Friday, October 18, 2013
Joseph Coto
The Washington Times


AP

OCALA, Fla., October 18, 2013 — Now that the federal government is up and running again, it is time to focus on what really matters: illegal immigration.

Over the last several days, officials in the Obama Administration have made it clear that passing an amnesty package into law is high priority. This package was approved by the U.S. Senate earlier in the year, and now needs House approval.

Since Republicans, fractured as their congressional authority might be, control the House, some might say that amnesty cannot happen. They are badly mistaken. Only six years ago, sweeping legislation that would have provided illegal aliens with a path to citizenship nearly made it through a Congress totally dominated by the GOP.

We even had a Republican president at the time. He was one of amnesty’s biggest supporters.

The GOP has become far more right-wing after President Obama’s election and reelection. This has, in almost every way imaginable, been for the worst. Perhaps the only exception is that opposition to amnesty has solidified.

Nonetheless, there are serious cracks in the immigration sanity coalition’s armor.

The Senate-born Gang of Eight’s amnesty package could not have passed the upper chamber if a handful of Republicans didn’t sign on. Now, with conservatives’ political capital foolishly — to be kind — squandered on a federal government shutdown designed to defeat Obamacare, many politicians may be too tired for another ordeal.

However, the damaging qualities of the Gang of Eight’s bill — ironically titled the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S. 744) — must not be ignored.

In April, RedState blogger Daniel Horowitz analyzed the bill, finding that it “fails to mandate any specific trigger for legalization”. Should the Secretary of Homeland Security put forth a plan for securing dangerous points along America’s borders in a half-year period, illegals then become eligible for Registered Provisional Immigrant status.

Horowitz wrote that “(t)he bill prescribes a 12-month open enrollment process for the RPI status….it cedes a lot of power to the Secretary. She will have the authority to extend the application period for another 18 months….Now, we know from the conditions of the bill that almost every illegal in the country could be eligible for RPI status until proven otherwise. In fact, even some aliens already deported can come back and apply for the status.”

He also detailed how the Homeland Security Department will be made to allow illegals, even those in custody, to apply for RPI status.

“During this period of no deportations,” Horowitz said, “many more people will come here illegally or overstay their visas. What would be the deterrent? Does anyone really believe that after the application process is over, they will suddenly make a 180 and deport those who didn’t come forward?”

Making matters worse is “given that the E-verify and watered-down visa tracking system don’t have to be implemented for 10 years, we will be dealing with many more illegals.” That’s not all, though: “By the time the 10-year deadline comes due to grant the RPI illegals green cards and citizenship (unconditionally within 3 years), we will probably have more illegals than we have now.”

Finally, Horowitz told that the RPI status “will ostensibly halt all deportations for 2.5 years. Subject to the discretion of the DHS….they could completely shut down deportations because any illegal can potentially be here before 2012….And anyone could potentially be eligible for the Dream Act, because, unlike previous iterations, this one does not mandate a maximum age for eligibility.”

In June, the Center for Immigration Studies, a prominent think tank, summarized a Congressional Budget Office report on B.S.: “CBO projects 4.8 million new illegal immigrants and their U.S.-born children will be living in the country by 2023 if the bill becomes law, compared to 6.4 million without it – a mere 25% reduction in future illegal immigration”.

The CBO discovered that “(i)n the first ten years after the passage of S.744, new illegal immigration will add nearly 500,000 illegal residents and their children to the U.S. population each year” and “7.5 million new illegal immigrants and their U.S.-born children will be in the country if the bill passes, compared to 10 million without the bill, so even in the very long term S.744 only reduces illegal immigration by 25%”.

“One of the reasons that illegal immigration will remain so high,” the CIS also noted, “according to CBO, is the bill itself will encourage illegal immigration. CBO states, ‘aspects of the bill would probably increase the number of unauthorized residents – in particular, people overstaying their visas issued under the new programs for temporary workers’”.

So, what need does our country have for amnesty?

“It is a myth that immigrants only take those jobs that Americans no longer want and therefore do not compete with American workers,” Californians for Population Stabilization executive director Jo Wideman told The Washington Times Communities earlier this year.

“Excessive immigration is responsible for unemployment, underemployment and depressed wages and working conditions, not just for the working class (e.g., janitors, dry-wall hangers, gardeners and construction workers) but increasingly, for high-tech professions, such as IT and engineering, as well.”

“There is a common misperception that immigration laws exist to facilitate the orderly admission of foreign nationals who would like to live in the U.S.,” Dan Stein, the president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, explained to TWTC last summer. “In reality, immigration laws exist to protect the vital interests of the people of the United States and, only then, to ensure the orderly admission of people we choose to open our doors to.”

Illegal immigration hurts America. It is almost impossible not to see the obvious, but personal biases often lead us away from our best interests.

Hopefully enough constituents will make their voices heard so that House Republicans reject the Gang of Eight’s B.S. without hesitation.

What could be more in line with the American Way?

http://communities.washingtontimes.c...-haunt-americ/