The open-borders President apparently believes it would be a swell idea to unilaterally grant an amnesty to millions of lawbreakers and thereby speed the Mexifornication of the country. His political heart must palpitate with delight when contemplating millions of grateful proto-Democrats in the pipeline a few years hence when naturalized.
Mark Krikorian blogged that those amnestied by fiat wouldn’t be eligible for real citizenship. Perhaps, but it’s hard to imagine that the Democrat brain trust isn’t drooling at the thought of all those permanent D-voters and working some plot to get them the full monty down the line. He also thinks the number would be limited by status (visa overstayers and premature benefits filers as mentioned in the Senators’ recent letter of concern) to around five million, while the Fox News article below refers to “blanket” amnesty, i.e. all-covering.
An amnesty of five million would amount to around twice the number rewarded by the 1986 Reagan amnesty.
The amnestied foreigners would be eligible to work legally. It would be unconscionably unfair to unemployed citizens to add millions immediately to the legal workforce during the worst jobs depression since the 1930s (with a real unemployment rate over 16 percent), but the Obama agenda does not include citizens’ well being.
A massive amnesty would of course bring more crime, worse schools, higher taxes and an additional barrage of Spanish. We know the drill already.
Plus, a massive amnesty would be a national security nightmare: the increased terrorist danger would multiply as applications are rubber-stamped just like in 1986 with no background checks. The only difference is that unlike 1986, the terrorist threat today is far more pronounced.
GOP Lawmakers Warn of Administration Plan to Grant Amnesty to Illegal Immigrants, Fox News, June 23, 2010
Eight Republican senators and an independent group that supports tighter limits on immigration are warning that the Obama administration is drafting a plan to “unilaterally” issue blanket amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants as it struggles to win support in Congress for an overhaul of immigration laws.
The senators who wrote the White House on Monday say they are concerned that the administration is readying a “Plan B” in case a comprehensive reform bill cannot win enough support to clear Congress.
“It seems more real than just bullying (Republicans) into a bill — that it’s a plan that they can actually put forward … circumventing Congress,” an aide told FoxNews.com on Wednesday.
In their letter, the senators — Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; David Vitter, R-La.; Jim Bunning, R-Ky.; Saxby Chambliss, Ga.; Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.; James Inhofe, R-Okla.; and Thad Cochran, R-Miss. — urge the president to “abandon” what they say is a move to “unilaterally extend either deferred action or parole to millions of illegal aliens in the United States.”
“Such a move would further erode the American public’s confidence in the federal government and its commitment to securing the borders and enforcing the laws already on the books,” they wrote.
Deferred action and parole, which give illegal immigrants the ability to seek a work permit and temporary legal status, are normally granted on a case-by-case basis. But the aide said the lawmakers have learned from “sources” that the administration is considering flexing its authority to grant the status on a mass basis.
Numbers USA, an organization that presses for lower immigration levels along with humanitarian treatment of illegal immigrants, has started a petition to the president expressing “outrage” at the alleged plan.
Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations with Numbers USA, said she’s been hearing for weeks from “sources close to the Democratic leadership” in both chambers that administration officials are discussing whether the Department of Homeland Security could direct staff to grant “amnesty” for all illegal immigrants in the country.
“They’re trying to figure out ways around a vote,” she said.
“Any attempt to force an amnesty on the American people using this underhanded method smacks of despotism,” reads the fax the group is urging supporters to sign.
The White House has not responded to a request for comment.
The Department of Homeland Security estimated last year that 10.8 million undocumented residents live in the United States; other estimates have ranged higher. Any move to grant blanket legal status, even temporary, would raise questions about how Homeland Security would be able to handle the caseload. Jenks said Congress certainly wouldn’t grant the administration the funding for more caseworkers.
The purported discussions of a blanket amnesty come in the middle of several concurrent and heated debates over illegal immigration. The recently signed immigration law in Arizona has divided the country, with some states trying to replicate the state’s tough legislation and other jurisdictions boycotting the state in protest. The Obama administration plans to file a court challenge.
Democrats, meanwhile, have been trying to round up support for an overhaul bill in Congress, and the Interior Department is facing renewed criticism from Republican lawmakers over restrictions it places on Border Patrol officers policing the border on federal lands. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., shocked several Arizona residents last week when he told them that Obama had said he would not beef up border security because it would leave Republicans without an incentive to pass broader immigration reforms.
Jenks said the talks about Homeland Security allowing illegal immigrants to stay are “serious.”
Rosemary Jenks (Government Liaison for NumbersUSA) presented a more nuanced explanation when she appeared on the John and Ken Radio Show June 23 — the audio clip is linked below.
Because amnesty is going nowhere in Congress, the D-leaders (Obama, Pelosi, Reid and Napolitano) are scheming to use the existing system in an illegal way to bypass the Constitution and Congress. The idea is to use the case-by-case tools of deferred action and parole to create a temporary form of amnesty that would allow aliens to remain in the country until some time in the future when a real amnesty-path-to-citizenship could be finagled in Congress.
Persons who are paroled can apply for legal status, but deferred action is not supposed to allow for that possibility. However under the Obama regime, normal standards of law do not apply.
Central to the operation of the stealth amnesty is DHS head Napolitano instructing her people not to deport any illegal aliens turned over to that agency. Every person packed off to be deported will instead be processed very slowly though parole and/or deferred action. The power of Napolitano’s office includes using those tools, but on an individual case basis, not on a massive scale.
So there won’t be an unpopular White House amnesty signing ceremony that would outrage the country, just no deportations happening, and in a way that is invisible to the public eye. Supposedly that will make the open-borders thugs happy in time for the November election — which sounds like pretty scraggly politics, but the Obama administration is becoming more fraught with failure every passing day and they may be grasping at straws.
AUDIO: Jenks starts at 3:45 in.
As Roy Beck has written, only a “public shaming” can stop the anti-borders anti-America President. Call the White House (Switchboard: 202-456-1414), phone your Senators and Representative (Switchboard: 202-224-3121).
We cannot be a nation of laws if the government rewards lawbreakers and punishes law-abiding citizens in the process.
