The Obama Administration's defense of "comprehensive immigration reform" (a.k.a amnesty) was presented by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano in an address at the Center for American Progress on November 13, 2009. The following analysis uses statements made by the Secretary to identify the Administration's arguments and then discusses the logic or illogic of the statement.
Napolitano - "Everybody recognizes that our current system isn't working and that our immigration laws need to change."
Analysis - It is not so much that our immigration laws need to change as enforcement of our immigration laws needs to change. It doesn't matter what laws are on the books if DHS will not enforce them. Napolitano's statement implies that because foreigners continue to ignore our immigration laws they need to be changed. That sidesteps the real issue of how can foreigners and US employers be made to respect and comply with the law. The Administration's view appears to be that employers who want cheap labor and foreign workers who want jobs should be accommodated rather than defending the best interests of the American people. Illegal immigration will continue until there is widespread awareness that it will not be tolerated and neither illegal aliens nor their employers will be able to continue to flout the law. Besides, the change in the law that the Administration advocates is an amnesty for the current millions of illegal aliens and an increased level of legal immigration - both of which are rejected by the majority of Americans.
Napolitano - "I'm referring to what I call the "three-legged stool" that includes a commitment to serious and effective enforcement, improved legal flows for families and workers, and a firm but fair way to deal with those who are already here."
Analysis - All should agree that there should be "serious and effective enforcement." Clearly, if anyone who wanted to work in the United States were allowed to come legally, there would be less illegal immigration, but this would not be in the interests of U.S. workers and the general public. That is an issue that must be faced and cannot be glibly sidestepped. "Improved legal flows" means increased legal immigration. With more than a million immigrants receiving 'green cards' each year since 2000, current immigration is swamping the nation's assimilation capacity and causing most of the rapid population increase that is jeopardizing the nation's environmental future. "A firm but fair way to deal with those already here" is a code term for amnesty. It means allowing illegal aliens to stay permanently unless they have a criminal record. Requirements to pay some back taxes and to learn English are meaningless, because past practice demonstrates that these requirements will be forgotten or waived in the process of granting legal status.
So, of the three legs of the stool, only one leg - law enforcement - makes sense and has broad public support, and support for even that leg depends on what law is to be enforced and whether the enforcement is effective.
Napolitano - "Americans value our identity as both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws."
Analysis - Respect for the law, and valuing our immigration history does not mean that the United States must accept the never-ending millions who say they would like to come here, nor does it mean that employers, who would like to be hire millions of cheap foreign workers, must be accommodated. Legal immigration has soared from about a quarter million persons per year in the late 1960s to more than one million a year since 2000. Our immigration history unfortunately includes periods of severe exploitation of foreign workers in sweatshops and in agriculture. Our laws that restrict legal immigration and outlaw illegal immigration are intended to prevent such abuse. Unfortunately, the lack of will by recent administrations to enforce those laws is reigniting the immigration abuses of the past.
Napolitano - "The security of the Southwest border has been transformed from where it was in 2007"
Analysis - Border fencing has made illegal entry more difficult, as has the increase in Border Patrol personnel and resources - including the currently abandoned National Guard presence. But, the US borders are far from secure. And, most of the enhanced border security measures Napolitano cited were begun during the second term of the Bush Administration, such as the increase in Border Patrol agents and the passage of the Secure Fence Act. The Obama Administration has refused to let the National Guard be redeployed to the border despite requests from border states. Napolitano cites progress in stopping the flow of cash, guns and drugs across the border, but this does not translate into stopping the illegal flow of people. Our continued inability to control our border would not be improved by amnesty, because that would only increase the temptation to enter illegally. The only real way to effectively fight the people smugglers is by diminishing their clientele by shutting down the U.S. job opportunities that attract illegal entrants.
Napolitano - "We have replaced old [interior enforcement] policies that merely looked tough with policies that are designed to actually be effective."
Analysis - The opposite is the case. DHS under Napolitano has abandoned an enforcement effort that was resulting in prosecution of employers and removal of illegal workers and replaced it with a policy that is focused on employment document audits. That policy shift may inconvenience some employers and cause some illegal aliens to lose their jobs, but it leaves the illegal worker the opportunity to take another job that otherwise would be filled by an American worker. This new policy abandons any effective deterrence against hiring illegal workers through prosecution. Furthermore, DHS has cut back on one of the most promising interior enforcement operations. The 287(g) immigration enforcement program that assists local agencies in partnering with DHS has been restricted so that locally deputized police can no longer count on DHS to back them up when they apprehend illegal aliens.
Napolitano - "New biometric technology allows us to take the fingerprints of people coming into the United States and compare their prints against databases we couldn't access before."
Analysis - Napolitano would have the public believe that the nation now is safer because DHS is collecting the fingerprints of foreign travelers. But, that does nothing to solve the problem of our vulnerability to foreigners staying illegally and taking American jobs. Arriving illegal entrants get fingerprinted only if they are apprehended by the Border Patrol. Furthermore, it is dissimulation to claim that the fingerprinting of arriving foreign travelers will be an effective deterrent to illegal residence and working in the U.S. as long as there continues to be no record of the departure of foreigners that can be matched with entry data to identify foreigners staying illegally.
Napolitano - "DHS needs immigration reform."
Analysis - Napolitano states she wants tougher enforcement laws against smugglers and fines against employers of illegal workers. Congress could pass those changes in a heartbeat if it were not for the fact that the Administration is holding those reforms hostage to their efforts to leverage adoption of an amnesty for illegal aliens.
Napolitano - "We will never have fully effective law enforcement or national security as long as so many millions remain in the shadows."
Analysis - Effective immigration law enforcement and national security clearly require reducing the illegal alien population. But, rather than an amnesty that rewards illegal immigration - as was done in 1986 - true reform requires that the illegal alien population be reduced through enforcement. Effective denial of the jobs aliens come to take illegally is necessary to encourage them to return to their homeland.
Napolitano - "We have to make sure the immigration system works to support American families, businesses and workers."
Analysis - By "support American families," Napolitano appears either to be thinking that anyone living in the United States, without regard to their legal status, is an American family or is using that phrase to describe illegal alien families that contain a U.S. citizen. The children born here to illegal aliens - anchor babies - are U.S. citizens and cannot be deported even though they usually will also have the nationality of their parents, i.e., dual nationals, and that creates an emotional context in fighting deportation. But, Napolitano's statement ignores the fact that U.S. policy assists families to stay together by accommodating deported aliens in taking their dependent U.S. children with them. Secretary Napolitano's reference to supporting American businesses, boils down to allowing employers of illegal aliens, who have benefited from their willingness to work for lower wages than American workers, to be able to continue to have those services available by making the workers legal through an amnesty. The alternative, of course, is to deny the employers the continued access to the foreign workers so that they will hire unemployed Americans. By support for American workers, Napolitano appears to be thinking of illegal workers, because they are the only ones who would benefit by amnesty. Amnesty would permanently undermine wages and working conditions as well as undercut job opportunities for unemployed American workers, and it would perpetuate future illegal immigration.
Napolitano - "[Amnesty for illegal aliens] will strengthen our economy as these immigrants become full-paying taxpayers."
Analysis - Aside from the recognition that most illegal workers and their employers cheat by ignoring the tax laws, this statement is wrong. While more taxes might be collected from workers if they were using valid Social Security numbers, the alien workers would also gain a greater opportunity to apply for credits and refunds, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and child credits for poor workers with families. That would mean a drain on tax revenue rather than an increase. Furthermore, the greatest possible economic gain would result from putting unemployed Americans to work so that welfare and unemployment payments would decrease. In addition, illegal alien reduction through enforcement would reduce the flow of foreign remittances being sent out of the country. Those billions of dollars sent abroad cost the United States not only in the balance of payments debt, but also as a result of the impact on the U.S. economy from lost sales, production and jobs.
Napolitano - "Executives in Silicon Valley...want to increase their workforce and help get the economy moving again, but some of the major barriers they have to growing their companies are visa laws that make it difficult for high-skilled foreigners to stay here to work."
Analysis - High-tech employers continue to hire foreign workers while similarly qualified American workers are laid off.1 There is no requirement that American workers be given preference before a company hires foreign high tech workers. More than 20,000 U.S. high-tech jobs were lost in July 2009.2 Foreign workers are not smarter or better educated than U.S. workers, but they are more easily exploitable and accept lower wages. If high-tech employers really prized their foreign workers, they would sponsor more of them for immigrant visas at the end of the 6-year nonimmigrant visas. Instead they find it easier to replace those foreign employees - like they do American employees - with a new crop of younger foreign workers. It should come as no surprise that U.S. high-tech employers would like to expand the practice that already allows for more than 100,000 jobs a year to go to foreign professional workers through H-1B visas, intra-company transfer visas and NAFTA visas.
Napolitano - "We need to revise our current provisions for legal migration to help assure a legal workforce in cases where businesses can't find Americans to fill their jobs."
Analysis - This statement ignores the fact that businesses should never be allowed to discriminate against American workers by hiring foreign workers at lower wages. Our law already provides visa programs that allow U.S. businesses to hire guest workers until market forces can supply American workers. Unfortunately, however, agricultural and other employers have been allowed to become addicted to exploiting illegal alien workers, leading to depressed wages that now discourage American workers from taking these jobs. This merely perpetuates the employers' claim that Americans do not want the jobs and needs to be reversed. This practice of exploitation may be seen in the fact that most seasonal crop employers choose to hire illegal workers rather than use the legal guestworker program that has higher costs resulting from the protections for both the American and foreign workers.
Napolitano - "No one should have to wait in a line for years in order to reunite with a spouse or a young child."
Analysis - Immigrant visas allow a spouse and minor children to accompany the principal visa recipient with no wait. The new foreign spouse of a U.S. citizen similarly is not delayed by any numerical limits, and that applies to the minor children of that spouse if there are any at the time of the marriage. So, what is Secretary Napolitano talking about? She likely is referring to the immigrant from a country that already has a very large immigration flow and has run into per country limits - like India or China - who decides to return to the home country to find a spouse. In that narrow circumstance, spouses of immigrants may face a long wait for a visa. The alternative to the wait is for the immigrant to become a U.S. citizen before deciding to seek a foreign spouse.
Napolitano - "We must modernize our laws for the 21st century."
Analysis - What Secretary Napolitano describes as 'modernization' is really a pretext for adopting a new amnesty for illegal aliens. If DHS vigorously enforced the law, our current system would work infinitely better. Rather than adopt an amnesty to permanently accommodate millions of immigration lawbreakers, the country needs to restore a moderate level of immigration - far fewer than the more than one million legal immigrants arriving each year added to the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, further added to by the more than 100,000 new guestworkers arriving each year. America in the 21st century has different needs than America in the 20th or 19th century. The country no longer depends on large numbers of manual laborers for our industrial production. Our country is now densely populated in our major cities that merge into one another. It makes no sense to expand immigration by legal or illegal means. U.S. law should recognize our current demographic limits and revert to a moderate level of legal immigration and discourage illegal immigration. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the form of modernization that Ms. Napolitano supports.
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1. "H-1B visa use by U.S. firms holds steady in '09," Computer World, December 14, 2009, (website consulted December18, 2009). "U.S. firms, despite cutbacks in their own staffs and an overall decline in IT employment, continued to hire people using H-1B visas. That list includes Microsoft, Intel and IBM's India operation."
2. "November Tech Job Cuts Take Dip, But Trend Is Still Up," BNET website consulted December 18, 2009.
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written by PaulC1958, March 14, 2010
Visit NumbersUSA.org for valid, unbiased, non-partisan information.
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written by Dave, March 14, 2010
MARK MY WORDS, THAT IF WE DON"T SHOW OUR OWN FORCEFULNESS ANOTHER AMNESTY WILL GET Pa*sED AND TAXPAYERS WILL GET THE BURDEN OF FINANCIALLY PAYING FOR THE AMNESTY PROCESSING, THE PENSIONS AND THE NEXT WAVES OF FOREIGN NATIONAL WHO WILL BE AT OUR DOOR. BEFORE AMNESTY IS EVEN SIGNED INTO LAW, MILLIONS MORE WILL TRY TO REACH AMERICA? GENERATIONS OF OUR GRANDCHILDREN ARE ALREADY PAYING FOR 2 FOREIGN WARS, WHY SHOULD WE PAY EVEN MORE FOR THE IMPOVERISHED CITIZENS OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES ?
Those of us who are avid patriotic Americans and see us slipping into a third world mora*s, loss of our unifying language. The first step is to bombard every legislator state and federal, demanding NO AMNESTY. Second step is to confront every lawmaker who pamper foreign nationals with the peoples entitlements and then make sure they don't get re-elected. Another step is to build on E-Verify, in-perpetuity that is mandated in detecting illegal alien workers. Every local, county and state police must be trained with the 287 (g) apprehension directive, under federal mandate to apprehend anybody they believe is an illegal immigrant on the streets and highways. ICE raid need to be stretched to the limit, so business owners understand they are not above the law and they can end-up behind prison bars. National Guard patrolling our borders along with more US Border patrol agents.
Every law that comes down the pipeline must be taken advantage of, culminating in zero tolerance for foreign nationals. EVERY SANCTUARY CITY, COUNTY AND STATE POLICY MUST BE RESCINDED BY A FEDERAL ACT. On the web is a outspoken blogger who writes about the financial sinking of the SANCTUARY STATE OF CALIFORNIA. All Americans who strongly feel about the imminent danger to our society, the influx of indigent illegal alien families, needs to study these observations. Although this blog refers to mostly to the West coast, the illegal alien propagation is now become a nationwide scourge that vastly becoming a plague. Learn some stark truths at this website, not the lies and political distractions that makes us oblivious of the fiscal nightmares to come. GOOGLE-- http://mexicanoccupation.blogs...under.html
Are you aware that taxpayers in America subsidize other countries treasuries, with billions of dollars from illegal workers here? California loses billions of dollars annually from money transfers across the borders. CALIFORNIA IS BROKE, BUT ELECTED OFFICIAL KEEP PAYING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WELFARE, ANCHOR BABY ENTITLEMENTS. Thousands of People who contact me always ask why I have not authored my own blog. One ominous reason because I have a family and that I had already been threatened? I moved away from the illegal alien gang infested neighborhood of Los Angeles years back, but I do have family there still. Californians must demand E-Verify, even though its not perfect, it eventually become a strong arm of enforcement.
ALREADY THERE ARE RUMORS WASHINGTON IS GOING TO COMPROMISE E-VERIFY- PROBABLY BY FOREIGN GOVERNMENT LOBBYIST INTERVENTION. Get mobilized at NUMBERSUSA (a million members and counting) and learn who is involved in corruption at JUDICIALWATCH. This is the only way we can save America from the Liberal progressives and the travesty of world government, without borders.
No copyright to my comments, articles. Copy & Paste and let the people know. AMERICAN JOBS-FOR AMERICAN WORKERS.
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written by DelawareBob, March 14, 2010
I'm from Delaware, and we are pressing to get the Oklahoma State Illegal Immigration Law, HB 1804. pa*sed here in Delaware. Three years ago we had about 32,000 illegal aliens here. Today we have about 68,000 illegal aliens here. We have had it! We want our State back!
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written by Kim Berry - Programmers Guild, March 15, 2010
It is outrageous that when Silicon Valley unemployment is 12% and unemployment in some California counties exceeds 20% that Obama and Congress continue to flood on foreign workers and various employment visas. It is outrageous contemplating Amnesty that gives green cards based solely upon the violation of U.S. law to 12 million illegal immigrants rather then freeing the jobs they currently hold for the unemployed Americans who need this jobs. The only immigration reform we need until unemployment is under 5% is:
a) suspend all guestworker programs
b) end anchor-baby
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written by pyrostevo, March 15, 2010
This refusal to abide by our Constitution or enforce our Immigration Laws should be cla*sified as Treason of the most foul kind, & as grounds for impeachment & trials for Treason!
Not only have they allowed the invasion, they force American tax payers to pay Billions on Billions of dollars to provide Welfare, Prison cells, Educate the invaders numerous children, and free medical care, at the same time the invading horde break numerous laws and ma*sive document fraud, & are destroying our schools, hospitals, communities, culture and standard of living while Robbing, Raping, Killing & a*saulting American Citizens WAKE UP PEOPLE!
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written by Bobby, March 15, 2010
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written by TaxiDriver, March 15, 2010
For example, it is against the law to "enter" the United States illegally, but it is not against the law to BE in the United States illegally. There needs to be a law that states that each day an unauthorized person remains is a new offense.
Furthermore, entering the United States illegally is only a misdemanor, subject to a small fine for a first offense. Even using a stolen identity is only a misdemeanor - impersonation. It should be treated as a felony.
If an employer is found to have employed someone using a fraudulent Social Security number, the fine is $50.00. If that same employer is found to have done this for the 1000th time, it's STILL $50.00(!!!), and there is no establishment of reasonable suspicion or probable cause for "knowingly" hiring an unauthorized worker based solely on numerous fraudulent (they say inaccurate) Social Security numbers.
We still allow birthright citizenship under the current executive interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and as a result, ALL mother's of U.S. born children are entitled to TANF regardless of how much money they make working. This is due to a little known rule that since illegal aliens are not legally authorized to work in the United States, that the means-testing that is applied to citizen-applicants for TANF are waived. The upshot of this is that every alien mother with a U.S. born child can work full time and still get TANF, and stay on food stamps once the TANF expires.
Under the common law, birthright citizenship would never reach the Fourteenth Amendment because it would be preempted by the doctron of "ex dolo malo, no oritur actio" (from a bad deed, no action will arise). Since the birth mother never "pa*sed through the law's gates" (current INA doctrine for determining de jure presence in the U.S.), it follows that the birth did not occur in the U.S., and thus the baby born on U.S. soil would not be given any comensurate legal status, regardless of the physical location of the birth.
So yes, laws DO need to be changed. Existing laws need to be enforced, of course, they are nonetheless ineffective without additional, more stringent and arduous new laws.
TaxiDriver
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written by Anthony, March 18, 2010
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written by John Wallace, March 20, 2010
If the "Gang of Three" (Obama, Pelosi and Reid) get their way and the unconstitutional Health Care bill is somehow rammed through the congress and signed by the imposter President, against the will of the majority of the American people, full Amnesty for the illegal aliens will be next.
If the communist style nationalization of the American Health Care system is completed, the Democratic-Communist Party will next try to steamroller the legislative approval of the remaining parts of their American Communist Manifesto before the elections in November of 2010.
Amnesty will be first, followed by Cap and Trade and then they will come after our guns.
President Obama has already approved a tentative plan drawn up by Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that will allow illegal aliens to be put on a path to citizenship, offer green cards to keep high-skilled foreign university graduates in this country and create a temporary program for low-skilled workers, with some of these workers also getting the chance to become citizens. How does this help the American worker?
Thankfully, there is some resistance to this plan already. Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said flatly that it can't pa*s. "The bill doesn't have a prayer, because the American people oppose rewarding lawbreakers, which then encourages illegal immigration," he said. "Allowing millions of illegal immigrants to stay and take jobs away from citizens is like giving a burglar a key to the house. Illegal immigrants should return home and play by the rules like millions of legal immigrants."
Congress last looked at the illegal immigration problem back in 2007, when President George W. Bush joined with Democratic leaders to write a bill. But a bipartisan majority of senators joined a filibuster to block the bill.
The supporters of the 2007 effort concluded that Americans didn't trust the government to secure the borders and enforce the laws, even as they were offering legalization, particularly since illegal immigration has only grown since a 1986 amnesty.
The Schumer-Graham Plan has four main components:
1. an easier path to citizenship for illegal aliens
2. a program to let in even more foreign workers,
3. improvements in immigration enforcement (we've heard this before) and
4. the introduction of biometric Social Security cards to help employers weed out illegal workers, unfortunately and unconstitutionally, American workers will also be required to cary national worker ID cards to make this work under their plan. "Show me your papers?"
According ot the proposed plan, illegal immigrants would also have to demonstrate they are proficient at English and pa*s background checks to gain citizenship. More smoke and mirrors.
The plan would offer permanent legal status to foreign students who earn a post-graduate degree from an American university (so they can compete for jobs with our own college graduates), and will also create a future program for low-skilled workers (so they can compete with other American workers). Businesses could only hire them if no American worker is available, and the number allowed would fluctuate depending on the U.S. economy's needs. Workers who have kept jobs for a long time and have proved valuable members of their community could earn permanent legal status. How does this help the American worker?
This is just another piece of smoke and mirror amnesty legislation proposed by a couple of marxist-communists in the Senate and the White House that is designed to completely destroy our country.
Why would we want to continually import foreign workers into the USA when our own American born workers cannot find jobs? How does this help the American worker?
If this immigration amnesty proposal is successful, America, this great beacon of freedom in the world, will be turned into a communist, third world, multi-lingual, dumbed down, uneducated ma*s of humanity that can more easily be controlled and manipulated by their new Masters, the new American politburo and the old establishment oligarchy.
John Wallace
www.4FLS.com
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You were sworn to enforce the laws. Now you want to alter them as a quick fix for all the 'fat cats' who control all of you politicans.
Chuck