You are here: Home / Archives for Education

Education

Can’t Americans Do Anything Right?

June 18, 2013 By 4 Comments

Jeb Bush received a lot of attention for saying that we need mass immigration because immigrants are “more fertile and they love their families,” and a lot of other head-scratching things at Ralph Reed’s latest attempt to remain relevant. Bush’s remarks may strike many Americans as unsavory, and they should, but they should surprise no one. These types of comments are commonplace, though most commentators are not so ham-fisted as Jeb Bush (or Marco Rubio’s staff).

The intellectual bankruptcy of proponents of “comprehensive immigration reform” is on full display in a new report from the American Enterprise Institute, which has long served as the mouthpiece for the Republican Party’s Wall Street wing. The report’s authors, Madeline Zavodny and Tamar Jacoby, who are both supporters of open border policies, argue that millions more low-skilled immigrants are necessary because they have greater “physical strength and stamina” than Americans.

What’s next? Will Paul Ryan discover that immigrant doctors have x-ray vision?

Filed Under: Amnesty 2013, Education, Jobs, Law, Population, Society

Paul Ryan’s Favorite Book is Definitely not the Dictionary

June 13, 2013 By 5 Comments

Paul Ryan has declared that he will debate anyone who says the Gang of Eight bill is amnesty. This from a man who by comparison made Joe Biden sound like Demosthenes in their vice presidential debate last fall.

GoofyRyan

Ryan’s argument is that granting amnesty to 12 million illegal aliens is not amnesty because he has decided to call it “earned legalization.” What does he mean by “earned legalization?” Why, amnesty of course. Sadly, Ryan is what passes for the “intellectual leader” of the GOP these days.

It would not be difficult for Paul Ryan to find out the meaning of amnesty, and to discover that there is no such recognized term as “earned legalization.” He could click here, or here. Or he could pick up an actual dictionary, any dictionary will do. They are quite weighty publications, so he could strengthen both body and mind.

To save him some time, I’ll provide him with a standard definition.

  1. a general pardon, esp for offences against a government;
  2. a period during which a law is suspended to allow offenders to admit their crime without fear of prosecution;
  3. a pardon granted by the Crown or Executive and effected by statute.

Collins English Dictionary

He could also consult his hero Ayn Rand Ronald Reagan, who had no problem understanding plain English or the plain truth. Heck, he can even quote Marco Rubio, circa 2009.

If Ryan is serious about debating this issue (though he ran from the very first opportunity to do so) he might want to acquaint himself with existing U.S. law. In it, he could discover that the penalty for an alien who is illegally in the United States is deportation and either a three or ten year bar from applying to reenter the country. The Gang of Eight waives these penalties for illegal aliens, as well as forgiving identity theft, filing a false tax return, etc., etc, etc. This is amnesty.

Ryan’s argument is that illegal aliens won’t receive amnesty because they will have to “pay a fine [and] back taxes.” The “fine” is nominal, $2,000 and can be paid out over the span of 10 years, and can be waived at the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security. Ryan’s assertion that the Gang of Eight bill requires amnestied aliens to pay back taxes bill is simply untrue. But the larger point is that this amnesty may indeed have certain conditions, but that only makes it a conditional amnesty –which is what almost every amnesty is.

Take one example. A tax amnesty doesn’t mean tax scofflaws get off scot free. It means that the penalties for not paying taxes are reduced or waived. That’s the amnesty part. Most importantly, it does not entitle tax cheats to continue to avoid paying taxes in the future.

The amnesty Ryan is defending is coupled with the inestimable reward of allowing those who violate U.S. immigration law to remain in the United States and eventually to gain citizenship and full access to each and every benefit offered by local, state, and federal governments. In other words, after paying a small fine (perhaps) for having entered, resided, or worked in the United States illegally, they gain the benefit of entering, residing and working in the United States legally.

What Ryan is trying to pass off as “earned legalization,” is, in fact, nothing more than buying one’s way out of compliance with the law – which is nothing more than an assault on the rule of law.

Filed Under: Amnesty 2013, Border, Crime, Education, In the Spotlight, Law, Politics, Population, Society

New FAIR Documentary: Pro-Amnesty Argument is Nothing New

March 26, 2013 By 11 Comments

FAIR released a new mini-film this week to remind Americans that the same arguments in favor of amnesty were the centerpiece of the immigration reform enacted in 1986.

Watch as such familiar people as former U.S. Congressmen Leon Panetta (D-Cali.), Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Dan Lungren (R-Cali.) argue that this one-time amnesty was necessary in order to fix our immigration problem and secure our borders.

Well, 27 years later here we are again with a bigger illegal immigration problem and we’re hearing that same old argument that amnesty needs to be the main driver to fix our “broken immigration system” and bring people “out of the shadows.”

Our footage also highlights the many courageous legislators who tried to warn us during the 1986 debate about the negative impact that amnesty would have in the future, and they certainly were right.

Check out this video and make sure to share it with your friends, family, and colleagues. The video is well worth the time to remind us that history will repeat itself if we don’t learn from our mistakes.

Filed Under: Border, Crime, Education, National, Politics, Population, Society

Amnesty Foes Mobilizing

March 8, 2013 By 1 Comment

Amnesty Foes Mobilizing

“As lawmakers get closer to introducing a comprehensive immigration-reform bill, opponents are gearing up to flood Congress with calls condemning any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to gain legal status or citizenship,” USA Today reports.

“The same tactic helped defeat immigration reform the last time lawmakers considered passing bills in 2006 and especially 2007, when a flood of angry calls shut down the switchboard in Congress.”

AFL-CIO President Walks Back Talk of Agreement With Business on Immigration

“The leader of the nation’s largest organized labor coalition is hopeful Congress will pass comprehensive immigration reform, but said there is a chance labor and business groups may not come to a final agreement on the future flow of immigrant workers to the United States,” ABC News Univision reports.

“AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said negotiations continue with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a major business group, over a new visa program to allow low-skilled workers into the U.S. But a bipartisan Senate group drafting an immigration bill has struggled to come up with language that will satisfy business and labor, and the issue has emerged as a major sticking point in the process.”

Visa Overstays Remain A Huge Problem

“Among the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country, some 40 percent entered the United States legally with a temporary visa. But once they arrived, they decided to stay. Tracking them down is one of the biggest challenges facing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),” KPBS.org says.

“At the southern ports of entry customs agents document the entry of all travelers. But on the other side no one is tracking their exits. With 350 million southern border crossers each year, DHS claims tracking exits may be logistically and financially unrealistic. Media liaisons from multiple DHS branches refused to be interviewed for this story.”

University Presidents Demand Immigrant Student Gravy Train Continue

A group of university and college presidents sent an open letter in support of immigration reform to 1,200 of their counterparts across the country today, and called for their colleagues to join them in the discussion,” says a report by ABC News Univision.

“The windfall for colleges and universities is clear: If an advanced degree offers a straightforward path to a green card, students from around the world could be more likely to study in the U.S. That could add up to more tuition dollars, and also draw some of the world’s most talented students.”

Filed Under: Education, Politics

Indiana Senate Voting on In-State Tuition Bill

February 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The Indiana Senate will vote today, February 25, at 1:30 p.m. on Senate Bill (“SB”) 207.  SB 207 would grant in-state tuition to the approximately 300 illegal aliens enrolled in Indiana taxpayer-funded colleges and universities.

Indiana University charges an annual tuition rate of roughly $10,000 for in-state students and $30,000 for out-of-state students, which means if SB 207 were to pass, Indiana colleges and universities would lose $20,000 per student.  300 illegal aliens x $20,000 = $6 million per year!

FAIR estimates the annual fiscal burden on Indiana taxpayers from illegal immigration to be $608 million. Indiana taxpayers already pay to provide education, health care and other services to illegal aliens and their children. SB 207 only adds to this burden by requiring Indiana taxpayers to subsidize the higher education of illegal aliens. Indiana taxpayers must not be required to shoulder this additional burden.

Please join with IFIRE (Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement) and call your Senators now to voice your opposition to SB 207.

You can look up the contact information for your State Senator by clicking here.

 

Filed Under: Education, States Tagged With:

Staple “Green Cards” to Diplomas? A Nonsensical Idea

February 22, 2013 By 13 Comments

One of the current immigration reform proposals advanced by both the bipartisan Senate “Gang of Eight” and by President Obama is giving automatic immigrant visas (“green cards”) to foreign graduates of U.S. universities. The argument is made that if we do not give them jobs they will go home and compete against us.

To assess the logic of this proposal you should ask yourself whether you think the foreign graduate should get a visa to work in the U.S. if there are not enough jobs for American graduates. That, in effect, is the standard at present. To get a “green card”, the foreigner has to have found an employer offering a job, and the employer has to certify that no qualified U.S. workers have been found to take that job. That makes sense. Why would you want to give a visa to a foreign graduate of a U.S. university if no employer is interested in hiring that person? And why would we accept that our own graduates be disadvantaged?

But what about those graduates of U.S. universities going back home to compete with us? First, remember that this is the basis on which student visas are given in the first place. Unless you plan to return to your home country at the end of your studies, you are not supposed to be eligible for a student visa. That is what the law says, but everybody knows that the intent to return to the home country can change after a few years in the U.S. especially if a good job offer is available. The point is that no one should be surprised if a foreign student wants to return home. And, even “green cards” for foreign graduates are not going to keep all those foreign student graduates in the United States.

In addition to the chance for an employer’s sponsorship for a “green card,” there are at present about 100,000 nonimmigrant visas being given each year to foreign workers with university degrees or outstanding skills (H-1B visas). These non-immigrant work opportunities are being used by employers to hire the foreign graduates of U.S. universities in effect as probationers who hope eventually to be sponsored for a “green card.” If they don’t get sponsored for a “green card” or even a nonimmigrant visa, they are still able to take a U.S. job under a program of Occupational Practical Training that may extend up to 2 years and 5 months. The Department of Homeland Security puts the current number of OPT workers at about 70,000.

The enrollment of foreign university students has steadily climbed and there were at least 723,000 in U.S. schools in the 2010-2011 school year according to the Institute for International Education (IIE) – and not all schools provide IIE with that information.

The “green card” requirement that qualified U.S. workers have to be hired before hiring a foreign worker does not apply to the nonimmigrant H-1B visas or the OPT work status. If the H-1B law were changed to require that US workers had to be hired first, there would presumably be even more foreign graduates of U.S. universities who are not offered U.S. jobs than at present. So then the choice would be either to recognize that it is natural to expect many of those foreign graduates to leave the U.S. – they might be hired by foreign operations of U.S. companies rather than competing with them – or, if there really is a concern about those graduates going home to compete against us, then we ought to look at reducing the number of foreign students coming to the U.S. to get degrees and thereby bring the number into balance with the number that can be absorbed by the job market without displacing U.S. workers.

Filed Under: Education, Jobs, Law, Population, Society
« Older Posts