Earlier this week, Republican Rep. Iliana Ros-Lehtinen told The Hill that she worries about the GOP's chances of winning the White House in 2016 because the party hasn't backed a mass amnesty for illegal aliens. But a brand new poll from Pew Hispanic Research on the voting tendencies of Hispanic Americans reveals something very different.
At a Town Hall meeting on Thursday, Pres. Obama said it would be political "suicide" for Republicans not to embrace a mass amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, and he reinforced plans to move forward with a large-scale executive action that would grant amnesty and work permits to millions of illegal aliens after the November elections.
When we heard that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was set to announce a new set of principles that Republicans across the country could rally around, the initial thought was that it couldn't be worse than the Autopsy Report that the Party released shortly after the 2012 presidential elections. Back then, Priebus and the Party called on Republicans to embrace "comprehensive immigration reform" eventually leading to the bipartisan, but, thus-far, failed Gang of Eight amnesty bill. Instead, Priebus' speech indicated that Washington could be hearing the message about the impact of mass immigration on American workers.
As we approach the end of the second full month of the border crisis, we're learning more about the impacts it's having on local communities across the country.
Pres. Obama's request to Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency funding to address the border crisis hasn't exactly been warmly received. Maybe it's because nearly half of the funds requested ($1.8 billion) would go Health and Human Services to relocate illegal aliens across the country. Or maybe it's because more than $15 million would go to immigration lawyers to defend Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) in deportation hearings that won't happen for several years -- and that's if they even show up for the hearing.
For nearly a month, the Southwest border, and especially the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas, has been overrun by illegal border crossings, many of which have been unaccompanied minors while Americans have been forced to sit back and watch. That starts to change today as the House of Representatives brings the Department of Defense Authorization Act of 2015 to the floor, and a few Members are offering amendments to provide some relief to the Border Patrol's efforts.
While most of the media extolled an op-ed written this week by Tea Party Express founder, Sal Russo, calling for amnesty and increases in legal immigration, they missed the extraordinary defense of the American worker by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).
Within minutes of the Associated Press calling last night's North Carolina 2nd Congressional District primary for Rep. Renee Ellmers, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg's pro-amnesty group, FWD.us, congratulated her on both its Facebook page and on Twitter. FWD.us called the election results a "clear sign voters are ready for immigration reform" after dumping a six-figure ad buy into her district to help her win the primary. The ads, however, claimed she opposes amnesty, but FWD.us' vision of "immigration reform" clearly includes amnesty for the nation's 11-18 million illegal aliens.
On Wednesday, Pres. Obama sent mixed messages to the American people. In the first half of the day, he once again expressed his support for the Senate-approved amnesty bill, S.744, that would issue more than 30 million lifetime work permits in the first decade. In the afternoon, he told a group of working-class Americans that he'd like to spend $600 million more to expand programs that train low-skilled American workers for high-tech jobs that pay more money.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is touting a new report from the American Farm Bureau in response to House Speaker John Boehner's recent statement that "immigration reform" is in jeopardy until Pres. Obama enforces existing immigration laws. The report's supposed shock factor is based on the claim that food prices in the United States will increase 5-6% over the next 5 years with an enforcement-first strategy.