“Give Me Your Tired Your Poor……”
These words,
which appear on a plaque mounted on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, cannot
be found in the words of the Constitution of the United States or the Bill of
Rights. These words were not written by
any of our founding fathers nor do they reflect any of founding principles
which drove a group of British Colonists to fight for and gain their independence.
“Give Me Your Tired Your Poor ……“ is a phrase
that is found in The New Colossus, a sonnet that was written and donated to be
auctioned to raise money for the construction of the Statue of Liberty’s
pedestal, nothing more, nothing less.
The author, American born Emma Lazarus, was the daughter of Portuguese
immigrants. The poem was certainly
influenced by stories told to her by her elders and reflected the feelings of
those, such as her parents, who were welcomed by a country filled with great
opportunity and in need of those eager to work hard for the country that had
much to offer.
But that was over a century ago and this country has grown, changed and is no
longer in need of the tens of thousands of immigrants who came to this country
each year, as it was once upon a time. No
longer are their vast opportunities available to anyone who wished to come to
this country to better themselves, today there are hardly enough opportunities
for those who are already here.
And then, immigrants who came to this country paid their own way, they came
wishing for nothing more than a simple opportunity to take a chance on
themselves. Now, the majority of
immigrants that swarm to this country do so knowing that they will become part
of this nation’s social entitlement society, a culture perpetuated by a liberal
ideology paid for by the sweat of hard working Americans born of immigrants from
generations ago.
So the next time your hear the someone make claim that helping those who come
to this country is one of the founding principles of this nation, or as then president Obama put it, “it’s in our DNA”, you might suggest that they check their
history. The principals that guide this
nation can be found in the documents written by our founding fathers not in a
poem written for a fund raiser.
President
Obama’s Imperial Action, he discussed in his 12 minute address on immigration last
night, will have little if any effect on Speaker Boehner’s plan on how the
House will move forward on immigration reform in the coming months.
In a desperate attempt to remain relevant, the lame duck president has made
things worse for both himself and the Democratic Party by attempting to bully
what will be a fully republican controlled congress come January. Republicans are just getting started on
immigration reform and there is nothing President Obama can do to change that.
We have all heard the talking points; democrats failed to move on immigration
reform when they controlled congress, Obama failed to make immigration a
priority until after the 2012 election and now, with a Senate bill passed, the
House refuses to “act responsibly”, in the words of the president, and take the
bill to the floor for a vote. This
political rhetoric is just a temporary distraction from the problem the democrats
face on immigration.
Speaker Boehner was more than forthcoming with his announcement earlier this
year when he indicated that there was a faction in the House, including
himself, that simply does not trust the president to enforce the laws of the
land and rightly so! Boehner also has
stated that until this situation changes, it is unlikely that the immigration
debate will move forward.
Well that change took place earlier this month and Republican are poised and ready
to move forward on immigration reform once the new Senate is in place in
January.
This is about Border Security not Deportation
The entire immigration stalemate revolves around the failure to secure our borders.
Republican lawmakers have no more intention of rounding up and deporting the estimated
11.5 million illegal immigrants living in this country than do the democrats,
but insinuating so makes a great talking point for the left.
Our immigration system is broken and has been for decades as was stated by Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid in a recent interview with Univision. In an attempt to justify the forthcoming
executive action to be taken by the president on immigration, Reid stated,
“Republican presidents going back to Dwight Eisenhower have used
executive action to fix immigration,”
While it was Reid’s intention to make the point that
republican presidents have repeatedly used executive action to grant amnesty to
illegal immigrants, just as President Obama was preparing to do, he instead admitted
that for the past half century both republicans and democrats have failed to
stop the inflow of illegal immigrants into this country.
The Senate Immigration Bill is Flawed
The 1300 page Senate immigration bill that President Obama has been pushing
Boehner to allow a vote on in the House is no exception to the long list of
legislation that have failed to adequately address the issue of border security.
The Senate bill does a great deal in the way of granting amnesty to those who have
entered this country illegally and very little to ensure that the inflow of illegal
immigrants is stopped. The Senate
immigration bill will do little more than ensure the cycle of unlawful entry to
amnesty that has plagued this nation for decades continues.
In particular, there are two non-starters in the Senate bill for House
Republicans.
The first is that the Senate bill places legalization ahead of security. The majority of House Republicans have been adamant
that the borders must be secured before handing out legal status to those that
are already here. Failing to reform
immigration in that order is only asking for more immigrants to cross over the
boarder while the border security issue continues to get hung up in congress
and the courts. Republican lawmakers
have made the offer, time and again, to put forth legislation that first secures
the border and then works towards amnesty but those offers have been rejected
by democrats without debate.
The second non-started is that the bill simply does not stop the inflow if
illegal immigrants. According to an
analysis conducted by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the Senate
immigration bill will reduce illegal immigration by only one-third to one-half
and this prediction is made on the assumption that the president will actually
enforce the law and not make unilaterally changes to it that would weaken
boarder security.
The House also has a constitutional concern with the Senate bill which contains
some revenue-raising components. Per the
United States Constitution, all revenue bills must originate in the House.
Democrats Have No Interest in Securing the Boarder
If history is any indicator, the likelihood of democrats living up to any of
the border security measures proposed on the Senate immigration bill is slim to
none.
Republicans got duped in the 1986 immigration overhaul were 3 million
undocumented immigrants were granted the opportunity to apply for citizenship
in exchange for a secure border. Ronald Reagan
held up his end of the bargain but democrats reneged on theirs and the border
was never secured.
The same thing happened when George W Bush signed the Secure Fence Act into law
in 2007, a law that received tremendous bi-partisan support. And yet, the following year, with then House
Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi at the helm, funding for the act was slashed by House
appropriations, an action that is most certainly being reminisced by House Republicans
after last night’s promise of executive action on immigration by the president.
And it was just this past June that Nancy Pelosi described the United States as
a “community, with a border going through it” and added, “We are all Americans –
north and south in the hemisphere.”
It’s pretty hard to imagine that, with the democrat’s track record, they would
stand by any border security components legislated in the Senate immigration
bill thus giving no reason for Boehner to take up the bill. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me three and
four times, I’m just a lousy legislator.
This Is On Obama
The sentiment of House Republicans is both real and justified. The precedent of President Obama to assert
his executive authority and override laws has been demonstration well over a
dozen times on the ObamaCare law alone, not to mention executive actions he has
already taken on other immigration matters some of which resulted in a huge
inflow if illegal immigrants.
At the bidding of President Obama, the Senate immigration bill is another fine
example of political game play. A bill well-crafted
to foster strong bi-partisan support in the areas of amnesty but loosely
structured when it comes to the creation and enforcement of border security. And with no intention of compromise on the border
security issue, the president and his party have made it easy to portray House
Republicans as wanting to deport millions of illegal immigrants.
But the plan has backfired on the President as he lost his trump card, his
party’s control of the Senate.
House and Senate Republicans most certainly will be working together to bring a
piece or maybe even a number of pieces of legislation to their floors for
passage and then on to the President’s desk.
The legislation is likely to closely resemble the existing Senate immigration
bill in regards to the handling of the millions of illegal immigrants that are
already in this country leaving the president little excuse not to sign that piece
of legislation into law. There will also
be a piece of legislation that demands border security before any form of path
to citizenship can commence. The failure
of the president to sign this piece of legislation in to law will clearly show that
he has never had any intention to close our borders.
House Republicans have the voice of the people on their side, the majority of
which are in lock step agreement with their approach to immigration reform.
President Obama will have to make a choice.
He can compromise on the issue of border security or he can veto the Republican
bill(s) and take additional executive action to grant amnesty to millions of
illegal immigrants already here as well as keep the flow illegal immigrants
into our country alive. If he chooses
the latter he will then have to pray his actions survive legal challenge.
Let Us Not Forget the Constitution
All the immigration debates and legal wrangling that is set to take place in
both chambers of congress is pillow talk compared to the constitutional challenge
that will be set in motion when the president oversteps his constitutional authority
with the executive order he is getting ready to sign. President Obama is not a legislator; he is
the executive and therefor has no constitutional authority to change the law as
he has so stated he is going to do.
This is not an issue up for debate, it is implicit and intentional in the United
States Constitution as our founding fathers had the fortitude to see the
dangers of allowing the powers of one branch of government to reach into
another.
