You are here: Home / Archives for Ira Mehlman

S.744 Would NOT Secure the Borders

May 13, 2013 By 6 Comments

Says who?

Chuck Schumer, that’s who.

During last week’s Judiciary Committee mark-up of S.744, the Gang of Eight amnesty bill, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley offered an amendment that would have required that our borders be secure for six months before the amnesty process could begin.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), one of the Gang of Eight, took exception to Grassley’s amendment, arguing that the “amendment would set a standard that basically would delay, probably forever, any legalization, bringing people out of the shadows.”

Grassley’s amendment was defeated 12-6, with Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), the two Republican members of the Gang of Eight who sit on the Judiciary Committee, voting against it. With that vote, and Schumer’s frank admission, went any pretense that S.744 is about preventing future illegal immigration.

Under S.744, amnesty would begin six months from the day the president signs the bill. Border security would begin six months from never.

Filed Under: Amnesty 2013, Border, Law, Politics, Population, Society

The Other Big Winners in Gang of Eight Immigration Bill: Lawyers, Lobbyists and Advocacy Groups

May 9, 2013 By 5 Comments

Some of the interests that stand to gain the most from the Senate Gang of Eight immigration bill, S. 744, are obvious.
Within six months of enactment of the bill, millions of illegal aliens would be eligible for Registered Provisional Immigrant (RPI) status – the first and most important step in the amnesty process. They would be granted permission to remain and work in the United States while they wait for green cards and eventual citizenship.

Also obvious winners in the 844-page bill are business interests that would gain easier access to foreign labor. S. 744 provides for significant increases in guest workers who would be made available to businesses, as well as new flows of low-skilled and skilled permanent immigrants.

But there are still others who would hit the jackpot if S. 744 were to become law: lawyers and an array of groups that advocate on behalf of illegal aliens. Click here to read my full op-ed in today’s Townhall.com.

Filed Under: Amnesty 2013, Law, Politics, Population, Society

Isn’t One “Train Wreck” Enough?

May 6, 2013 By 13 Comments

In 2009, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) famously urged Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, in order to “find out what is in it.”

Well, we are finding out what is the massive and inadequately vetted bill as the 2014 implementation date draws near. The Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus (D-Mt.), describes it as a “train wreck,” and has decided to call it a career and head home to Montana. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used the exact same words, “train wreck,” in his assessment of Obamacare if it is not “properly implemented.” By properly implemented, Reid means it will need a massive infusion of cash beyond the original $898 million price tag. The Congressional Budget Office now places the cost of implementing the bill at $1.85 trillion over the next decade – more than double the original estimated cost.

Another prominent player in enacting Obamacare was Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) who now warns that health insurance premiums “could go through the roof” and it “in part due to Obamacare.” President Obama himself admits that we could be in for some “glitches and bumps.”

Not satisfied with a health care plan that, by their own admission, is coming off the rails even before it has left the station, many of the same folks who were involved in passage of Obamacare are now trying to rush through the next train wreck, aka, the Gang of Eight immigration bill, S.744. The Heritage Foundation estimates the cost of the S.744 to be about $6.3 trillion, making it the mother of all train wrecks.

Maybe this time it might be a good idea if members of Congress find out what is in the bill before they vote on it. Having just bought a hugely expensive and massively defective product from the likes of Schumer, Reid, Pelosi and Obama, perhaps Congress might want to take note of all “the glitches and bumps” before voting on whether to burden the American people with additional trillions of dollars.

Filed Under: Amnesty 2013, Law, Politics

Attorney General Holder Says Violating Our Immigration Laws is a Civil and Human Right

April 26, 2013 By 12 Comments

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking at a Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) dinner in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, stated that, “Creating a pathway to earned citizenship” for illegal aliens living in the United States “is absolutely essential.” Holder continued, “It is a matter of civil and humans rights.” (Don’t take my word for it. Watch him say it yourself.)

Got that? Violating U.S. immigration law and being rewarded for it with amnesty and citizenship is “matter of civil and human rights” according to our nation’s chief law enforcement officer.

Are political leaders engaged in a debate about immigration policy, or have we crossed over into the Twilight Zone?

Filed Under: Amnesty 2013, Law, Politics

Jeff Flake Plays Russian Roulette with Terrorists

April 24, 2013 By 34 Comments

How do you carry out meaningful background checks on 11 million people? The Gang of Eight has repeatedly offered assurances to the American public that illegal aliens seeking amnesty under their bill would have to undergo rigorous background checks.

So what’s their plan for fulfilling that pledge? Well, they don’t exactly have one. “It will be a daunting task to do it, but we need to,” admits Gang of Eight member Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).

Yes we need to. As if we needed a reminder about why thorough background checks are vital, see Exhibit A: the Tsarnaev brothers. And yes, it is a daunting task. So maybe Sen. Flake and the other seven gangsters should have a viable plan in place to carry out this “daunting task” before the Senate takes a vote on their bill.

Running fingerprints through databases is not going to screen out terrorists. Our default assumption must be that there are sleepers in this country who have not committed crimes that would have resulted in their biometric information winding up in some database.

Even more importantly, the Gang of Eight’s bill grants illegal aliens Registered Provisional Immigrant status and immunity from detention or removal, from the moment they file an application. So, even if a background check actually turns up evidence that an individual poses a threat, it could be months or years before authorities find out.

Filed Under: Amnesty 2013, Border, Crime, Law, Politics, Population, Society

Center for American Progress: Support Amnesty, or We’ll Crush You

April 9, 2013 By 13 Comments

The Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank with close ties to the Obama administration and the Democratic Party, is one of the groups at the forefront of push for amnesty.

Not surprisingly, CAP’s latest issue brief on immigration calls for swift passage of an amnesty bill by Congress. What should raise a few eyebrows is the lack of any subtly in their argument, their lack of any effort to sell amnesty as good public policy, and the bare-knuckles, racially-tinged nature of their demands.

“[A]s our nation moves toward a point where by 2043 we will have no clear racial or ethnic majority,11 other states such as Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, and even Georgia are also reaching demographic tipping points,” states the report entitled, Immigration is Changing the Political Landscape in Key States. Moreover, the issue brief openly declares that “demography is destiny,” and that they intend to use immigration policy to shape both.

CAP’s message to Republican lawmakers is equally blunt: Get out of the way on amnesty, or we will crush you. It is a message echoed by others on the political left who are boldly proclaiming that they are no longer even seeking compromises. An article appearing in the National Journal notes, “The liberals believe they can threaten to walk away from an immigration bill that falls short, because they assume that in a few years they will get another chance at a better deal. Political pressure to resolve immigration will only increase on Republicans, these liberals argue. ‘The wind is at our backs,’ said Frank Sharry, executive director of the immigrant-advocacy group America’s Voice.”

Or, as Bob Dylan warned more poetically in his 1963 anthem, The Times They are A-Changing:

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’

Filed Under: Amnesty 2013, Border, Jobs, Law, Politics, Population, Society
« Older Posts