The Immigration Rogue's Gallery

There are lots of good folks who are baffled at the combative and condescending attitude of the White House, the Congress, and the RNC toward those of us who oppose the Shamnesty Bill of 2007.

With 60 to 80 percent of Americans opposed to it - and angrily so - many people wonder what or whom could possibly could be supporting this monstrous and destructive legislation. Why is Bush pushing it? Why is Congress supporting it?

Below is from an advertisement run during last year's 2006 immigration debate in the DC politican's trade journal, Congressional Quarterly. The ad is on the servers of the American Meat Institute, a DC "trade association" (aka "K Street lobbying arm") of meatpacking companies including Hormel, Tyson, Cargill, and many others. It is self-explanatory, and the link above should get you directly to the Acrobat PDF of the ad if you're so inclined.

"Though no one wants to reward illegal behavior, we must find a way for these workers to come forward, make good on the past and participate in a program that leads to permanent residency and eventual citizenship."

Not to mention Linda Chavez, who had a knockdown, drag-out quasi-interview with Laura Ingraham the other day.

It was surprising, because Chavez has seemed smart and reasonable in the past. But she pulled out all of the stops in her despicable column of 5/25, which cast most Shamnesty opponents as flat-out racists, or victims of racist propaganda.

Clearly Chavez has been assigned the ruthless hit-(wo)man’s job of casting racial accusations and insults by either her trade group cronies (see above list), or by the White House or RNC, or maybe by all of them. Because she has clearly gone off the deep end.

Among those who “just don’t like Mexicans” or any Latino are: “fewer than 10 percent of the general population... a fair number of Republican members of Congress, almost all influential conservative talk radio hosts, some cable news anchors — most prominently, Lou Dobbs — and a handful of public policy “experts” [and] fringe groups like the Minuteman Project.”

According to Chavez, all logical and reasonable concerns are but a thin veneer over our fundamental “xenophobia” (which she claims drives our “distaste” for 12 or 16 unrelated males living in a single family suburban home).

She concludes with a final repellent and wrongheaded cheapshot about Shamnesty and racism: “We’ve struggled long and hard as a nation to overcome our prejudices, enduring a Civil War and countless dead for the right to be judged by the content of our character not the color of our skin.”

Duh, sorry Linda. The Civil War was about states’ rights and the rule of law (specifically laws against secession from the Union). It was not until more than a year and a half into the war that emancipation became a goal (and emancipation was a good thing).

It is her misunderstanding of basic American history, and her blazingly transparent and aggressive personal racism, that causes Chavez to dismiss as lies and evasions our concerns about trashing the rule of law, the staggering unfairness of amnesty, and the complete laydown on national security.

The big secret (or so it seems) is that it is the Federal Government, more than anyone else, who wants illegal immigration. People think that employers are engaging illegals to get out from under the payroll tax burden, nothing could be further from the truth. The employers are not stupid, liabilities for evading payroll taxes are huge. They are not looking to avoid taxes, they are simply looking for lower wages. Since the government has (deliberately) not given employers a means to confirm the identities and legality of employees, all an illegal alien needs to do is find or make up a social security number, give it to the employer, and the employer is covered. They then take out the taxes, pay the medicare/medicaid, pay the social security, all of which is tied to an incorrect account or nonexistent account. This is money that comes to the Federal Government with no strings — no need to issue tax refund, no need to pay social security, no obligations. The money is in the billion's and billions. Meanwhile, us, the citizens, are forced to pay for the health care, the welfare, the crime, and perhaps worse, we are forced to place our kids in private schools if we want to have a prayer that they be properly educated. The illegal alien children flock into the schools, with no English or English as a second language, causing huge local school tax increases as we attempt to build facilities, and simultaneously dragging down the quality of education our children receive. So, we pay more for less. In effect, we have a huge wealth transfer from our pockets to the federal government — we pay the cost, the government receives the cash benefits. THAT is what this is all about. The Federal Government has grown beyond the limits of our current tax base, and they are looking for new sources of revenue.

We do not live in a dictatorship. Individual politicians do not get to pick and choose which laws we will enforce and which we will not, but unfortunately, that’s what they are doing today. This is criminal in my view, and is proper justification for impeachment. Personally, as someone who has voted for Bush four times, I believe he has betrayed us on this issue, and that the cost is so high and the arrogance so extreme that it is worthy of impeachment.

If the government wants to open our borders, let them make a case for it and change the law. Let those who make those changes then face the voters. Of course, they have not had the courage to do that, so, they simply change the laws in practice — refusing to enforce immigration laws, and in fact even going after border agents who do attempt to enforce those laws.

And for those who say it is “impractical” or impossible to deport 12 million (really 20-30 million), I say WHY??? It is not impractical. We do not have to do it overnight. Simply cut off the benefits, punish employers severely and give them a verification system, cut off funds to any city who declares itself a sanctuary city, and deport the illegal aliens as we encounter them in day to day law enforcement events. the problem will fix itself.

To be fair, go ahead and create a temporary worker program, but make it TEMPORARY, and prohibit government benefits and chain migration. Require that applications be filed at offices OUTSIDE our borders, which requires legal entry. Also, increase the number of people being allowed to go through the process legally to become citizens, but this must remain difficult, as it should always require a certain amount of dedication and desire to become a real, loyal, assimilated American.

VERY disappointed in Linda.

I’ve read several of her books and she always made a great deal of sense.

I was appalled by her column and her guilt-by-association application of racism to everyone with qualms about this amnesty plan.

Are there racists on the anti-amnesty side? Sure. Are there racists on the pro-amnesty side? Of course. Does either fact have any bearing whatsoever on whether the bill is a good idea? Of course not.

OTOH, I assume Linda is sincere in her opposition. Which just goes to show the extreme power of tribalism. What she views as an attack on her tribe must be definition be illegitimate.

Overall, her position just illustrates the insanity of any steps that will increase the “tribalization” of America. We desperately need a moratorium on immigration to allow assimilation to get a little bit ahead.

FairTax fanatics, please explain this one.

I can't explain why Mr. Nordquist supports amnesty for illegal aliens but I think you are confusing Americans For Tax Reform with Americans For Fair Taxation. They are distinctly different organizations with different goals. The goal of the former is to "oppose any and all tax increases". Americans For Fair Taxation endorse replacing all federal income taxes with a national sales/consumption tax. We support the latter not the former. Leo Linbeck Jr is the founder and CEO of Americans For Fair Taxation. Also, at the AFFT about us page you'll note the following quote from the opening sentence "Americans For Fair Taxation was formed in 1995 as a 501 (c)(4)nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots organization"

Note the operative word is non partisan. This means AFFT does not support any particular candidate nor any issue other than The Fair Tax (H.R.25/S.1025).

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