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  1. #1
    Senior Member Populist's Avatar
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    Time hasn't made immigration reform easier

    I checked, but if this is a dup, please delete:
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    Time hasn't made immigration reform easier
    12:31 PM CST on Sunday, November 15, 2009
    By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News
    tgillman@ dallasnews.com

    WASHINGTON – Immigration, after 10 months on the president's back burner, got its very own trial balloon the other day.

    Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano went before a friendly crowd at a liberal think tank Friday and proclaimed that the time has come for comprehensive reform – a goal that has eluded Congress so many times, it has become a third rail of American politics.

    It's different now, she argued: Border security is tighter than ever. Inflows of illegal immigrants have dropped by half. Benchmarks for fencing much of the border and roughly doubling the Border Patrol have been met. Lawmakers have hashed out the arguments so many times, the next debate can be streamlined.

    "We are in a much different environment than we were before," she said.

    We shall see.

    Health care and Social Security, after all, have been in crisis for years. The fact that each side's arguments are well-honed doesn't make the positions less entrenched. And keep an eye on the 2010 midterm elections. Congress will become more paralyzed as they get closer.

    "It's not going to go away. It's there. We have to address it," said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, a moderate whose border district is at the heart of the debate.

    The Obama administration's idea of a "tough and fair pathway to earned legal status," as Napolitano put it in her speech to the Center for American Progress, would require that immigrants register, pay fines, pass criminal background checks, pay taxes and learn English.

    For anti-immigrant hardliners, that didn't sound onerous. It sounded like amnesty for 12 million or so foreign lawbreakers – and at exactly the wrong time, with unemployment in double digits and rising.

    It's been only two years since Congress rejected efforts to enact "comprehensive" reform: beefed-up security and workplace enforcement, a new guest worker program and some mechanism to allow undocumented workers to emerge from the shadows.

    The argument for moving ahead with those other elements hinges largely on whether security benchmarks have been met. Napolitano insisted they have.

    "We have attained, I believe, basically, control between the ports of entry," she said.

    That is, basically, a pretty bold statement. Critics don't buy it.


    "How can they claim that enforcement is 'done'?" asked Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee and a key GOP player on immigration. With 400 miles of Southwest border unfenced and millions of undocumented workers still competing for increasingly scarce jobs, Washington should be talking about deportation, he said, not legalization.

    Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, noted with at least a tinge of criticism that Obama had promised to make immigration reform a first-year priority, "but it has now been delayed until 2010." It's nice to see Napolitano "becoming more engaged," he said, but Obama should offer a concrete proposal "sooner rather than later."

    That part of the environment hasn't changed all that much. Overcoming it will take more than a trial balloon from a Cabinet secretary.

    "Obama needs to be stronger on his comments," Cuellar said. "There's a lot of us that wish he was a lot more outspoken, like he has been on a lot of other issues."

    In coming months, we'll get a clearer gauge of Obama's sincerity. And we'll learn if all those security-firsters were simply playing for time or really would be willing to tackle the rest of the issue.

    That's the dare Napolitano threw down in her speech.

    "The way you lay this out is to say, 'We've made progress, we've reached these benchmarks,' " Cuellar said. "Whether people buy or might not buy the argument, at least that's the message."

    Todd J. Gillman is Washington bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News.

    http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 47e49.html
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  2. #2
    Senior Member Captainron's Avatar
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    Napolitano is always going before a " friendly crowd" seeking support for her lame brain ideas. We know that, by definition, she doesn't have any you know what. No wonder Al Qaeda is sneaking through into the US.

    Come on Janet....time to talk to the other 80 per cent of the American people.
    "Men of low degree are vanity, Men of high degree are a lie. " David
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  3. #3
    Senior Member Populist's Avatar
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    Note Sen. John Cornyn's comments in this article. He has been pushing Obama to take up CIR amnesty, so let's puncture this trial balloon.

    Please call Cornyn's office and tell him we know the border is still not secure and our immigration laws have been weakened by Obama, so now is NOT the time for CIR amnesty -- especially in this era of high unemployment.

    Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) (his office asks for your zip code):

    phone: 202- 224-2934
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  4. #4
    Senior Member Captainron's Avatar
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    I called Cornyn's office to complain about non citizens calling our Congressional offices---and the aide spotted my area code and told she knew I was not from their district either. So...Texas groups should alert their members to call. I will stick to email .....unless there is another suggestion.
    "Men of low degree are vanity, Men of high degree are a lie. " David
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  5. #5
    Senior Member SOSADFORUS's Avatar
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    "The way you lay this out is to say, 'We've made progress, we've reached these benchmarks,' " Cuellar said. "Whether people buy or might not buy the argument, at least that's the message."
    In other words Cuellar its ok Janet just lie about it and what ever she says if we don't believe her well too bad?

    Progress is not good enough, even cutting illegal crossings by `1/2 is not good enough, we want the border closed and if you are not will to deport then it is not good enough...deporting is enforcing the laws!

    And we are not buying the message!
    Please support ALIPAC's fight to save American Jobs & Lives from illegal immigration by joining our free Activists E-Mail Alerts (CLICK HERE)

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