Some people are deeply unhappy with the bipartisan immigration deal announced yesterday.
Given its complexity, and the multiple issues about which one constituency or another is unhappy, I would be very surprised if anything like it made its way through the legislative labyrinth. It’s perhaps likelier that Democrats will use their power in Congress to make changes that, I expect (or is it hope?), will make the bill unpalatable to its current Republican supporters. Consider, in that connection, this apparently representative Democratic sentiment:
"We need to find a system that values and honors the work of all," said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (Ill.), who is one of the Democrats entrusted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) with developing a House bill. "The landscaper is just as important as the computer scientist."
I honor and respect the landscaper, as a human being, as much as I do the computer scientist, but to the degree that immigration reform is about economics, I value the work of the computer scientist more than that of the landscaper. I would expect (hope?) that Republicans would walk away from a reform bill that isn’t hard-nosed at its core (with hospitable and humanitarian provisions, to be sure, but at the margins, else we adopt a measure that in principle swallows our national identity).
One last point and, for the moment, I’m done. In 2006, immigration activists didn’t do well at the polls (see, for example, J.D. Hayworth). Is there any evidence that a hard line has more political traction in 2007 and 2008 than it did a year ago? Yes, I know there are people who say they’ll never vote for anyone who supports this bill. How many of them are there? We’ll know, I suppose, if John McCain’s poll numbers drop appreciably, though I can’t imagine that many people who cared deeply about this issue supported him in first place.
Update: Can the Bush Administration round up 70 Republican votes in the House to hand the Democrats a victory? I doubt it.
This immigration deal is horrible - horrible for the American worker. Both legal and illegal immigration are being used to drive down the wages of American workers.
The worst thing ever to happen to the American worker is the marriage of big business and multiculturalism, and you're seeing the effects here.
Please watch this video:
https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4094926727128068265
It's the best video ever made on immigration, and it's only 15 minutes long. A few of my friends, who were pro-immigration, watched this video and changed their stances.
Do you know who the biggest backer of immigration is? Wal-Mart, which last year gave more money to La Raza than to any other organization. This "deal" is a joke. It is just a way for big business to drive down American wages.
We are under attack! As Jean Raspail said in Camp of the Saints, the "greatest conservative novel of all time," a third-world invasion of the West is taking place. We an either make a stand against the invading hordes, or we can watch the West crumble. Stop the invasion!!!
The Republican Party is becoming the party of neoliberal globalism. Please sign the Conservative Exodus Project: https://www.conservativeexodusproject.com . Do not support liberal candidates.
With the recent announcement that 1 in 3 Americans belongs to a minority group (meaning that the majority has dropped to around 65% -- don't be fooled by "white" statistics that say we are 80% "white" -- they are counting Hispanics as "white" - a bit underhanded, don't you think?), isn't it time we started taking the severe problems likely to occur VERY seriously? When has our nation ever been this heterogeneous? And what does history say about such heterogeneity (it's not good, folks)?
This "new" compromise is just another Simpson-Massoli bill. It gives big business/agriculture what it wants, it gives the Dems the captive constituency it wants, and the rest of us? They send us the bill for the public services used by this influx of very poor people, and they remind us how we should feel guilty about our civilizational "crimes." The also remind us about how old we are getting, and how we need these younger people to pay the tab.
This is crap, people. They are destroying America from the inside out. And the sad thing is, even if all these diverse folk were absolutely fine and upstanding (and most probably are), their cultural patterns and the simple fact of their diversity creates no end of political and social problems. Time to wake up. Call your Congressman. Vote for NO ONE who supports amnesty. This issue is far more important than terrorism, the price of gas, health care, or even deindustrialization. Demography is the gift that keeps on giving...very shortly now, we won't be able to fix these problems. And I'm not fear-mongering here. The lesson of history is very clear on this -- with numbers comes power and cultural transformation. If you like the American experiment at all, you will join me in revolting against this sell-out of our nation.
Your example of J.D. Hayworth tells against the conclusion you would have us reach. Hayworth wasn't defeated by someone who was more lenient on the issue. Hayworth was defeated by someone who was more ARDENT, more tough and more outspoken. In short, Hayworth was defeated by someone far less "compassionate," if you will. But somehow, due to people like Rove and Fred Barnes, Hayworth's opponent was morphed into a proponent of amnesty.
Over 90% of the Republican Party wants the border secured.
Over 60% of the Democrats want the border secured.
And a majority of Hispanic Americans want the border secured.
All of which begs the question, who is it that doesn't want the border secured?
George W. Bush tells us that every day he wakes up with national security on his mind. Well if that's the case, then the border would have been WELL AND TRULY secured several years ago. But it's as lawless, as chaotic and as open as ever.
There's going to be a price to be paid for all of this, and it's going to be a brutal one. And it's going to be paid in blood.
What part of the lesson on 9/11 didn't they get? What part of that memo didn't they read?
This bill is a deliberate attempt to destroy the middle class. A strong middle class is not in the interest of the Democrat party - the party of dependency. It is not in the interest of the Republicans either, apparently. I included the following in a letter to my friends urging them to contact Wal Mart's Senators and Congressmen:
Remember, pro-amnesty Senators do not care about you and they most certainly do not care about illegal immigrants. "Our" senators care about electoral power and about driving down wages. This is class warfare. Senators John Kerry (net worth $163,000,000), Herb Kohl ($111,000,000), John Rockefeller ($ 81,000,000), Frank Lautenburg ($38,000,000) John McCain ($30,000,000), and Diane Feinstein ($26,000,000), will never have their kids wasting time in a public school classroom where learning is impossible due to the inability of half the children to speak or read English. George W. Bush (net worth $21,000,000) will never live in a barrio filled with hostile, unassimilated children of immigrants whose schooling was so debased by multiculturalism that they cannot get a job or even speak the language. Exclusive neighborhoods and bodyguards will insulate Senators and their families from the inability of law enforcement to get a handle on the flood of immigration which will follow the passage of this monstrous bill. You, on the other hand, will pay for our new arrivals' social services in taxes, you will pay again in the annihilation of the value of your labor, and as law enforcement fails to keep up with the violent criminals and gangsters hidden among the wave of immigrants which will follow the passage of this bill, some of you will pay with your lives.
Ted Kennedy on Immigration [Mark Krikorian]
1965: "The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs."
1986: "This amnesty will give citizenship to only 1.1 to 1.3 million illegal aliens. We will secure the borders henceforth. We will never again bring forward another amnesty bill like this."
2007: "Now it is time for action. 2007 is the year we must fix our broken system."
"...
Homeland Security Sec. Chertoff on Kennedy: 'He's awesome'... "
Dan, what is your source for the poll numbers you cite? I've seen numbers that paint quite a different picture of public opinion on immigration.
John, it was a while ago I saw those numbers. I'm sorry, I haven't a clue where I came across them. But since I don't frequent strange web sites, and don't read anything from fringe publications, you can rely upon them. It must have been an article in The Weekly Standard someplace. I rarely read about the immigration issue, so that's probably the best guess where I came across those numbers. But I do recall that where I read 'em, they were stated just like that. Those numbers came from the same article, but I forget where I got it.
Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.
In 2006, immigration activists didn’t do well at the polls (see, for example, J.D. Hayworth).
You people really should not speak on subjects you know nothing about.
Immigration activists did better on average than other Republicans at the polls.
The Democrats running for office ran to the right of Tom Tancredo on the immigration issue. And that is not hyperbole. They really did.
Try to get a clue and stop repeating whatever claptrap you read in the Weekly Standard.
With the recent announcement that 1 in 3 Americans belongs to a minority group
That was not the announcement. It was that one in three of the people in America are non-white. There is a big distinction there. About 30 million of that 100 million are not citizens. Yet.
Link to poll showing heavy support for enforcement, even by Hispanics.
I'm with Randal. I believe in a nation based on a Master Race. We can build camps for the others.
Damn, how many mobies read this blog? Sick twists.
Will the powers of Ashbrook please delete comment 14? I hate to agree with dain, but this is completely over the line.
Over the line Smokey! Mark it zero Dude.