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Showing posts with label immigration bill. Show all posts

Friday, February 27, 2015

Boehner Should Be Done As Speaker. He Is Too Meek, Too Conciliatory To Be Effective!

Anti-Boehner Coup Rumblings From House Conservatives Grow

Thursday, 26 Feb 2015 08:32 PM

By Sean Piccoli

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Conservatives on Capitol Hill are threatening to replace House Speaker John Boehner if he ducks a fight with the White House over illegal immigration and gives in to political pressure to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, The Hill reports.

Talk of another coup attempt against Boehner "has grown louder," The Hill reports, now that Senate Republicans have backed away from a House bill that blocks DHS from accommodating millions of illegal immigrants.

The Senate looks poised to pass Homeland Security funding with no strings attached before the agency runs out of money at midnight Friday, leaving President Barack Obama's executive immigration order to DHS untouched, USA Today reports.

If Boehner follows the Senate's lead, "it would be a big political mistake," a House conservative speaking on condition of anonymity told The Hill.

Republicans who tried to oust Boehner in January are again strategizing on how to take away his Speaker's gavel, The Hill reports.

With a DHS shutdown looming, Boehner was said to be eyeing a compromise on Thursday evening between the take-no-prisoners posture of his restive right flank and the more Obama-friendly Senate approach that House conservatives have branded as surrender.

The National Journal, citing "leadership sources," reports that House GOP leaders werefloating an interim bill to fund DHS in full, but only for a month, giving Republicans the chance to fight another day.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Southern Border Is Porous. US Government Ignores Problem. Is there a Reason?

Arizona Sheriffs Rip DHS for Not Giving Info on Released Illegals

Friday, 11 Apr 2014 08:46 PM

By Todd Beamon

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Arizona's top two sheriffs told Newsmax that they are fighting an uphill battle against illegal immigration in their state because the federal government has still not provided information about the illegals they released from local jails last year due to budget cuts.

"They released 2,000-plus criminals who were on their way to deportation," Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said in an interview. "These are the same people that even President Obama said needed to be deported out of the country.

"We have illegals who we are arresting every day," Babeu added. "We don't know if these are the same people. They won't give us the names."

"We turn them over to ICE, and they keep coming back to jail," said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "Either they're letting them out the back door — or they're deporting them, and they keep coming back. There's a problem with this."

In February 2013, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — which manages ICE — released more than 2,000 illegal immigrants from jails in Arizona, California, Georgia, and Texas just days before federal budget cuts were to take effect through sequestration on March 1.

The effort was halted in those states after Arizona officials — including Gov. Jan Brewer, GOP Sen. John McCain, and the sheriffs — expressed outrage over the release of criminals into the general population.

The illegal immigrants had their cases reviewed by ICE before they were released, spokeswoman Gillian Christensen told Newsmax at the time, and they were classified as low-security threats.

They also were placed on supervised release, under which they must abide by a strict reporting schedule that could include attending appointments at regional ICE offices and telephone and electronic monitoring, Christensen said.

The sheriffs' concerns were heightened by news reports on Friday that thousands of illegal immigrants are crossing the Rio Grande into South Texas every month in anticipation of comprehensive immigration reform.

U.S. Border Patrol agents told The New York Times that 90,700 illegal immigrants were arrested in the Rio Grande Valley in the past six months, up 69 percent over last year. The agency said it could not estimate how many crossed over successfully and dispersed throughout the United States.

The number of illegal immigrants crossing into South Texas has suddenly soared this year after six years of relatively deep declines across the southwest region, the Times reports.

The Center for Immigration Studies reported last month that ICE seized and released 68,000 illegal immigrants last year with criminal records, according to a review of agency information.

Agents questioned 722,000 potentially deportable immigrants in 2013, but filed immigration charges against only 195,000 of them.

Immigration officials then eventually freed 35 percent, or 68,000, of the illegal immigrants with criminal histories into the U.S. general population when they could have been deported, according to the review.

In their Newsmax interviews, Babeu and Arpaio said that — more than a year after the illegal immigrants were released from local jails and ICE detention operations in Arizona — they still do not have any critical information about who was released, including data on their criminal histories.

Perhaps the only thing the sheriffs know are numbers. Babeu told Newsmax that as many as 300 illegal immigrants had been released into Pinal County last February — and Arpaio said he conducted his own survey of his jail's 1,300 inmates in recent weeks.

In total, 2,226 illegal immigrants were released in February 2013 — and 622 had criminal records, according to information provided after McCain and Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan wrote the agency in light of news reports.

Thirty-two of those with records were convicted of multiple felonies, and 24 were again arrested by Border Patrol agents and detained by ICE, the senators said.

McCain and Levin included the specifics in a request for more information sent last month to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who succeeded Janet Napolitano in December.

"We write today to seek additional information on last year’s detainee release and inquire whether ICE or the Department of Homeland Security … has taken any actions to ensure accountability for what occurred," they said in their March 13 letter.

The senators also noted recent news reports that disclosed that discrepancies had existed in information DHS gave to them and Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which also is investigating the releases.

In a recent interview, Christensen confirmed the 2,226 figure to Newsmax.

"The individuals released in February 2013 continue to be monitored individually by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations deportation officers to determine the appropriate level of supervised release for each specific case," she said in a statement.

This is "standard ERO procedure for any detainee released from custody," Christensen said.

She added that information on the criminal backgrounds of the released illegal immigrants was "not readily available, as it would require pulling 2,200-plus individual case files to collate information specific to those releases."

Of the McCain-Levin letter, "ICE will respond to the senators' letter directly," Christensen said. The senators sought a response by April 3.

Queries to McCain's office by Newsmax on Friday were not answered. McCain is the ranking Republican on the Senate Investigations Subcommittee. Levin is the panel’s chairman.

Queries to McCain's office by Newsmax on Friday were not answered.

Meanwhile, the dearth of federal information makes battling illegal immigration in Arizona a lot tougher, Babeu and Arpaio told Newsmax. Whatever the sheriffs now know about any illegal immigrants who may have been released last year comes from background checks after they’ve been arrested again.

"When anyone's released from jail, there's always a concern about recidivism," Babeu said. "If there's not some kind of a planned release that will support the prisoner … the recidivism rate is off the charts.

"These are people who aren't from the United States of America," he added. "They're simply released to the street, and they have nowhere to go.

"They said it was a supervised release, but the likelihood of them checking in is next to none," Babeu said.

Arpaio — the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" — said that of the 1,300 illegal immigrants he counted in his jail, 400 had been previously deported and re-arrested for other crimes — including murder. "Some have come back 18 times, eight times, 10 times," he said.

"You've got all these guys walking out on the streets, but we don't have a record of why they're on the street. Where are these people? We don't know where they're at.

"I can't figure out why these guys keep coming back to jail charged with other crimes all the time," Arpaio said. "I can't figure it out."

Babeu cited, for instance, the recent arrest of a 33-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico with three others who had "just dropped off a drug load. The guy said he had been deported 14 times" — which ICE confirmed in a background check.

Two days later, another Mexican, 25, was arrested with a fake driver's license and a .40-caliber revolver, the sheriff said. He was deported in 2012 for transporting drugs and illegally carrying a handgun.

"We're running into these people all the time," Babeu said. "It stands to reason that if somebody can break into the country 15 times, at will … what about people from countries of interest or terrorist organizations?

"This is what is so insane about this whole discussion of immigration reform," he added.

"They say: 'Look the other way. There is no problem at the border. The border is more secure than ever' — and it is a complete lie."

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Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Will Immigration Bill End GOP

Rush Limbaugh: GOP 'Authoring Its Demise' With Immigration Reform Bill

Monday, 01 Jul 2013 07:54 PM

By Greg Richter

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Establishment Republicans have no idea that their support of the Senate's immigration reform bill has so angered their own voters it threatens the party's existence, says conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

"The establishment of this party is authoring its demise," Limbaugh said on his show Monday. "I honestly think that the Republican establishment doesn't know what awaits it regarding this issue. ... Maybe they do and they just don't care."

Republican leaders know there's opposition from their base for the legislation to offer a pathway to citizenship, Limbaugh said, but don't realize the full depth. Many, like Limbaugh himself, are doubtful Congress will keep its word to enforce border security before legalizing those already here.

"I don't think they have the slightest idea how deep the anger at the current thinking, as expressed by supposedly smart Republican establishment people, exists," he said. "I don't think they have any idea how deep it is in towns large and small all across this country."

Some members of the Republican "establishment" are saying "they are loved now, that the Hispanics get us now," Limbaugh said. "It's a fantasy like I've not seen in a long time."

More people have begun talking about a third party, he noted. Sarah Palin, who ran as vice president under immigration reform supporter Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said she's open to starting a new party for disaffected Republicans.

Limbaugh has warned for years against creating a third party because it would essentially put Democrats in control of government.

"If that happens," he said Monday, "you can kiss the Republican Party goodbye."

© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!

Friday, June 28, 2013

Rubio's Big Mistake

Once you start selling out, your soul is lost and Marco Rubio is finished. He doesn't know it but his big mistake was to join the Gang of Eight and to make an immigration bill that stinks to high heaven with pay offs. It does not secure the border, it grants amnesty, and it does not protect the US.

It is a sad day that a bright and upcoming Senator can be so quickly bought and sold by the Washington elites.

Conservative Tom

Marco Rubio’s Big Immigration Mistake

June 28, 2013 by Chip Wood

PHOTOS.COM

What a sad transformation it’s been to see Senator Marco Rubio go from being a Tea Party hero to an apologist for the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill.

Back in 2010, Rubio was a handsome and articulate State Senator in Florida when he decided to run for the U.S. Senate. Doing so meant defying the Republican establishment’s hand-picked selection, then-Governor Charlie Crist.

There were two make-or-break issues in the Republican primary that year. The first was Barack Obama’s massively expensive stimulus program. Crist was so enamored of it that he actually agreed to have a photograph taken of him publicly embracing the President. We’ll never know how many votes that hug cost him, but it was a bunch.

Rubio said that counting on Federal handouts to create jobs was a huge mistake. He called instead for letting the free enterprise system work, by lowering taxes and reducing regulation. The voters made it clear which message they preferred.

The other issue that marked a sharp disagreement between the two candidates was immigration reform and, in particular, amnesty for the millions of people who were in this country illegally. Crist endorsed amnesty; Rubio, the son of immigrants from Cuba, said he was unalterably opposed to it. In speech after speech, Rubio repeated this warning in some form: If you grant amnesty in any form, you will destroy any chance we ever have of having a legal immigration system that works here in America.

It was those two stands, more than any others, that made Rubio a Tea Party favorite and led to his victory over his much more liberal opponent. Crist subsequently resigned from the Republican Party and joined the Democrats.

But since then, Rubio agreed to become one of four Republican members of the Senate’s Gang of Eight. Since two of his Republican colleagues were John McCain of Arizona and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and the Democrat members included Chuck Schumer of New York and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, you won’t be surprised to learn that the final agreement includes amnesty.

It was also apparent that a whole lot of horse-trading was going on behind the scenes to ensure passage of the bill. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), one of the Tea Party heroes who has not abandoned his opposition to the current immigration bill, castigated the “laundry list of buyoffs” that has been made to insure a favorable vote. These include:

Diverting a chunk of the money for border security to Maine — a State that, so far as I know, has never had a problem with illegal immigrants hiking in from Canada — to win the support of Susan Collins, that State’s Senator.
Some special bequests for the seafood industry in Alaska, so that State’s two Senators, Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich, will get behind the bill.
And in one of the smelliest deals of all, a $1.5 billion jobs program, the price demanded by Vermont’s socialist Senator Bernie Sanders for his support.

All of that helps explain why Cruz said, “Rarely do we see so transparently how votes in the Senate are bought and sold.” Oh yes we have, Senator. It’s just that in the past they were called “earmarks.”

After weeks of behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing, the current immigration bill was finally made available for Senators to see last Friday afternoon. The Senate was expected to vote on some of its most important provisions just 72 hours later. Does the process remind you of the way Obamacare was rushed through Congress?

No matter. The bill was approved yesterday by a vote of 68-32, followed by a ton of self-congratulation among the victorious Senators. The measure now goes to the House of Representatives, where it will face a much tougher battle.

If there’s any lesson we’ve learned over the recent past, it’s that we can’t trust a politician’s promise. Yet that’s exactly what this current measure does when it comes to protecting our borders. It calls for beginning the legalization process now and says that border protection will follow. “Trust us on this” is the refrain.

Are they crazy?

The proposal says that the border is “secure” when it catches or keeps out 90 percent of those who try to enter the country illegally. That’s far from perfect, but it’s sure a heck of a lot better than we’ve been doing.

The question is: Who decides when that goal is achieved? The current legislation calls for the President and his minions to make that determination. We’re supposed to trust the same folks who have screwed up on so many fronts for so long. That’s ridiculous.

Instead, Congress should be the branch that determines when our border is secure. Members of the House of Representatives are a lot more accountable to the voters than any President — especially a lame duck who won’t run for office again.

What This Bill Doesn’t Do

There’s been a lot of talk about what this bill does, including all of the promises about tightening up our borders. But far more important is something it doesn’t do. In fact, it’s an issue that is almost never even mentioned in the immigration debate.

I’m referring to the absurdity of granting citizenship to each and every child who is born within our borders — no matter if the parents are here legally or not.

That’s right. It is the official policy of the U.S. government that any child, born in this country to illegal immigrants, automatically and immediately becomes a citizen of the United States.

Such infants are sometimes referred to as “anchor babies,” because their immediate and automatic citizenship is the “anchor” on which a host of other claims, from welfare to others’ citizenship, can be made.

On the face of it, this sounds patently absurd. How can a newborn baby be eligible for citizenship when his parents are not? Not merely eligible, mind you, but granted it automatically? The new citizen is immediately entitled to all the benefits that accompany citizenship: schooling, medical care, food stamps and other welfare, and a whole host of “public assistance.”

This is not how it should be. Yes, it’s true we are a Nation of immigrants. But what a difference there is between this process and what our predecessors experienced. Many of us have grandparents or great-grandparents who overcame incredible obstacles to become citizens of this country. Before they were accepted, they had to pass a rigorous and demanding test. The questions they were asked and their answers had to be in English.

As an essential part of the process, every immigrant was required to renounce allegiance to the country he had left and to swear allegiance to his newly adopted home, the United States. And every new citizen was thrilled to do so.

There was a solemn ceremony, often conducted by a judge sitting high on a bench above them, issuing the oath of allegiance. Friends and family welcomed the new citizens with flag waving, hugs and tears, and enthusiastic applause.

That is what citizenship for an immigrant used to mean — and still does, for many adults who follow the rules. But today, we are required to grant the same privileges to anyone whose mother can sneak across our border a few hours before her baby is born. That is insane. And it must be changed, if we ever hope to regain control of our immigration policies.

Rubio recognizes that many of his supporters disagree with him on immigration. A Rasmussen poll says his support among conservatives has dropped 15 percent since February.

Rubio admits it’s been difficult for him to hear “the growing anger in the voices of so many people who helped me get elected to the Senate and who I agree with on virtually every other issue.”

Rubio, there’s an easy solution here: Please come back to your base. Remember why so many of us hailed your triumph three years ago. And return to the principles that lead to your amazing victory.

As the son of (legal) immigrants and a proud Hispanic yourself, you are in a unique position to insist that first we must secure our borders. That’s our right — and our obligation. And that we must end the absurdity of granting instant citizenship to anchor babies.

If you’ll use your eloquence and enthusiasm to make sure we don’t compromise here, you’ll be doing a huge service to the country you love.

Until next time, keep some powder dry.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Will Mass Demonstrations Start If Immigration Fails

Senator Schumer predicted today that mass demonstrations would occur if immigration fails. Do you think this will occur? We do. In fact, we expect the Obama Administration to encourage the actions. When the demonstrations are unsuccessful to change Congress's mind, they will turn violent. The Obama-nuts will then blame the Tea Party, Republicans and anyone who is against this abuse of the American people.
Will this be the catalyst for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use its guns, ammo and armored vehicles? Or will it not? We need your input!
Conservative Tom

Schumer predicts mass demonstrations if House blocks path to citizenship

By Alexander Bolton - 06/23/13 10:00 AM ET

A senior Democratic senator predicted Sunday there could be massive demonstrations in Washington if House Republicans try to block a bill to grant legal status to millions of immigrants.

Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the lead Democratic sponsor of the Senate immigration reform bill, said House Republicans would likely spark massive civil rights rallies if they try to quash measures to create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country.

“This has the potential of becoming the next major civil rights movement. I could envision in the late summer or early fall if Boehner tries to bottle the bill up or put something in without a path to citizenship — if there’s no path to citizenship, there’s not a bill — but if he tries to bottle it up or do things like that, I could see a million people on the Mall in Washington,” Schumer said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Schumer said business leaders, evangelical leaders and CEOs of high tech companies would join the public call for action by the House on immigration.

Schumer has counted about 67 votes for the Senate immigration bill and believes close to 70 will support final passage later this week.

“I do believe that having a significant number of Republicans will change the dynamic in the House. Individual Congress members from red districts, if they see their senators voted for it and they decide to do the right thing, there will be huge pressure on [Speaker John] Boehner [R-Ohio] not to block immigration reform,” said Schumer.

Schumer predicted that Boehner will have to bring legislation very similar to the Senate bill to the House floor, even if a majority of his conference would not support it.

“He will have no choice as the pressure mounts over the summer,” Schumer added.

He said Boehner would have to abandon the so-called Hastert Rule and bring legislation granting legal status to millions of illegal immigrants even if less than half of the House GOP conference is willing to vote for it.