Posted on 05/17/2015 8:06:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions said the United States needs to curb legal immigration along with illegal immigration, and fast. We need a timeout, don't you know, and the only folks who favor letting more foreigners in are monocle-wearing, cigar-smoking elitists:
High immigration rates help the financial elite (and the political elite who receive their contributions) by keeping wages down and profits up. For them, what’s not to like? That is why they have tried to enforce silence in the face of public desire for immigration reductions. They have sought to intimidate good and decent Americans into avoiding honest discussion of how uncontrolled immigration impacts their lives.
Yeah, the intimidation on anti-immigration beliefs is so strong that only one of the potential Republican presidential candidates, Jeb Bush, is openly in favor of current (much less expanded) levels of immigration. And note that when Sessions (like a lot of restrictionists) talks about "uncontrolled immigration," he's not even talking about illegal immigration. He's talking about the "million mostly low-wage permanent legal immigrants who can work, draw benefits and become voting citizens."
Sessions' views on immigration are not only factually incorrect, they are influential in the GOP. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin has said that he changed his mind on the topic after listening to Sessions' arguments about restricting newcomers. Walker used to be a lot like Jeb Bush. Not no more.
Elsewhere, Sessions has railed against Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for multiple reasons, not least of which is that any sort of agreement "could facilitate immigration increases above current law." Like a good populist, Sessions keeps pushing the idea that TPA, which has been used in such situations since 1974, will somehow lead to Congress voting on a deal it isn't allowed to read ahead of time. That's simply not true. The negotiations between the American team and the other countries are confidential (which makes sense). The TPP will be submitted to Congress for an up-or-down vote. Not secret.
As I wrote at The Daily Beast this week, Republican animus against i
Georgetown Bookshopimmigration is wildly out of line with the rest of the country. Fully 84 percent of Republicans say they are "dissatisfied" with current levels of immigration (presumably, they want them decreased). Yet just 39 percent of all Americans say they are dissatisfied and want to see a decrease.
Last fall, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that 60 percent of Americans want to give illegals a path to citizenship—a figure that that "jumps to a whopping 74 percent if you qualify that the undocumented immigrants must take steps like paying back taxes."
In the 2012 election, Mitt Romney pulled just 27 percent of the increasingly important Hispanic vote. That was despite the fact that Barack Obama is, in Nowrasteh’s accurate term, “Deporter in Chief” who repatriated more immigrants far more quickly than George W. Bush. Hispanics aren’t stupid—44 percent of them voted for immigrant-friendly Bush in 2004. They knew things could always get worse and probably would for them under Romney.
With 2016 coming into clearer and clearer focus—and with Hillary Clinton doing her own flip-flop on immigration and now embracing newcomers—the GOP and its presidential candidates have a choice to make. They can follow Ronald Reagan’s example and embrace libertarian positions on immigration and free trade. Or they can follow Jeff Sessions’s retrograde populism and see just how few Hispanic votes they can pull.
Good luck with the future, Republicans, if you follow Jeff Sessions' lead on immigration.
In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions said the United States needs to curb legal immigration along with illegal immigration, and fast. We need a timeout, don't you know, and the only folks who favor letting more foreigners in are monocle-wearing, cigar-smoking elitists... Yeah, the intimidation on anti-immigration beliefs is so strong that only one of the potential Republican presidential candidates, Jeb Bush, is openly in favor of current (much less expanded) levels of immigration. And note that when Sessions (like a lot of restrictionists) talks about "uncontrolled immigration," he's not even talking about illegal immigration. He's talking about the "million mostly low-wage permanent legal immigrants who can work, draw benefits and become voting citizens." ...Elsewhere, Sessions has railed against Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for multiple reasons, not least of which is that any sort of agreement "could facilitate immigration increases above current law."Bravo, Senator Sessions! There's nothing wrong with the TPA that couldn't be fixed with a new President.
Libertarians are nothing more than liberal Democrats who think they’re more fiscally responsible than everyone else.
The Libtard mantra never ceases.
he’s right on immigration (though he overestimates the jobs part of the equation) - it’s not cool for a Republican to be protectionist however.
Re: “Even with its congressional seats and governorships, state legislatures too, the GOP is doomed in the long run, even the short run.”
I agree.
I’d be surprised if 50% of the people on Free Republic support significant cuts in legal immigration (1.25 million per year) and new citizens (10 million in the last 14 years).
New citizens vote 80% for the Democrat Party. They have very poor voter turn out, especially in off year elections like 2010 and 2014, which is the only reason Republicans won major Congressional victories in those years.
When Black, Hispanic, and Asian voter turn out equals white voter turn out, the game is up, and Conservative political power will be extinguished.
And almost no one in the Republican Party seems to care.
Even worse, nobody in the GOP supports American jobs.
So we are creating more democrats.
Drug-crazed baby-killing child-molesting queers (who like smaller government)
This is an attempt to Alinsky Sessions.
That’s right, just let them all in here. There’s no lessons to be learned from cheap labor. The Civil War was a just a figment in someone’s imagination.
As are the race riots, Welfare State, overcrowded/polluted cities.
Cheap labor, cheap votes . . all for the other guy. What more could we want?
If California’s immigration explosion is America’s future, the GOP has no future
I heart Sessions
Open borders didn’t work so well for the American Indians, nor for Mexico when they wanted to settle TX. Why would it work better here and now?
I like what he writes on a lot of issues, but not immigration
As for the black wardrobe, I’ve always wondered if he’s channeling the character of Adam from Bonanza
I seem to recall Ace of Spades dubbing Nick Gillespie something like “Goth Fonzie” for his ridiculous appearance and demeanor.
He’s a perfect example of why I can’t take Libertarians seriously.
Yes.
Without Jeff Sessions’ immigration stance, the country has no future.
Took the words right out of my mouth.
If most Conservative ideas that get touted as "a sure way to ruin the Conservatives" were to become facts, we might have a chance.
It’s always about cheap labor, always.
Funny how so many people are for the free market, except for when it comes to the price of labor. Then they want Government policies to make available the entire world to drive down the wages of working Americans.
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