Posted on 08/21/2009 8:41:51 PM PDT by machogirl
Today, in a meeting to convene a diverse group of labor, advocacy, faith and business leaders, SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina met with Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to discuss immigration reform.
As an added bonus, President Barack Obama made an unscheduled visit to the meeting and reiterated his support of pushing through a comprehensive immigration package this Congress.
The Hill reports that:
"Obama urged leaders to work together in order to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Advocates took the presidential visit as a sign of the administration's commitment to the issue."
In the first of its kind meeting -- to convene a diverse group of advocates to begin sketching a framework for reform-- Vice President Medina issued the following statement:
"Today's White House meeting with Secretary Napolitano and a diverse group of labor, faith, and business leaders is an important step towards shaping smart, comprehensive immigration reform legislation in the comings months. As the leader of the Department that has for far too long been tasked with the impossible job of enforcing broken, outdated laws, Secretary Napolitano knows first-hand how critical it is that we pass sweeping immigration reforms that are smart, enforceable and strengthen our economy for the long term.
"In coming months as the immigration debate heats up, Secretary Napolitano will play a central role in promoting real progress on the issue. In order to achieve the smart policy solution that the American public wants, we urge Secretary Napolitano to stand up publicly, light the fire and become an outspoken champion of comprehensive reform.
"Enforcement without reform has been tried for decades with dismal results. Instead of solving problems, it wastes taxpayer dollars, marginalizes immigrant communities and degrades the quality of life for all workers. In particular, expansion of employment verification programs like E-Verify is like painting the roof when the house is on fire; it's the wrong solution at the wrong time.
"For every day we delay on passing a solution to our broken immigration system, we impede our nation's economic recovery, create unnecessary divisions in our workforce, and cost taxpayers billions of wasted dollars.
"It is unacceptable to live in a country where millions of workers are living in shadows. The only way to ensure that every job in this country is filled by a legal permanent resident is to get undocumented immigrants out of the underground economy, into the system and under the rule of law. Diverse groups are aligned on the need for a comprehensive solution. Now we need the Administration and Congress to take bold steps, roll up their sleeves and pass smart reforms once and for all.
Shortly after the meeting, Secretary Napolitano issued a statement on the meeting saying:
"Today's meeting on comprehensive immigration reform was an important opportunity to hear from stakeholders and build on the significant time I've spent on the Hill meeting with members of Congress on this critical subject. I look forward to working with President Obama, my colleagues in Congress and representatives from law enforcement, business, labor organizations, the interfaith community, advocacy groups and others as we work on this important issue."
ping
At the current negative 1 to negative 6.7% GDP with 13.5% real unemployment it'll be just what the doctor ordered.
In a year there'll be a bounty on "progressives".
about to be the final nail in the coffin
Good article here:
Obama: illegal immigrants deserve free basic health care, but will legal taxpayers foot the bill?
Obama indicated this week that he‘s open to allowing illegal immigrants to continue receiving “basic” health care benefits even though he does not intend to insure them under his health insurance reform proposals.
This admission is sure to open a can of worms, considering that many believe one of the reasons for the skyrocketing cost of health care and health insurance for all Americans is that illegal immigrants already manipulate the system by receiving free emergency room care for which taxpayers are forced to foot the bill.
Most emergency rooms are obliged to treat anyone regardless of their insurance status while many illegal immigrants apparently refuse to buy health care choosing instead to send money that could pay for care back to their loved ones in the home countries.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform has estimated that the current cost of providing care to the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants currently believed to be in the country may be upwards of 10.7 billion dollars or more per year.
Obama argued that while he will not attempt to provide illegal immigrants with health insurance or make health insurance mandatory for illegal immigrants, he does believe that emergency rooms should still be required to treat them.
One wonders if Obama should be telegraphing his intention to continue the status quo when it comes to illegal immigrants and health care – after all, why would anybody feel the need to buy insurance knowing they can just walk into an emergency room and receive free treatment?
This also appears to be a step away from the cost-cutting, universal coverage standard coveted by progressives, as the President appears willing to let uninsured illegal immigrants off the hook when it comes to taking responsibility for their own health insurance status.
The wiser course of action is to enforce immigration laws as written and thus require illegal immigrants to start their citizenship process by appearing in court and paying a fine for entering the country illegally or to exit the country; at the end of that process, they would be subject to the same health care laws governing the lives of their fellow citizens.
It is unwise for the President to sell health insurance reform with continued illogical arguments and mixed signals, awkwardly claiming that health insurance reform will not include overtures to illegal immigrants while telegraphing to them that they can still receive emergency room care anyhow.
“SEIU and ACORN are essentially the same group.”
Don’t forget AARP in that mix:
SEIU & AARP....FYI
“AARP does not operate a PAC, but its employees gave candidates, committees and parties $53,200, with Democrats receiving 90 percent of that.”
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/02/special-interests-to-listen-ca.html
SEIU & AARP...joined at the hip and helping write amnesty/healthcare legislation. AARP uses your dollars to fund the likes of:
MALDEF - Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund
AARP says: “”Anybody who looks at immigration has to look at aging,” says Harry R. Moody, director of academic affairs at AARP. “First, immigration affects the age structure of society” by adding younger members to the population, he says. “Second, the people who do hands-on care work are immigrants. Look at our nursing homes! We have an image of people picking tomatoes — that’s not the whole story. Immigrants are the front-line caregivers.”
http://www.maldef.org/truthinimmigration/camarota_asks_how_many_americans09072008/index.html
& http://www.americanpatrol.com/MALDEF/Contributors-2002-2003.html (Fannie Mae gives to them, too!)
AARP also contributes to LULAC
La Raza
http://www.nclr.org/section/awards
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/04/03/the-left-wing-mortgage-counseling-racket/
And from AARP’s ‘Latino’ magazine....
http://www.aarpsegundajuventud.org/english/presence/index.html
Meet AARP’s New CEO: A. Barry Rand
A. Barry Rand, chairman of the Board of Trustees at Howard University and a nationally recognized agent for social change, has been tapped as AARP’s new chief executive officer. He will become the organization’s first African American CEO when he assumes the position in April.
AARP Welcomes Jacob Lozada
AARP Board member Jacob Lozada gives AARP Segunda Juventud readers his perspective on issues facing U.S. Hispanics and how he hopes to boost AARP’s profile in his native Puerto Rico.
AND AARP works hand in hand with the SEIU. They are the ones formulating the legislation that the dems are pushing.
“– AARP, Business Roundtable and SEIU, which together represent more than 50 million Americans, today took another groundbreaking step for their “Divided We Fail” group by jointly delivering endorsed principles for health information technology (IT) legislation to Congress.
http://www.businessroundtable.org/press_release/aarp_business_roundtable_and_seiu_deliver_end
The “foundation” will be “let em stay!!”
Meanwhile, make sure you keep cracking down on Americans driving home from a dinner where they had two drinks...
we’ve got the laws for criminals (too many) already here.
i don’t want to import anymore. i don’t think that’s too much to ask of my federal govt., is it
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