Archive
House Votes to Defund Obama’s DREAM Policy
“The House of Representatives voted 224–201 Thursday morning to deny funding for the Obama administration’s controversial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. The policy, which was implemented via executive order in June 2012, effectively assumes the enactment of the DREAM Act, legislation that has failed to pass Congress on multiple occassions, and has raised concerns about executive overreach:”
Republicans have argued that these orders amount to the selective enforcement of U.S. immigration laws that discourages enforcement against children who were brought to the United States illegally, or illegal immigrant adults who are not in any legal trouble. Many Republicans have dubbed Obama’s orders as “administrative amnesty.”
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) sponsored the amendment to the 2014 Department of Homeland Security spending bill, and called for its passage in late Wednesday debate by saying Obama’s orders — also known as the Morton memos — violate the Constitution
Via National Review
Sen. Sessions: Senate immigration bill will ‘hammer working Americans’
“Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Friday that the Senate immigration reform bill would “hammer working Americans.”
Sessions, one of the immigration overhaul’s most strident critics, suggested the measure would prioritize foreign-born workers over people already in the U.S. struggling to find a job.
“This is far, far too many low-skilled workers that are going to take jobs and pull down wages of people unemployed and underemployed right now,” Sessions, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Fox Business. “It’s really, really dangerous.”
The Senate Judiciary panel cleared the immigration bill crafted by the so-called “Gang of Eight” this week by a bipartisan 13-5 vote, and its supporters hope to rack up 70 votes in the chamber. “
Via The Hill
Obama Meets In Oval Office With Illegal Aliens… … But won’t meet with immigration agents…
GOP lawmakers want Obama to hear out head of ICE union
“The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a top Republican senator on Thursday told President Obama that he and his aides must meet with immigration law enforcement “whistleblowers” who can expose the flaws in the Senate immigration bill.
In a letter to Mr. Obama, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, of Virginia, and Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, said the head of the union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and officers has been seeking a meeting for three months but has been shut out.”
Via Washington Times
Obama Meets In Oval Office With Illegal Aliens
“President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met in the Oval Office on Tuesday with three people who are in the country in violation of U.S. immigration laws but who have received “deferred action” allowing them to stay in the country under the terms of a “memorandum” issued unilaterally last year by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
While conceding that she had no legal authority to change the “immigration status” of illegal aliens or provide them with a “pathway to citizenship,” Napolitano instructed the top officials at Customs and Border Protection, Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to use what she called “prosecutorial discretion” in not enforcing the immigration laws against certain classes of immigration lawbreakers.”
Via CNS News
Senate panel OKs tax-welfare benefits for newly legal immigrants
“The SenateJudiciary Committee voted Monday to allow illegal immigrants who get legal status to begin collecting tax-welfare payments, as the panel spent a fourth day working through amendments to the massive immigration bill and party-line splits began to emerge.
In one major change, the committee voted 17-1 to make a third drunken-driving conviction a deportable offense for the newly legalized immigrants if at least one of those offenses occurs after they are approved for legal status.”
Via Washington Times
45% of illegal immigrants kicked out for crime would get amnesty under bill
“The Senate “Gang of Eight’s” immigration reform bill goes so easy on illegal immigrants involved in crime that nearly half of those kicked out of the country in the past six months for criminal acts would be allowed to stay and qualify for legal status, according to a new analysis.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the immigration reform package targets illegals with a long rap sheet, while those with fewer crimes on their record are considered safe enough to get legal status.
To size up the impact of the pending legislation, the group compared the legislation with ICE’s Secure Communities program which alerts Immigration and Customs Enforcement when a known non-citizen is arrested.”
‘Gang of 8′ senators defeat ‘trigger’ amendment
“A bloc of 12 pro-immigration senators blocked a GOP amendment to freeze the proposed legalization of 11 million illegals until the border is secured, highlighting a fundamental political divide on the first day of voting on the far-reaching Senate immigration bill.
“The bill is … legalization first and enforcement later, and just opposite what the people think they’re getting, and opposite to what many members of Congress think is in the bill before us,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, the leading Republican on the Senate’s Judiciary Committee.
The defeat, however, gives critics an obvious argument during national debates over the immigration bill. Numerous polls show strong public demand for a secure border with Mexico.”
Via The Daily Caller
Bill Gives DHS Sec. ‘Virtually Unlimited Discretion to Waive Any Manner of Crimes,’ ICE Council Warns Congress
“Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) entered a letter from law enforcement officials nationwide warning of the dangers of the immigration bill S.744 into the judiciary committee record today.
The letter To Congress from the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Council of the American Federation of Government Employees Affiliated with AFL-CIO warns of the discretionary power the bill gives to “political appointees” and takes away from law enforcers:
“Congress can and must take decisive steps to limit the discretion of political appointees and empower ICE and CBP to perform their respective missions and enforce the laws enacted by Congress. Rather than limiting the power of those political appointees within DHS, S. 744 provides them with nearly unlimited discretion, which will serve only to further cripple the law enforcement missions of these agencies.””
Via CNS News
Rand Paul On Schumer-Rubio Immigration Plan: “To Me, It’s A Little Bit Like Obamacare”
“SEN. RAND PAUL: I am worried that the bill before us won’t pass. It may pass the Senate, may not pass the House. I want to be constructive in making the bill strong enough that conservatives, myself included, conservative Republicans in the House will vote for this because I think immigration reform is something we should do.
In this bill I am worried, though, and this is similar to what Senator [Ron] Johnson said, that it says, well, you have to have a plan to build a fence, but you don’t have to build a fence. And if you don’t have a plan to build a fence, then you get a commission. I don’t know what happens if the commission doesn’t do anything. That’s the story of Washington around here.
To me, it’s a little bit like Obamacare. And I hate to bring that up, but 1,800 references to the secretary shall at a later date decide things. We don’t write bills around here. We should write the bill. We should write the plan. We should do these things to secure the border whether it be fence, entry, exit, we should write it, not delegate it. What’s going to happen in five years if they don’t do their job — maybe not even them, maybe somebody else who doesn’t do their job in five years, and the border is not secured? We will be blamed for the next 10 million that come here illegally.”
Violent criminals released by ICE if they are ‘Obama Dreamers’
“In part three of three of his six-part interview with The Daily Caller, National ICE Council president Chris Crane explained what President Obama’s actions on immigration and blind eye to illegal immigration has made it nearly impossible for ICE agents to enforce the law.
“We can’t have Presidents of the United States picking and choosing which laws will and will not be enforced.” Crane said.
Crane went on to explain how President Obama’s de facto repeal of immigration enforcement has led to serious and dangerous criminals being set free. “What the Obama Administration has ICE agents now doing is we now go into jails and prisons looking for illegal aliens inside of those facilities who have committed and been convicted of crimes. So we apply the Dream Act not to kids, in schools, but to adult inmates and have to ask them basically ‘Do you qualify for President Obama’s Dream Act?’ When they tell us ‘Yes we qualify’ we can’t even require them to give us any kind of proof, a transcript, or anything like that. We can’t detain them for investigation to substantiate the claims, we simply have to release them to the street. They walk out the back door of the jail as ‘Dreamers.’ There is nothing we can do about that.”
Via The Daily Caller
Report: Average legalized illegal would receive $592,000 more in benefits than they pay in taxes
“On Monday, The Heritage Foundation released its highly anticipated report on the cost to taxpayers of legalizing the 11 million illegal immigrants, as proposed in the “Gang of Eight’s” immigration reform bill.
According to the conservative think tank, “the average adult unlawful immigrant would receive $592,000 more in government benefits” than he or she would pay out in taxes over the course of their lifetime, and the net cost will be at least $6.3 trillion.
Heritage Foundation scholar Robert Rector’s examination of the long-term costs focused on Obamacare, Social Security, other entitlements, and the more than 80 means-tested assistance programs.
Rector further estimated that the typical illegal immigrant, if legalized, would live for 50 years and by retirement would pull in $3 in Social Security and Medicare for every dollar paid in Federal Insurance Contribution Act taxes.”
Via The Daily Caller
