On Tuesday, Congressman Steve King organized a presser with several House colleagues who strongly oppose the Senate amnesty bill.
The other speakers included Republican Congressmen Louie Gohmert, Mo Brooks, Steve Stockman, John Fleming and Paul Gosar.
Rep. King noted that he has been a fierce foe of Obamacare, but sees the Senate amnesty as “far, far worse.” Like the other assembled representatives, a primary focus of King is to maintain the rule of law, which amnesty shreds by the act of rewarding lawbreakers. His other concerns are cultural assimilation, border control and national security.
Rep Gohmert of Texas (a drought-troubled state) observed that it’s likely a billion or more people abroad would like to move here. He was not reassured that authorities are able to keep out dangerous persons among the millions to be amnestied when the FBI couldn’t sort out the Boston bomber Tsarnaev brother when warned about Tamerlan by Russian police.
John Fleming of Louisiana reminded listeners that the 1986 amnesty was a failure and the government should not go down that path again.
Dr. Paul Gosar of Arizona warned against a huge bill which puts too much enforcement authority in the hands of Janet Napolitano.
Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks alerted about the enormous numbers of foreigners who would like to relocate here, e.g. 20 percent of Mexicans who would come illegally. He doesn’t want millions of lawbreakers to be future Americans, who will also cost taxpayers trillions of dollars according to the recent Heritage study. An open-borders society promotes anarchy, he stated.
Steve Stockman (R-TX) emphasized fairness for legal immigrants, whose care in doing immigration the lawful way is undermined by rewarding lawbreakers.
Congressman King emphasized how the bill is really really bad. He fears a doomsday scenario in which House leadership allows a conference between the House and Senate versions that might pass legislation unfavorable to the rule of law.
Rep. King said, “That conference committee could produce from it some version of the amnesty bill and send it to the floor, unamendable, an up-or-down vote, in which case, every Democrat would vote for it, it would only take a couple of dozen Republicans, and we could be stuck with a very bad bill on the way to the president. So I’m most concerned about that and I’ll continue to talk about that.”
Are the House friends of American sovereignty waking up to the looming amnesty danger? Perhaps.
On Thursday, several of the more spine-enhanced members had a low-key presser, called a “pen-and-pad” by Roll Call (new scribbler shop talk to me). Organized by Congressman Steve King (R-IA, pictured), the event included Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Lou Barletta (R-PA), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Mo Brooks (R-AL).
There’s no video of the event, at least so far, or transcript either. Why so shy? Millions of citizens are starved for leadership supporting the well-being of the nation, rather than an immigration amnesty deal made in secret for powerful special interests. Congressman King was involved in an outdoors press conference in 2011 spotlighting the crime victims of illegal aliens; that format could be usefully be followed for a presentation on American joblessness, for example.
Anyway, the pen-and-pad is a welcome step in the right direction. Hopefully there will be more leadership forthcoming to maintain a recognizable America.
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) on Thursday pulled together a group of conservative colleagues to fight back against Democratic Party and GOP establishment efforts to grant amnesty to at least 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.
King organized an invitation-only press conference for reporters from several different publications, including Breitbart News, at which he and Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Lou Barletta (R-PA), and Michele Bachmann (R-MN), declared opposition to any and all efforts by career politicians inside the beltway to grant amnesty to the millions of illegal immigrants in the country.
In the 113th Congress’s immigration debate, only a handful of conservative Senators, led by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), have been fighting back against the amnesty attempts, especially without real border security or interior law enforcement reform. But now at least a small House contingent is joining Sessions and his conservative colleagues on the other side of Capitol Hill.
King said he is speaking up now because of the “inertia” of pro-amnesty lawmakers. “[W]e’re concerned about having this wash over us and not have the opportunity for the constitutional conservatives in this country and in this Congress to have their voice heard,” he said.
King also discussed the many erroneous conclusions drawn by colleagues, such as that the presidential election was lost because of certain misstatements or verbal gaffes, such as “self-deport” or “47 percent.” He also questioned the efficacy of using the fact that George W. Bush received a high percentage of the Hispanic vote as an excuse for the disappointing results in November.
[“I think it’s high time we had this discussion,” King added. “A number of us have sat back and watched with amazement at how quickly some of our colleagues leaped to erroneous conclusions. One of them would be on the morning of November 7, when a good number of them concluded that Mitt Romney would be president-elect that morning if we had just not said ’self-deport.’ Continue reading this article
Judge Jeanine Pirro opened her Fox show with a fine segment about the administration’s pre-sequester release of 2,000 criminal aliens, with more to come. She emphasized, “The first order of government is the protection of its citizens.” But that duty is not followed by this administration.
The first thing the Obama crew did with the excuse of reduced funding was to fling open the prison doors, even when the DHS has billions in spare money in reserve. How many preventable crimes against Americans have been set in motion by this rash act against public safety?
Judge Jeanine interviewed Congressman Steve King and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu. The sheriff reported the dangerous nature of many of the released foreigners, that they are convicted of crimes, not just accused. The freed criminals include drug smugglers, cartel members, weapons violaters, drug dealers, child molesters, plus persons found guilty of assault and manslaughter. Potential ICE whistleblowers who want to tell the truth about what’s going on have been threatened with severe retaliation and firing.
The judge discussed ICE Director John Morton’s Dec 21 memo limiting the confinement of criminal aliens by making the requirements unduly stringent, with the major points shown below:
“Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: Those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave…For the system to be credible, people actually have to be deported at the end of the process.”
(Barbara Jordan, February 24, 1995 Testimony to House Immigration Subcommittee)
The legislation written by sovereignty stalwart Steve King (R-Iowa, pictured) was examined Thursday in a hearing by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.
You would think that a policy supported by an overwhelming majority of American citizens would get a little respect (e.g. a 2010 Rasmussen poll found 87 percent of voters support official English).
English ONLY implies that non-English speakers must abandon their languages — not the case with “official” English which is far more limited. King’s bill (HB 997 text) affects only a small area of government functions, like requiring that naturalization ceremonies be held in English.
As alluded to above, another sign of incivility was rude Congressman John Conyers responding to King in lame Spanish (Watch). Conyers represents Detroit and yes, his wife is still in prison for corruption.
Below, Congressman King defended his bill in a July 25 interview on Fox News, in which the questions seemed unnecessarily snotty:
CNS’s report was at least informational, and lacked the snark of Fox.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is sponsoring a bill to make English the official language of the United States – a law he said will help “bind” Americans together at a time when the Obama administration is trying to create divisions between people.
When CNSNews.com asked why the bill should be passed, King said the “English Language Unity Act of 2012,” (H.R. 997) will unify the country.
“An official language binds us together, and there are concerted efforts on the part of the leftists in America to subdivide this country a lot of ways – down the lines of race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, profitability, class warfare,” King said. “And the Obama administration’s dividing America and an administration that’s promoting multilingualism as a function of government.
“Multilingualism is fine, but not as a function of government,because it confuses us and, it divides us, and it pits us against each other,” King said.
Thursday’s hearing of the House Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Constitution had two panels, including one featuring the bill’s sponsor and subcommittee member King, who has been joined in his efforts by 122 co-sponsors.
“A common language is the most powerful unifying force the world has ever known. It is more powerful than race, color, religion, sex or national origin,” King said in his prepared remarks. “The unifying official language does not have to be English, yet we are fortunate the common language of the United States of America is English.
“English is the international language of commerce, politics, maritime, and of air traffic control,” King said. “English is an incredible unifying force uniting America, knocking down ethnic, religious, and cultural barriers to make us one and is the modern lingua franca of the world.
“Today as we rally for unity and patriotism, our common form of communications currency binds us together and propels us toward our destiny,” King said. Continue reading this article
On Tuesday Rep. King appeared on Fox News and explained that the court case was about the powers belonging to Congress should not be usurped by the President via executive order. King has argued that if the President is allowed to get away with this overreach then he may well act beyond his Constitutional powers in other areas as well.
Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King told The Daily Caller that the immigration lawsuit he is leading against President Barack Obama should be filed within weeks.
King’s lawsuit is a response to Obama’s new immigration policy announced in June under executive order, an order he believes is unconstitutional.
“If the president can just pick and choose the laws he wants to enforce, you get a breakdown in the constitutional order because he’s charged with enforcing the laws,” said Steven Camarota, Director of the Research Center for Immigration Studies, to Fox News in support of King’s argument.
Though Camarota said, “it’s very tough” to win – unless he can show that an act of Congress is being nullified by the president than you might have standing or the right to sue.
Obama laid out details of his new immigration policy that will stop deporting and will issue work permits to up to 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children and have never committed a crime.
The congressman detailed a meeting held last Tuesday with “potential co-plaintiffs” interest in signing on to King’s lawsuit.
According to King, “If the case is heard on the merits, we’re in an excellent position to succeed.”
King is worried that letting Obama use an executive order to bypass Congress could lead to a “dangerous precedent.” Continue reading this article
The House Republicans have been disappointing in various ways, but particularly regarding immigration enforcement and also Obama’s increasing encroachment into powers of the legislative branch. Certainly the do-nothing no-budget Democrat Senate is a daunting roadblock, but more can be done, and Congressman King is showing one way forward.
Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King says he expects that the immigration lawsuit he is spearheading against President Obama will be filed in a court within weeks.
“I think we’re talking weeks rather than months,” King told The Daily Caller in an interview Friday about the planned legal action against Obama.
King’s lawsuit is in response to the Obama administration’s divisive announcement last month that the government would stop deporting certain illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States as children.
The congressman said a meeting was held last Tuesday with potential co-plaintiffs interested in signing on to the lawsuit to prevent the Obama administration from going through with its plan.
King, who would likely be the lead plaintiff, would not specifically name who else attended, but he said one U.S. senator, four state executive offices and five non-governmental organizations were represented at the meeting. Continue reading this article
Of course it’s amnesty. Authorization to stay and work legally is absolutely an amnesty, because the money is the reason they come. Few individual aliens care about citizenship and voting — those items are desired only by political Raza types to gain more group power.
Furthermore, Obama’s administrative amnesty can also be understood as expanding birth-right citizenship to anyone under 30. Nobody in that age group will be left out, because necessary papers will be forged to include everyone. Raza types have already complained about “second class citizenship” regarding a DREAM Act with work permits only, so they will certainly demand the whole enchilada at some point.
President Obama had said more than once that the American system of government did not allow him to decree amnesty all on his own. He even told a Univision audience in March of last year, “With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that’s just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed.”
But now, five months before the big election, niceties like the separation of powers take a back seat to hardcore political hispandering. Obama’s party totally controlled government for the first year and a half of his presidency, but didn’t try to pass an amnesty legislatively, as the law requires.
Even liberal news outlets observed that Wednesday’s oral arguments over parts of Arizona’s SB 1070 law did not favor the Obama position of attacking states’ immigration enforcement.
Immigration enforcement law expert Kris Kobach made a few remarks outside the court to the crowd assembled.
Interestingly, Solicitor General Donald Verelli voiced concern over foreign relations if SB 1070 were to stand, but no similar regard was reported from him for the danger to public safety if alien criminals continue to pour in.
Supreme Court justices took a dim view of the Obama administration’s claim that it can stop Arizona from enforcing immigration laws, telling government lawyers during oral argument Wednesday that the state appears to want to push federal officials, not conflict with them.
The court was hearing arguments on Arizona’s immigration crackdown law, which requires police to check the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally, and would also write new state penalties for illegal immigrants who try to apply for jobs.
The Obama administration has sued, arguing that those provisions conflict with the federal government’s role in setting immigration policy, but justices on both sides of the aisle struggled to understand that argument.
“It seems to me the federal government just doesn’t want to know who’s here illegally,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said at one point. Continue reading this article
While the increased discussion of immigration in the media is welcome, much of it is of low quality, even among persons who call themselves conservatives, a group which is supposed to respect law and sovereignty.
Congressman Brian Bilbray is not one of those spouting nonsense soundbites. In a recent appearance on CNN, the Chair of the Immigration Reform Caucus made several points often missed in the current shallow debate (which routinely ignores the job displacement dimension). Bilbray emphasized that Reagan realized amnesty could only be used once, because any additional giveaways decrease Washington’s credibility for enforcement.
True, as shown by the disrespect toward US sovereignty shown by foreign freeloaders after the seven amnesties passed by Congress since Reagan’s 1984 amnesty.
Rep. Bilbray also noted that any discussion of amnesty (very unpopular among US voters) sends the message around the world that America is still wide open for illegal immigration. Announcing amnesty is like opening a candy store in the middle of a freeway, he says.
The Republican chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus blasted GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Tuesday for calling to allow some illegal immigrants to remain in the country.
Speaking on CNN’s “John King, USA,” Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) likened the former House Speaker’s plan to drilling a hole in the bottom of a sinking boat to let the water out.
“Newt, I don’t care who you are,” Bilbray said. “Quit sending the mixed message that we are going to somehow reward or accommodate you if you broke the law while there are those waiting patiently and playing by the rules, waiting to come into this country legally.”
At a Republican presidential debate earlier this month, Gingrich said he supported efforts to allow tax-paying illegal immigrants without criminal records to remain in the country or gain citizenship — but only “those people whose ties run so deeply in America that it would truly be a tragedy to try and rip their family apart.”
Bilbray countered that as a former congressman from Georgia, Gingrich doesn’t truly understand the problem.
“I’m one of the few members of Congress to have seen what happens along the border when people from Georgia or somewhere else that don’t understand what’s going on with the immigration issue don’t take the time to go to Latin America and talk to people who are considering coming here illegally,” he said. “They don’t understand that talking about amnesty to reduce illegal immigration is about as logical as somebody saying, ‘Let’s drill a hole in the bottom of a boat to let the water out.’ You’re going to cause a whole new wave of illegal immigration.” Continue reading this article
On Thursday, several friends of immigration enforcement, including Congressmen Steve King and Walter Jones along with representatives from the FIRE Coalition and Immigration Tea Party, held a press conference near the capitol to draw attention to the crime victims of illegal aliens.
A related issue is legislation requiring comprehensive statistics on illegal alien crime from federal and local governments, something that has been sorely lacking (HR 3168, the Illegal Alien Crime Reporting Act of 2011).
Rep. Steve King has done some great work, including requesting a GAO report on illegal alien crime, which should be required reading for anyone concerned with the issue: CRIMINAL ALIEN STATISTICS, March 2011.
Congressman King’s statement at the presser was both informative and heartfelt about the victims. He emphasized the point that illegal alien crime is preventable crime.
The point is that open borders are a welcome mat to the criminals of the world who see the United States as a full refrigerator of felony opportunity. Sanctuary cities provide protection to foreign criminals that domestic thugs would love to have.
In addition there are cultural issues, particularly around drunk driving, which is considered to be desirably macho behavior among hispanics. Even NPR admits that “Latinos are responsible for a disproportionate number of DWI arrests and alcohol-related car accidents.” The deaths resulting from drunk driving illegal aliens continues to accumulate, but DHS and many local law enforcement agencies continue to treat the crime casually.
Here is the statement on Congressman King’s website:
Washington D.C.- Washington D.C.- Congressman King (R-IA) joined the FIRE Coalition and the Tea Party Immigration Coalition this morning to recognize the victims who have lost their lives because of the criminal acts of illegal aliens. Since 1955, there have been 25,065 homicide arrests of criminal aliens in the United States, and King’s resolution aims to honor and mourn these preventable deaths.
“These are real human stories, there’s real pain and real agony going on on a daily basis in the United States of America, and we treat it as if it’s just some kind of tolerable interruption of our lives. It’s not. It’s an interruption of innocent lives that takes place because we have an administration that refuses to enforce immigration law.”
Most Washington Republicans have been curiously silent about immigration enforcement since returning from their August recess, during which the President enacted his executive amnesty.
Not so with dependable sovereignty defender, Rep. Steve King (R-IA). He wants a Congressional hearing to question Obama’s drunk-driving illegal alien Uncle Omar. Rep. King also thinks the House must oppose the President’s usurpation of Congressional authority to amnesty foreign lawbreakers which ignored years of rejected legislation.
As another of President Obama’s illegal alien relatives gets preferential treatment, King renews call for Congressional hearings
Washington, D.C.- Congressman Steve King (R-IA) today released the following statement renewing his calls for Congressional hearings into President Obama’s recently announced program that grants Executive Amnesty to illegal aliens. King’s statement is issued in the wake of media reports that President Obama’s drunken, illegal alien uncle, Omar Onyango Obama, has been released from the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Prior to his release, “Uncle Omar” Obama was being held subject to a 1992 deportation order, which was uncovered following “Uncle Omar’s” recent arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence, driving to endanger, and failing to use a turn signal. According to the Boston Globe, Federal immigration officials are only willing to confirm that Obama is “not in custody”, and they will not reveal whether he was released on bond, whether they are aware of his whereabouts, or whether they are still seeking his deportation.
“President Obama’s Uncle, Uncle Omar, has been picked up for drunken driving with almost twice the blood alcohol level that is allowable by law in Massachusetts. It’ll be the third time that he’s been interdicted with regard to being an illegal immigrant. He’s twice before been adjudicated for deportation, this time Immigrations and Customs Enforcement just released him, after they had him in custody, as if he’s not going to be a danger to our society.”
“The special privileges for the president’s family who are illegal immigrants, this is the second one. His Aunt Zeituni was also picked up as an illegal immigrant and finally granted an asylum by ICE, by the Department of Homeland Security. We need to have Congressional hearings into favorite treatment of the White House. This executive amnesty that the President has ordered, that they’re not going to enforce immigration law, and who pops up first? Drunken Uncle Omar. I want to subpoena drunken Uncle Omar to come into the House Judiciary Committee along with his attorney, who’s the same attorney that President Obama’s Aunt Zeituni had that got her asylum.”
“We must enforce our immigration laws and we must enforce those immigration laws equally across all society. Justice has got to be blind, it can’t play favorites, and I want to have hearings in the House Judiciary Committee over drunken Uncle Omar.”
On August 29, Congressman King suggested that drunken “Uncle Omar” Obama could be the first beneficiary of the President’s new Executive Amnesty for Illegal Aliens program. With today’s revelations, it appears that Congressman King’s suspicions were correct, and that the Obama administration may have used the new rules to grant amnesty to the President’s uncle.
It is also worth noting that this is not the first time an illegal alien relative of President Obama has appeared to benefit from preferential treatment. Last year, President Obama’s illegal alien aunt, Zeituni Onyango, had a deportation order overturned despite the fact that her previous request for asylum, made prior to her nephew becoming President, had already been rejected.
There’s good news from the House of Representatives, where positive small-ball immigration enforcement legislation was passed last week.
One example was Rep. Steve King’s amendment to fund the removal of Mexican cartel spotters located in this country who direct the movement of drugs and aliens across the border and north.
The surrender of American territory to Mexican organized crime has been truly shameful. Mexican cartels operate freely in southern Arizona, with spotters up to 100 miles north of the border. But the Obama administration has chosen to prosecute Arizona rather than protect it adequately.
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On Tuesday, Congressman Steve King organized a presser with several House colleagues who strongly oppose the Senate amnesty bill.
