We Love New Americans

Don Surber reports that Lee Greenwood will be doing a concert at Disney World at the 4th of July that will feature 1000 new legal immigrants taking the citizenship oath. Don writes:

And God bless those legal immigrants. They went through the paperwork. They studied hard. Many had to learn a new language. They showed a commitment to a nation that most of us take for granted.

The naturalized citizen is often the most patriotic and the most loyal to America — the person who cherishes our freedoms because in many cases, that person knew fewer freedoms in his native land.

This issue is fundamentally about the rule of law, not a hatred of Hispanics or immigrants in general as extremists on the other other side allege.

Jobs Americans Won’t Do

Via Don Surber, lawyers explain how they help clients run phony ad campaigns to get pre-chosen foreign workers into the country and waste job seekers time as they try and disqualify Americans. Patriotic folks, really.

Open Letter to Senator Lindsey Graham

Senator, I’m not one of your constituents, but I’ve followed your career for years. Let’s be honest, I’ve disagreed with you quite a few times, but I’ve never disrespected you. Certain folks have shown themselves people of good will and I can respect that no matter how misguided they might be, they truly mean the best.

While I disagreed with your vote against impeaching Clinton for perjury in a civil suit, I understood why you did it. You eloquently and ably represented the case of the House Impeachment managers on the articles that were sent to the House. Then, I read Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-Ok.) book, “Breach of Trust” where he described how you faced down Newt Gingrich and the Republican leadership over spending in 1997, as they prepared to bust the budget caps.

Yes, there have been some poor decisions and some votes I strongly disagreed with. Your support for McCain-Feingold and your membership in the gang of fourteen come immediately to mind, but there have been others, but I have never questioned your good intentions. Until now.

You’ve been going across the country identifying opponents of the illegal immigration bill as “bigots” and comparing concerns about illegal immigration to negative attitudes towards Blacks and Jews. Many questions run through my mind.

First, do you actually believe what you’re saying? Do you think that your fellow South Carolinian, Jim DeMint, is a bigot? Do you think your old comrade-in-arms in the House, Senator Coburn, is? While you can undoubtedly find anti-Hispanic bigots, they don’t represent the mainstream of this movement.

When I talk to people about the border, I find many have no problem with immigration provided that it’s done in accordance with the law. The great thing about America is that it is a land that takes people from all over the world and through the process of assimilation turns them into Americans.

There are many concerns with this bill. Senator Graham, why are those who oppose tearing down the rule of law through amnesty bigots? Our prosperity and safety rests on the respect for law in our country. When we tear that down through amnesty, we begin to chip away at the very foundation of what makes this nation worth emigrating to.

Senator Graham, why is it that people are bigots if they oppose the creation of a permanent underclass (i.e. guest workers) that will feed the corrupt Mexican government? Having once ended a system in this country that thrived on an underclass that did “the jobs Americans won’t do,” why are we now set to re-create it? Is this a bigoted question to ask? Were those folks against the African Slave trade really just anti-African bigots who didn’t want Blacks in their country?

Senator Graham, is it bigoted to expect that those who’ve waited in line and faced the insufferable US immigration bureaucracy be given first opportunity to come to our country rather than those who’ve broken the rules to come into our border? Is it racist to oppose punishing those who try to follow the law while rewarding those who break it? Am I a bigot because I think there is no way you can dump 12-20 million (or 30-40 million, who knows?) new applications for Visas from illegals and get anything other than a massive backlog that leads to permanent amnesty without punishment or accountability?

These are legitimate concerns, but it seems to me you’re so dedicated to passing this amnesty that you’ll declare all legitimate concerns to be nothing more than bigotry. In the process, you’re destroying the Republican Party. Do you want to be in the same party as “the bigots”? Do those who oppose amnesty want to be in a party with those who will demagogue and demonize us in order to make their point? Senator, to me it appears you’re acting like a child, throwing a tantrum with a hammer, not even understanding the damage you’re doing.

If you can actually listen to us long enough to stop demonizing us, maybe at last you’ll understand why we oppose this bill, and address our concerns in a serious and substantive way, rather than with name calling and personal attacks.

Sincerely Yours,
Adam Graham

(no relation)

US Border security

Lindsey Graham Goes Off Again

Hugh Hewitt shares part of Senator Graham on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”:

We’ve been down this road before. No Catholics. No Jews. Irish need not apply

Senator Graham is going down the road demagogue, unable to understand that people of good will might disagree with him. He’s stinking it up for conservatives in general. Alas, I think I’ll have to change my last name before this is over.

Don’t Trust Them

Some Senate Republicans are promising immediate money for border enforcement in the immigration amnesty bill:

It is a political tightrope fraught with peril, but the members know they need more Republican support to break through the logjam.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a principle author of the amendment with Republican Sens. Jon Kyl and Mel Martinez, says his amendment is designed to be “a confidence builder” to address members’ concerns that ramped up border security provisions in the bill won’t, in the end, get funded.

Graham hopes to provide $4.4 billion the day the bill is signed, through an estimate in fees and fines in the current immigration bill, to be used to beef up all the border security measures in the bill, with an additional $800 million for further measures, taking from measures put forward last year by New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg who called for more investment in capital infrastructure, like unmanned aerial vehicles and new Coast Guard boats.

That’s expectating about 8.8 million people to pay fines for Z-Visas. Given the immediate stay that many are getting at the front end of the bill, I sincerely doubt that. Let’s see some enforcement from the Administration and enforcement-only bill to insure our border’s secure before politicians try to go behind that.

Don’t Let Them Win

The following is a commentary from the Truth and Hope Report Weekend update by Democratic Political Dave Screwtape

The conservative grassroots is celebrating the death of the comprehensive immigration reform bill. This is a dangerous situation. Conservatives have spent much of the year angry, dispirited, and discontented: exactly the position we want them to be in. Anything close to victory or exultation must be avoided.

For starters, it falls to Democrats to return to the table and work out a compromise that still includes a path to citizenship, dare I say, amnesty! We must have the support of corporately-minded Republicans in the Senate and House. It may seem odd, but in this debate, we and big business Republicans both have a stake in this bill.

For us, it’s an opportunity to create a permanent voting block. For them, it’s an opportunity to please their corporate masters by providing them a steady supply of cheap labor. Everyone wins in the short term, and we will dominate politics for the next half century once the wave of poor and poorly educated immigrants join our nation’s citizenry.

It’s important that this be done now. If we can get a bill that includes amnesty through Congress, we will have a delightful time watching the GOP implode for the next election. The GOP will split in two and we will roll to the first of many victories in November, 2008.

Proper steps must be taken to insure this happens. First, have Republicans out front on this bill. Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC.) has claimed the mantle as amnesty’s best friend and I see no reason to seize it. Having him out front gives the anti-immigration forces a clear GOP face. Also when it comes time for the House to vote, our goal should be a vote of 217-216 in favor. Allow members who would be endangered by supporting the bill to vote “no” to lessen the impact to our party.

The goal is to insure that anti-immigration groups (and organized labor) can’t blame us for the bill. If you want to blame someone, it’s all the President’s fault. If we fail to get this done now and get a Democratic President to go along with Congress, we’ll have a hard time blaming the Republicans. This highlights a key lesson I learned in the early 1990s with the First President Bush’s tax increase. If you and a Republican agree on an unpopular measure: blame the measure on the Republican.

We do have a couple factors in our favor on this issue. First, we have those folks who will become lazy and apathetic and let the pressure off Washington now that the amnesty has been temporarily avoided. This will allow money and special interest groups to place the pressure back on to get a bill done.

Secondly, we’ll have those who will fail to realize they won a victory. Such was the case in the 2006 election. The House and Senate Republicans came to a stalemate over comprehensive immigration reform and many people in favor of enforcing the border became angry and pledged to never support another Republican.
Of course, these folks might have considered that building a fence was the most Congress could do for their cause with Bush in office. The resultant increase in the Democratic seats in Congress allowed amnesty to have a chance of coming into being.

Third, we’re lucky to have people who are unable to come up with a constructive solution. Resigning their party and pledging never to support a Republican again are just a few ways in which anti-immigration folks marginalize themselves and guarantee that.

Given the presence of such characteristics in the anti-immigrant crowd, our task of defeating nationalists is important, but not all that difficult. The anti-immigration people will take care of half the job for us.

The Screwtape Report is written by Adam Graham. The Screwtape Report is written from a Democratic perspective by a conservative in order to reveal Democratic strategy and thinking.

Idaho Senators Split on the Rule of Law

As is usual of Oklahoma’s Junior Senator, Tom Coburn introduced an Amendment that forced people to take a tough stand. His proposal would have required existing laws be enforced before amnesty is granted. The vote failed 42-54 with Idaho’s Senators split.

Senator Crapo (R-Id.) continued to show the understanding that has been critical throughout this debate, while Senator Craig unfortunately more closely followed a pattern of siding with amnesty ahead of enforcement and insuring the law is followed.

Both men voted against cloture and stopped Reid’s attempt to ram the amnesty down the Senate’s throat.

Will we have additional Amendments, or is this thing truly dead as some have declared? Regardless, we have to be on the watch to fight tha amnesty wherever it might rear its head.

So It’s Not a Democratic Bill?

I’ve been hearing this quote from Senator Reid being circulated through the media:

“This bill that’s on the floor is not a Democratic bill, it is a bill that was worked on by Democrats and Republicans in cooperation with the president.’’

I’ve seen several sources that have quoted only the, “This is not a Democratic bill” portion. It most certainly is. The bill is sponsored by the Majority Leader with Co-Sponsors Senator Kennedy (D-Ma.), Senator Menedez (D-NJ.), Senator Salazar (D-Co.), and Senator Leahy (D-VT.) and despite talk about this being another failure for the President, it also can be called a failure for a Congress that has thankfully accomplished nothing.

How NOT To Fight Amnesty

Confederate Yankee praises the Ace of Spades suggestion:

Write, call, and fax your Congressmen and Senators — especially Republican ones — and let them know you will never vote for them or their party again should the immigration bill actually pass.
And let them know that you don’t particularly trust them on national security, spending, or taxes either, so they won’t wrongly believe those trump cards will still win the hand for them. Let them know if this isn’t scuttled — if the border isn’t secured first, verifiably, before any amnesty legislation passes — you will no longer vote for, volunteer for, or donate to any Republican candidate for any office ever again.

Not a dime, not a vote.

The Confederate Yankee adds in a letter to Senators Burr and Dole:

Tonight, I will tell my readers, conservative Republicans, fence-sitting conservative Democrats and moderates, that if the Senate passes the pending illegal alien amnesty bill, that I will formally abandon the Republican party, as it has abandoned me. I will then ask them to do the same. I will ask that they refuse to contribute to Republican campaigns. I will ask them to stay at home and refuse to vote for Republican candidates, or even consider voting for Democrats in protest in 2008.

And today, I will tell you that what is being proposed is plain and simple idiocy. Who are the opponents of amnesty, almost to a person? Republicans. What Confederate Yankee/Ace of Spades are saying is, “Let’s punish those people who oppose amnesty along with those who supported it. That will show them.” Indeed, it will. Electing a bunch of Democrats who are even worse than the Republicans to protest how bad the Republicans are will make people in Washington think America wants more liberalism and more amnesty.

Last year in the Republican House, the Amnesty Bill was deader than a door nail. There were thousands of e-mails forwarded telling us not to vote Republicans and now with GOP losses in the House and Speaker Pelosi in power, we’ll get the amnesty.

Do these people how to be constructive? How about throwing the bums out in the primary, taking some money and spending it on a Conservative Candidate for the White House like John Cox who is a stalwart against illegal immigration and the country’s fiscal mess. Heck, I give the Constitution Party more points for creativity and guts. Instead, it seems some people would rather just throw a hissy fit rather than actually doing something. Well folks, I’m in the “Do Something Caucus” and I’ll keep fighting for America, and for the time being that will continue to be in the GOP because that’s where the people who are fighting for this country’s values are. Yes, there are some amnesty sell-outs, a whole mess of them, but throwing a temper tantrum is not an option for me or anyone who expects to make a difference.

The Power of Pressure

As immigration stands ready to destroy what would otherwise be a great campaign among Conservatives, Brownback appears to be moving in the right direction. Oh, the power of political pressure to change a politician.

IVB Calls For Freeing Border Age

Very interesting news on the border agents and one of the prosecutions chief arguments for guilt (i.e.) that they didn’t report the incident:

One of the charges against Compean and Ramos was that they failed to report the Feb. 17, 2005, incident as part of their efforts to cover it up. But a previously unpublished internal Homeland Security Department memo discloses that seven Border Patrol agents, including Compean and Ramos, as well as two supervisors were at the scene.

The presence of the two supervisors at the scene explains why the two didn’t file a report. They didn’t feel they had to since their supervisors — Robert Arnold, a supervisory Border Patrol agent, and Jonathan Richards, a field operations supervisor — were there.

Andy Ramirez, who has watched the case unfold as chairman of the group Friends of the Border Patrol, told World Net Daily: “The Border Patrol manual specifies that only a verbal report needs to be made of shooting incidents like this. All the agents in the field were discussing the shooting incident, including the supervisors. What more of a verbal report needed to be made?”

What more indeed. And why, for that matter, weren’t all nine charged with obstruction of justice and failing to report the incident? The feds say it was because only the two discharged their weapons. The DHS memo says all were equally culpable and that others tried to “conceal” evidence of the shooting.

Come on, Mr. President, do the right thing and pardon these men.

Despicable

The handling of the case of two border patrol agents imprisoned for enforcing the law (they shot a drug dealer who was fleeing arrest. The Drug dealer had brought over 700 pounds of pot to sell on America’s streets.)

Now, one of these border patrol agents has been subjected to a beating:

“Nacho was assaulted Saturday night around 2200 by about five illegal immigrants. He has multiple and severe injuries. They put him in Isolation for now, he has not been allowed to see a doctor since Saturday. They were yelling at him in Spanish, Maten a la migra. which means kill the Border Patrol Agent.”

Another family member said Nacho was attacked after he fell asleep Saturday night. Assaulters went after him with repeated blows and kicks. Ramos suffered wounds to his back, shoulder, arms and head. There is concern that Agent Ramos was not given medical treatment after the incident and may not have received medical attention for up to 48 hours. An investigation is expected to be launched Tuesday.

This follows this heart breaking entry, from Ramos’ wife, Monica:

Hello, everyone. Today is a very sad day for my children and I. Today is Nacho’s birthday and we have not heard from him since the middle of last week.

My 7 year-old remembered this morning and asked if we could buy their dad a cake and still celebrate. We are hopeful that he will get an opportunity to call us tonight, because the boys would like to sing to him. I told him that we could celebrate and they could blow out his candles for him.

I am trying to make flight arrangements to go see him, but the tickets are running $1,300. for the 4 of us. I will do everything I can to make sure we get up there.

This action is one of the biggest travesties I’ve seen in my life. America’s Most Wanted told the public the truth on Saturday Night:

It’s up to us. Nearly 300,000 Americans have signed a petition to free these two brave men. Please join us. This is a battle for justice. Spread the word.

Hat Tip: Stop the ACLU

Just Do It

Headline from Fox News “President Bush Would Consider Pardoning Border Agents Convicted of Shooting Drug Runner“.

These men, as I talked about this morning are people who actually guarded and protected our border and stopped 800 pounds of illegal drugs from hitting American streets. They ought to be getting a medal, not a trip to prison. Mr. President, don’t consider it, to quote Nike, just do it.

Christians and Illegal Immigration

LaShawn Barber throws down the gauntlet on those who are playing the Christian card in the illegal immigration debate:

Some people make the ludicrous argument that I can’t speak out against illegal “immigration” because I am a Christian. I expect such ignorance from unbelievers, but it’s 10 times as irritating when Christians say it. “Ministering to all people” and spreading the Gospel are not in conflict with my opposition to giving criminal aliens the gift of American citizenship.

Whenever some Christian starts ragging on me about how “un-Christian” my views on illegal aliens are, I ask them to tell me what criticism they’ve leveled against illegal aliens who profess Christ. In anticipation of the sounds of chirping crickets, I give them an out: Hypothetically, what would you say to the illegal alien who professes Christ?

LaShawn has even more thoughts. Click above to read the whole piece.

The Political Language of Euphemism

The changing of the meaning of words is an amazing thing in Washington. Pro-Life Blogs links to an interesting MSNBC piece on how language has been redefined by both sides of the aisle. One that’s on there is “amnesty.” If you go to Washington, the fact is that everyone says they’re “not proposing amnesty” only to be accused of proposing amnesty.

I don’t know of any debate where the terms have become so muddled we’re dancing around the issue rather than addressing it head on. Maybe we should grant “amnesty” for the word “amnesty” and simply talk about the effect of the policy. I sense a podcast coming on.