GOP legislators are pushing state audit of illegal voting

The Arizona Republic ^ | Aug. 19, 2003 | Elvia Díaz

[Pubbie]

Arizona Republican lawmakers want the state to do an audit to find out whether undocumented immigrants are voting illegally, as backers of a proposed 2004 ballot measure suggest.

Seventeen House Republican legislators said Monday the measure, Protect Arizona Now, would do little to combat illegal immigration and alleviate the state's financial problems. They are among an increasing number of prominent politicians opposing the measure, which is being pushed by two Republican state legislators.

[Pubbie]

"Meanwhile, the Colorado congressman who is leading immigration-reform efforts in Washington, D.C., told a Phoenix audience that the guest-worker program is a bad idea and a way to let people who are in the United States illegally to remain.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., predicted that he will have enough votes to block the bill, which is backed by members of Arizona's delegation."

What is most interesting is not that Tancredo is fighting the "Guest Worker Program", but that there is enough Conservative votes in the House to block the House from bringing the Bill up for a vote.

This proves what I have been saying for a while, that House GOP Congressman are highly skeptical of Karlos Rova's "Hispanic Outreach Program".

As I have said before, The House GOP was determined to rebel against the White House in August of 2001 against the Bush Amnesty proposal:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/935408/posts

[rdb3]

Good.

[Spiff]

It's a pretty sorry state of affairs when constituents of Arizona congresscritters have to rely upon representatives from other states to actually represent them. I told Tancredo to his face, when I met him, that he was my representative since Kolbe clearly doesn't represent me.

And you're right, the Tres RINO Amigos (Kolbe, McCain, Flake) are just taking their orders from Senor Karlos Rovas en la Casa Blanca.

[StatesEnemy]

"As Republicans, we feel there is a place for everybody at the table," said Rep. Tom O'Halleran

I'll tell ya what, Tommy, what say we start with AMERICANS FIRST!

[Pubbie]

Fortunately, the House GOP (Thank GOD!) isn't quite ready to sign it's political death warrant by instantly creating 12 million brand new Democratic voters throught this "Guest worker program".

[VU4G10]

The three stooges from Arizona so-called “temporary worker” scheme currently lurking in Congress could be a knockout punch for the American worker and one of the most prolific illegal alien amnesties of all time.

Under the ludicrously misnamed “Border Security and Immigration Improvement Act,” H.R. 2899 and S. 1461 conceal a deadly one-two punch against America:

a massive scheme to import new foreign workers into the United States, and
an amnesty plan giving for illegal aliens already in the United States.

This lunacy is the brainchild of three Arizona Republicans – House members Jim Kolbe and Jeff Flake, and Senator John McCain. With the introduction of these bills in the House and Senate last month, this trio deserve all-time lows the

“most horriblest clowns” list maintained by the invaluable immigration reform radio talkshow host Terry Anderson.

The plan adds two new visa categories to the existing laundry list of non-immigrant visas in section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration Act.

The plan will allow an apparently unlimited number of brand-new foreign workers under a new H-4A category, and will grant new H-4B visas - also apparently unlimited – to illegal aliens and to visa over-stayers who are already working in the United States without authorization.

Here’s a handy memory aid for the proposed new visas:

H-4A visa – “The Foreign Worker Importation Act of 2003.”

H-4B visa – “The Illegal Alien and September 11th Hijacker Adjustment Act of 2003.”

The H-4A aliens will be new arrivals who apply for their visas at U.S. consulates abroad in order to take pre-arranged jobs in the United States that Americans supposedly won’t do – or won’t do for what the employers are willing to pay, more accurately.

The H-4A applicants will miraculously apply and be hired for American jobs while they’re still in their home countries, and while Americans are unemployed at home. Amazing, isn’t it?

Successful H-4A applicants will be imported for three years, renewable for another three years. Corporations employing more than 500 workers can get in on the H-4A action for a one-time fee of $1,000. Smaller companies can buy the privilege of importing foreign workers for even fewer pieces of silver – $500. Each lucky H-4A alien will pay an additional application fee, to be determined later.

After getting a foot in the door with non-immigrant status, the next step for these newly-minted non-immigrants will be to file for permanent residence through the very same employer or perhaps through a new-found family member.

And after seven years with a “green card” – voila! – United States citizenship.

Non-immigrant visas are intended for foreign tourists, students, diplomats, journalists, crewmen, nurses, artists, entertainers, language students, cultural exchange visitors, and certain of their spouses and children. The visas allow foreign nationals into the country legally for limited purposes, without resorting to sneaking in through someone’s ranch, or in the trunk of a car.

Whether any non-immigrants ever actually leave the United States is another story. But under this new “temporary worker” plan, non-immigrants who let their status expire (along with those who never had status in the first place) can apply for an H-4B visa and become legal again.

Amazingly, the H-4B visa program is reserved for illegal aliens only. It snubs the law-abiding student and tourist to reward scofflaws who take American jobs without authorization. Being illegal is a requirement for the H-4B visa!

Illegal aliens who claim to have been living and working illegally in the United States prior to August 1, 2003, can apply for a three-year H-4B visa for $1,500. And if they can’t afford the $1,500 fee all at once, Secretary Tom Ridge’s friendly Department of Homeland Security will extend them credit at market rates. [H.R. 2899, pages 27-28 – honest!]

The three-year H-4B visa allows aliens and their willing American employers an extension for as long as it takes to change status over to the H-4A category. And once the former illegal aliens cleansed by their H-4B visa make the jump over to the H-4A status, the clock starts all over again. As newly-minted H-4A aliens they’ll get three more years of employment, renewable for yet another three years, increasing their chances of finding a way to petition for permanent resident status.

But who will get the H-4B visa amnesty?

Remember the September 11th terrorists who came to the United States claiming to be foreign students, but never attended class – or were “tourists” who just disappeared?

If the jihad fanatics managed to find willing H-4B employers, they would have been eligible to change back to legal non-immigrant status under this insane plan. They also could have prolonged their stay even longer by adjusting again from H-4B to H-4A.

But the H-4B “Illegal Alien and September 11th Hijacker Adjustment Act” gets even worse. The H-4B visas throw a gigantic monkey-wrench into the already ludicrous and delay-ridden Immigration Court system of the Executive Office for Immigration Review –EOIR.

Thanks to the three stooges from Arizona, aliens will be able to stop their deportation proceedings, file for a three-year H-4B visa, and walk out of Immigration Court with lawful status all from the very same process that was supposed to be deporting them! [See H.R. 2899, page 30]

And if an alien’s H-4B application gets denied – due to Immigration Act

section 212(a)(2), (3), and (4) inadmissibility – who cares! They’ve just successfully tied up their own deportation for an eternity while waiting for their fellow 8.4 million illegal alien workers to have their H-4B adjustment applications decided too.

Eduardo Aguirre’s crack team at the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) will be ready for all those new H-4B applications, right?

Unfortunately, non-deportation of aliens in the federal immigration bureaucracy is nothing new. The H-4B visa is just one more below-the-radar amnesty program, and yet another get-out-of-jail-free card in the ongoing permanent amnesty that is the Justice Department’s EOIR Immigration Court.

[FITZ]

With unemployment rates as high as they are --- what possible reasons do Republicans give for importing millions more low-skilled workers and others? Immigration should be inversely proportional to the unemployment and welfare rolls. If we have people unable to find jobs, we don't need immigrants. Unemployment is very high all along the border especially and it's hispanics themselves who suffer the most from out-of-control immigration.

[Pubbie]

Well it looks like this bill will be DOA when it gets into the House - so let's savor this sizable victory.

:)

[Dubya]

TEXAS BUMP

[Pubbie]

Here's the link to the thread I wanted to put up:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/935408/

[Pubbie]

Oooops - THIS IS THE THREAD!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/935408/posts

[Penny]

tom.tancredo@mail.house.gov

Kolbe has blocked my e-mail messages

jim.kolbe@mail.house.gov

and McCain isn't worth my time anyway

John_McCain@mccain.senate.gov

Still, others on FR might wish to drop Tom a thank-you note . . . and throw stinkbombs at the two losers . . .

Best wishes,
Penny

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[clockwork]

Isn't it sad that Republican elected officals are fighting a proposal to ensure that registered voters are indeed citizens as required by law. Who speaks for the basic law abiding native born U.S. citizen anymore. Pat Buchanan tried and he was crucified (even here on "conservative" FR). It is a sad state of affairs. This isn't the same country that I grew up in.

[comnet]

Texas senator urges U.S. Congress to tackle migration reform

By Will Weissert
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2:39 p.m., August 15, 2003

MEXICO CITY – Despite his home state's often-combative relationship with Mexico, a U.S. senator from Texas is pushing hard for greater rights for millions of Mexicans living and working illegally in the United States.

Speaking in Mexico City on Friday, Republican John Cornyn said it was "past time" for his colleagues in Congress to consider legislation making some form of guest-worker program a reality.

"This is an appropriate time to restart negotiations," said Cornyn, who met with Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez during a three-day trip to Mexico's capital.

Last month, Cornyn presented a bill that would provide Mexican workers with a card allowing them to get jobs in the United States and requiring that they be paid at least the minimum wage.

U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, Rep. Jeff Flake and Sen. John McCain, all Republicans from Arizona, also have presented a guest-worker proposal.

Cornyn said the issue had been delayed for more than two years because of security issues on the border, but said it was time for U.S. authorities to "distinguish between those who would do the United States harm and those who come to make positive contributions."

"The truth is security and migration are linked," said Cornyn, who spoke to a small group of reporters at the U.S. Embassy.

Any plan that would reward with legal status those who sneak into the U.S. illegally would likely face sharp opposition on Capitol Hill, but Cornyn said his plan was designed to allow migrants to live and work in the United States for a few years and then return home.

"I think it's important to both the United States and Mexico that Mexico's hardworking risk takers not leave Mexico permanently," Cornyn said. "We have to keep the best and brightest here."

Cornyn's bill would withhold about 15 percent of a worker's pay to be used for medical care in the United States, if necessary, or to be returned to the worker once he or she returned to Mexico.

That component of the plan makes it similar to the now-defunct program for "braceros," millions of Mexicans who came to the United States during World War II to fill labor shortages.

Under the agreement between the United States and Mexico, 10 percent of each worker's wage was withheld and transferred, via U.S. and Mexican banks, to an individual savings fund. But many braceros said they never received the money.

Cornyn said that under his plan, the withheld funds would be reimbursed to former illegal migrants, allowing them to build homes or start businesses upon returning to their homeland, thus "creating jobs in Mexico."

A law or bilateral agreement that would better protect the millions of Mexicans who make the sometimes deadly illegal trip north is among the highest priorities for the government of President Vicente Fox.

Cornyn's support of an initiative so strongly supported by Mexico came a day after Texas Gov. Rick Perry suggested the United States should consider stopping the flow of water to Mexico from the Colorado River if this country continues to lag behind in its water-sharing obligations under a 1944 treaty.

Cornyn said that during his visit he "conveyed in the strongest terms possible the frustration" of South Texas farmers whose crops have been devastated by a drought and Mexico's failure to pay its water debts.

But he said both sides "need to continue to work together to achieve a solution."

The 1944 water-sharing treaty stipulates that the U.S. and Mexico share water from the Rio Grande and Colorado River. Mexico has not been meeting its commitment to send the U.S. 350,000 acre feet annually and now owes the U.S. 1.4 million acre feet. An acre foot is enough to flood an acre of land a foot deep.









Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20030815-1439-mexico-us-migration.html

[ArneFufkin]

There's no way Tancredo can block this without an overwhelming support of House Democrats. John McCain and Jim Kolbe cover their bases professionally, engender an assumptive standing of respect and deference, and weild political schwing within their caucuses, chambers and among a fawning media.

If an overwhelming number of House Democrats support Tancredo and oppose the McCain/Kolbe measure, then the McCain/Kolbe measure has automatic merit in my view.

Jim Kolbe and John McCain don't put their names on high profile legislation unless the requisite whip legwork has indicated the measure has the votes to pass. Tancredo is becoming a Trafficant/Paul type gadfly, a self promoter who is busily burning every institutional bridge of credibility and access he needs to spearhead the reforms he trumpets on countless media appearances through real deal legislation.

He's getting in the face of two GOP power brokers whose support he badly needs if he has serious legislative aims.

[Pubbie]

Cornyn can cry all he wants - if the House doesn't bring up the "Guestworker" program, then Cornyn's ideas will go nowhere. Period!

[ArneFufkin]

Well it looks like this bill will be DOA when it gets into the House - so let's savor this sizable victory

This bill is good as gold if McCain and Kolbe want it done. If Tancredo and sixteen GOP mavericks side with all 203 House Democrats to kill this, Tancredo's career as a legislator of any influence or usefulness is through. This is a publicity stunt. Tommy T is getting into the 2004 Presidential race as a GOP primary challenger or a Third Party spoiler it seems.

[Pubbie]

If Tancredo says he has the votes to kill this bill, then he has the votes to kill the bill, Tancredo isn't stupid!

Tancredo Fan, do you want to weigh in on this conversation?

[MonroeDNA]

Gotta love Tancredo.