President Obama, I’m sure still relishing his thrashing of the Republicans on the shutdown, met with business leaders in the White House on Tuesday.
President Barack Obama said he did not see any reason a “pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens could not be enacted before the end of this year.
To make his point, he argued that there are “some very conservative folks” who “believe that now is the time to get this done.”
I’d be the last person to argue with that statement. I live in Arizona and we’ve got two of the biggest fools in the US sitting as our Senators. McCain and Flake are both willing to ignore the problems that illegal immigration as wrought upon my home state. They also refuse to admit the obvious about the Gang of Eight bill that they helped push through the Senate.
The President laid out his case with is usual aplomb.
“These businesses understand that,” he said. “They understand that if we are serious about border security, if we do a better job of streamlining the legal immigration system, if we are holding employers who aren’t doing the right thing accountable, and we provide a pathway to citizenship for those who have paid a fine, learned English, are getting to the back of the line, taking their responsibilities–that all together, these businesses are going to have more customers, we’re going to see people who are currently working here, out of the shadows, paying taxes and getting right with the law.
Let’s deconstruct that statement.
- [I]f we are serious about border security… Well Mr. President “we”, assuming you’re including yourself in that statement, are most certainly NOT serious about border security. At least in terms of actually securing the southern border. There is absolutely no mandate in the Gang of Eight’s bill that requires the border to be secure. The Secretary of Homeland Security has sole authority to declare it is secure and there is no way to appeal that declaration.
- [I]f we do a better job of streamlining the legal immigration system… That’s a joke, right? Legal immigration requires full background checks and the people who are charged with performing those checks freely admit they’ve been pressured to ignore felonies on checks they’ve performed and that there aren’t enough people to perform adequate checks. In addition, under your definition “streamlining” means granting legal residence to illegals who are here and then inviting their families to immigrate. That’s about 40 million people moving from Mexico to the US.
- [I]f we are holding employers who aren’t doing the right thing accountable… Accountable? Please. We’ve got an eVerify system in place that the current bill scraps and it’s replacement won’t be ready for a minimum of five years. Combine that with the absolute fact that you’ve never understood the term “accountable” in your entire life. See Fast & Furious, Benghazi, IRS, and most recently you’re ObamaCare website.
- Pathway to citizenship for those who have paid a fine, learned English, are getting to the back of the line, taking their responsibilities… They don’t have to pay a fine or back taxes. DHS has sole say over the fine and can grant waivers for anything they want. Back taxes only have to be paid if the IRS has already filed a complaint. Business owners will not be responsible for back Social Security and Medicare taxes. With respect to learning English, they have to take an ESL class. They are not getting to the back of any line, they’re being granted immediate legal residency. And who knows what “taking their responsibilities” means.
- The rest of the statement is just more ObamaSpeak.
The bottom line on the Gang of Eight bill is that it talks about all of those things, but the same administration that has refused to enforce their own Affordable Care Act is going to have to enforce those elements of the immigration law. Could I see hands for anybody who thinks that’s going to happen?
The key is what happens in the House. The US Chamber of Commerce is on the warpath to see US borders eliminated. “Republicans” in the Senate are doing everything they can to influence Speaker Boehner.
There are a number possibilities in the House, there’s talk about passing individual bills to address the issues and the most important thing is that if a bill on border security is passed, it can’t be taken to a conference committee to be reconciled with the Gang of Eight bill.
We’ll be following the process as it unfolds and keep you informed. You can start by calling your Congresscritter and letting them know that under no circumstances do you support a “comprehensive” bill on immigration.
