Posted on 06/24/2014 6:25:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
What should Republican lawmakers do about immigration? That's been a simmering source of controversy ever since George W. Bush's push for so-called comprehensive immigration legislation, with legalization and enforcement provisions, in 2006.
Most liberals and many economic conservatives argued that support for such legislation was a political imperative for Republicans. Otherwise, they would continue to lose Hispanic voters, an inevitably increasing segment of the electorate, by 2-1 margins.
That argument was bolstered by the 2004 exit poll, which showed comprehensive immigration supporter George W. Bush getting 44 percent of the Hispanic vote. That percentage may have been inflated, but if Bush had received the percentages of John McCain (31) or Mitt Romney (27), he would probably not have been re-elected.
Republican opponents of comprehensive immigration respond that granting citizenship to illegals would enfranchise millions of Hispanics who would vote heavily Democratic on economic issues.
And they argued that a nation based on the rule of law should not reward lawbreakers. On that basis most Republicans voted against the comprehensive bill co-sponsored by Chuck Schumer and Marco Rubio that passed the Senate in June 2013.
Meanwhile, as the politicians debated, the facts on the ground changed. Net migration from Mexico, the source of more than one-third of all immigrants and about 60 percent of illegals from 1982 to 2007, fell to zero after that.
And polls showed that most Americans favored legalization of the so-called Dreamers, young adults whose parents had brought them illegally across the border when they were children.
Barack Obama, who didn't push immigration legislation when Democrats had Congressional supermajorities in 2009-10, announced he would no longer deport Dreamers who met certain conditions. As on many other issues, he was not troubled by the fact that the Constitution gives the task of passing laws to Congress and requires the president only to faithfully execute them.
That didn't seem to have any political downside. But the facts on the ground changed again. According to the Obama administration, only 4,000 unaccompanied minors approached the border in fiscal year 2011. That rose to 21,000 in fiscal year 2013 and to 47,000 in fiscal year 2014.
Almost all seem to have come overland through Mexico from the Central American republics of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Reports of this unanticipated surge have been filling television screens.
Instead of being sent back across the border, they have been housed in jammed facilities under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. Some have been given bus tickets to relatives in the United States, according to CNN.
News of this unexpected surge of illegal immigration seems to have contributed to the surprise defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the June 13 Virginia Republican primary.
And last Friday the administration dispatched Joe Biden on a previously unscheduled trip to Guatemala to tell people there that, "there is no light at the end of the tunnel."
Liberals have argued that these teenagers are fleeing the high rates of crime and violence in their native countries. The implication is that they should be admitted as refugees from oppression.
But there's good reason to believe that many have come to believe that they have permisos to enter and remain in the United States. Once you announce you refuse to enforce one law, people may conclude you won't enforce others either.
The Cantor defeat and the surge of Central American teens make it unlikely that House Republican leaders will advance much in the way of immigration legislation.
Two trends in polling also point in this direction. One is that Hispanic voters don't seem hugely preoccupied with immigration. The Pew Research Center reports that many more focus on education, the economy and health than the one-third who say immigration is "extremely important" to them personally.
The other is that the president's job approval among Hispanics has been falling sharply. He got 71 percent of their votes in 2012, but fewer than half approve his performance today.
It's not hard to see why. The sluggish economy has hurt Hispanics more than most Americans. Obamacare and big government policies have not helped them as they apparently have hoped.
This suggests that non-passage of comprehensive legislation won't hurt Republicans as much as predicted. And inaction, always the easier legislative course, would prevent a debate in which the cries of angry opponents, gleefully highlighted in mainstream media, could antagonize Hispanic voters.
Can we PLEASE just come out and say it? 0bama is a FRAUD, an illegal usurper and the ENEMY within the gates!
He’s equally HORRIBLE for EVERYONE down here in the trenches and for America as a whole. Grrrrrrrr!
I agree with the final conclusion. They should do nothing. This is Obozo’s problem. He created it. He owns it. Everyone knows it. And they can’t blame Bush...................
The Republicans need to speak out more about the American citizens who are hurt by illegal immigration.
Rather than living in fear of offending the “Hispanic” minority and losing their vote, the Republicans need to go on the offensive and defend the common man. There are a lot more “Reagan Democrats” that have seen their standard of living decline because of the impact of illegal immigration
then there are Hispanic votes.
Very few politicians have discussed the negative impact of illegal immigration on the common man. (I know we discuss it here). The Democrats are always able to spin it as “anti-immigrant.” (Not anti illegal-immigrant). The Republicans need to change the topic to working Americans.
It’s getting to the point that if you don’t speak Spanish you may not work in California. Most of the packaging is now arriving in stores with both Spanish and English on items, telling you the character of the nation.
The other issues are that the crop of people you have coming here use fraud for documents or to often claim they have been here fore years instead of just hours.
We have the problem of them filing false tax returns to get thousands or maybe tens of thousands using falsely gimmicks like the child credit.
They create ghettos treating suburban homes like high volume flop houses.
Growing the minimum wage and flooding our counties with desperate foreign citizens are going to put our own lower end citizens in more poverty and at a great disadvantage.
These people coming in know all the ways to get here, stay here and to access monies from our Treasury to enrich themselves instead of having that kind of money go towards treating some elderly AMERICAN cancer patient.
I know one couple collecting welfare as residents and then going over the border of Mexico and using the money to pay off their own real estate holdings there.
When is this going to stop and how much can the people take at such great expense to their own future?
I don't know why this is so hard to see.
These Illegals will be the new slaves. True, they will be getting paid, but far under what FEDGOV mandates. Cheap labor because the employer would turn them in if they protest.
And Nobody sees a problem with this. Its a crying shame that nobody stands up and demand Obama’s impeachment. Who cares if it don’t pass the senate. We gotta make a stand somewhere.
Only 10% of the voting population is Hispanic. Why are Republicans so dense that they are willing to throw at least 50% of their voting base who oppose amnesty under the bus by catering to the Hispanic vote? It makes NO sense.
It isn’t hard to see; Democrats have been making this happen around the country.
And you have to ask, are we expected to believe if you legalize these numb nuts that they are going to vote what would be in the best interest of our country or for the best interest of their wallets for free goodies?
Simple answer is 10 year path to citizenship where they can collect no assistance from taxpayers and must show income and paying taxes of at least 120% above the poverty line.
If they can’t make it, go home.
Oh?
It would make more sense to me if the FIRST part of this statement had not been truncated:
Everyone BUT...
1) some are to diverted to the sex trade,The fact that these children are being shuffled from facility to facility, state to state as nothing to do with providing cover for many of these children to simply 'get lost in the system'.
2) some are to be adopted by well connected gay couples, and
3) some will become organ donors for ailing children of the elites.
America. Invest your kid...
“Hispanics Sour on Obama”
Not to be confused with, “Hispanics won’t vote democratic next election”
All I can figure is, they’re catering to big business donors who want cheap labor. And Republicans are also terrified of being called racist. But if no Republican can ever get elected again, (which we’re pretty close to that point now,) then I agree, it makes no sense. As California goes, so goes the nation.
The accurate implication of what you are saying is that a flood of illegals has essentially stolen California from its citizens. Indeed, there’s a high probability, IMHO, that CA might end up with a substantial number of state wide Republican office holders if the illegals were just prevented from voting. Just look at the last election of Barbara Boxer where she won with a flood of Hispanic votes. How many of those voters were even citizens??
Illegals are being brought in and given jobs that legal hispanics need. Illegals work for less... sometimes as little as $3 and $4 dollars an hour. And they don't give any guff - they're thankful for not being turned in. In short, it's slavery-lite. As usual, this exploitation is backed and supported by democrats.
Hispanics are hard working... in time they'll become Republican...
The Kiddie Krusade Sourpusses.
Obama is flooding the country with poor latinos from Mexico & central America. According to the GOPe, the Chamber, the MSM and DNC he should be flying high with the hispanic community.
And those Americans who want to be working.
With the unemployment and lack of labor participation out there, who needs more potential employees?
I’ve noticed that LaRaza and MeCha have been pretty quite. Could it be that OTMs are not as desirable.
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