secure the border
"Secure the border"
Summary (posts follow):
When someone harps on "securing the border", that's sometimes a clue that they're trying to fool people, as John McCain tried to do. After the border is "secure", some of them will push for an amnesty of some kind. We do need to secure the border, and not all those who harp on securing the border are being deceptive. Their other policies need to be taken into account.
For instance, if they say "secure the border first", you need to find out what's second and make sure it isn't some form of comprehensive immigration reform, aka amnesty.
Last modified Jan 30, 2009
Discussed in (click each link for the full post):
Negotiating surrender: White House admits they want DACA amnesty, releases list of demands - 10/08/17
Donald Trump has now admitted that he's open to legalizing hundreds of thousands (or more) of DACA recipients, releasing a list of demands. Instead of fighting to stop amnesty, Trump has indicated he's open to negotiating the terms of surrender.
It doesn't matter that Dem leaders have already rejected his demands: he's a deal maker and he'll seek some sort of middle ground he and they could be happy with no matter how it will harm Americans.
His demands include (full document below):
Donald Trump threatens amnesty yet again (60 Minutes, transition 2017) - 11/13/16
Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to legalize millions of illegal aliens. He did it before he was elected and now at least twice after being elected.
Donald Trump's first Congressional endorsement: pro-amnesty Renee Ellmers - 06/04/16
Donald Trump has issued his first Congressional endorsement: to Renee Ellmers of North Carolina. The Trump robocall endorsing her - from Ellmer's Youtube channel - is below. Ellmers is a supporter of what Trump supporters would call "amnesty". From a 2014 Ellmers OpEd [1]:
Greg Orman misleads on immigration using cookie cutter talking points - 09/28/14
[UPDATE: Orman supports the 2013 Senate amnesty bill, see below]
Greg Orman is the independent candidate for Senate from Kansas. His thoughts on immigration are completely unoriginal and just as deceptive.
Confused GOP funder Sheldon Adelson promotes immigration amnesty, misleads - 06/19/14
The Republican billionaires are coming out of the woodwork to support amnesty. A couple of days ago it was Fox News' Rupert Murdoch, today it's casino magnate and major GOP funder Sheldon Adelson.
GOP "Standards for Immigration Reform": how it's wrong, how it won't work, what you can do - 01/30/14
The GOP "Standards for Immigration Reform" have been released. It's a short summary of the guidelines the Republican Party leadership will use for their own amnesty push.
First I'll quote the full document, followed by a discussion of some of the ways it won't work and it misleads. That's followed by some very effective things you can do to stop the GOP effort.
Eric Schmitt's strange immigration talking point (Missouri state senator) - 10/17/13
The video below shows Missouri state senator Eric Schmitt using one of the more obscure and more telling talking points: the one described on the Safe Legal Orderly page.
Ted Cruz wants to legalize most illegal aliens, double legal immigration, increase H1B cap to 325,000 - 09/29/13
On the video below [1], Senator Ted Cruz of Texas finally confirms just how bad he is on immigration. Rather than strongly opposing the Senate amnesty bill and completely opposing any form of mass legalization, Ted Cruz wanted to "fix" the Senate bill.
On the video, Cruz talks about what his amendments would do. This is what he supports:
Catholic College Presidents promote bad, immoral immigration policy (ACCU letter to Congress) - 07/19/13
Yesterday 93 presidents of Catholic colleges and universities sent a letter to all members of Congress demanding that they support comprehensive immigration reform (see the link for the downsides of that plan).
I'll quote the letter and then briefly describe how it deceives and promotes bad policy. From the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities ("ACCU") letter [1]:
Questions for Kelly Ayotte about comprehensive immigration reform (amnesty, New Hampshire) - 06/09/13
New Hampshire senator Kelly Ayotte comes out for comprehensive immigration reform (aka amnesty) in an OpEd entitled "Why I'm backing legislation to fix our broken immigration system" [1].
Chuck Schumer: don't make border security a "barrier" to giving citizenship to illegal aliens (2013 amnesty) - 01/31/13
Speaking earlier today, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York) said this about the plans for comprehensive immigration reform, aka amnesty [1]:
Paul Ryan supports Marco Rubio's immigration amnesty - 01/14/13
On his Facebook page, Rep. Paul Ryan writes [1]:
Senator Rubio is exactly right on the need to fix our broken immigration system. I support the principles he's outlined: modernization of our immigration laws; stronger security to curb illegal immigration; and respect for the rule of law in addressing the complex challenge of the undocumented population. Our future depends on an immigration system that works.
Sen. Rand Paul now supports immigration amnesty (Kentucky, illegal aliens) - 11/13/12
Kentucky senator Rand Paul is just the latest Tea Party leader to capitulate on an immigration amnesty for illegal aliens. From this:
Mitt Romney wimps out on immigration, again (Univision, "our system isn't to deport people") - 09/20/12
Yesterday, Mitt Romney was interviewed on Univision by Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas; a transcript of his answers about immigration is below.
Elizabeth Emken on immigration: weak, GOP boilerplate (amnesty, California, Feinstein) - 09/10/12
Elizabeth Emken is the GOP challenger to Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, a state that's been greatly harmed by massive illegal immigration.
Democratic Party 2012 platform on immigration: why it's wrong - 09/04/12
The section about immigration in the Democratic Party 2012 platform is below. It only has broad outlines and countless Democratic leaders have repeated these same things many times before.
They were wrong then, and the platform is wrong now (see each link for the details):
GOP 2012 Platform on immigration - 08/29/12
The following are all of the excerpts in the GOP 2012 platform that mention immigration.
The entire text is available here: scribd.com/doc/104097929/Final-Language-GOP-Platform-2012
Paul Ryan is bad on immigration, find out how much (Mitt Romney VP pick) - 08/11/12
Paul Ryan - Mitt Romney's choice for running mate - is on the wrong side of the immigration issue. Not only would he harm middle- and working-class Americans and help the wealthy in direct economic ways, but he'd do the same on the immigration front as well.
Ted Cruz keeps saying the same things on immigration (attrition, amnesty) - 07/27/12
In Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, an ambassador visited an outpost for a few days, schmoozing with the locals. After he'd left, an official went to the leader of the outpost and said (paraphrasing), "we analyzed the ambassador's remarks, and he said absolutely nothing all the time he was here."
Mitt Romney NALEO speech: ever weaker on immigration (chain green cards, comprehensive reform, guest workers) - 06/21/12
Mitt Romney spoke to NALEO - the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials - earlier today and went even weaker on immigration. Excerpts of his remarks, a discussion, and video are below.
Texas 2012 GOP platform goes "liberal" on immigration (IRCOT, Koch) - 06/09/12
The Texas GOP has passed their 2012 platform, and it includes an immigration plank that some will present as somewhat "liberal" or "lenient".
Susana Martinez is bad on immigration, supports amnesty and a DREAM Act plan (Mitt Romney, New Mexico) - 05/15/12
New Mexico governor Susana Martinez appeared to be somewhat OK on immigration in the past: she opposed drivers licenses for illegal aliens and the DREAM Act.
Mitt Romney now pandering on immigration reform - 04/03/12
Mitt Romney and his incompetent advisors are inching him closer and closer to a weak immigration position that validates Obama's position on the issue. Romney's advisors clearly aren't smart enough to understand that won't work.
10 things Obama's "Blueprint for an America Built to Last" doesn't tell you (immigration) - 02/01/12
After the State of the Union speech, the Barack Obama administration released a "Blueprint for an America Built to Last" [1]. I'll briefly describe what the section about immigration doesn't tell you. Here's the section of the Blueprint that deals with immigration:
Rick Perry's unworkable immigration idea: work visas for illegal aliens (John King, CNN, secure the border) - 11/04/11
Rick Perry appeared on CNN's John King show yesterday and supported an unworkable plan: giving work visas to the millions of illegal aliens in the U.S.
2006: Gil Cedillo supports illegal immigration boycott, shills for cheap labor employers - 09/18/11
The video below has a 2006 speech from California state Assemblyman Gil Cedillo in support of a resolution supporting the "Great American Boycott" immigration march.
CNN Teaparty GOP debate: September 12, 2011 (Rick Perry, Romney, Bachmann, Ron Paul) - 09/12/11
Tonight CNN will be conducting a GOP debate in conjunction with the Teaparty Express organization. Feel free to leave comments below before, during or after the debate. This post will be updated after a transcript becomes available.
Public Religion Research Institute's misleading poll (immigration, DREAM Act, Brookings Institution) - 09/06/11
The Public Religion Research Institute ("PRRI") has released a poll called "What it Means to be American: Attitudes in an Increasingly Diverse America Ten Years after 9/11" (publicreligion.org/research/?id=680) which includes a few questions about immigration. I'll explain how two of the poll questions are misleading (see immigration poll for other misleading polls about this issue).
George Will, Michelle Rhee, Mel Martinez, Jose Vargas all hype anti-American DREAM Act and mass immigration (Christiane Amanpour) - 07/03/11
George Will, Michelle Rhee, Mel Martinez, and Jose Vargas appeared on ABC News' This Week earlier today, and all of them together with host
Newt Gingrich offers false choice, supports incremental amnesty, doesn't challenge CNN for misleading on immigration (GOP 6/13/11 debate) - 06/13/11
At tonight's GOP debate, both moderator John King and candidate Newt Gingrich offered a false choice on immigration. Instead of calling King on offering a misleading choice, Gingrich offered the same false choice.
With millions unemployed, Ag Secy Tom Vilsack demeans American workers, promotes amnesty, opposes enforcement, uses bogus talking points, opposes eVerify - 05/27/11
Secretary of the Department of Agriculture Tom Vilsack held a press conference on Wednesday in which he demeaned American workers, promoted immigration "reform", opposed immigration enforcement, and used a series of bogus immigration talking points.
An account of his remarks is here, with more excerpts at [1].
1. Vilsack ran down American workers, saying: "While some American citizens step up and take (farm) jobs, the truth is even when farmers make their best effort to recruit a domestic workforce, few citizens express interest. In large part that's because this is hard, tough work." The...
Obama misleads about immigration yet again (May 10, 2011 El Paso version) - 05/10/11
For the past three years or so, Barack Obama has been giving the same immigration speech. In fact, his speeches about the topic aren't that much different from those that George W Bush and a multitude of other hacks have read.
Richard Marosi of LAT pretends: Obama has secured the border so much, Border Patrol agents are falling asleep - 05/02/11
Richard Marosi of the Los Angeles Times offers the sleepy "Plunge in border crossings leaves agents fighting boredom/ Arrests of illegal crossers along the Southwest border dropped more than two-thirds from 2000 to 2010, from 1.6 million to 448,000" (link).
Obama misleads on immigration at Facebook; Zuckerberg and incompetent/corrupt GOP, Teaparty leaders help - 04/21/11
Barack Obama spoke live over Facebook yesterday at an event sponsored by that company. He misled about immigration and promoted an anti-American bill. He got direct help with his attempt to mislead from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and he got indirect help from corrupt or incompetent GOP and Teaparty leaders:
Haley Barbour lobbied for Mexican government, now misleads about amnesty - 02/15/11
Mississippi governor Haley Barbour is so bad on immigration that in 2001 he lobbied for the Mexican government on a "mini-amnesty". If you aren't familiar with that government's activities inside the U.S., see that link.
Now that his lobbying activities [1] have come to light, he's responded by misleading about amnesty and promoting very bad policies. From a statement he released in response [2]:
"Before there can be immigration reform, we must secure our borders. Only after that can any reforms be achieved, and those can’t include amnesty... Everybody knows we are not going to put ten or...
Newt Gingrich supports some parts of DREAM Act; supports guest workers; uses false choice; sounds like Hoffenblum - 12/06/10
The audio below (also at peekURL.com/vkhylh1 ) has Newt Gingrich clarifying his immigration stance to Laura Ingraham. A round-up is here. In the interview, Gingrich supports at least one part of the anti-American DREAM Act:
"I think that it’s legitimate to say, if you’re willing to risk your life for two or three years, serving to protect the United States, we will be willing to consider you for citizenship."
However, he claims to oppose broad programs that would give a "pathway to citizenship", preferring instead the more George W Bush-like approach of a massive guest workers plan. Such a...
Utah Compact would encourage illegal immigration (Mark Shurtleff, Chamber, Sutherland, Catholic Church) - 11/11/10
Earlier today a group of business leaders and public officials signed "The Utah Compact" (utahcompact.com), a small set of principles on immigration. Rather than curbing illegal immigration, their ideas would encourage more of it. Those involved include Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, the Utah Chamber of Commerce, the Sutherland Institute [1], the Catholic Church, and Salt Lake City mayor Ralph Becker [2].
Here's their first of five points:
Immigration is a federal policy issue between the U.S. government and other countries - not Utah and other countries. We urge Utah's congressional...
Rupert Murdoch testifies for amnesty, massive immigration (using two CAP studies) - 09/30/10
Rupert Murdoch of Fox News testified before Congress today in support of comprehensive immigration reform (aka amnesty) and in support of massive immigration in general. And, two studies he used to buttress his argument are from the leftwing, Obama-linked Center for American Progress.
From this:
News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch said he supports amnesty for “law abiding” illegal immigrants because as legal residents they can help the nation’s economy by adding to “our tax base.” He also said he supports securing the border to prevent more illegal immigrants from entering the United States....
Obama thinks illegal aliens are Americans; forgets about massive unemployment; promotes massive immigration - 09/29/10
Yesterday, Barack Obama was asked about immigration in Albuquerque, New Mexico and:
1. He referred to illegal aliens as "us"; he's given them citizenship in his own mind or he's confused about basic American concepts...
2. He seemed not to remember that millions of Americans are unemployed...
3. And, he generally promoted massive immigration. He did that with a series of canards and at one point sounded just like George W Bush.
Video of the appearance is at peekURL.com/v26f71b and for the first, here's what he said [1]:
Now, unfortunately, right now this is getting demagogued. A lot of folks...