Thread: Immigration Officers Blast Border Bill: ‘A Global Joke;’ ‘Where Is the Outrage?’

By Craig Bannister | 5 hours ago

“We admit individuals who have no business being admitted,” the head of the immigration officers’ union said today, blasting both Pres. Obama’s amnesty and the new border bill.

Kenneth Palinkas, President of the National Citizenship and Immigration Services Council representing 12,000 United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) adjudicators and personnel, says the immigration legislation scheduled to be considered by the House of Representatives next week puts officers’ mission “in grave peril.”

“Where is the outrage from Congress?,” he asks. “After the House passed its legislation to reverse the amnesty, all I hear is silence in the Senate. It seems Congressional leaders will not rise to defend the laws of the United States, but are giving in to the ‘imperial presidency,’ Palinkas says.

The new “border security” bill is “a global joke,” Palinkas says:

“H.R. 399 – Chairman McCaul’s legislation – does nothing to preclude anyone in the world from turning themselves in at the US border and obtaining automatic entry and federal benefits. Almost anyone at all can call themselves an asylum-seeker and get in; it’s a global joke.”

“It’s not border security if anyone can recite the magic words and get waved right on in. Those who arrived in the 2014 border run are still here, often living on US support and even applying for US jobs. The bill also delays by years the implementation of biometric exit-entry to police the rising overstay catastrophe.”

The full statement by Palinkas is below:

“The dedicated immigration service officers and adjudicators at USCIS are in desperate need of help. The President’s executive amnesty order for 5 million illegal immigrants places the mission of USCIS in grave peril. Instead of meeting our lawful function to protect the Homeland and keep out those who pose a threat to US security, health, or finances, our officers will be assigned to process amnesty for individuals residing illegally inside our nation’s borders. This compromises national security and public safety, while undermining officer morale.

The Administration’s skewed priorities mean that the Crystal City amnesty processing center will likely have superior worksite conditions for personnel relative to our normal processing centers. Additionally, the security protocols at place in this facility will be insufficient to engage in any basic screening precautions, ensuring and rewarding massive amounts of fraud. For the Administration to continue down this course after the Paris attacks is beyond belief.

Yet where is the outrage from Congress? After the House passed its legislation to reverse the amnesty, all I hear is silence in the Senate. It seems Congressional leaders will not rise to defend the laws of the United States, but are giving in to the ‘imperial presidency.’

I also remain concerned by the fact that needed USCIS reforms are not included in pending legislation. For instance, H.R. 399 – Chairman McCaul’s legislation – does nothing to preclude anyone in the world from turning themselves in at the US border and obtaining automatic entry and federal benefits. Almost anyone at all can call themselves an asylum-seeker and get in; it’s a global joke. It’s not border security if anyone can recite the magic words and get waved right on in. Those who arrived in the 2014 border run are still here, often living on US support and even applying for US jobs. The bill also delays by years the implementation of biometric exit-entry to police the rising overstay catastrophe.

We process millions upon millions of applications every year for lifetime immigrant green cards, refugee admissions, asylum-seekers, temporary workers, visitors, tourists, and more – but we do so without any of the resources or mission support we need to screen these individuals properly, let alone to conduct in-person interviews. We admit individuals who have no business being admitted the United States, whether public charges, health risks, or radicalized Islamists, and in large numbers. It is unfair to employees, unfair to taxpayers, and unfair to anyone concerned about immigration security.

We are saying to Congress: help us. Provide us the tools, mission support and resources we need to protect the Homeland, in accord with the laws and Constitution of the United States.”

http://www.mrctv.org/blog/immigratio...-where-outrage

I feel your pain, I hear your frustration. Again, the problem is not broken law or a broken system, it's a broken Executive Branch that has frankly made a global joke of our whole country, from trade deals to deficits to massive immigration. With rare exception, the world that once admired US has only sad wonderment at our self-destruction. And this Executive Plague which isn't confined to just this President, although he's certainly accelerated the problem and spiked the consequences, has been making US sick for a long time now, like a terrible contagion that spreads with each Inauguration.

Originally Posted by Jean

The new “border security” bill is “a global joke,” Palinkas says:

“It’s not border security if anyone can recite the magic words and get waved right on in. Those who arrived in the 2014 border run are still here, often living on US support and even applying for US jobs. The bill also delays by years the implementation of biometric exit-entry to police the rising overstay catastrophe.”

What will it take to get the mainstream media to publicize the statements by the people whose boots are on the ground?

Palinkas is showing real courage. I wish that it could be rewarded with publicity.

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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

10:24 AM 01/23/2015
Neil Munro

The new border security bill being rushed forward by the Republican leadership is merely political theater, says Kenneth Palinkas, head of the union representing the 12,000 federal employees at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

“H.R. 399 — Chairman [Mike] McCaul’s legislation — does nothing to preclude anyone in the world from turning themselves in at the U.S. border and obtaining automatic entry and federal benefits,” such as work permits, Palinkas wrote in a Jan. 22 letter.

The bill doesn’t challenge practices adopted since 2010 by the White House, which ensure that “almost anyone at all can call themselves an asylum-seeker and get in; it’s a global joke,” said Palinkas.

Palinkas’ letter — in which he named 18 GOP legislators who voted for the bill — is part of a grassroots campaign to reform or block the border security bill.

The bill would spends $10 billion over 10 years. But it only adds 48 miles of double-layer fencing to meet an 2008 mandate to build various fences along 700 miles of the 2,000 mile border. It also actually tears down some border fencing, which backers say is being replaced by see-through barriers that help surveillance. More significantly, say critics, it does not include any language to end President Barack Obama’s catch-and-release border policies.

Under those catch-and-release policies, Obama has largely halted repatriations, and is ordering officials to issue work permits to large numbers of illegals. For example, his officials provided temporary residency documents to nearly all of the 130,000 low-skill Central American adults and children who crossed the U.S. border in 2014. Most of the adults were allowed to get temporary work permits.

Obama’s immigration policies are unpopular. A January poll by The Washington Post said 89 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of independents oppose Obama’s amnesty.

Tea party groups are also pushing to change McCaul’s bill. ”We want to tighten up this bill and we don’t think adding some or all of the [previously passed] language is an unreasonable expectation,” said Kevin Broughton, a spokesman for the Tea Party Patriots network.

The network is asking its supporters to lobby their legislators for a better bill. ”We make it easy for them to get in touch with their legislators. … Their enthusiasm level [to stop amnesty] is at all-time high,” Broughton said.

The McCaul bill would be much improved if it included the border security bill passed last July by nearly all GOP legislators, he said. The language was developed by Rep. John Carter and Rep. Robert Adelholt.

Palinkas also called for major changes. ”It’s not border security if anyone can recite the magic [catch-and-release] words and get waved right on in,” he said. “We are saying to Congress: help us. Provide us the tools, mission support and resources we need to protect the Homeland, in accord with the laws and Constitution of the United States.”

However, McCaul and other GOP leaders say the bill is the toughest border security bill ever, and want to pass it during a floor vote as soon as Wednesday, Jan. 28.

They’re hoping to get as many GOP legislators as possible to vote for the bill next week so they can claim a big victory over Democratic opposition, said a Capitol Hill staffer.

That theatrical win can be used to shield GOP legislators from voters’ criticism once the GOP leaders later push bills that would allow companies to annually import hundreds of thousands of workers to compete against Americans for food-sector jobs, blue-collar jobs and non-technology professional jobs, the staffer said.

Democratic leaders will protest and complain in public, but privately will support the GOP’s cheap labor bills in exchange for getting millions of Democratic-leaning foreigners on a 10-year path to citizenship and the voting booth, said the staffer.

The McCaul bill is intended to remove the tough public opposition that is blocking the labor-for-votes swap, he said. “It is legislative Drano that is intended to clear the way for amnesty,” the Hill staffer said.

A top deputy to House Speaker John Boehner has also promised to pass an amnesty in 2015.

n December, Republican leaders passed a 2015 funding bill that allows funding for Obama’s November amnesty of 12 million illegals. The GOP leaders pushed for the funding despite overwhelming opposition from the GOP base. Sixty-seven GOP legislators voted against the amnesty funding.

Democrats are staging high-profile opposition to the McCaul bill.

But that opposition is as fake as a wrestling match, said the Hill staffer.

For example, a Jan. 22 statement by Obama’s immigration deputy blasted the McCaul bill, but it didn’t promise a veto. “H.R. 399 is unworkable, plain and simple,” said the letter from Jeh Jonson, head of the Department of Homeland Security, who did not even say he would recommend a veto.

In contrast, Obama and his aides have promised this week to veto several other draft bills, including bills on abortion, amnesty funding and an oil pipeline. The McCaul bill “is the first thing they didn’t threaten to veto,” the staffer said.

The Democratic opposition to the McCaul bill “is like when you see [World Wresting Entertainment Vince] McMahon step into the ring and pretend to have a fight with Steve Austin, when they’re just putting on a good show and they have a drink afterwards and split the profits,” the staffer said.

But GOP leaders have a lot of power over the rank-and-file. For example, committee member Pennsylvania Rep. Lou Barletta voted for McCaul’s bill after he was allowed to add an amendment to the bill. The amendment requires the administration to file a report on border security, but doesn’t impose any penalties if officials ignore the deadline.

Barletta, who was elected on an anti-amnesty platform, explained his vote for McCaul’s bill by saying other House committee will add improvements. ”In separate legislation, we look forward to the work of other committees in Congress to address issues such as interior enforcement of immigration laws,” said his statement. “We are taking the issues up one at a time, rather than in a single large bill.”

The McCaul bill was approved Jan 1. on a party-line vote.

The GOP legislators who backed the bill include Texas Reps. McCaul, Lamar Smith, Will Hurd and John Ratcliffe, Pennsylvania’s Barletta, Tom Marino and Scott Perry, Michigan’s Mike Rogers and Candace Miller, New York’s Peter King and John Katko, Georgia’s Erl Carter and Barry Loudermilk, plus South Carolina’s Jeff Duncan, Mississippi’s Steven Palazzo, Florida’s Curtis Clawson, North Carolina’s Mark Walker and Arizona’s Martha McSally.

The Democrats’ complaints about the McCaul bill also distracts public attention to the Senate GOP leaders’ failure to block 2015 funding for Obama’s amnesty. “Why are they so eager to pass a [McCaul] bill that doesn’t work, and so determined to not pass anything that might work,” said the Hill staffer.

http://oneoldvet.com/

http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/23/th...ce-throw-down/

http://www.alipac.us/f12/border-patr...ing%92-317052/