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The President isn’t hiding his generosity toward illegal aliens. He may not launch his somewhat stealthy amnesty initiative right away because of spending battles with Congress, but he certainly doesn’t want his foreign supporters to think he has forgotten about them — not to worry!
Obama has used his mighty king-like powers to relieve lawbreaker foreigners of the requirement to spend time in their home countries to process return visas. Now claiming a family separation ends that necessity, and only a quickie visit is needed to get a visa stamped. Increased convenience for alien job thieves!
Democrats don’t care that much about public safety, because they believe violent criminals suffered childhoods with insufficient self-esteem, and it’s unfair to punish them.
Anyway, the latest action is another administrative reduction of sovereignty done by King Barak (like his criminal-friendly DREAM amnesty).
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration eased the way Wednesday for illegal immigrants who are immediate relatives of American citizens to apply for permanent residency, a change that could affect as many as 1 million of the estimated 11 million immigrants unlawfully in the U.S.
A new rule issued by the Department of Homeland Security aims to reduce the time illegal immigrants are separated from their American families while seeking legal status, immigration officials said.
Beginning March 4, when the changes go into effect, illegal immigrants who can demonstrate that time apart from an American spouse, child or parent would create “extreme hardship,” can start the application process for a legal visa without leaving the U.S.
Once approved, applicants would be required to leave the U.S. briefly in order to return to their native country and pick up their visa.
The change is the latest move by the administration to use its executive powers to revise immigration procedures without Congress passing a law. In August, the Obama administration launched a program to halt the deportation of young people brought to the U.S. unlawfully as children. Continue reading this article
As an advocate for the crime victims of illegal aliens, I believe that violent offenders and drunk drivers should be the top priority for arrest and imprisonment followed by deportation.
Eject the illegals and open up millions of jobs for unemployed Americans: it is an immediate partial solution for the wrenching crisis that has caused immense suffering.
Illegal aliens come for jobs and the ensuing cash, plus the moochable benefits like free-to-them healthcare and food. They may say they come for a better life for the kiddies with education and similar noble-sounding sentiments, but really, they want more money now. Everything else is either secondary or BS.
As a result of years of demands for amnesty from his La Raza base, the Obama administration has expanded its stealth program of lessened deportations under the Morton memo to now include work permits.
In other words, Obama is giving lawbreaking foreigners their most desired prize — full legal entrance to the American workplace. It is a 90 percent amnesty that omits only citizenship — but illegals don’t care about that. The work authorization is gold.
Interestingly, not all news reports mentioned the work permit aspect, including Politico and Yahoo. In this case, the Associated Press comes out looking good for more thorough reporting.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Thursday it will indefinitely delay deporting many illegal immigrants who don’t have criminal records and will offer them a chance to apply for a work permit. The government will focus on sending back convicted criminals and those who might be a national security or public safety threat.
The policy change will mean a case-by-case review of approximately 300,000 illegal immigrants facing possible deportation in federal immigration courts, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
Advocates for an immigration overhaul contend the administration has failed to live up to its promise to only deport the “worst of the worst,” as President Barack Obama has said.
“From a law enforcement and public safety perspective, DHS enforcement resources must continue to be focused on our highest priorities,” Napolitano wrote a group of senators involved in supporting immigration legislation. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter.
“Doing otherwise hinders our public safety mission – clogging immigration court dockets and diverting DHS enforcement resources away from the individuals who pose a threat to public safety.”
In June, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent a memo to agents outlining when and how they could use discretion in immigration cases. That guidance also covered those potentially subject to a legislative proposal, known as the DREAM Act, intended to give young illegal immigrants who go to college or serve in the military a chance at legal status.
The memo from John Morton also suggested that agents consider how long someone has been in the United State, whether that person’s spouse or children are U.S. citizens and whether or not that person has a criminal record.
A senior administration official said delaying deportation decisions in cases for some noncriminals would allow the quicker deportation of serious criminals. The indefinite stay will not give illegal immigrants a path to legal permanent residency, but will let them apply for a work permit. Continue reading this article
Washington remains worse than useless on immigration enforcement, but fortunately the states have moved to pick up the slack, as indicated by a report showing that the number of state bills is increasing, and some are even signed into law.
Given federal fecklessness and state leadership, Rep. Lamar Smith’s proposal for national e-verify that would eliminate the ability of states to enforce immigration law — the pricetag of the business community for its support of the Smith bill — would be a disastrous choice. The Smith bill would be another stealth amnesty like the 1986 law that promised enforcement which never happened in exchange for rewarding millions of lawbreakers with US citizenship. All carrot, no stick. It appears that bad history may be repeated once again.
States are doing the job that Washington won’t, so the friends of law and borders should support states that are defending national security and public safety.
LOS ANGELES — State lawmakers considered a record number of immigration-related bills this year, highlighting their continued frustration with federal government inaction on immigration laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
A total of 1,592 bills were introduced in all 50 states and Puerto Rico in the 2011 legislative session that ended June 30, a report by the bipartisan research organization found.
State legislators in 40 states enacted 151 of the bills, which mainly addressed law enforcement, identification and employment issues, said Ann Morse, program director of the conference’s immigrant policy project. An additional five laws were vetoed by governors.
Five states – Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah – created laws similar to a controversial Arizona immigration law, known as SB 1070, which requires law enforcement to check the immigration status of people they lawfully stop and whom they suspect to be in the country illegally.
All five of those laws been challenged in federal court, with opponents citing federal pre-emption and violation of the Fourth and 14th amendments.
“The level of interest in the states is still very high,” Morse said. “What we’re seeing is a frustration with the federal government that it won’t take up these issues.”
An uptick in states’ legislation began in 2005, when 300 bills were introduced and 38 laws were enacted, Morse said.
At that time, states focused primarily on social services and naturalization issues, areas lawmakers believed the federal government was failing to address. But as frustrations with the federal government began to rise, so did the amount of legislation that was introduced, Morse said. Continue reading this article
Senator Dick Durbin is a junkyard dog for the DREAM Act, and he was part of a press conference on Tuesday where he earnestly sniffled his concern for the foreign (not American) downtrodden.
He makes it sound so noble, saying his legislation would allow the Innocent Children to reach their long-cherished goals that we meanies who insist on law and sovereignty prevent.
However, we hear from Senator Jeff Sessions that the current incarnation of the bill is a worse assemblage of crap than ever, loaded up with loopholes big enough to drive a semi full of illegals through. The bill is a history of bad faith, where lies and chicanery masquerade as virtue.
Certainly if a DREAM Act stealth amnesty is passed, American students will be pushed aside for lawbreaking foreigners, who will whine in their college applications that if they are not admitted they will be deported. And admissions officers love a good whiner from diverse kiddies.
In addition, if word were to get out that young children were the keys to the American kingdom under the DREAM Act, then they will be dragged with more frequency across the border.
The latest Durbin snake oil is to repackage his monstrosity in religion, as he attempted to do in his Tuesday presser, where he admitted his larger agenda.
(CNSNews.com) – Passage of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act would be the “starting point” in legislating legal status for the millions of illegal aliens in the United States, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) indicated Tuesday.
At a press conference, he characterized the DREAM Act as his contribution to – and a stepping stone towards – “comprehensive immigration reform.”
The DREAM Act would grant legal status to aliens whose parents brought them into the country illegally as minors, if the individual is “of good moral character” and is pursuing a higher education or serving in the military.
Durbin has been a driving force behind the 10-year campaign to get the legislation enacted. It was re-introduced most recently last May.
CNSNews.com asked him Tuesday what passage of the law would mean for parents who had brought their young children into the U.S. illegally.
“It’s a very valid question,” he replied. “I support comprehensive immigration reform. I believe we need fairness and justice for everyone in the country – and I’m starting with the DREAM Act because that is my part of it.”
“But I have always made that part of the larger discussion,” he added.
Durbin said that his “friend and roommate,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), was working on “comprehensive immigration reform” legislation.
The DREAM Act, which Durbin first introduced in 2000, was his own contribution towards getting immigration legislation passed.
Durbin recalled that when the late Sen. Ted Kennedy was advocating for legislation that would grant amnesty to illegal aliens already in the United States, Kennedy often relegated his role to the DREAM Act and dismissed him from discussions.
“I didn’t want to leave but I knew that [the DREAM Act] was going to be the accepted starting point,” Durbin said. “And I want it to be a starting point.”
Tuesday’s press conference was held to announce the DREAM Act Sabbath, an event slated for the fall when participating “faith leaders” will discuss the legislation during or after religious services.
Among those present at the conference were Islamic Society of North America president Mohamed Magid, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C., and Lisa Gruschcow, associate rabbi with Congregation Rodeph Shalom in New York City.
Durbin said there was a “moral argument” for making the DREAM Act law.
“Now I’m a politician not a pastor, so I tread carefully when I speak about religion,” he said. “But this much it is safe to say: The DREAM Act is built on a fundamental moral principal that is shared by all the faith traditions represented here today – that it is wrong to punish children for the actions of their parents.
“There’s an equally powerful moral argument for the DREAM Act,” he added. “Every faith tradition recognizes we have a special obligation to protect the innocent. And that’s what the DREAM Act would do.”
Remember when comprehensive amnesty was a vital issue to the President? He travelled to the border city of El Paso on May 10 for a special speech aimed at his Mexican base, full of concern for their welfare.
Obama mocked immigration enforcement, suggesting that patriots wanted a moat on the border, with alligators.
Hey, I’m willing to give it a try.
Meanwhile, smuggling illegal aliens into America has grown into a very profitable enterprise, particularly for those who already have the infrastructure in place, namely Mexican organized crime.
The United Nations estimates that smuggling migrants across Mexico’s border with the U.S. alone is a $6.6 billion business annually, compared to an estimated the $10 billion to $29 billion in illegal drug running. The migrant smuggling estimate doesn’t include another $1 billion paid by thousands of non-Mexicans to cross from Guatemala and travel north, according to a 2010 U.N. report on transnational crime.
Now Obama has transferred his amnesty issue to the Congress, where it will hopefully shrivel and die. However, there have been suggestions that some Democrats might try to jigger a deal to swap universal e-verify for the DREAM Act stealth amnesty, as noted below. Let’s not go there, Congress!
With a re-election campaign looming, President Barack Obama is pushing Congress to overhaul the immigration system, but lawmakers seems to have little appetite to take on the issue.
In recent speeches at the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas, and the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Obama said his administration has followed through on demands to secure the border, and now it’s time for Congress to put revamping immigration back on the agenda and make something happen.
“Comprehensive immigration reform is not only an economic imperative or a security imperative, it is also a moral imperative,” Obama told the prayer breakfast.
But Republicans say any effort to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country or any effort that doesn’t address the inadequacies they see in border security is doomed to fail.
Although legislation has yet to be introduced, many lawmakers agree the most likely first step toward immigration legislation is a requirement that all businesses use E-Verify. The E-Verify program lets businesses know whether employees have the necessary papers to work in the U.S. Such legislation could give Democrats political cover by addressing immigration requirements that preclude tough crackdowns on immigrants, and give Republicans an opportunity to say they provided a new enforcement tool to stop illegal immigration.
The president’s recent push, which started in April with a White House meeting on immigration issues and other events involving Latino celebrities, prompted Senate Democrats this month to reintroduce the DREAM Act. The bill would give a path to legal status for law-abiding young people who were brought into the United States without documents as children and who either plan to attend college or join the military.
“Our immigration laws prevent thousands of young people from fully contributing to our nation’s future,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in a statement announcing the bill he drafted. “These are honor roll students, star athletes, talented artists and valedictorians. These children are tomorrow’s doctors, nurses, teachers, firefighters, soldiers and senators, and we should give them the opportunity to reach their full potential.”
Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., has introduced a similar bill in the House.
Republicans, who control the House, insist the DREAM Act will never pass.
“It’s amnesty for up to 2 million people,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which has some jurisdiction over immigration legislation. “I just don’t see it when you are still talking about amnesty.” Smith said the bill rewards the undocumented parents and is “an open invitation to fraud.”
But GOP House members have pledged to introduce an E-Verify bill for employers.
Some Democrats have suggested a compromise bill incorporating elements of both DREAM and E-Verify, even as they acknowledge the prospects for such a deal are dim. Continue reading this article
In the new post-American USA, citizens often get second-class treatment. Young people who are scrambling to make a place for themselves are particularly at risk under the updated rules which actually favor foreigners, even illegal ones, over US citizens.
This week, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley signed a bill to require the state’s public universities to give undocumented aliens — generally illegal — in-state tuition privileges.
The bill, known as the Dream Act, is already the law in ten other states, including California, New York, Texas and Illinois.
But critics argue that the bill will give illegal aliens better treatment than Americans and legal immigrants — thanks to existing diversity policies at universities.
But that’s not all. American young folks are also disadvantaged by Washington’s decision to let US-educated foreign students stay on and compete with citizens for jobs.
American college educations used to be seen largely as cheapie goodwill foreign policy: i.e., give future leaders abroad a taste of US democracy and they will remember it throughout their lives. One example was President Bush’s special scholarship program for his friends the Saudis, allowing 30,000 from The Kingdom to get educated here over several years — with predictable problems, from terror schemes to sexual harassment of women students.
Furthermore, greedy employers see foreign graduates as willing workers who would rather be exploited in America than return to their primitive home countries.
On the heels of President Obama’s immigration speech last week, the Department of Homeland Security is expanding the pool of foreign students eligible for a 17-month visa extension — giving presumably brainy grads more time to train and, in some cases, secure a long-term job.
The administration claims the move is a step toward “fixing our broken immigration system,” by ensuring high-tech students can put their skills to use in the U.S., not overseas. But it’s also raised concern that the change could hurt U.S. job-seekers by making them compete against more foreign graduates, at a time when unemployment is already high.
David North, a fellow with the Center for Immigration Studies, said foreign students might even gain an edge, considering those who take advantage of this particular extension will not have to pay Social Security or Medicare taxes, and neither will their employers. North estimated that, because of the tax factor, companies would get a 7.65 percent discount by hiring a foreign student under this program, something he said creates an “unequal playing field” for other college grads. The students and employers would only have to pay those taxes if and when they secured a regular work visa.
“I’m not sure how many employers know this, but boy when it gets around, it’ll make some people very attractive,” North told FoxNews.com. “It gives the employer a bonus for hiring the foreign worker.”
The DHS announcement pertains to student visa holders who wish to stay in the country longer through what’s known as the “optional practical training” program. Through the program, students could originally work and train in their field of study for up to 12 months, even after graduating. Several years ago, the George W. Bush administration allowed certain students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math to stay an additional 17 months — for a total of 29 months.
The announcement last week by the Obama administration added dozens of eligible degree programs to that list. The newly eligible fields range from the popular to the obscure — among them are soil microbiology, video graphics and special effects, dairy science, neuroscience, mathematics and computer science, business statistics and personality psychology. Continue reading this article
What’s different on this trip is Gutierrez’ demand that President Obama bypass the uncooperative Congress entirely and use his executive power to reward foreign lawbreakers with a path to citizenship. Obama already stated on Univision in Spanish that he wouldn’t end deportations with the proverbial pen stroke, so it’s doubtful he would fork over the big amnesty enchilada. However, as miserable reelection poll numbers accumulate, Obama might be inclined to do more for his Mexican base.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in California is 12 percent even as of March. A massive amnesty of the sort Gutierrez envisions would transform millions of aliens into legal workers who could more easily compete with unemployed citizens for jobs.
Below is a video of Gutierrez making his pitch to an appreciative audience, possibly in Detroit, judging by the date and tag on the Tube.
Rep. Gutierrez is heading to Mexifornia this week, with appearances up and down the state. Feel free to welcome him appropriately to your community.
The California Table, a coalition of more than 40 organizations across the state, will host seven townhall forums this April 26 – 30, 2011 featuring Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a champion of champions on immigration reform in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The forums will highlight how our current immigration laws are impacting U.S. citizen and non-U.S. citizen families. Testimonies from a variety of Californians will be heard. The California tour is the largest leg of two national campaigns, the Change Takes Courage Campaign by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), and the American Families and Children Tour by Congressman Gutierrez.
In the attachment section below, you may print and distribute the Petition.
Below, please see the week’s schedule. All forums are open to the public.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
[Also of interest: 4/26, – Hearing in Sacramento on the TRUST Act (Ammiano), which would honor the right of local governments to opt out of the troubled “Secure” Communities immigration program; the program has raised serious safety, civil liberties, and transparency concerns. Contact Jon Rodney at 510-207-9520 for details]
**Note: Rep. Gutierrez will be present at all events below.
REDWOOD CITY. Tues. 4/26, 3:00-4:30pm.
What and where: Town hall, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 178 Clinton St, Redwood City.
Contact: Silvia Ramirez (650)716-7746
Sponsoring organizations: Committee de Padres Unidos; Episcopal Diocese
SAN JOSE. Tues. 4/26, 6:30-8:00pm
What and where: Town hall at Sacred Heart Church, 325 Willow St. San Jose.
Testimonies and speakers: Congressman Honda; Dave Cortese, President of Co. Board of Supes; SJ Police Chief Moore, Interfaith Council members.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO, Wed, 4/27, 1:00 PM sharp.
What and where: Press Conference at SF City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
Contact: Melquis Naveo, (978) 457-9875; Joe Sciarrillo, (415) 320-9963
Sponsoring organizations: SF Bay Coalition for CIR
Testimonies and speakers: Board. Pres. David Chu opens event at 1pm sharp; Supe. Campos confirmed; event will include stories of LGBT immigrant families, such as the Tan-Mercado family
Thursday, April 28, 2011
ST HELENA, CA(Napa Co.), Thurs, 4/28, 2:30 – 4:00 PM
What and where: Town hall at St. Helena Church. 1340 Tainter Street
Testimonies and speakers: Blanca, street vendor, mother of U.S.-born child, nabbed by LAPD; Sheena Wilson, fiancee of Jose Gutierrez a man tased by BP now in coma.
On NumbersUSA’s excellent page rating Presidential Hopefuls’ Immigration Stances, Newt Gingrich got a grade of D- — underwhelming for a top Republican. But the poor assessment was deserved.
Hispandering on a grand scale has required squishy language which Gingrich hopes will go unnoticed, like his statement, “We have to find policies that extend to every American, and that includes people who are not yet legal.”
Given that background, it’s interesting to see a Washington political publication take note of Newt’s conflicting positions regarding immigration enforcement.
Newt Gingrich’s simultaneous courtship of the base of the Republican Party and Latino voters could pose major problems for his likely bid for the White House.
Gingrich, who is soon expected to announce the formation of a presidential exploratory committee, frequently stresses the need for the GOP to reach out to Latinos. According to the 2010 census, Latinos are now the fastest-growing and largest minority group in the country.
Putting that call into practice, the former House Speaker has set up a bilingual news and opinion website directed at Latinos and has staked out a nuanced position on immigration reform that some critics have labeled amnesty.
At the same time, Gingrich has tried to woo conservative activists, coming out against the construction of a mosque near the Ground Zero site in lower Manhattan and calling for the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The problem, according to some observers, is that Gingrich’s stance on immigration doesn’t lend itself to an easy explanation for a conservative talk-radio audience.
“If I was his adviser, I would just say, ‘Let’s call a truce on that one for now,’ ” said Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican who served with Gingrich in the House. “Immigration and illegal aliens are still a very, very hot topic. And people who will be voting in the Republican primary do not want to hear about any backdoor amnesty program.”
Gingrich uses phrases like “pathway to legality” to characterize his support for a measure similar to the DREAM Act, which grants young illegal immigrants U.S. residency if they enroll in college or join the military.
Other powerful players in the GOP, including former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie and Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, who have warned conservatives to watch their rhetoric on immigration.
Regardless, many right-wing bloggers have lambasted Gingrich.
Three years after Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) stole the spotlight on immigration issues in the GOP presidential debates, Gingrich says that deporting 11 million illegal aliens is unrealistic.
Gingrich doesn’t shy away from critics who say he is soft on illegal immigration.
“I’m just going to ask them a simple question,” he told The Hill. “They’re going to take somebody who came here at 3 years of age, who doesn’t speak Spanish and who just graduated from a high school in Texas, and they’re going to say to him, ‘We’re going to deport you.’
“That’s certainly their prerogative. I don’t think the country will go for that. I think that’s so lax in a concern for the human beings involved.”
Gingrich emphasizes a border-security-first approach, which he noted in his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last month.
“I am deeply committed to securing the border,” Gingrich told The Hill. “I am deeply committed to changing the deportation rules for felons and gang members. … But I also think we have a huge challenge — what do you do with the human beings who are engaged, some of whom are married, have children? It’s a very complicated situation, and I don’t you think you can just wave a magic wand and have some kind of a simple, clean answer.”
That’s a position that could cause Gingrich hardship in some early voting states.
In Iowa, Republicans such as Rep. Steve King have taken a hard-line stance against immigration reform, insisting on mass deportation of those in the U.S. illegally.
Robert Haus, an Iowa-based Republican consultant, said Gingrich will likely be challenged on the issue should he launch a presidential bid.
King said, “I want to hear [Gingrich’s] position very carefully before I would critique it. Mine is that the DREAM Act provides amnesty to people that came into this country [illegally], some knowingly and some unknowingly. Where do you draw the line? You’re going to get drug smugglers along with the little ladies.”
Now he is looking at a more Tea-infused political landscape with re-election looming in 2012, particularly after his Utah colleague Bob Bennett was knocked out by a conservative primary challenger last year. So Senator Hatch has been playing up his conservative cred, saying he was a Tea Party sorta guy before it was cool. (And he regrets his vote for the TARP bailout, as he told the CPAC audience Friday.)
The Diversity Visa (DV) Program is an unfortunate blind spot in our immigration system that has outlived its purpose. The applicants for these 50,000 “lottery” immigration slots require few skills. Qualifications nor identity can be properly vetted. The program does not know, really, who these applicants are nor their true purpose in coming to the United States. The program is a national security loophole, and has been used by terrorists and organized criminals to not only enter the U.S., but bring others to the U.S. as well.
According to unofficial statements from the State Department, the program is wrought with fraud in part because application standards are so low. The program claims to have strict eligibility requirements, but only calls for a high school education or its equivalent or two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years’ training or experience. In most of the countries eligible for a diversity visa, neither education nor work experience can be verified, let alone identity. Consular officers in U.S. embassies abroad thus spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to determine if a person is who they say they are and actually qualifies for the program. Checking watch lists based on names or prior U.S. immigration histories thus often has little bearing on making a solid determination on identity, qualifications, or legitimate national security concerns.
National Security Concerns Associated with the DV Program Looking closely at the worldwide distribution of visa “lottery” winners from the most recent compilation of statistics by the State Department, almost the entire world is represented in the near 50,000 visas issued in 2009. What is perhaps most troublesome is that the low threshold of requirements to obtain a diversity visa and the wide breadth of foreign nations eligible for DVs means that foreign nationals from states sponsors of terror, states with terrorists operating within their borders that threaten U.S. national security, and struggling third world nations whose citizenry include economic migrants with few skills and no means to support themselves upon arrival, all are issued visas annually through the program.
Of the 186 foreign states represented in the State Department’s 2009 catalogue of actual diversity program visas issued, Iran — a designated state sponsor of terror since January 19, 1984 and the country with one of the longest, most tangled and unnerving terrorist resumes in the world — received 1,117 visas or adjustments of status (for those winning the lottery but already living in the U.S.). Thus, Iran was the third largest recipient of DVs amongst the 34 nations in Asia that also obtained DVs. Iran is known for its active security forces that seek infiltration abroad; support terrorist acts around the world (the 9/11 Commission made clear that Iran was involved to some degree in supporting the nineteen 9/11 hijackers); provide training and financial support for Hezbollah; and currently harbor Al Qaida. The United States has admitted more than once that our nation has little visibility into the actual terrorist on-goings of Iran on a day-to-day basis. Yet, the DV program provided Iran with the 12th largest number of DV visas in 2009, placing Iran in the top four percent of all DVs granted in 2009. There is a possibility that amongst those Iranians obtaining legal permanent residence through their DVs are those who do not support the United States, or perhaps worse. Continue reading this article
A giant sigh of relief was heard across the nation when the ghastly DREAM Act stealth amnesty for millions was defeated in the Senate. Another bullet aimed at America’s sovereignty and culture was dodged, due to the efforts of patriotic citizens.
California is $28 billion in debt, yet Brown (who is personally frugal) nevertheless intends to increase spending on illegal alien students, who cannot work legally after graduation. Brown’s priority makes zero fiscal sense, which shows how much he and the Democrats are joined at the hip with La Raza and the other anti-American, anti-sovereignty leftists.
Below, DREAMers demand amnesty as they march around Hollywood in colorful graduation costumes.
Incidentally, my dream is that immigration would be legal, controlled and greatly reduced.
Devastated by the Senate’s failure last week to grant them a path to citizenship, undocumented young people throughout California are vowing renewed activism to win legal immigration status if they attend college or serve in the military.
With the highest number of undocumented young people in the nation, California is already the epicenter for student advocacy on the issue and for legal breakthroughs granting them in-state tuition. Now the students — and their supporters — say they will train their sights on electoral change and a state legislative effort to give them access to college financial aid, which appears likely to succeed under newly elected Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.
“We are still going to be pushing forward,” said Carlos Juarez, 21, a UCLA sociology major whose family brought him to the U.S. from Mexico when he was less than a year old.
In high drama last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill, known as the DREAM Act, that would have granted legal status to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants under age 30 who attend college or serve in the military. But in the Senate, the measure, formally the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, fell five votes short of advancing to the floor for a vote, as opponents attacked the bill as amnesty for lawbreakers.
Advocates are glum about the bill’s revival in the near term; Republicans, who overwhelmingly opposed it, will take control of the House of Representatives next month. But some say that such gloomy prognosticators may be in for a surprise.
Steve Kinney, a Republican pollster in Los Angeles, and Richard Land, a Republican who heads the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, said some Republicans are open to a narrower legalization program for students and military enlistees that would not include their families.
No Republican legislator has yet stepped forward with concrete proposals for a more limited DREAM Act. Rep. Lamar Smith (R- Texas), the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said border security would take precedence over any other immigration issue.
“It is pointless to talk about any new immigration bills that grant amnesty, no matter how narrow, until we secure the border, since such bills will only encourage more illegal immigration,” Smith said in a statement.
President Obama and Latino lawmakers agreed during a private meeting Tuesday that comprehensive immigration reform aimed at legalizing millions of undocumented residents would be all but impossible before the 2012 elections. Instead, they concurred on the goal of staving off punitive measures targeting illegal migrants.
Advocates are more hopeful on the state level. California, for instance, is expected to move forward with a state DREAM Act that would allow undocumented public college students to receive state or campus financial aid.
The Legislature this year approved a measure to allow such aid, but it was vetoed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Brown, during gubernatorial debates this year, said he would have signed the bill into law.
This year, the state Supreme Court upheld a California policy that allows undocumented immigrant students who are state residents to pay the lower in-state tuition rates. But without financial aid, many students say they struggle to pay their way.
Sofia Campos, an undocumented UCLA student whose family brought her to the U.S. from their native Peru when she was 6, said such a change in state law would help her piece together the money to complete college, which she is funding through private scholarships, summer office work and babysitting. Lack of funds caused her to miss one quarter.
“With tuition ever increasing, it would give us more hope and a push to continue,” said Campos, a Los Angeles resident majoring in political science and global studies. Continue reading this article
For years, the Raza open-borders gang has insisted on “comprehensive immigration reform” where all aspects would be jammed into one enormous bill that would have a mountain of amnesty and lots of loopholes in any attempted enforcement.
After being thwarted for a decade by patriotic citizens organized by NumbersUSA and others, Razans hoped the Lame Duck session could be utilized by the corrupt Pelosi and Reid team for their agenda of legalizing millions of future Democrats. Their chosen vehicle was the DREAM Act stealth amnesty, which was voted down Saturday.
That’s my brief analysis. The New York Times sees it differently, and tucks in a little suggestion that the Great Obama might use his mighty executive power to create mass amnesty to please America-hating liberals and illegals. The idea shows how few cards the enemies of sovereignty have left to play after the 2010 election.
Below, entitlement-engorged illegal aliens demand still more taxpayer-subsidized education, because free-to-them K-12 was not enough to satisfy their desires.
The vote by the Senate on Saturday to block a bill to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students was a painful setback to an emerging movement of immigrants and also appeared to leave the immigration policy of the Obama administration, which has supported the bill and the movement, in disarray.
The bill, known as the Dream Act, gained 55 votes in favor with 41 against, a tally short of the 60 votes needed to bring it to the floor for debate. Five Democrats broke ranks to vote against the bill, while only three Republicans voted for it. The defeat in the Senate came after the House of Representatives passed the bill last week.
The result, although not unexpected, was still a rebuff to President Obama by newly empowered Republicans in Congress on an issue he has called one of his priorities. Supporters believed that the bill — tailored to benefit only immigrants who were brought here illegally when they were children and hoped to attend college or enlist in the military — was the easiest piece to pass out of a larger overhaul of immigration laws that Mr. Obama supports.
His administration has pursued a two-sided policy, coupling tough enforcement — producing a record number of about 390,000 deportations this year — with an effort to pass the overhaul, which would open a path to legal status for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. Now, with less hope for any legalization measures once Republicans take over the House in January, the administration is left with just the stick.
Part of the administration’s strategy has been to ramp up border and workplace enforcement to attract Republican votes for the overhaul. The vote on Saturday made it clear that strategy has not succeeded so far.
Mr. Obama will now face growing pressure from immigrant and Latino groups to temper the crackdown and perhaps find ways to use executive powers to bring some illegal immigrants out of the shadows. Latino voters turned out in strength for the Democrats in the midterm elections, arguably saving their majority in the Senate.
The Republicans in the new Congress are especially keen on tough enforcement. The presumed incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on immigration is Representative Steve King of Iowa, a vigorous opponent of legalization measures, which he rejects as amnesty for lawbreakers. Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, who will be chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is also an outspoken and well-versed opponent of such proposals.
Groups favoring reduced immigration cheered Saturday’s vote as a watershed victory marking the end of a period when they have been on the defensive. Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, which lobbied hard against the bill, said the new Congress “has the strongest pro-enforcement membership” in at least 15 years.
“Now, we look forward to moving aggressively to offense,” Mr. Beck said.
During the last year, administration officials considered proposals to allow immigration authorities to use administrative powers to halt deportations of illegal immigrants who might have been eligible for legal status under the student bill. They also sought ways to ease deportations for other illegal immigrants with no criminal record.
Republican lawmakers criticized those proposals as “backdoor amnesty” and pledged to stop the administration from carrying them out.
The administration’s efforts to manage its policy dilemma played out this week. Speaking on Friday before the vote, John Morton, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency would continue the brisk pace of deportations, focusing on immigrants convicted of crimes. On the same day, the agency released from detention an 18-year-old Guatemalan student from Ohio, Bernard Pastor, granting him a one-year reprieve from deportation to continue his education. Continue reading this article
What a relief. It’s a shame that loyal Americans had to go to such efforts (i.e., a million faxes sent, plus a gazillion phone calls) to make the government do its job, just a little, but at least American sovereignty won.
It helps to have a few good leaders inside the Senate, like Jeff Sessions.
A lot of media reports were one-sided or hostile, but ABC was more balanced than many and has nice Roy Beck quotes. Apparently at least one reporter was watching The Roy Show over internet TV early this morning.
Senate Republicans today blocked a controversial immigration measure that would have provided a conditional path to legal residency for hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants first brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents.
By a vote of 55 to 41, the bill — the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM Act — failed to win the 60 votes needed to break a GOP filibuster, even though the measure passed the House last week.
The defeat was the second for the legislation since 2007, when it last was brought to the Senate floor. Opponents have argued that the bill amounted to an “amnesty” that could cost taxpayers and encourage continued illegal immigration.
“We are declaring a 10-year victory,” said Roy Beck, president of Numbers USA, an advocacy group that has lobbied against the DREAM Act. “Since 2001, there has been an attempt to pass giant amnesties every year. And we have been on defense, we have fought every single year. And now there’s not going to be any amnesty in this new Congress. It’s over.”
Supporters of the DREAM Act had said it would bring out of the shadows a fraction of the country’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants who have known only the United States as home, enhance military recruitment and give American employers access to a talented and highly-motivated pool of young workers.
Only immigrants younger than 30 who entered the United States before age 16, have lived here five years without a serious criminal offense, graduated high school or earned a GED and attend college or join the military among other requirements, would be eligible for legal residency.
“There are some compelling cases out there that deserve to be considered. But there are also 22 million Americans who have compelling cases, who want a job and can’t find a job,” Beck said. “What the DREAM Act does is add at least a couple million more workers to legally compete against the 22 million unemployed Americans.”
“I realize these kids did not personally decide to break the law. Nonetheless, they represent law-breaking. How do you keep parents from doing this to their kids in the future? The DREAM Act does nothing about that,” he said.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., one of the leading sponsors of the DREAM Act, had said opponents of the measure are breeding “hysteria” and that lawmakers must not overlook the costs of doing nothing.
“Let us consider the alternative to legalizing DREAM Act-eligible young people,” he said last week. “The young men and women eligible for the DREAM Act will still live here but can only take jobs in the black market, probably cannot afford the high costs we charge foreign students for a college education, and are barred from serving in the military.”
Gutierrez said Saturday that the Senate vote will hurt Republicans politically among Latinos, and that Democrats won’t give up on the issue.
“This was a setback to the core values of liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the United States,” he said. “These Senators hid behind lame procedural excuses to thwart the hopes and aspirations of the best and brightest of our families and communities, which is both a tragedy and a call to action.”
The Senate vote was a last-ditch effort by Democrats to pass the measure before Republicans take control of the House and gain seats in the Senate come January. The bill will likely not receive another shot at passage for at least two more years.
But Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, insists the fight for the DREAM Act will continue.
“I just don’t think the GOP is ever going to see the inside of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue without the support of immigrants, and this legislation is very important to them,” he said. “It’s not over.”
Three Republicans supported the bill today: Dick Lugar of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Robert Bennett of Utah. But five Democrats voted against it: Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Jon Tester of Montana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Max Baucus of Montana and Kay Hagan of North Carolina.
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The President isn’t hiding his generosity toward illegal aliens. He may not launch his somewhat stealthy amnesty initiative right away because of spending battles with Congress, but he certainly doesn’t want his foreign supporters to think he has forgotten about them — not to worry!
Washington remains worse than useless on immigration enforcement, but fortunately the states have moved to pick up the slack, as indicated by a report showing that the number of state bills is increasing, and some are even signed into law.
We saw that the 
On NumbersUSA’s excellent page rating 
