Still...if I only read the first parts, I'd be inclinded to think he had sold out, that he abandoned the Constitutional principles he stood for and those who follow the laws, those who immigrate the legal way, as did his ancestors and mine, and those who work, or want to, and those who spent a lifetime "contributing" to the social systems now diluted, those promises broken.
The progressives tell us that we are told to embrace this unlevel playing field tilted in favor of those who have bypassed the gates, the many who now ride the train for free. Don't tell me they are the same as those who followed the rules, through good times and the bad.
So, while I reject his opening remarks and syrupy emotional framing of illegal immigrants as not speaking to me and starting to piss me off, the more I read, I find the points that need to be made to support this statement:
My plan will not grant amnesty or move anyone to the front of the line.
1) Lock down the border. ("Trust and Verify" whatever that means and looks like.)
2) Increase/reform legal immigration. "Modernize" the system and border security.
3) Document the "undocumented" workers with work visas.
He has repeatedly said it starts with border security.
He left me with the impression he wouldn't support anything that didn't secure the border first.
On this point, I completely agree. Start, or stop, there.
My plan will not grant amnesty or move anyone to the front of the line.
An absolute bald lie. His plan is an amnesty that will grant blanket legal status to every illegal in this country and allow them to stay and work here. They are at the front of line, which really begins in their home country. What about the 4 million intending LEGAL immigrants who have filled out all the paperwork and are waiting their turn to enter?
Words have meanings. The Democrats and the mainstream media have hijacked the language surrounding the immigration issue to the point that we had Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of Homeland Security and our nation’s top immigration official at the time, testifying before Congress using the term “undocumented workers” to describe illegal aliens. John McCain and Barack Obama studiously avoided the term “amnesty” to describe their comprehensive immigration reform plans and despite the evidence, baldly declared that it was not an amnesty. Instead, they used such euphemisms as “getting to the back of the line,” “an earned path to citizenship,” and “coming out of the shadows.” The Democrats and pro-amnesty crowd know full well that the American people are against amnesty, hence the avoidance of the “A” word.