Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ) are well-known for their regressive positions on immigration. Just in the past few months, Smith has helped lead the right-wing campaign against birthright citizenship, while Brewer has gained national attention for signing one of the harshest immigration laws in recent memory. These lawmakers were rightly included in the Immigration Hall of Shame, a roster of "obstructionists to immigration reform" created by Immigrants' List, a bipartisan political action committee.
The list of ten also highlights nominee for Colorado governor and noted anti-immigrant crackpot Tom Tancredo (I-CO) along with Senate Candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV) and several other immigration hawks like Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA) and Rep. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
But according to several "honorees," immigration reform is precisely what they've been calling for all along. In an interview with The Hill, a spokesman for Rep. Bilbray lists various workplace verification and border security legislative efforts as evidence of his pro-reform agenda. For his part, Rep. Smith claims that he is actually "pro-immigration and immigration reform, at least the right kind." Obviously, this begs the question: What does Rep. Smith consider to be immigration reform? He says it means "enforcing our immigration laws, securing our border and cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants." Actually, the Obama Administration has already been doing this work, aggressively deporting immigrants by the hundreds of thousands, increasing funds for border security, and punishing employers for hiring undocumented workers.
No one should call this immigration reform. These measures alone aren't enough to fix our unworkable immigration system. Nor do they deter undocumented immigration; long-term studies of migration patterns conclude that "tightened border enforcement since 1993 has not stopped or discouraged migrants from entering the United States."
To be effective, reform must go beyond identifying and deporting undocumented immigrants, or punishing those who find work. Any smart immigration overhaul has to be comprehensive and include changes to the laws governing the legal immigration system. At a minimum, this entails revamping exploitative guest worker programs, clearing decades-long visa backlogs as well as providing an earned path to legal status for currently undocumented immigrants. For better immigration enforcement, the US needs better immigration laws to uphold. Obstructionists rightly belong in the Hall of Shame for their failure to recognize this.
A spokesman for Sen. Grassley insists in The Hill that most Americans support immigration reform that begins with border security as a top priority. Yet a recent poll reveals that Americans want more than enforcement-first policies. The survey asked: "Do you think the federal government's top priority should be securing the country's borders, or passing new immigration legislation, or should both be done at the same time?" 68 percent of respondents thought the federal government should do both, including 65 percent of Republicans and 67 percent of Independents surveyed. Only 21 percent thought that border security should come first. Most Americans don't want to wait around for a hermetically-sealed border to pass new immigration legislation. In fact, the same poll showed that six out of ten people think this is impossible.
In short, Americans clearly want broader solutions to our immigration woes. If only our elected leaders were listening. Instead, it seems Bilbray, Grassley and other Hall of Shame lawmakers will continue to support their version of immigration reform, that is, nothing but the status quo.
Follow Afton Branche on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AftonBrancheDMI
Updated Friday, August 27, 2010, 7:00 PM EDT
In a major policy shift, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has issued new guidelines regarding the prosecution of deportation cases: if an arrested illegal alien is not a convicted criminal or a terrorist threat, the case should be dropped.
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Obama is suing Arizona claiming only the feds can enforce immigration law and then changes the fed policy not to enforce the law.
Impeach Obama!!!
Alternate reality #1: "No one should call this immigration reform."
Reality: Why not? Any change is reform.
Alternate reality #2: "tightened border enforcement since 1993 has not stopped or discouraged migrants from entering the United States."
Reality: Since Simpson-Mazzoli the only change in our Immigration law was the 1996 IIRIRA. It removed a lot of leniency from the law, but enforcement was still ignored until just a few years ago. Many of its provisions are still underutilized such as 287g.
Alternate reality #3: "At a minimum, this entails revamping exploitative guest worker programs"
Reality: The biggest reason employers, especially in the agriculture industry, do not use the H2A Seasonal Worker Program is because this program requires them to pay fair market wages. Is this exploitive?
Alternate Reality #4: "Surveys all say that a majority of Americans want a path to legalization"
Reality: This is an assumption derived by asking some variation of "do Americans want to see Illegal Immigrants rounded up and deported". When the answer is "no" the assumption is they favor legalization. When asked about cutting off the jobs magnet and encouraging Illegal Immigrants to go home support is above 70%.
Alternate Reality #5: All Americans view Immigration Reform as including an "earned path to legal status for currently undocumented immigrants"
Reality: Not really. Any change is reform, including enforcing the laws as written, rather than ignoring them.
REFORM: noun
Definition of REFORM
1: amendment of what is defective, vicious, corrupt, or depraved
2: a removal or correction of an abuse, a wrong, or errors
h t t p://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reform?show=1&t=1282882788
The existing U.S. immigration system is seriously broken, unfair, capricious and cruel. Maintaining the status quo or merely packing still more repressive and brutal laws ontop of brutal and repressive laws, is not "reform". It is merely perpetuating and making even worse the present regressive system.
Are you closely tied to one?
Cruel - How is our current system cruel? Because it does not let everyone into the USA who wants to immigrate? Apparently you have never seen what happens to the American Worker with too much immigration. Want to see cruel? The go get a construction job and watch how Contractors use Illegal Immigration to drive down your wages. Cruel because it deports people who break the law? If that is your definition of cruel then is it not also cruel to jail the person who breaks into your house? To jail the person who beats you up?
Vicious - Please show me the parts of the law that are vicious. If the law enforcement community enforced vicious laws the victims you get rich via law suits.
Unfair - Life is unfair. Crying unfair is the favorite act of a child that did not get his or her way. Often times insuring fairness to one creates injustice to another. All claims of fairness must be weighed against doing no harm to others.
Capricious - I have worked with the system and it is far from capricious. The correct term for our system is inflexible. But that is the very definition of Government. You had better follow the rules or else get punished. Isn't that what we want in the USA? You had better not discriminate or be punished. You had better not pollute or be punished. Everyone equal before the law?
Reality: The Section 287(g) program needs to be completely dismantled and its enforcement officers thrown in jail for a few decades. It is blatantly racist, prone to racial and ethnic abuse and bias, and fraught with officers who have been accused of, and in many cases convicted of, racial bias and illegal racial profiling.
Alternate Reality: "The biggest reason employers, especially in the agriculture industry, do not use the H2A Seasonal Worker Program is because this program requires them to pay fair market wages. Is this exploitive?"
Reality: No, it isn't exploitive at all. People who have no skills other than performing manual labor don't command high wages, ever. The only exceptions to this are workers who have sense enough to unionize and collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions. Growers could offer $15-an-hour wages, and they still wouldn't attract domestic American workers.
The United farm Workers recently challenged caucasian, domestically-born Americans to "take our jobs". Only four Americans applied, and one of them quit after less than a week.
"racist, prone to racial and ethnic abuse and bias, and fraught with officers who have been accused of, and in many cases convicted of, racial bias and illegal racial profiling"
Seriously, do you not want USA immigration laws enforced at all... ever?
2) Only 7% of USA illegal aliens work in USA AgricultureFarming. Pew Hispanic actually puts it even lower at 4%. The 7% comes from DHS figures.
3) TakeOurJobs.org
[United.Farm.Workers.Union]
5 jobs listed 7-16-2010
Right here,
http://www.ufw.org/_board.php?b_code=about_job
[No Farm Jobs]
Know why?
1] Above web site harvests your personal information allegedly forwarding to your State's job bank? People avoiding identity theft, won't do that.
&
2] (a)"In 2009, low unionization rates occurred in agriculture (1.1 percent)"(http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm )
(b)"1.2 million hired agricultural workers in [USA]today, estimates show between 600,000 & 800,000 are undocumented workers."(http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/speeches/sp_1202390869926.shtm
1.2 million AgWorkers
1.1 percent unionized
13,200 AgWorkers in USA unions
UFW told Federal D.O.L. they have 5,945 members
UFW had 20,000 members in 1993
[SOURCE: http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jun/10/local/me-laufw10
Real McCoy over here:
18 farm openings in Arizona (7-16-2010)
http://icert.doleta.gov/
NOT 1.2 million is it?
Farm Workers top the Pew Center list of occupations most affected by Illegal Immigration. There are a quarter million people who do this back breaking job with as much as 25% of the workforce made up of Illegal Immigrants. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Farm Workers earn a median wage of $8.64 per hour. Construction Laborers who work equally hard with comparable skills but they earn median wages between $11.23 and $13.19 per hour. The lowest skilled Loggers earn a median wage of $14.66 per hour. Even Parking Lot Attendants have higher median wages than Farm Laborers at $9.04 per hour.
This is a great example of the devastation Illegal Immigration has wrought on wages. The sad part is even if farm wages were to increase to the level of Laborers and Loggers, to a median wage of $13.50 per hour, the cost of farm labor is only 7% of the cost of food. The result would be a 4.5% increase in food prices. Inflation is often greater.
The problem with racist statements like "Caucasian, domestically-born Americans come take our jobs" is that it ignores the fact that most of the UFW is made up of American Citizens hurt by illegal immigration. In the days of Caesar Chavez the UFW tried to stop Illegal Immigration.
By ignoring the Borders - WHICH CAN BE COMPLETELY FENCE OFF
By letting illegals go free
By not denying illegals social services
By allow RACIST groups like "La RAZA" to influence the media and our lame politicians.
By not cracking down on Employers
By allowing illegals offspring to gain citizenship and allowing the children be anchors for the parents.
By not going after Sanctuary cities and states for harboring illegals
By not denying illegals drivers license
By not going after immigrants who over stay their visas.
By not turning Bills like the SAVE ACT into LAW
By underfunding ICE and immigration system
By not letting ICE actually their jobs
By not allowing STATES to protect themselves.
We tried amnesty and it failed again and again. - STOP REPEATING LIBERAL MISTAKES
Lets try actual full enforcement and the illegals will leave on their own.
Excuse me but that is complete nonsense.
The claim that “Obama and/or the federal government aren’t enforcing laws against illegal immigration” is a bunch of garbage. The US federal government is already enforcing the immigration laws just fine. The federal government deported almost 1.2 MILLION undocumented immigrants in 2008 alone ~ that fact alone tells you that the federal government is on the job and doing just fine.
If you don't happen to "like" the job the federal government is doing, that's just too darn bad for you ~ you don't have any "right" to have states usurp federal responsibilities merely because the federal government isn't being sufficiently vicious, brutal or enthusiastic about sweeping up "brown people" off the streets for your liking.”
Good luck on that one. I know you have that incorrect.
Deportations have never been that high in the last 20 months or 20 years for any given year.
You are going to lose credibility big time on this one.
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Big O has only improved 10% on what GWB did.
Considering GWB was a boob, that is like getting a D+ back in elementary school.
Would you compare yourself to a flunky in school?
I should hope not.
Federal Government is 23 years behind, huge leaps in improvement must continue.
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As far as "brown people" in your last sentence, you should be aware of this:
"When asked to identify their race, most Hispanics—62.5% in 2008—say they are white only. A small share—just 1.9%—self-identify as black only"
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=120
Then be aware that our decadal U.S. census gets this info from people
Arizona ONLY
"White persons, percent, 2009 (a) 86.1% "
BUT many skip this fact:
"Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 30.8%"
"White persons not Hispanic, percent, 57.3%"
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04000.html
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Why do you call them "brown people?"
Not very nice.
They do not consider themselves that way
"About three-quarters (76%) of the nation’s unauthorized immigrant population are Hispanics."
Pg2
http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/107.pdf
All but the backlog of visas , which I agree with, the others all equal AMNESTY!
You will NEVER, EVER discourage or prevent "all" illegal immigration, anymore than you will ever eliminate "ALL crime". It will not happen, ever.
Therefore, you can continue to insist on believing in fantasies and fairytales. Or, you can choose to join in trying to craft a thoughtful, intelligent, legal solution that will pass Constitutional muster with the USSC.
Just because you do not want something, does not mean the USA should surrender.
In 1775, there was a bunch of people like you in the 13 colonies, they were wrong.
In the early 1800s, there was a bunch of people that said intercontinenal railroad, impossible
In the late 1800s there was a bunch of people like you that said, man cannot fly in the sky
Decades later after that, many said we can never fly through space and land on the moon
That same decade people believed that Americans would never communicate on devices like what they saw on the original Star Trek TV series, and then came Motorola the next decade with the grandfather of today's Iphone.
People with your negative pessimism would have stopped all that, & USA birth as well.
You would have joined them in saying impossible.
You can write, "thoughtful, intelligent, legal solution" all you want. Americans want enforcement. If you actually believe you are going to persuade Americans that we do not want enforcement, you are the one "believing in fantasies and fairytales."
Thier idea of reform is more toward open borders. Enforcement of immigration laws is not part of the deal.
Other than social services for their children how would one go about accounting for them?
Those who still remain in the U.S. in spite of all of the latent hostility being directed against them, are unlikely to simply "give up and go home". They ARE home; the U.S. is now their home. They have established families, they have established themselves in the community, they have children who have never known any other home besides the U.S. in their lives.
There is no way on Earth you will ever hunt down and root out 12 million human beings who don't particularly want to be found, unless you somehow think you can out-do the Nazis and arrest 12 million people as compared to the 6 million the Nazis rounded up.
The evidence, rather than supposedly "supporting" your views, instead completely contradicts those views. The only way that illegal immigrants will ever leave the U.S. in large numbers is if they CHOOSE to do so.
1) We constantly hear from the pro-illegal side that illegals do pay taxes, so legalizing them won't increase the tax base that much.
2) In what tax bracket will these illegals end up? the lowest tax bracket. And whatever they pay in will be nothing compared to what they will be able to suck up in welfare, section 8, medicare, social security and subsidized education for them and their children.
If you think that amnesty is an economic winner for this country, you are sadly ignorant.
Immigration is good for the financial health of Social Security because more workers mean more tax revenue. Illegal immigration, it turns out, is even better than legal immigration. In the fine print of the 2008 annual report on Social Security, released last week, the program’s trustees noted that growing numbers of “other than legal” workers are expected to bolster the program over the coming decades.
One reason is that many undocumented workers pay taxes during their work lives but don’t collect benefits later. Another is that undocumented workers are entering the United States at ever younger ages and are expected to have more children while they’re here than if they arrived at later ages. The result is a substantial increase in the number of working-age people paying taxes, but a relatively smaller increase in the number of retirees who receive benefits — a double boon to Social Security’s bottom line.
We’re not talking chump change. According to the report, the taxes paid by other-than-legal immigrants will close 15 percent of the system’s projected long-term deficit. That’s equivalent to raising the payroll tax by 0.3 percentage points, starting today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/opinion/02wed3.html
Since the average person’s working years start at age 16 in 1950 and 2010 it means that in 1950 the average Worker worked for 49 years and retired for three years. So there were 16 Workers for every Retiree, all age groups being equal. This matches with the statistic perfectly.
Today the average Worker works for 49 years and retires for 15 years. Now the math shows there should be 3.3 Workers for every Retiree, all age groups being equal. The actual rate is 2.94. Increased life span has caused 97% of the 1950 to 2010 decline in number of Workers per Retiree. This is what is bankrupting Social Security. The large Baby Boom generation compared to the Depression and World War II baby bust offset the increase in retirement time until now. Per current tax rates, benefits, and time in retirement it would take 115 million non-retiring Immigrant Workers to fix Social Security.