Pres. Obama's obtuse sentence on immigration in his address to the nation revealed a great fear of how the American people would react if he directly called for more foreign workers and for permanent jobs for the estimated 8 million illegal foreign workers.
He seemed to be trying to signal to the supporters of amnesty and "comprehensive immigration reform" that he was still behind them but in words that the voters watching on TV wouldn't understand:
We should continue to work at fixing our broken immigration system to secure our borders and enforce our laws and ensure that everyone who plays by rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation.-- Pres. Obama, State of the Union Address
Reading those words literally, I would have to say I agree. The people who have "played by the rules" are the legal immigrants who are already here. I and NumbersUSA wholeheartedly want all of them to become fully integrated into our society, contributing to our economy and enriching our nation.
Of course, we know that Mr. Obama was actually talking about the foreign workers who have played by the rules . . .
. . . except for the teeny tiny infraction of violating their visas or entering the country illegally or taking a job and government benefits without federal authorization. The President has repeatedly and within the last month asserted that unauthorized aliens in this country should get to keep their jobs and become U.S. citizens.
But the President couldn't bring himself to utter the words "comprehensive immigration reform" or "path to citizenship" or "legalization" or "more immigration" in his State of the Union Address. And that is surely a sign of some good news for the 23 million U-6 unemployed Americans who want a job but cannot find full-time work.
If the President really believed that putting Americans back to work were an emergency that called for tough measures, he would have announced a suspension of most new immigration of foreign workers and mandated E-Verify verification to keep illegal aliens out of U.S. jobs.
But at least it sounded like the American voters have persuaded the White House that "comprehensive immigration reform" is far more controversial than all the items he was happy to mention directly in his address.
And for that, we can thank the millions of you Americans who have contacted the White House in the last year to express your opposition to "comprehensive immigration reform."
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ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA
