Free Republic

Conservatism, declared George Will recently, "is realism: about human nature and government's competence." It requires accepting human beings as they are, not as we wish they were, and recognizing the limited capacity of government to transform the world for the better. But in the immigration debate, many conservatives are embracing policies that, by this standard, are anything but conservative. Just as children are nature's way of mocking their parents' best intentions, illegal immigration is one of those phenomena that show the ineffectuality of laws in impeding humans from pursuing their interests. It would be nice if we could lay down...

The issue of illegal immigration has been a red-hot topic in my hometown community of Newport Beach/Costa Mesa, Orange County, Southern California. Sincere and heart-felt arguments have been made on both sides of the issue. However, many of those who write letters to the local paper in support of illegal immigration make it sound like Costa Mesa is the only place in the nation whose people favor the enforcement of our immigration laws. They suggest that those elected officials supporting these laws are just a small local band guilty of meanness, bigotry, and racism. Nothing could be further from the...

IMMIGRATION BILL FAQ Q. I'm concerned that the immigration bill focuses more on giving illegal immigrants amnesty than border protection. Does the President share these concerns? A. The President doesn't hate brown people. Q. This isn't a racial issue. Many people think this bill will only encourage more illegal immigration and leave our borders open and dangerous. What are the answer to these charges? A. To answer your underlying question, I'm afraid the the President is against your proposal to commit genocide against Hispanics. Q. This isn't about Hispanics! This is about our laws being respected and our national security!...

RALLY AGAINST LA BILL! NO COMPROMISE ON THE LAW! The Dustin Inman Society will stage a rally to oppose amnesty-again. www.TheDustinInmanSociety.org THURSDAY, May 31, 2007 11:45 arrival, NOON START RAIN OR SHINE! CORNER OF AKERS MILL RD. AND GALLERIA DRIVE, ATLANTA. AKERS MILL SQUARE SHOPPING CENTER (THIS IS JUST A FEW YARDS FROM SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS’ OFFICE AND A FEW MILES FROM SENATOR ISAKSON’S OFFICE….AND WE WILL BE ON PUBLIC RIGHT- OF- WAY…THE SIDE WALK ON AKERS MILL ROAD AT GALLERIA DRIVE, ENTRANCE INTO THE GALLERIA OFFICE COMPLEX. Just South of where I-285 crosses Cobb Parkway which is Hwy 41....

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain speaks with local reporters outside a technology conference held at the Four Seasons Resort Aviara in Carlsbad on Tuesday.CARLSBAD CA -- In a brief visit to North County on Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate John McCain defended the Senate's immigration reform bill against critics, including some local lawmakers. McCain, R-Ariz., is among a bipartisan group of about a dozen senators who negotiated the controversial immigration bill that would give an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a chance to legalize their status. He is also one of about 10 candidates seeking the GOP nomination for president....

In his 1995 book "The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy," the late Christopher Lasch argued that America's political and cultural elites had opened up a gap between themselves and ordinary Americans. "Many of them have ceased to think of themselves as Americans in any important sense, implicated in America's destiny for better or worse," he wrote. They are increasingly detached from their fellow citizens and drawn to an international culture, Lasch said, or what we would today call a transnational culture. Consider the current immigration debate in this light. In the transnational view, patriotism, assimilation and...

GLYNCO, Ga., May 29 — President Bush today accused opponents of his proposed immigration measure of fear-mongering to defeat it in Congress, and took on his own conservative political base as he did so. “If you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill’s an amnesty bill,” Mr. Bush said this afternoon at a training center for border enforcement agents located in this town in Georgia’s southeastern corner. “That’s empty political rhetoric, trying to frighten our citizens.” The president used some of his toughest language yet as he began an effort to build support for the...

GLYNCO, Ga., May 29 — President Bush took on parts of his conservative base on Tuesday by accusing opponents of his proposed immigration measure of fear-mongering to defeat its passage in Congress. “If you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill’s an amnesty bill,” Mr. Bush said at a training center for customs protection agents and other federal agents here in southeastern Georgia. “That’s empty political rhetoric trying to frighten our citizens.” It was some of Mr. Bush’s toughest language as he started an intensified effort to build support for the compromise bill in the...

National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights petition against any Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill including Amnesty and Guest Worker programs for Illegals in the United States of America

House conservatives are ready to stop the Senate immigration bill in its tracks with a potent procedural weapon should the contentious measure win passage in the upper chamber. The trump card conservatives may hold is a constitutional rule that revenue-related bills must originate in the House. The Senate immigration measure requires that illegal immigrants pay back taxes before becoming citizens, opening the door to a House protest, dubbed a “blue slip” for the color of its paper. House Republicans used the same back-taxes mandate for a blue-slip threat that derailed last year’s immigration conference. The new Senate bill still must...

Don't listen to Teddy Kennedy. If you belong to the small band of conservative brothers inclined to support immigration reform, the Massachusetts senator is on your side. But what he says is likely to make you anxious, vexed, or even crazed. At times, Kennedy makes the compromise immigration bill sound like the latest loopy liberal legislation to provide welfare to the world.It's not. Indeed, much of the organized left opposes it. The AFL-CIO is especially upset about the provision to bring foreign workers here temporarily. But when you hear Kennedy on the subject, you have to wonder what they're so...

“Our immigration problems cannot be solved piecemeal. They must be all addressed together, and they must be addressed in logical order.” President George W. Bush May 24, 2007 The question must be asked, can any American believe that the federal government can implement a bill that is hundreds of pages long based on the previous history of immigration reform? ____________________________ Since addressing this topic in HUMAN EVENTS in April, debate on a “compromise” bill on immigration reform is being taken up in the United States Senate. This compromise is more conservative than the McCain-Kennedy bill passed last year in the...

The amnesty deal negotiated by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and the White House has Karl Rove’s fingerprints all over it. Plain and simple, it’s bad public policy being used to advance a political agenda. We’ve seen this happen before, most notably in 2003 when Rove and President Bush strong-armed Republicans in Congress into supporting the largest entitlement program since the days of LBJ’s Great Society. The Medicare prescription drug bill, conservative critics were told, would guarantee Republicans the majority for decades. Three years later, the GOP was knocked out of power in Congress, and if the party keeps heading down...

The White House and U.S. Senate are busy selling us a bill of goods on this amnesty bill. How to respond to the spin? The falsity level hasn’t been this high since Clinton’s impeachment days. We’re asked to believe the word of the same folks who proclaimed “catch and release” over, but failed to mention that it still releases many illegal aliens, including Salvadorans. To foster a toehold for truth, here are a few plain-language, straight-talking explanations of what amnesty proponents are saying. “We can’t deport 12 million people.” Well, if the government can’t take custody, process, and physically remove...

Tom Steed Building Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Glynco, Georgia 11:31 A.M. EDT WASHINGTON, May 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a transcript of remarks by President Bush on comprehensive immigration reform: THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. (Applause.) Please be seated -- unless, of course, you don't have a chair. Thanks for having me. I'm honored to be here at the headquarters of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. I don't know whether you realize this, or not, but the government originally planned to open this center inside the Capital Beltway. No one looks very sad that they...

GLYNCO, Ga. (AP) - President Bush attacked opponents of an immigration deal Tuesday, suggesting they “don’t want to do what’s right for America.” “The fundamental question is, will elected officials have the courage necessary to put a comprehensive immigration plan in place,” Bush said against a backdrop of a huge American flag. He described his proposal—which has been agreed to by a bipartisan group of senators—as one that “makes it more likely we can enforce our border—and at the same time uphold the great immigrant tradition of the United States of America.” Bush spoke at the nation’s largest training center...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is one of the smartest conservatives in the Senate. But on the dangerous immigration bill, he has been silent as the grave. His website is conspicuously silent on immigration. This is your Republic Leadership at work. Meanwhile, Kate O'Beirne at NRO The Corner is predicting that the immigration bill will pass by 60 votes (!) That means de facto legalization of at least 12 million illegals, plus their relatives, along with another decade or two of uncontrolled immigration until we get the next amnesty bill. (Unless, of course, another Mohammed Atta terrorist cell manages...

Immigration: Mend It Not Rend It By Christopher Chantrill May 29, 2007 The immigration bill currently before the United States Senate is the usual farrago of band-aids and special interest goodies, trying to patch up the failure of 1986. It is, writes Peggy Noonan in unusually strong language, "a big dirty ball of mischief, malfeasance and mendacity, with a touch of class malice." In response to the political class's same-old same-old, the rest of us might profitably enquire: Never mind what they want. What do we want in immigration policy? We humans are a migratory species. Ever since the first...

To observe the sentimental fantasy and ruthless political calculation that fuels the Bush administration's immigration plans, one need only turn to Michael Gerson’s most recent Washington Post column. Former Bush speechwriter Gerson was a powerful voice in the White House, especially on the matter of injecting faith into policymaking; his May 25 column provides a window into how the administration deals with facts. Gerson accuses opponents of the Senate’s recent amnesty proposal of a nativist fear of illegal immigrants. Such a fear, he argues, will hurt the Republican party’s electoral chances and miss an opportunity to make the country even...

A new report casts doubt on the terrorist-fighting credentials of the Department of Homeland Security. The report released today by a Syracuse University-based think tank concludes that out of more than 800,000 cases filed in federal courts by the Department of Homeland Security since 2004, only 12 were related to terrorism. Another 112 cases were filed using national security charges. DHS officials say the report's conclusions are misleading, arguing that many terrorist cases are ultimately prosecuted by bringing immigration-related charges. The goal, said an agency spokesperson, is often to deport individuals that present a threat as quickly as possible. By...