A GOP Immigration Plan to Satisfy No One

The American Conservative ^ | January 27, 2014 | W. JAMES ANTLE III

[OddLane]

The House Republican retreat sounds like it is going to live up to its name.

“Comprehensive immigration reform” was once again moving through its normal life cycle: fawning coverage of leading amnesty supporters, bold predictions that legislative success was inevitable, dire warnings that House Republicans must capitulate or be doomed to permanent minority status—and then nothing.

That was the fate of the McCain-Kennedy bill and its imitators in both 2006 and 2007, when President George W. Bush teamed up with Democrats to overhaul immigration laws and admit more foreign workers.

Barack Obama promised to succeed where Bush failed. But there was no action on immigration when the Democrats held three-fifths majority in both houses of Congress. Afterwards, there was only limited executive action to legalize the subset of illegal immigrants who might have benefited from the DREAM Act, which once again stalled in the Senate.

[molson209]

The Demonuts would never support a Republican plan ,it would just start the Demonut Propaganda Ball rolling

[Da Coyote]

Let it happen. It will doom the GOP (none to soon) thereby giving us more time to halt our constant altitude loss and hopefully regain controlled flight before the ground rises up, smites us, and proves once again that socialism never has, and never will work.

[FlingWingFlyer]

If the DemocRATS can just get the GOP to just pass something, their activist “judges” at the Federal “Courts” will be able to modify and “fix” it.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”The reasons for this are transparently political: citizens vote and people living in various nebulous noncitizen categories don’t. That way Republicans can hope they can get credit for a softer immigration stand without adding to a Hispanic voting bloc that is majority Democratic.
......
Nevertheless, this Republican ploy is too clever by half. The political benefits of supporting even a 1986-style amnesty with path to citizenship are debatable at best. Will Republicans really improve their standing among Hispanic voters by offering something less than a path to citizenship, especially when the Democrats are willing to give more?”

I think it would be a clever ploy if we could be sure that Dems would reject it, but they seem to be catching on that they can help GOP pass a bill without citizenship and then blame the GOP.

[grania]

About that hispanic vote....think of how much of it the ‘pubs could get if Cruz is the presidential nominee. The fact that the ptb are trying to destroy Cruz politically is advertising how hypocrital they are.

[GeronL]

the gope is stupid, they will let Obama or a judge give mass citizenship

[Oldexpat]

With Cruz as the nominee we would get the right side of the immigrant vote..the one that is worth having. Most of the current illegal immigrants are from Latin America and schooled only in the politics of social justice and gimme. We just do not need them as voters..or citizens.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”About that hispanic vote....think of how much of it the ‘pubs could get if Cruz is the presidential nominee. The fact that the ptb are trying to destroy Cruz politically is advertising how hypocrital they are.”

What makes you think they would go for him?

[Dagnabitt]

Last time an idiot President (Bush Jr.) tried to shove Mexico-Merger down our throats, his anti-American betrayal was thwarted by patriots in Congress.

With current idiot Obama, however, they may not be enough patriots left on the Hill to beat back the treason.

[Sgt_Schultze]

The widely underestimated number of illegals is 11 million. Using that number, on average, that is 220,000 people per state. Given the number of actual American still looking for work, I'm not perceiving an available extra 10,000 unfilled jobs in any of the 50 states, let alone 220,000.

[DJ MacWoW]

Amnesty?! Now?!

Taking Any Bets That Obama's Real Average Is Higher?

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[grania]

I do think there would be pride in Cruz. Also keep and mind that both Cubans and Puerto Ricans are here legally, so sending invaders home would if anything help them. It would be a nice selling point for ‘pub nominees....we support the hard work and contributions of those of you who are here legally and contrubute so much to the US.

[fortheDeclaration]

The Democrats will kill any bill in the Senate that doesn't match their own.

The GOP in the House is just spinning it's wheels, as usual.

[Boonie]

Let’s REALLY reform immigration and kick out all these illegals...THAT would really open the job market and boost the economy...(The last thing Obama wants to happen)

[chris37]

it will satisfy me when the GOP kills itself with it.

[Paine in the Neck]

An open letter to the GOP Members of the House

As a Representative in Congress, you are this Oath:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God."

"Support and defend" the Constitution." That document requires, per Art.4, S.4, that

"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."

An invasion is what we are suffering. That invasion has accelerated with each "comprehensive immigration reform" previously enacted. Instead of another disasterous reform that increases the incentives for millions more to try their luck crossing the southern border, a Representative who took his Oath and the Constitution seriously would be pressing for what the American people have repeatedly said they want - not what Senator Schumer, Mexico or some border state farmers and homebuilders want. That is:

1. secure the border in a transparently verifiable way;
2. end the anchor-baby interpretation of the 14th Amendment;
3. enforce eVerify without exception and with severe penalties;
4. no government benefits beyond critical emergency care (and that ought to be billed back to the Mexican government); and
5. NO "Path to Citizenship" for anyone who has entered the US illegally.

Any bill that does not accomplish these five things is unacceptable. It is de facto amnesty.

If the GOP is complicit in this amnesty fiasco, either by taking up the Senate bill or through some piecemeal slight of hand with a series of House bills such as we hear are being cooked up this week, the GOP will cease to exist. It will not survive through the 2016 elections. The people will shun the over-tanned, gladhanding, backslapping quislings and look elsewhere for leaders who actually have the spine for the fight. Make no mistake - to me and many, many others, amnesty is the GOP's Rubicon. Cross it at your electoral peril.

[Paine in the Neck]

"you are this oath" --> "you took this oath"

[kabar]

The Demonuts would never support a Republican plan ,it would just start the Demonut Propaganda Ball rolling

Wrong. The Democrats are willing to accept legalization without citizenship. When someone like Gutierrez says this, you know the fix is in:

"I don't think this is a good idea because citizenship is important, but I don't think it is a big deal breaker either," Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., a leading congressional advocate for overhauling U.S. immigration law, said in a speech last month. "Right now we have to stop the deportations that are breaking up families. And if we do not get citizenship this year, we will be back next year and the year after that."

Legalization means the formerly illegal immigrants would receive Employment Authorization Documents (EADs, or work cards), legitimate Social Security accounts, driver’s licenses, expanded (though still limited) access to welfare, travel documents enabling them to leave and freely reenter the country, eligibility for affirmative-action preferences, and much more. The only thing they wouldn’t have is a timetable to apply for citizenship, which means no prospect of eventually being able to vote.

Legalization is forever and the Dems can still use the citizenship issue as a club against Reps. A non-citizenship amnesty will not, in the final analysis, prevent this. That’s because in the real world the amnesty beneficiaries will eventually get green cards, and every Republican lawmaker pushing the idea knows that. Permanent second-class citizenship is politically unsustainable in the United States, and that’s not a bad thing. If such a measure were to pass, the Democrats would attack the Republicans relentlessly for imposing a Jim Crow immigration regime, and Republicans (led by today’s amnesty-pushers) would quickly fold, possibly delivering green cards to the former illegals even sooner than planned by the Senate bill.

[kabar]

The GOPe views amnesty as a bargaining chip. The GOPe wants the doubling of the guest worker programs to please their corporate paymasters. They could care less about the impact of an amnesty.