These two steps would have strong public backing. While a majority of Americans support a pathway to citizenship for those here illegally, 77 percent oppose making them “eligible for government benefits such as Social Security, food stamps and Medicaid before they become citizens.” And even those who believe illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay support the deportation of criminals such as child predators. Obama would have a very hard time explaining why he opposed the deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of, let’s say, a violent misdemeanor against a child or a misdemeanor involving child pornography.
Some will object that such a course rewards Obama’s lawless action. But it also has the benefit of affirming that those benefiting from Obama’s amnesty do not have the privileges of legal permanent residents or citizens. And it puts Obama on the defensive, while putting Republicans squarely on the side of the American people.
Which has always been the case.
But it also has the benefit of affirming that those benefiting from Obama’s amnesty do not have the privileges of legal permanent residents or citizens. Since Obama’s actions did not (because he could not) grant them the privileges of legal residents, this is redundant.
Here in Virginia, the President is hiring 1,000 new government employees to process requests for work permits, photo ID, and social security cards for illegals being granted amnesty. No one is stopping him.
Along with RINO, wasn’t there some kind of acronym regarding the Congressional Republican Alternative Plan?
There are routes you can go. One is the legal challenge, the courts enforcing Separation of Powers, which is what Mickey Kaus has his hopes on. But if the courts don’t see it your way, it may be overreach, it may be the End of the Republic, but what can you do? If the courts accept this, then it is indeed valid exercise of Executive Authority, dunno, kinda like Nixon’s “impoundment” of appropriated funds as a deficit-fighting device? That didn’t work out because the Democrats had veto-resistant majorities to pass laws against impoundment?
Or you could put enough “sensible” measures in this bill to make it a “poison pill”, to obtain a veto to rally your supporters? Win enough elections in 2016? Get people to “take to the streets” “French Fourth Republic-Style”?
Richard Fernandez has a thread on Chuck Hagel’s departure with comments about the age-old junior-officer-treatment-of-the-CPO’s-and-NCO’s. The enlisted-rank officers are outranked by the green Ensigns and Lieutenants, but they often have been on the job much, much longer. When these guys are bullied, they have a mode of “obeying orders exactly to the letter’, that is, the passive-aggressive mode, that quickly gets a green Officers’ attention. This is because a green Officer’s orders are often not well thought out.
My thought is why even bring a replacement for Chuck Hagel out of committee? Secretary Hagel is still on the job, and the reason Mr. Obama is believed to want him out is that dumb as the Right Wing is claiming the Sec Def to be, he is considerably less dumb than other Administration officials or maybe even his replacement? What is wrong with the status quo?
I for one have new-found respect for Sec Def Hagel’s character and integrity and wisdom of life experience even though others may have a slightly higher Stanford-Binet score, but there is always someone smarter applies to each one of us. I want to keep him on the job.
Could someone explain this to me? We’re going to show Obama what we think of his illegal activities by making them legal and patching a few problem spots in the process? Isn’t that a little like enabling him? I’m starting to think that the Republican Party should rename itself the “Janitor Party” due to the number of people suggesting it should take on the role of cleaning up other peoples’ political messes.
I think a better approach is very targeted funding cuts, particularly, to notable Obama allies. For example, when someone has a trade dispute at the World Trade Organization and it actually gets to the punitive tariff sanctions phase, generally the goods that are most valuable to the sanctioned country (and not particularly critical to the recipient country) get tariffed.
Second, if Congress really wants to one-up Obama on immigration, do something about the legal immigration problem. Seriously, this is why the whole illegal immigration amnesty is such a farce. For example, there’s the H1-B games and the many years long bureaucratic maze facing people who want green cards or citizenship. Personally, I think it would be better to just outright eliminate the H1-B and replace it with a new class of auctioned green cards (dropping also the pretense that the H1-B visa is for any reason other than getting cheap labor). Similarly, streamline the green card and citizenship processes so that people don’t have to wait a significant portion of their lives for something that could be decided in a few months. Sure, I get why these things are made so hard, but there’s got to be a better, less stupidly passive-aggressive way to do that.
Victor Davis Hanson makes some interesting comments, chiefly that amnesty “will not stop, but further encourage lawlessness.”
http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/law-is-a-drag/?singlepage=true
That has me concerned, too . . . along with the specter of millions more low-info, vote-for-a-living shock troops coming in to bolster the ranks of the Democrats and enable the Hive to not only continue but increase the power of its plunderbund. We’re already too far down the Road to Serfdom as it is.
“–something that has me concerned