here? all we ask now is that they obey our laws and enter legally. how do you reform that?