Fareed Zakaria, one of the scions of DC punditry, has finally faced the facts that current Biden policies on immigration are completely wrong. More remarkably, he has taken that indubitable reality to its logical conclusion–Zakaria calls for closing the border to asylum applicants while the system attempts to absorb the millions already in the pipeline.
Milton Friedman once wrote “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.” While evidence of this truism abounds, one of the greatest examples is Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The Biden Administration just announced a massive expansion of TPS for Venezuela that the government estimates extends protection from removal and employment authorization documents (EADs) to 472,000 additional aliens present in the country.
Much has been made of how surge in illegal immigration into cities as far from the border as Chicago and New York threaten the fiscal resilience of the receiving cities (Mayor Adams says the migrant crisis will "destroy New York City"), and the impact on resilience doesn't end there.
Both The New York Times and The Washington Post have recently published pieces where one conservative columnist and one liberal columnist get together and talk about issues to see if they can find some common ground. You'll never be able to guess what they could all agree on!
When it comes to debates over immigration, one of the common errors is distinguishing between aliens who enter legally as opposed to illegally. Often, we are told that legal immigration is beneficial, but illegal immigration is harmful. A recent Washington Times article highlights an extreme example of this by calling for admission of a million H-1B aliens while deporting the illegal alien population.
What is, and where is, the American Dream for you?
Is it Rural? Urban? Suburban? I offer that it doesn't matter. "Better, richer, and happier" can happen in all three so long as we preserve our ability to choose which lifestyle we want. Many economic and social factors can affect our lifestyle choices. But how often does one consider the additional effects of immigration-driven population growth on limiting choice?
Southern District of Texas District Court Judge Hanen finally ruled against the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program after years of legal back-and-forth. The short (by judicial standards) 40-page opinion is a bit anticlimactic, largely because the Federal government put up very little fight. In fact, if you examine the history of DACA closely, it never seemed like the Democrats who created it cared all that much.
Sen. Ted Cruz introduced the Senate companion to H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act. The legislation was passed by the House of Representatives in May and would require all employers to use E-Verify, close asylum loopholes, and end the Biden Administration's abuse of parole for illegal aliens, among other things. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), JD Vance (R-Ohio), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and John Kennedy (R-La.) are original cosponsors.
The CHIPS Act was hailed as bringing the vitally important semiconductor industry to the United States. Part of the benefit sold to taxpayers footing the bill on this $50 billion+ investment was that it would create jobs for Americans. While that sounds like a good bargain, the industries gaining tax credits and Federal grants have started singing the old “labor shortage” tune.
The polarization of both the House and Senate has made it largely impossible to pass legislative overhauls without some parliamentary chicanery. Obamacare, Trump’s tax cuts, and Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act were all passed under the budget reconciliation process which allows a simple majority in the Senate to bypass the legislative filibuster. For anyone serious about stopping the border crisis that is engulfing the nation in a state of emergency, it is time to use the coming spending fight to force broad reform of the immigration system.