WORK PERMITS banned from his speech tonight but not from the Obama amnesty. DECEPTION?

So, forgive me for a little satisfaction that when the Associated Press sent out a group of reactions to the speech tonight, they included one from me that focused on the two most important words that were NOT in the speech – WORK PERMITS!

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Wasn’t this the place to say something more like, “All we’re saying is we’re not going to deport you, {text}

I know some of the critics of this action call it amnesty. Well, it’s not. Amnesty is the immigration system we have today – millions of people who live here without paying their taxes or playing by the rules, while politicians use the issue to scare people and whip up votes at election time.

Hmmmm, so the 5 million people who the President spent most of his speech lauding are people who have NOT been playing by the rules and – apparently the worst offense of all – not paying taxes. To not make them legal (and not give them work permits, although that was supposed to be a secret) would be to give them amnesty, don’t you see? But the President is going to make them pay for their rule-breaking by . . . well, by paying taxes. But only future taxes and not any back taxes.

Again, we should all pat ourselves on the back. Through the years, we have been so successful in helping the American people see the gross injustice of amnesty that the chief supporters of it have had to re-define it.

Speaking of re-definitions:

What I’m describing is accountability – a commonsense, middle ground approach: If you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. If you’re a criminal, you’ll be deported. If you plan to enter the U.S. illegally, your chances of getting caught and sent back just went up.

I think he may be into re-defining “middle ground” as well as “accountability.”

Since the President didn’t happen to mention the millions of new work permits, it was easier for him to dismiss the economic concerns of ordinary Americans:

I know that some worry immigration will change the very fabric of who we are, or take our jobs, or stick it to middle-class families at a time when they already feel like they’ve gotten the raw end of the deal for over a decade. I hear these concerns. But that’s not what these steps would do.

I heard almost no signal that our President believes that nations have immigration laws to protect the interests of its citizens. Nor did I hear that anybody other than a bad criminal doesn’t deserve to live here, regardless of whether they are invited.

Are we a nation that tolerates the hypocrisy of a system where workers who pick our fruit and make our beds never have a chance to get right with the law? Or are we a nation that gives them a chance to make amends, take responsibility, and give their kids a better future?

Note to the rest of the world: Pay a drug cartel to smuggle you here. Or violate the promises you made in getting your visitor visa. All will be forgiven if you work in agriculture or the hospitality industry.

And finally we got the big emotional finish to the speech that summed up the Presidential speech writers’ idea of what it means to be an American:

Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger – we were strangers once, too. My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too. And whether our forebears were strangers who crossed the Atlantic, or the Pacific, or the Rio Grande, we are here only because this country welcomed them in, and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, or what our last names are, or how we worship. What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal – that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will. That’s the country our parents and grandparents and generations before them built for us. That’s the tradition we must uphold. That’s the legacy we must leave for those who are yet to come.

According to the Rev. Obama, doing anything other than allowing illegal migrants to remain in a country (and giving them work permits, if you are in on the secret) would be oppressing them, I guess.

And, I’m trying to follow the logic of the focus group leaders and the speech writers: Because nearly all of us Americans have ancestors who were immigrants, we do not have the right to regulate the number of people who can immigrate in the future or to enforce the rules for those who disobey the rules. That would betray our heritage.

Apparently, Americans are the only people in the world who believe in equality and the chance to “make of our lives what we will.” So, anybody in the world who believes in equality and wants to “do it myyyyyyyyy way” is by definition an American and ought to have the right to live here? After all, “THAT’S THE TRADITION WE MUST UPHOLD. THAT’S THE LEGACY WE MUST LEAVE FOR THOSE WHO ARE YET TO COME.”

I sort of apologize for being so sarcastic. But I am so offended that the President and his team think we Americans are so stupid that they don’t have to include any logic in this speech. I don’t really believe that this President thinks we should have open borders. But I can’t find anything in his speech that tells me what our immigration system is supposed to do or how it would work.

AND WHY DID THE PRESIDENT AND HIS TEAM THINK HE SHOULD GO TO SUCH GREAT LENGTHS TO CONCEAL THOSE TWO WORDS . . .

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ROY BECK is Founder & President of NumbersUSA