Teaparty leader Grover Norquist hypes amnesty, wants "dramatically more immigrants in the U.S." (+ Ali Noorani, Leith Anderson, Shurtleff)

One reason to oppose the Tea Parties is because their leaders support amnesty and massive immigration (see Koch family and FreedomWorks).

For just the latest example, low-tax advocate and Teaparty leader Grover Norquist attended today's "Midwest Summit: Forging a New Consensus on Immigrants and America" and said the following (link):

"Immigration is the most important thing to focus if you're concerned about America as an economic power. Not only is it good policy to have dramatically more immigrants in the U.S. than we do today and a path for those who are here; it's also good politics. In fact, restrictionist policies are bad electoral policies."

Why that's wrong has been dealt with here extensively over the years; see comprehensive immigration reform for many of the downsides of amnesty (note: the word "path" means a path to citizenship, aka some kind of what's colloquially known as amnesty). Increasing legal immigration even more would involve some combination of skilled immigration or immigration by the lower-skilled. The latter would give even more power to those Norquist pretends to oppose: the free-spending far-left and the Democratic Party. It would also give even more power inside the U.S. to foreign governments, especially the Mexican government.

Norquist's "good politics" would be great for the Democrats, who'd get millions of new voters out of the deal. What he calls "restrictionist policies" would - if handled correctly - be incredibly good electoral politics because it would be fairly easy for a smart, aggressive "restrictionist" to discredit his opponents.

Back in 2007, Norquist sat side-by-side with the far-left American Civil Liberties Union, National Council of La Raza, and Service Employees International Union to say much the same thing.

Who was he palling around with this time? Among others, these people:

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller:
"State governments are understandably frustrated with the failure of the federal government to perform its duty establishing immigration policy and enforcing existing immigration laws. Our hope is that a candid discussion of the impact on states and communities will help refocus attention on states' needs in terms of public safety, education and commerce as leaders reform U.S. immigration policies, consistent with our constitutional principles."

Leith Anderson, President, National Association of Evangelicals:
"There is a massive shift on immigration that is occurring within the evangelical churches in America. We discovered that when pastors of our churches teach what the bible says, people's attitudes change on immigration. If people read about what the Old Testament says on welcoming the stranger, people change their minds."

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, State of Utah:
"In Utah, law enforcement officers do not want to become ICE agents because they feel that is not their responsibility. Police officers are already busy doing their jobs and do not want an extra burden. As law enforcement officers, we believe that punitive immigration laws are actually harmful to public safety."

Ali Noorani, Executive Director, National Immigration Forum:
"The winds of the immigration debate are changing. From the Midwest to the Southeast to the Mountain West, people who wear badges, run businesses and carry bibles are building a new consensus on immigrants and America."