Weak Men Make Hard Times

 

At American Thinker, Christian Chensvold brings some clarity to the topsy-turvy world we’re living in ("Weak Men Make Hard TImes"):

There's a popular meme you've probably seen that was floating around even before the endemic pandemic.  The images vary, but the text delineates four stages running thusly:

1. Hard times make strong men
2. Strong men make good times
3. Good times make weak men
4. Weak men make hard times

This takes us back to step one, after which the cycle repeats itself.

. . .

Key to understanding this so-called "doctrine of the yugas" is that in each of the four stages, one group or form of social organization is the dominant one and the holder of all the culture's moral legitimacy.  Currently, things are so upside-down that in the view of most of the establishment — government, media, education, the entertainment industry, and the business world — an illegal alien who crossed the border this morning, with neither money nor education and thus entirely dependent upon American largesse, has higher "moral value" than a legacy American whose family has been living and paying taxes here for 150 years.  And suppose this simple citizen of the merchant caste criticizes his rulers' importation of the fourth caste from others' lands and demands that they be deported.  In that case, he is branded with the scarlet letter R because — just to chill you to the core and leave no doubt that you're in a cosmic soap opera — per ancient teachings, caste and race overlap.

The ancient doctrine of the four ages is key to understanding where we are now, how we got here, and the correct course of action.  It should be clear that winter has fallen upon us, that we are no longer the land of the free and home of the brave but are on an inescapable path to becoming its very opposite.  In winter, the trees are barren, the antithesis of what they were in that verdant springtime.  You cannot plant seeds because the soil won't sustain them.  You can only bunker down, ride it out, and fight off the wolf at the door.  And you can reflect upon what you learned over the year, where things went wrong, and how to do things differently when spring finally comes.

Full article is here.

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PowerLine: Border Apprehensions

The PowerLine blog has a weekly feature called “The Geek in Pictures.” This week’s “Blowout Edition” is here, and below is one of the charts/graphs that I thought I’d share with CTP readers:

Click to embiggen or go to the link above and scroll down.

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Military transports at Burke Lakefront

 

One of our friends has a bird’s eye view of Burke Lakefront Airport.  Over the past week, he has observed large military transports coming into land.  Hmmm.  Shortly after the August 15 Afghanistan catastrophe, former Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman, now president of Global Cleveland, announced that (via Cleveland 19):

“You’re welcome here in our city.” “That’s the message non-profit Global Cleveland is sending to Afghan refugees during this crisis.”

Here’s an update from Cameron Fields at msn news from late August:

Afghan refugees are beginning to arrive in Cleveland after landing in the U.S., and those involved in the effort said they are working as quickly as possible to bring more to America.

More than 30 refugees have already arrived in Cleveland from Afghanistan, and more are expected soon, Global Cleveland president Joe Cimperman said. Cimperman said he believes the city is ready to welcome and support them.

Last month, the New York Post reported

There’s a reason the Biden administration is using secret flights to small airports to move unaccompanied minors who illegally crossed the border. 

They don’t want voters to know just how many people are being waved right into the country, because President Biden understands that open borders might be the policy of progressives, but it’s not popular among the majority of Americans. 

But you know who does realize these flights are happening? The people of Central and South America. Word travels fast that no one is getting deported, and that’s why they are paying money to smugglers to take their children on a perilous journey north. 

. . .

Just guessing . . .

# # #

Andrew Sullivan on the Democrats’ Immigration Bubble

 photo credit: washingtontimes.com

I run hot and cold on Andrew Sullivan, but his analysis of U.S. immigration, refugee status, and asylum is worth the read. The full article is here. This extract is via Instapundit:

Take the tragic tale of Oscar Ramirez and his young daughter Valeria, the father and daughter captured in death in that heartbreaking photograph. Ramirez’s widow explained to the Washington Post why her husband wanted to move to America: He wanted “a better future for their girl.” This is an admirable goal, but it is classic economic immigration, and it would appear, based on what we know, that it has absolutely nothing to do with asylum. Here again is the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services definition: “Refugee status or asylum may be granted to people who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or political opinion.”

But somehow the courts have decided that you qualify for asylum if there is simply widespread crime or violence where you live, and Ramirez was also going to use that argument as well. A government need not persecute you; you just have to experience an unsafe environment that your government is failing to suppress. This so expands the idea of asylum, in my view, as to render it meaningless.

Courts have also expanded asylum to include domestic violence, determining that women in abusive relationships are a “particular social group” and thereby qualify. In other words, every woman on the planet who has experienced domestic abuse can now come to America and claim asylum. Also everyone on the planet who doesn’t live in a stable, orderly, low-crime society. Literally billions of human beings now have the right to asylum in America. . . .

This is in a new century when the U.S. is trying to absorb the largest wave of new immigrants in our entire history, and when the percentage of the population that is foreign-born is also near a historic peak. It is also a time when mass immigration from the developing world has destabilized liberal democracies across the West, is bringing illiberal, anti-immigration regimes to power across Europe, and was the single biggest reason why Donald Trump is president.

I’m told that, as a legal immigrant, I’m shutting the door behind me now that I’ve finally made it to citizenship. I’m not. I favor solid continuing legal immigration, but also a reduction in numbers and a new focus on skills in an economy where unskilled labor is increasingly a path to nowhere. It is not strange that legal immigrants — who have often spent years and thousands of dollars to play by the rules — might be opposed to others’ jumping the line. It is not strange that a hefty proportion of Latino legal immigrants oppose illegal immigration — they are often the most directly affected by new, illegal competition, which drives down their wages. . . .

When I’m told only white racists favor restrictionism, I note how the Mexican people are more opposed to illegal immigration than Americans: In a new poll, 61.5 percent of Mexicans oppose the entry of undocumented migrants, period; 44 percent believe that Mexico should remove any undocumented alien immediately. Are Mexicans now white supremacists too? That hostility to illegal immigration may even explain why Trump’s threat to put tariffs on Mexico if it didn’t crack down may well have worked. Since Trump’s bluster, the numbers have measurably declined — and the crackdown is popular in Mexico. I can also note that most countries outside Western Europe have strict immigration control and feel no need to apologize for it. Are the Japanese and Chinese “white supremacists”? Please. Do they want to sustain their own culture and national identity? Sure. Is that now the equivalent of the KKK?

# # #

Rep. Marcia Fudge is on the wrong side. Again.

photo credit: www.essence.com

NumbersUSA is urging Cleveland area voters to call Rep. Marcia Fudge at 202-225-3121 to DEMAND a vote on H.R. 3056 to end the border crisis. Speaker Pelosi has thus far refused to bring the Act to the floor. The talking point:

H.R. 3056 is the Border Crisis Supplemental Appropriations Act, to deal with the ongoing border crisis. I urge you to demand an immediate floor vote on this badly needed spending package! This crisis has gone on long enough, and it's time for Congress to act.

I have to wonder whether Rep. Fudge and her staff pay any attention to Tea Party people, but it’s probably worth the couple of minutes on the phone.

Here's more. In an op-ed piece at American Greatness, Candace Owens warns Trump voters to not become complacent – and she provides a few examples (out of zillions) of rage, hatred, and hysteria from the Progressive Left:

Just last week Congresswoman Marcia Fudge described Trump voters as “either racist, steeped in religious beliefs, ignorant, or, as my mother used to say, just plain dumb.”

These people are not trying to retake control of the White House merely to advance their agenda. They want to punish the Americans who made them look like fools in 2016.

This new breed of Democrats cheer as the social media giants silence and eliminate any voice that opposes them or threatens the monopoly liberal journalists have over the flow of information. They’re prepared to pack the courts, let 16-year-olds vote, and even eliminate the Electoral College in order to help them win. They’re already talking about the prospect of the election being “stolen” by “racism,” which gives a pretty good indication of the strategy they plan to fall back on if they lose again.

In short, they will do anything they can to destroy our coalition and make sure the humiliation of 2016 can never happen again.

(Full article is here.) Spot the racist and the dummy. And maybe give her a call.

# # #

Deporting illegal immigrants: some good news

Meme credit: Bookworm Room

From Quin Hillyer at the Washington Examiner: 

President Trump’s renewed pledge to deport huge numbers of illegal immigrants is inspiring anger, but it's hardly righteous. If, as a Homeland Security adviser has explained, the targets of Trump’s deportation plans will be those illegal immigrants who have failed to show for their assigned court hearings, then Trump is morally, ethically, and legally justified in deporting them. The tut-tutting chorus might as well spare us their faux moral histrionics.

The immigrants Trump is targeting are people who have broken American law not once but twice. First, they entered the country illegally, without papers. Second, when given a court hearing (where they could, for example, make bids for asylum or otherwise make a case for being allowed to stay), they again thumbed their noses at the legitimate authority of their generous hosts. Such poor guests deserve no sympathy, no matter what circumstances they came from.

Full report is here.

P.S. For livestream links to President Trump’s campaign launch this evening at 8 pm, try here.

# # #

Border crisis cartoon

Michael P Ramirez cartoon via Flopping Aces

# # #

Amnesty bill: Here we go again

ACTION ALERT! NumbersUSA just sent out an Alert, appended below. Senator Lindsay Graham turns out to have co-authored the amnesty bill coming up for consideration. Cleveland Tea Party patriots will want to call Ohio Senators to oppose DREAM Act Senate bill 874.

Sen. Rob Portman -- (202) 224-3353

Phone Sen. Sherrod Brown at (202) 224-2315

Majority of House Now Supports Nancy Pelosi's

Amnesty Bill: 224 Cosponsors

We must be ready for when Democrats' quest for amnesty

 meets Republicans' desire for cheap labor!

224 House members, all Democrats, have already cosponsored H.R. 6, the "American Dream and Promise Act of 2019." The news yesterday is that Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has already co-authored a Senate DREAM Act, S. 874, with Senate Democratic Minority Leader Dick Durbin.

Would President Trump ever sign either bill? Probably not as they currently stand. But the very grave danger is that congressional leaders may try to sweeten the pot just enough to get his support.  And those "pot sweeteners" could make the bill even worse, not better.

Lately, President Trump has been calling for even more legal immigration because his advisors are telling him it will boost the economy. AND the President says he supports legislation that would make permanent President Obama's DACA amnesty.

Could we end up with a bill that offers amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants, visas for millions of new employment-based immigrants and temporary workers, and some window dressing about border security? Could there be a new Gang-of-Eight "comprehensive reform" bill?

That's exactly what we will get if our elected officials only hear from the cheap-labor lobby.  We need them to hear from people like you!

I’ll post on this again as the bill goes forward.

# # #

Close the border : Alert

From Steve Salvi at Ohio Jobs & Justice Pac :

The President needs to assert himself as Commander in Chief and:

1. Close the US Mexico border until Mexico stops helping any aliens from reaching the US border.

2. Close all of Mexico's consulates in the US until Mexico stops helping aliens from reaching the US border.

3. Warn Mexico if it does not eliminate the cartels within its territory, the US military will.

It's time the US stop being a paper tiger and letting the tail wag the dog.

White House comment line: 202-456-1111

Switchboard: 202-456-1414

Tweet President Trump: @realDonaldTrump

# # #

Border Security and Illegal Immigration, continued

photo credit: ABCNews.go.com

John Daniel Davidson at The Federalist reported yesterday on the border crisis:

The day after President Trump’s rally in El Paso, Ortiz-Gonzales crossed the border, along with a group of 16 other adults and children, all from Central America. They had spent the night in a safe house in Juarez, and after paying $2,000 a head they were taken to a spot on the edge of the Rio Grande and told to walk across. (In downtown El Paso, the Rio Grande isn’t much more than a stream—easy to walk across, even for children.)

All but one of the adults in the group were men, and they all had more or less the same story: they have wives and other children back in Central America, they are coming here to work and send money home, they have networks of family and friends in the United States, and they intend to return to their homes at some point after they have made enough money. All of them are claiming asylum, but none of them, based on the accounts they gave, will likely qualify for it.

If you spend enough time on the southern border, where record numbers of migrant families from Central America are turning themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol—including 1,800 on the day of Trump’s rally—you begin to see this pattern emerge. Media outlets often repeat the now-familiar line that Central American families are fleeing poverty and violence, which is true (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras are among the most violent countries in the world). But according to federal law, suffering poverty and violence doesn’t make you a refugee.

. . .

What goes unmentioned in most media coverage of family migration from Central America is the role that Mexican cartels play. Cartels control everything that happens on the south side of the border, not only the movement of drugs but also the movement of people.

The full report is here.

A previous CTP blog linked to opposing analyses of the recent budget provisions for Border Security. Paul Bedard at Washington Examiner considered the compromise a step in the right direction. Rush Limbaugh saw it as a step backward.

Steve Salvi at the Ohio Jobs & Justice PAC  considers the Border Security bill “disastrous” – and had this to say on his FB page:

We can no longer depend on most of our public officials to protect US citizens or our nation's sovereign right to control our borders.

Pres. Trump and the US Congress signed off on a disastrous bill that will result in:

1.    More American citizens killed by illegal aliens

2.    Encourage more illegal migrants to enter the US

3.    Help drug cartels/gangs expand human/child sex/labor trafficking

This is not America First! It was an ‘open-border illegal alien First-Americans last’ bill!

Even NumbersUSA has not issued an Action Alert that satisfactorily reconciles these disparate concerns.

# # #

Border Security budget is better than we’ve been told -- UPDATED

photo credit: personalliberty.com

Paul Bedard at Washington Examiner has some good news: the budget including the $1.5 billion for border security is better than the mainstream media has been telling you:

Republicans are pushing back on reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., beat President Trump in the latest budget shutdown fight, claiming that Congress approved historic funding levels for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, added miles to the border wall, and erased the cap on criminal illegal immigrants that can be jailed.

. . .

What’s more, Trump and GOP negotiators led by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and his team blocked several moves by Pelosi and other Democrats to fill the deal with anti-wall moves like lowering spending for ICE and slashing the number of “detention beds” to hold criminal illegal immigrants.

“Pelosi lost. She knew her position on detentions beds was unsustainable and only playing to her fringe. She also said no new miles for the wall,” said the source. “She had to step back from all positions.”

Read the rest here. (H/T Don Surber)

UPDATE 5pm: Rush Limbaugh via Fox News disagrees:

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, speaking to "Fox News Sunday," charged that the compromise spending bill recently signed by President Trump to avert another partial government shutdown was little more than a disguised effort by some Republicans to torpedo his 2020 presidential candidacy.

"Both parties have people that are still trying to get rid of Donald Trump," Limbaugh said, asserting that Democrats are also working to guarantee a "permanent underclass of voters" who are "uneducated" and "don't even speak" English.

He continued: "I read this bill -- this spending bill, this bill is outrageous. [It includes] welcoming centers for newly arriving illegal aliens, and all kinds of medical care" -- a reference to the allocation of $192,700,000 in the bill's conference agreement to enhance medical care and transportation for illegal immigrants in U.S. custody, including to shelters run by nonprofits.

"The purpose of this bill, I think, was eventually to be used by the Democrats and some Republicans to tell the American people, 'See, electing President Trump was pointless, worthless, he can't protect you, he can't stop us, he can't do what he said he was going to do, because we hate him so much we're not going to allow him to do it -- that's what this bill is," Limbaugh said.

# # #

ACTION ALERT: DACA rearing its head again / and UPDATE

UPDATE from NumbersUSA:

Thursday afternoon, Vice President Mike Pence announced that Pres. Trump would not sign off on such a deal. Politico reported: 

Vice President Mike Pence and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney had been consulting with senators about the matter on Thursday. Pence and Mulvaney took the idea to the president, who shot it down, according to multiple people directly involved in the talks. 

Again, thanks to all of the NumbersUSA activists who took action to help quell this threat!

Any calls that you made have made a difference!

-----------

The latest from NumbersUSA:

Gang of 8 sponsor, Sen. Lindsey Graham, working on DACA amnesty deal –

Urge Senate Republicans to oppose!

Amnesty-supporter, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), met with several other Senate Republicans and Pres. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on Wednesday to draw up an 'Amnesty-for-Wall' deal that they will pitch to Senate Democrats today [i.e., yesterday].

Voters didn't elect Donald Trump to the White House back in 2016 to pass an amnesty. They elected him because he was strong on enforcement and understood mass immigration's harmful impacts on American workers and their quality of life.

We need your urgent phone calls to senate republicans urging them to oppose any deal that trades border funding for amnesty!

Here is the number for your GOP Senator(s):

Sen. Rob Portman -- (202) 224-3353

You can also call the White House and tell Pres. Trump not to support an amnesty-for-wall deal!

WH Comment Line -- (202) 456-1111

It’s always good to have a better alternative when you are the phone or leaving a message. Here’s CTP's Ralph King’s suggested alternative (from his social media):

Instead of contemplating a deal of backdoor amnesty for DACA DREAMERS in exchange for Wall Funding, President Trump & the so-called "conservatives" in Congress should be pushing for Mandatory E-Verify.....

“Of all of the proposals, however, E-Verify would be the most effective at curbing illegal entries and limiting non-immigrant overstays. And the president could likely make it mandatory through executive action,” added Arthur, now a legal expert with the Center for Immigration Studies.

The push for the simple employment verification system, currently a voluntary opt-in for non-government contractors, comes after Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed stunning new statistics of workplace enforcement investigations.

# # #

Trump’s Rhetorical Knockout Blow by Conrad Black

Cartoon credit: Pixshark.com

We all saw reactions to the President’s Oval  Office speech on border security and the rebuttal by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. Some of the “memes” were pretty funny. But the most thoughtful commentary that I have seen so far comes from Conrad Blackin his article for National Review, “Trump’s Rhetorical Knockout Blow.” Some highlights:

The president was clear, factually unchallengeable, and credible, and Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer looked and sounded like a waxworks animated illustration of the embalmer’s art and her ventriloquist, the bearer of the broadest forehead since Pericles. The president spoke of a national-security, economic, and humanitarian crisis, and they spoke of the federal employees who are about to miss a paycheck. After Tuesday night’s eight-minute speech by the president from the Oval Office, the satisfactory resolution of the impasse over the government shutdown is fairly obvious. The president cannot abandon the border-security issue now, and the Democrats think they have him in a corner. The Democrats entered into this contest for the public’s support believing that as soon as the first paycheck is skipped, the lackey national media will be in 24–7 interviews with the sick wives, children, and relatives of the 800,000 unpaid federal employees. Public opinion will heave, the Republican senators will collapse, and the president will be splendidly humiliated.

Everyone with the slightest familiarity with the issue as it has arisen has seen the Democrats go from semi-zealots of border security to vapid opportunists laser-focused on the simplest aspect of unpaid federal employees. The president reminded the country of the proportions of the illegal-immigration issue — of the humanitarian tragedy, of the drug crisis, and of the crimes of an appreciable number of the illegal immigrants. The tactical problem of the Democrats is that they are so cynical they think no one will notice that they have come down steadily from $1.3 billion for border security to zero, in their conviction that they can put the unpaid federal employees’ problems ahead of what is an immense national crisis. They evidently believe that the endlessly repeated mantra of “the wall” as immoral, like 19th-century elocution students learning to spell by repeating such triumphalist expressions of literacy as “W-A-L-L spells wall,” will distract the country from the real problem. Their proposition to “open the government” (by Trump’s total capitulation and we will go back to interminable fruitless negotiation about the real problem) won’t fly. It is indicative of the serene complacency of the Democrats that they expect their control of the national political media to remain so airtight that no appreciable share of the public will dissent from their strategy, which is to give lip service to “border security” while portraying the president as peddling, as one of their lesser spokesmen put it last week, “a medieval fifth-century solution for a 21st-century problem.” The fact that he missed the middle ages by several hundred years is a rounding error for the Democrats, as they point to the Washington Post’s claim that the president has uttered 7,600 lies since he was inaugurated.

. . .

This torrent of illegal migrants is not the sort of immigration that is justly celebrated at Ellis Island or the Statue of Liberty, of responsible people soberly determining to make their way to a new country, to enter it legally and become civic-minded contributors to their new nationality. It more closely resembles the movement of large masses of people, en bloc, ahead of the barbarians and into the territory of the Roman Empire in the third to fifth centuries a.d. They had no interest in Rome, but were terrified by the Asiatic hordes driving them westwards. Of course, this is not exactly what we have on the southern border of the United States now, though the effluxion of millions of refugees from the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa into Europe in the last decade more closely approximates that than it does conventional immigration.

And it concludes:

The painful truth is that the American government has failed to deal with immigration, health care, infrastructure, and even abortion, though it at least managed to fumble that into the lap of the courts. It is a shambles, and the Democrats have tried to prevent Trump from dealing with any of it with this mendacious idiocy about collusion with Russia, and the nasty fantasy of removal from office by impeachment. Ultimately, the country will reward this president for getting the country’s government to function usefully, even as many regret that those elected to rule in difficult times are not always those that would be selected by typecasting studios.

Read the rest here .

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Propaganda News Networks. Again.

image credit: floppingaces/com

Justin Caruso at Breitbart reports:

Several major television networks are apparently unsure whether or not to air President Trump’s live address to the nation on border security Tuesday due to concern over what he will say.

According to The Hill, CNN and Fox News Channel are planning to air Trump’s address on border security, while the basic cable networks CBS, NBC, and ABC have not committed one way or the other.

MSNBC has not made a public comment one way or the other, and the network has repeatedly opted not to air Trump events before.

The President’s live address begins Tuesday evening at 9pm. Mr. Caruso’s full report, including tweets from the President and from members of the “media,” is here.

# # #

Amnesty vote in Congress ~ Alert!

UPDATE: 5:53pm (posted at 6:37 pm) from NumbersUSA media release:

NumbersUSA and its 9 million activists are pleased that the Senate rejected all three amnesty proposals that came to the floor today for a vote. Every proposal under consideration put the interests of illegal aliens and foreign citizens ahead of the interests of American workers, American communities, and national security. Americans can not afford for Congress to grant amnesty without immediately ending Chain Migration and the Visa Lottery and mandating E-Verify.

UPDATE: 4:32 pm from The Hill:

The Senate has rejected legislation based on President Trump's framework for an immigration deal in a 39-60 vote on Thursday, leaving an uncertain path forward for Congress with nearly a million immigrants sheltered by an Obama-era program face the prospect of deportation.

The measure spearheaded by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) needed 60 votes to clear a filibuster, but failed to meet the mark.

It was the fourth proposal in a row rejected by the Senate on Thursday afternoon, and it received the fewest votes of support. All three other measures won more than 50 votes.

UPDATE 3:10 pm from The Hill:

Senate rejects first bipartisan measure as immigration votes begin

The Senate has rejected an immigration measure sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Christopher Coons (D-Del.) that did not include money for President Trump’s border wall.

The proposal is the first of four that the Senate will vote on Thursday, though each appears short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This Action Alert is from NumbersUSA [emphasis color in original]:

As [of] noon on Thursday, the Senate is considering not only granting amnesty to every illegal immigrant already in the country, but to any illegal immigrants who can get here by June!

Could anything express more contempt for American voters than this? Incredibly, this bill is rumored to have 65 supporters in the Senate; it already has EIGHT Republican co-sponsors!

The Senate is debating immigration proposals all day TODAY and through the end of this week. So far, it looks to be one horrible bill after the other. (One exception would be the amendment from Pennsylvania's Sen. Toomey, which directs actions against sanctuary cities.)

KEEP CHECKING YOUR EMAIL FOR ACTION ALERTS -- THE SITUATION IS CHANGING HOURLY! [NOTE: Or check this website for Updates.]

Our best hope may be that the Senate defeats ALL its current proposals. Then, if that happens, we will press hard to have the House take up the Goodlatte bill, H.R. 4760, that we've endorsed.

. . .

There is GOOD news on the House side. We've learned that House Republican leaders are doing a "whip count" on the Goodlatte bill. This is such great news, because this is the NumbersUSA-endorsed bill that mandates E-Verify for every employer, cancels chain migration, and eliminates the visa lottery.

A whip count means they will be more likely to bring the bill up for a vote if it seems to have enough support to pass. So, obviously we're now pouring lots more resources into the House fight as well as our Senate efforts.

. . . None of the Senate measures would prevent pressure for future amnesties by requiring all employers to use E-Verify or reduce the size of the amnesty by ending Chain Migration in the near term. Mandatory E-Verify and an immediate end to Chain Migration must be part of any DACA deal!

1) The Schumer-Collins-Rounds-King Proposal -- This is biggest threat, an amnesty to EVERY ILLEGAL ALIEN IN AMERICA, INCLUDING ALL THOSE WHO CAN SNEAK IN BY JUNE 30, while it guts interior enforcement! And it may actually have the most support.

2) The White House Proposal -- Sens. Chuck Grassley and John Cornyn have drafted legislation that reflects the White House DACA proposal. It would expand DACA to grant an immediate amnesty to approximately 1.8 million illegal aliens. It calls for a $25 billion trust fund to build the border wall and improve overall border security. It would eliminate the Visa Lottery and halt new applications for Chain Migration, but it uses those supposedly eliminated visas to bring in the backlog of more than 4 million foreigners, which could take 15-20 years.

3) Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) propose granting amnesty to 3.2 million illegal aliens without any concrete steps to reduce immigration or improve enforcement at all.

One piece of good news is that the White House publicly rejected the McCain-Coons approach yesterday. 

It's hard to see how most of these bills are a "compromise." . . .

Call Ohio Senators: 

Sen. Rob Portman --    (888) 995-2089

Sen. Sherrod Brown -- (888) 995-2018

 See a report by Ed Morrisey at Hot Air here.

# # #

Mark Steyn on illegal immigration

We can expect a lot of work in 2018 to do what we can to block the passage of DACA, start building the wall, and end chain migration. My fave, Mark Steyn, guest hosted for Rush Limbaugh yesterday, and his segment on illegal immigration and The Wall were reported at both Breitbart (“Mark Steyn: In the End, Trump Presidency ‘Will Stand or Fall on How He Tackles Immigration’”) and on Steyn’s blog page (“The Wall Is All”). The transcript report by Jeff Poor at Breitbart is below.

“[T]here’s a lobby — there’s lobbies for everything in this country,” Steyn said. “And there’s a strong lobby for illegal immigration. There’s a strong lobby for refugees, which again is a completely fraudulent operation by and large. Trump won because a significant [number of voters] were serious about building a wall, about ending illegal immigration and about doing something about people who walk into this country illegally, stay here illegally, take jobs illegally, get driver’s licenses illegally, use Social Security numbers illegally. And at some point … I would have liked him to hold the inauguration ceremony on the southern border and for it to culminate after the oath of office with him ceremonially laying the brick in the wall. But in the end, his presidency will stand or fall on how he tackles immigration.”

Steyn pointed to how low-skilled mass immigration has impacted the American economy, and there is a demand for low-skilled workers. He added that it isn’t just policy for Trump that is important [but] shifting “attitudes” as well.

“In the end, the Trump presidency I believe will stand or fall on how permanently he manages to shift not just the number of people coming into the country, but how he manages to shift attitudes towards remorseless unskilled mass immigration,” Steyn added. “That’s what got him elected, and that’s what [will] actually be the basis on which his presidency is judged.”

Steyn’s page is here. Ann Coulter recently published an article along the same lines, at Townhall and Human Events here. Her take is that if the United States does not stop illegal immigration, then all other issues are essentially academic. 

# # #

Gov. Kasich: do you mean legal or illegal immigration?

art credit: beforeitsnews.com

Breitbart reports on Gov. Kasich’s appearance on Fox News Sunday (warning: GOPe Weasel Words Alert):

. . . Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) said the “bulk” of the Republican party was pro-immigration and not moving towards nationalism.

Kasich said, “I think the bulk of the Republican Party — and I’ve been in the party since I was a college student — it’s one that believes in the fact that America has a place in the world, Reagan talked about it, it advances humanity. I agree. I think the bulk of the Republican Party does believe that immigration provides energy to our country.”

He continued, “I think the bulk of the Republican party believes that America is special and has a place in the world to advance freedom and free enterprise and all those things. I think that this move towards nationalism where we are looking inward, has a lot of loud voices but I don’t think it’s the bulk.”

Speak for yourself, Gov. Kasich. You are not speaking for Americans who support LEGAL immigration, not ILLEGAL immigration or amnesty.

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Illegal Immigration in an Obama World

photo credit: rare.us

NumbersUSA tracks legislation, executive orders, developments, and issues concerning immigration laws and enforcement. I thought I would share their lead story from today’s depressing newsletter.

Top Obama official admits executive actions & sanctuary cities to blame for lower deportation numbers

Fri, May 20th

The days of Pres. Obama being called the "Deporter-in-Chief" are long over. Overall removals are way down and removals of illegal aliens from the interior by Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents are down 70% from the early years of the Administration.

Why such a decline?

A Senate panel heard the answer Thursday from Thomas Homan, Executive Associate Director for ICE's Enforcement And Removal Operations. He said the decline is a result of both the Administration's executive actions issued in 2012 and 2014 and the existence of sanctuary jurisdictions.

"There are a number of reasons why the numbers are down," Homan said and listed them.

"Sanctuary cities"

"Jurisdictions not honoring my detainers"

"The Trust Act [2013 California law limiting holds on illegal aliens]"

"In 2012, John Morton, the Assistant Secretary of ICE, issued a policy in who we issue detainers on. Virtually took Level 3s off the table. This is a law-abiding society, so most crimes are Level 3."

" Executive actions. Executive actions have narrowed my target pool down."

EXECUTIVE ACTIONS RESPONSBILE

Then, there was this exchange between Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Homan.

SESSIONS: Isn't it true that ICE gets calls every single day from police officers all across America that are not Sanctuary Cities and you're not responding to them because they don't meet the guidelines or the priorities established by the President?

HOMAN: That is true.

SESSIONS: So it's not true then that the reason your numbers are down is because you don't have people to deport. You have them to deport, but you have policies that tell you not to deport whole categories that are here unlawfully. Isn't that correct?

HOMAN: That's a factor, yes sir.

Homan made it a point to praise the men and women of ICE, and their commitment to the "mission". Of course, he's not allowed to comment on his opinion of Pres. Obama's policies, so we don't know where he, a career ICE agent stands, but morale among ICE agents is among the lowest of all federal employees, which would lead one to believe that the agents don't necessarily agree with the Administration's policies.

UNION CHIEF SAYS BORDER PATROL RELEASES ALMOST EVERYONE

Border Patrol Union President Brandon Judd also testified and shed further light on the Administration's policies, specifically its catch-and-release policies. According to Judd, the Border Patrol releases almost every illegal alien it comes into contact with -- even if the alien has a criminal history.

"The second part of the catch-and-release program is releasing people without NTAs [Notices to Appear]. This is actually the most disconcerting part. We can actually arrest somebody with an actual criminal arrest record here in the United States, and if it does not meet these priority guidelines, we have to walk them out the door if they've been here since, if they claim to have been here (his emphasis), since January of 2014, we have to walk them out our door. And we don't even issue them an NTA. In effect, we're saying stay in the country as long as you want."

Judd went on to say that anyone caught crossing the border illegally who is not from Mexico is released by the Border Patrol and that approximately 80% of Mexicans who are caught crossing the border illegally are released. Again, all of this is not a reflection on the men and women of the Border Patrol or of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It's all under the direction of the Obama Administration.

Civil Rights icon and Chair of the last bipartisan Commission on Immigration, Barbara Jordan, once told Congress, "Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave."

The Obama Administration has sent a message to the world that unless you're convicted of a violent crime, you'll never be required to leave.

 Maybe Rep. Paul Ryan can put a stop to this.s/o Anyway, the NumbersUSA website is here. 

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