Stop the Amnesty bill. Again.

NumbersUSA sent out an alert (and I’ve cut out the sections asking for contributions); should you want to explore their website, click here.  Here's an edited message:

House Passes Amnesty for More than One Million Illegal Aliens

The House of Representatives last week passed a massive, new amnesty for well over a million illegal aliens. That's bad news, no matter how you spin it. But there is some good news: Our members and allies made enough of an uproar about it that we minimized Republican support for the bill. We may have changed Republican leaders' minds about passing it.

We're not surprised we couldn't outright defeat the bill in the Democrat-controlled House. And It had been shocking to see dozens of Republicans falling over themselves to support this bill. Some people thought up to HALF of House Republicans -- maybe even Donald Trump -- would support the bill. The following quote was typical of a certain kind of Republican Representative:

"This [Ag Jobs bill] is exactly the kind of 'merit-based' immigration reform President Trump has been calling for.

"I spoke directly with President Trump about the Farm Workforce Modernization Act and the need for a solution for our farmers. He agreed: We must provide relief now."

-- U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, Yakima Herald, Dec 8, 2019

. . .

[NumbersUSA supporters] clobbered the Washington phone lines, and just about everyone who hadn't already voiced support for the bill backed away, Republican leaders "whipped" their members for "no" votes, and even a few co-sponsors changed their minds.

I want to be clear what just happened here: We've sapped much of the energy out of Republican supporters of this amnesty. But while NumbersUSA and its members threw a punch, it was NOT a knock-out blow for this bill. It may take another huge round of activism to finally put this bill to rest.

We made headlines that this is an amnesty... and THAT was crucial.

. . .

We have strong hopes that this bill will not be brought up for a vote if we push hard enough against it. But your Senators need to hear from you. . .

* * *

Here are details for Ohio's Senators:

Sen. Rob Portman:  Ohio toll free 1-800-205-6446 or by email here

Sen. Sherrod Brown: (202) 224-2315 (DC) or (216) 522 7272 (Cleveland)

# # #

Alert: Amnesty Passes House Judiciary Committee

NumbersUSA sent out an Alert today: "Republican Buy-In Makes Amnesty Real Threat." Much of the message contained a pitch for contributions; I deleted those sections, although if you are interested, the NumbersUSA website is here. Here’s the Alert:

This morning, the House Judiciary Committee passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. That would mean the bill can now be voted on by the House with little additional warning. . . and with 23 Republican Co-sponsors, it's likely to pass.

I bet a lot of people might wonder why the Judiciary Committee is passing a farm workforce bill. It's because this bill is really an immigration bill.

We need to stop this bill.

Here's why they don't just call it an immigration bill: There are none of the good immigration reforms American voters are demanding, such as requiring E-Verify for every U.S. employer and eliminating chain migration. There's only more immigration and more amnesties.

• There's no reduction in immigration numbers.
• There's no end to the visa lottery.
• There's no reform of asylum or refugee laws.
• And there's no mandatory E-Verify for any but a tiny proportion of employers... who are going to get all the low-paid, indentured servants they can handle anyway.

Indentured servitude! -- THAT'S what this bill is about: using amnesty to provide indentured servants to the groups like the Western Growers Association. That's because it gives hundreds of thousands of workers -- and their families -- amnesty and green cards... after they work four to eight years as what amounts to indentured servants first.

Once the illegal farm workers get their amnesty, they would be free to take any job in America, not just farm jobs. On top of that, an additional 40,000 new green cards each year would be issued for unskilled workers to work in ANY job they can get in America.

Please don't write off this threat as merely coming from extremists in the House. It has overwhelming support from the Democratic caucus, and almost two dozen Republican House members are co-sponsoring. So, especially with the impeachment battle, it's hard to take anything for granted.

We're going to need hundreds of thousands of our members to contact Congress. For that to happen, we're going to need to activate our millions of activists, with millions upon millions of emails and social media messages. We've just finished a vital overhaul of our website, allowing much easier access to actions while maintaining security and discretion. 

Two Ohio Representatives are on the Judiciary Committee: Steve Chabot [https://chabot.house.gov/] and Jim Jordan [https://jordan.house.gov/]. Click here for the full House of Representatives roster and contact information.

# # #

Agriculture amnesty bill

Bronson Stocking at Townhall reports on yet another push for amnesty in the House:

Lawmakers have forgotten the lessons of the previous amnesties, or they are hoping the American people have. Yesterday [Weds.], a bipartisan group of House members introduced the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019. Like the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the new bill claims it will only apply to a limited number of illegal-alien agricultural workers, and it promises tougher employment verifications in the future. These are the same broken promises politicians made when they passed amnesty back in 1986. 

Via Neil Munro at Breitbart:

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is opposing the bill. “The name of this mass amnesty bill name should be changed to the Mandatory Farm Labor Act of 2019,” FAIR said.

NumbersUSA just sent out an update on the bill:

Agriculture amnesty bill to include weak E-Verify provision

A bipartisan group of House Members has introduced a new agricultural amnesty bill that includes a new twist from past ag amnesties -- a provision that requires farmers but nobody else to use E-Verify. The E-Verify provision isn't enough, however, to hide the fact that this will be an amnesty for millions of illegal ag workers and encourage more illegal immigration.

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act, H.R. 4916, was introduced on Wednesday. The official text has yet to be released, so we don't know all the details. But here's what lead sponsor Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) says the bill would do:

Establish a program for agricultural workers in the United States to earn legal status through continued agricultural employment and contribution to the U.S. agricultural economy.

Reform the H-2A program to provide more flexibility for employers, while ensuring critical protections for workers. The bill focuses on modifications to make the program more responsive and user-friendly for employers and provides access to the program for industries with year-round labor needs.

Establish mandatory, nationwide E-Verify system for all agricultural employment with a structured phase-in and guaranteed due process for authorized workers who are incorrectly rejected by the system.

NumbersUSA's Director of Government Relations, Rosemary Jenks, issued the following statement:

Congress tried amnesty as a solution to large numbers of illegal agricultural workers in 1986 with the Immigration Reform and Control Act. As predicted, it failed because the workers left agriculture for easier, better-paying jobs as soon as they got their amnesty, and illegal immigration actually increased thanks to the promise of future amnesties. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act will have the same result: amnestied aliens competing with Americans for non-farm jobs; and more illegal immigration incentivized by amnesty. Moreover, by mandating E-Verify only for agricultural employers, it will actually encourage more illegal aliens to compete with American workers and legal immigrants for non-farm jobs, where E-Verify is not required.

Last year, House lawmakers considered advancing legislation that would require all employers in the U.S. to use E-Verify in exchange for reforming the H-2A agricultural guest worker program. The legislation did allow current illegal ag workers to apply for the new guest worker program, but did not provide an opportunity for permanent amnesty like the Farm Workforce Modernization Act promises to do.

The most concerning aspect of H.R. 4916 is that 44 U.S. Representatives from both sides of the aisle have signed on as original cosponsors.

[NumbersUSA will] continue to monitor the legislation and will post actions after Congress returns from its current recess and we have been able to read and analyze all the details.

# # #

The Uniparty in Action, er, Inaction

Don Surber posts daily bullet-points of headlines around the web. Here’s an item from this morning, linked to TownHall:

Michael Reagan wrote, "While I have to watch Democrats in Congress waste time hating and sanctioning the president and trashing America as a racist country after it twice elected a black president, I still have an invasion of illegal immigrants on my southern border.

"And while I watch Democrats -- and Republicans -- in Washington spend another year kicking the health care-reform can down the road, I have a daughter-in-law and son in Los Angeles who suddenly had their private health insurance cancelled and must now sign up with the state's system because there's no competition in California.

"Both Republican and Democrats are at fault for our health care and immigration messes.

"Both parties have recently held total control of Congress and the White House at the same time, yet neither one honestly tried solve the country's two most important problems.

"If they can't find the political courage to fix health care or immigration by next fall, we shouldn't give one member of Congress from either party a single vote.

More here. Background on Uniparty here. 

# # #

Congress going rogue: Action Alert

NumbersUSA has the legislative update for next week:

House Democrats are poised to vote on an enormous appropriations bill that will fund a great deal of federal spending next year. It covers the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Education, Labor, State, and others.

This funding bill contains language that UNDERMINES AND EVEN REVERSES efforts already being made to tighten enforcement and end the border crisis. NumbersUSA has already urged House Members to oppose the bill. We warned them that we will score against this action in our Immigration Gradecards. These grade cards are read by hundreds of thousands of our activists. They sort out those that merely pay lip service to enforcement from those who actually vote to reduce immigration.

The NumbersUSA scoring notice sent to Congress states, "House Democrats, however, aren't content with the utter collapse of our entire immigration infrastructure, and instead are using this bill to actively obstruct the Administration's efforts to deal with the crisis on the southern border."

The bill, H.R. 2740, contains these outrageous provisions:

Blocks any federal funds from any source whatever from being used to construct "border security infrastructure." This includes blocking the wall/fencing money appropriated by Congress even earlier this year! But H.R. 2740 provides funding to Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia to protect their borders.

Rewards illegal immigration by making DACA recipients eligible to take federal jobs.

Protects and rewards the illegal alien sponsors of unaccompanied alien children by blocking ICE from working with HHS to deport the illegal alien sponsors. Many of these sponsors are directly involved in human trafficking.

By obstructing efforts to control the border and enforce immigration laws, his bill could help strengthen Mexican drug cartels, which control the entire Mexican side of the Southern border.

The House is pursuing this ruinous course despite border apprehensions exploding, up by another third in May compared to April. Over 144,000 were apprehended in May. Reuters reports the makeup of the arrests: "While the vast majority of undocumented migrants arriving in the United States are from Central America, significant numbers have been arriving in recent months from Cuban and Haiti, via Panama, and from African countries, often via Brazil."

The Capitol switchboard number is:

(202) 224-3121

# # #

People Who Don't Want A Border Wall

and the Chamber of Commerce, and the Koch Brothers . . .

Click here for Ohio Wall Builders.

image credit: blazingcatfur

Ohio Sanctuary Cities: new bill

State Representatives Niraj Antani & Candice Keller 

have introduced  legislation (House Bill 169) to 

BAN Sanctuary Cities & Sanctuary School Districts in Ohio 

(via Ralph King)

(click to embiggen)

Political correctness and the decline of Fox News

image credit: Flopping Aces

Fox News suspended Judge Jeanine Pirro for asking a fair question: Is Sharia Law compatible with the United States Constitution? This isn’t just about immigration or Sharia Law. It’s yet another indication that we are losing our free speech. (And Fox seems determined to circle the drain; they just hired Donna Brazile.)

Here’s some reporting from Flopping Aces:

Sharia Law may become the third rail of America politics if one is to judge by the suspension/cancellation for at least one episode of Judge Jeanine’s weekend Fox News show “Justice with Judge Jeanine. A cowardly Fox News has extended the protective canopy of political correctness apparently barring its hosts from asking the tough and obvious questions about a doctrine few non-Muslims are aware of and few Americans understand.

. . .

Pirro’s March 9 comment [was] about Rep. Ilhan Omar ( D-Minn.), who wears a hijab, a traditional head covering worn by Muslim women.“Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?” 

. . .

A question that deserves to be asked and answered. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has in the past observed that those who follow Sharia law can’t also be loyal to the U.S., Constitution and the Western values it represents, and either shouldn’t be allowed to enter the U.S. or should be deported from it, much less serve in its legislative assemblies.

Full report with links is here.  Fox is losing credibility, and viewers are turning the channel - sometimes to Fox Business, also to OAN. Or to talk radio. Or to the conservative blogosphere - which is also encountering censorship, de-platforming, etc. 

# # #

Illegal aliens and national security

From our friends at Ohio Jobs & Justice PAC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 31, 2019

Is U.S. State Department Burglary suspect a known Mexican Illegal Alien?

Cleveland, Ohio – Steve Salvi, Founder of Ohio Jobs & Justice PAC today is calling for a federal investigation regarding serious breaches of security in January at State Department buildings in Washington, D.C and Arlington, VA. The two State Department buildings were burglarized January 3. A suspect, Joel Enriquez-Bueno was later arrested by the Arlington Police Department. Salvi believes the suspect now in detention at the Arlington County Detention Center may be the same Mexican illegal alien felon he has been recently investigating.

Salvi, who has conducted immigration policy and national security research since 2001, stated that he has federal criminal court documents for a Mexican illegal alien defendant also named Joel Enriquez-Bueno. Salvi says that that Joel Enriquez-Bueno is a convicted felon and has an arrest record dating back to 2003.

“If the two Joel Enriquez-Bueno's are one in the same, an investigation needs to find out how he has been able to remain free in the U.S. For so long. According to court records, he is an illegal alien with no known address, no money, but able to get multiple past arrest charges for assault from 2013 dismissed in New Jersey. In 2016 he was caught in possession with an illegally issued New York State Benefit card and U.S. Social Security card. Any individual, prosecutor, or city found violating the law by providing him sanctuary, should be prosecuted,” said Salvi.

“How is it possible that anyone, especially an illegal alien felon, is able to gain access to two U.S. State Department offices and walk off with dozens of government cell phones and other electronics that may contain sensitive if not classified information? There's more to this story than we currently know and what has reported in the press, “ Said Salvi.

Salvi's investigation of the Department of State burglaries uncovered a January 18, 2016 U.S. District Court Criminal Complaint for the Western District of Texas. That criminal complaint charged a Joel Enriquez-Bueno with violating Section 1326 of Title 8 of the United State's Code.

According to Salvi, Section 1326 offenses generally relates to aliens who have previously attempted illegal entry into the U.S. and or previously removed from the U.S. by the Department of Homelands Security. He said that Enriquez-Bueno had already been removed from the U.S. four times according to federal court records.

“Any breach of security is bad. If State Department security was breached by a foreign national, it doesn't get worse. This breach could have resulted in espionage, a shooting, or bombing in addition to theft of devices that may contain sensitive if not classified information.”

“This should be a wake up call not only for State but those who also oppose border infrastructure, call to abolish ICE, and create sanctuaries for criminal illegal aliens like Joel Enriquez-Bueno. ”

“It's time our public officials stop ignoring the lessons of 9-11 and take homeland security and immigration law enforcement seriously,” said Salvi.

-30-

Ohio Jobs and Justice PAC website: click here.

What is a Xanatos Gambit?

Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosGambit

The reactions to Trump’s White House speech offering a compromise to get the Wall funded and stop the partial government shutdown were in many ways predictable. Ann Coulter was apoplectic, the mainstream media called President Trump more names, and Democrat leadership Schumer and Pelosi rejected his proposal out-of-hand. Some conservative commentators were of the opinion that Trump knew full well his proposal would be rejected by the Democrats, putting them in the intransigence column in order to pacify their hard-to-the-left base, while not seriously advancing any real concessions to Dreamers. Maybe.

But one of the more interesting takes was at Chicago Boyz and linked via American Thinker:

For those who are unfamiliar with the term, a ‘Xanatos Gambit’ is a plan for which all foreseeable outcomes benefit the creator — including ones that superficially appear to be failure.  

And here’s the theoretical application to the Wall stand-off:

President Trump’s “Big  Macs served at the White House” and grounding Speaker Pelosi’s Congressional Junkets on military transports during a government shut down over funding “The Wall” are both very much in that “Xanatos Gambit” frame work.  President Trump is staying on the offensive so House Democrats and the media cannot “get off a shot” over the Government shut down. 

More at all the links.

# # #

Update on The Wall

Kris W. Kobach drafted the border / immigration legislation for Arizona, was (to my surprise) defeated in his recent run for Governor of Kansas, but currently serves as Kansas’s Secretary of State. He reports on the GoFundMe project to fund the wall on Breitbart (previous CTP blog here):

We are witnessing something truly extraordinary. In merely 19 days, a GoFundMe campaign to raise private contributions to build sections of the wall along the Mexico border has raised an astonishing $19.0 million. It will soon be the most successful GoFundMe campaign ever—the current record holder is the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund for victims of sexual assault, which raised $22 million in 2018 over a much longer period of time. The campaign to build the wall should blow past that number in a few days.

Let’s put this in perspective. Consider the Presidential Election Campaign Fund Tax Check-Off, which is promoted by the IRS through the 1040 tax form and doesn’t require a contributor to give any money beyond what he is already paying in taxes. In April of 2016—normally the highest contribution month during a presidential campaign year—it raised $9.9 million. In a typical month, it raises less than a million dollars.

The GoFundMe wall campaign was started on December 16, 2018, by Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, who lost three limbs while serving in Iraq in 2004. As Kolfage told me, “People are angry about the inaction on building the border wall. They’re opening their checkbooks to donate as a way of making their voices heard.”

The astonishing number of contributions that this project has received from ordinary Americans demonstrates just how important the wall is to the American people. Citizens see the crime, wage depression, and other negative consequences of illegal immigration, and they want something done about it.

More here. And here’s the report on pending legislation that will provide the conduit between the GoFundMe contributions and the construction and maintenance of the wall; click here.

# # #

Border Security and Media Malpractice

Rick McKee cartoon credit: teapartyamerica.blogspot.com

Cleveland Tea Party often links to reports concerning illegal immigration issues. Failure to enforce border security and immigration laws have a profound impact on so many fronts, but Cleveland Tea Party points to the enormous costs, whether of welfare, healthcare and problems that accompany illegal drugs, all of which come under one of the three Tea Party platform plans, i.e., fiscal responsibility.

Cleveland Tea Party also regularly links to reports on media malpractice and the 24/7 propaganda we see on television and in the mainstream media. Today, Amalric de Droevig addresses both topics in an article at American Thinker titled “What a child's death on the border says about our country”. De Droevig begins his essay:

The mainstream media's treatment of a young girl's death while in the custody of the Border Patrol is a case study in how the mainstream media control the national narrative and manipulate public opinion to advance their leftist agenda.

The purpose of flooding the internet and the airwaves with propaganda about the death and life of Jakelin Maquin isn't to edify or inform the public; it is to make Americans feel bad about enforcing any immigration laws at all.  The real crime here isn't any wrongdoing on the part of the Border Patrol.  The real crime, according to our Cultural Marxist overlords, is that the Border Patrol exists in the first place.

He further elaborates on the media’s dishonesty and moves on to the grim consequences of opposing border control and law enforcement:

Defending our borders is arguably the most essential duty of government.  Moreover, the enforcement of every single law brings with it certain minor, highly attenuated risks to human life.  If the mere detention of criminals is considered too harsh a measure for our nation to stomach any longer, there is no hope for the rule of law or for the Republic's continued survival.  If our government is permanently unwilling or somehow unable to defend our borders, we should not shut the government down temporarily, as Trump is threatening.  We should shut it down permanently.

The full article is here.

# # #

Yesterday’s headline from the son of a mailman

art credit: politicalclownparade.blogspot.com

The headline from Gov. John Kasich appearance on CNN’s “Newsroom” via Breitbart:

Kasich: ‘The Lord Doesn’t Want’ 

Americans Opposing the Migrant Caravan

How does he know this?

# # #

Priorities in the Age of Trump

one version of Donald Derangement Syndrome

James Delingpole at Breitbart published an article, “Trump Derangement Syndrome Is Making Conservatives Lazy, Cowardly and Stupid”. He’s sorting through Never Trumpers, conservatives, and semi-conservatives. He concludes:

Let’s get this straight. We – at least the vast majority of us – on the side of the argument that Donald Trump is currently representing believe in stuff like: national borders, free speech, protecting citizens’ interests, equality of opportunity, lower taxes, smaller government, democratic accountability, the family, personal responsibility, rising standards of living, property rights, the rule of law, checks and balances, the Constitution, liberty. There is nothing in any of this we should feel awkward or guilty about. It does not make us Nazis. Or even semi-Nazis. Or alt-right. Or any of the other pejorative terms which – according to our opponents – make it wholly acceptable to punch the teeth out of anyone in a MAGA baseball cap.

Trump Derangement Syndrome has caused some conservatives – not all of us, thankfully – to lose sight of why it is that we fight.

We fight because we’re right. And yes – as Trump is one of the few conservative presidents to get – it really is that simple.

I am posting and linking since I expect it will resonate with most Cleveland Tea Party members. Full article is here.

# # #

Support ICE and our Border Patrol

Our friend and colleague Arzella reports that there is a “Prayer Walk for Children, Families, and Neighbors at Risk” in Painesville this Friday at 6pm. This march is to bear “witness to the plight of the over 2000 children recently separated from their families through ICE raids...” Click here for the Facebook announcement.

On Friday, June 29, you can join Arzella who

. . .will be standing at 100 Main Street in Painesville at 6:15 P.M. on Friday with a sign in support of ICE and Border Patrol.

Calling all Cleveland Tea Party people who can join Arzella to support law enforcement and legal immigration. Make your sign and head to Painesville on Friday.

Click here for a map (click on the map itself to embiggen).

UPDATE:

If you are planning to join Arzella in Painesville on Friday, I am linking to an article by Judicial Watch at Canada Free Press that reports what the mainstream media is not reporting:

While the mainstream media and much of the nation are preoccupied with sob stories about the shelter accommodations of illegal immigrants, the U.S.-Mexico border remains a cesspool of crime where federal agents have confiscated more than 360,000 pounds of drugs, arrested thousands of individuals with criminal convictions and busted hundreds of violent gangbangers so far this year. The latest statistics issued by the Border Patrol are downright disturbing and illustrate the urgency of properly securing the famously porous southwest border.

The full report is here. 

 # # #

Gov. John Kasich on immigration

I missed Gov. John Kasich’s appearance on CNN, but Chris Pandolfo at The Conservative Review reports:

John Kasich is cheerleading the rise of a group of Republicans in Congress who are willing to challenge GOP leadership on immigration. No, he’s not supporting the House Freedom Caucus’ fight to get a vote on president Trump’s immigration priorities. The outgoing governor of Ohio and deluded would-be 2020 presidential candidate is siding with the liberal House Republicans who are trying to force a vote to give illegal immigrant DACA recipients U.S. citizenship.

Kasich went on CNN Thursday to praise House RINOs who are threatening to file a discharge petition to trigger an automatic vote on amnesty. He thinks it’s a “really cool thing” that these Republicans are working with Democrats to override GOP leadership to pass a policy that will nullify U.S. sovereignty and encourage the importation of more vicious gangsters and deadly drugs into the country.

. . .

“I think the Republican Party has gone dormant,” Kasich said.

The Republican Party has gone dormant, but not because it won’t pass amnesty legislation. The Republican Party is dormant because of tedious, power-hungry, two-faced puny weasels like John Kasich who shun conservative principles, spit on the Republican Party platform, fight to end-run around the conservative base and help Democrats, and then sycophantically suck up to the liberal media for a few minutes of TV time in exchange for trashing fellow Republicans for acting like Republicans are supposed to.

The rest of the report (and Pandolfo is just getting started in this extract) is here. 

# # #

Becoming a United States citizen in 1903

The document above granted United States citizenship to a German immigrant named Matthias Moskopp, and it was handed down to his descendants. It was one of his prized possessions.

I can only imagine the sense of pride, gratitude, and reverence that this man felt when he recited his first Pledge of Allegiance [correction: the Pledge was not made until 1942. In 1903, the applicant would have recited the Oath of Allegiance.] This man was my great-grandfather. And he would have been horrified at the illegal immigration that we are all trying to stop.

According to NumbersUSA, Congress is inching toward putting amnesty back on the legislative agenda (Update here). NumbersUSA VP Jim Robb reported yesterday that only 5 more GOP representatives were needed to fulfill the requirement for the discharge petition, which would increase the risk of a vote on amnesty that most Americans do not want.

# # #

Multiculturalism: not good

Photo credit: onlyinus.wordpress.com

American children

Many of my relatives and friends take pride in their enthusiastic embrace of multiculturalism. I oppose it because it discourages assimilation, and it celebrates cultural differences rather than common values. As far as Cleveland Tea Party is concerned, one of the core values, that of limited government, is subverted by uncontrolled immigration that expands the nanny state and dilutes our cultural fabric. The melting pot is giving way to the societal mosaic, more apt to shatter.

A Canadian contributor to PJ Media, David Solway, eloquently summarizes “The Scourge of Multiculturalism” (h/t Instapundit):

The argument made by immigration and refugee enthusiasts, namely that the Western democracies were founded and settled by immigrants and therefore should continue to welcome newcomers, is valid only to a point. In the course of time the original settlers created a national identity, a sense of communal membership in a common world unified by custom and law. It is that identity that should be preserved. . . .

I am not opposed to immigration per se, only to ill-advised and special interest agendas that would weaken and adulterate the stable domestic accords arrived at over many generations.

To say “we are a nation of immigrants,” then, is immaterial. We are now a nation of citizens. Skilled immigrants, properly screened and taking into account real domestic needs, should be part of the country’s future, but not in multiples that threaten to dilute a nation’s internal cohesion, not from backward countries whose inhabitants are all too often uneducated, illiterate and functionally unassimilable, and certainly not from parts of the world -- in particular, the Islamic world -- whose history, culture, theology and politics have ranged it against everything that Western civilization comprises. The plight of European nations like Germany, Sweden, England and France, sinking into a morass of civil unrest, criminal violence and legal subversion, should be an incontrovertible object lesson that multiculturalism is the devil’s gift to a forgetful and undeserving people.

The congeries of welfare recipients bankrupting our fiscal resources, inner-city ghettoes of disaffected and belligerent residents, the array of lawfare plaintiffs, the proliferation of de facto censorship procedures . . . and the consequent erosion of community standards are the poisoned fruit of such unstructured immigration protocols -- a scourge prettified under the term “multiculturalism.” 

. . .

There is no shame in cherishing and defending one’s “old country” patrimony and the values upon which civic and communal life are founded. This has nothing to do with an antecedent “Eurocentrism” that ostensibly degrades other peoples or with the risible canard of “white supremacy,” but with the sense of belonging to, for all its flaws and errors, the greatest civilization ever to appear on earth, a Judeo-Hellenic-Christian civilization that gave us, among innumerable gifts, the Bible and the Greek library, the magna carta, the concept of individual liberty, scientific and medical advances never before seen, and a technological, commercial and industrial infrastructure that has made life easier for untold millions.

Full essay is here.

# # #

Did Trump even say that bad word?

image credit: uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com

Josh Dawsey at the Washington Post reports on Trump's offensive, obscene, racist remarks in a meeting with some Senators:

. . . according to several people briefed on the meeting.

“Why are we having all these people from $#!+hole countries come here?” Trump said, according to these people, referring to countries mentioned by the lawmakers.

Cue: media freak out. But did Trump actually say that? According to Jim Treacher’s brief analysis at PJ Media:

Take a closer look at Dawsey's construction there. He got this from "several people briefed on the meeting." Oh, okay. So these people, whose names we do not know, were told that Trump said this bad word by somebody who was actually in the room at the time. We're getting it third-hand.

So, who are these unnamed people? Any hints? MSNBC's Kyle Griffin gives us one.

NBC News has confirmed Trump's "$#!+hole countries" remark with a Democratic aide briefed on the meeting.

So it's been confirmed by... a Democrat. Who wasn't even in the room.

Hey, what more proof do you need?

As Treacher agrees, maybe Trump said it. Or maybe it’s Fake News, in compliance with the new standard: “If it rings true, it is true.”  

# # #

Rep. Dave Brat on immigration – THE issue in 2018

R McKee cartoon credit: teapartyamerica.blogspot.com

Rep. Dave Brat spoke to Breitbart about the immigration issues ahead of us in 2018. Brat (R-VA) is the one who beat Eric Cantor, then the House Majority Leader, in the primary – and his upset victory put the amnesty bill on hold. But amnesty is the creature that wouldn't die.

Brat discussed Congress’s considerations to codify the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy into federal law.

Congress must prioritize four repairs for the immigration system before contemplating any DACA-style amnesty negotiation, said Brat: 1. Ending chain migration and the visa lottery; 2. Mandating employer use of E-Verify; 3. Construction of a southern border wall; and 4. Interior enforcement of immigration law.

The four aforementioned “permanent fixes” must precede any DACA negotiation regarding amnesty for illegal immigrants, said Brat: “It shouldn’t be about trusting or hoping, the permanent part has to come first, you see in that place and then you negotiate later.”

The rest of the report is here.

# # #