Congress

On June 11, 2013, 82 Senators voted YES to stop a filibuster. That vote allowed the Motion to Proceed to send the Amnesty bill, s.774, to the Senate floor.

But don't be alarmed by that number, even though it is far above the 60 votes needed on the all-important final filibuster vote later this month. 

A number of the Senators who voted to proceed have announced over the last few days that they will eventually vote against the bill unless it is significantly changed on the floor ...

.............

Congratulations to all of you from those three states who have done such a remarkable job of helping those Senators understand both where the voters are in your state and also the moral and practical imperative of stopping this bill. 

Kirk of Illinois

Crapo of Idaho

Risch of Idaho

Barrasso of Wyoming

Back in 2007, we also lost big on this procedural first vote to bring that amnesty bill to the floor. But we built on the solid opposition of a strong bloc of Senators to kill the amnesty on the final vote later.

As those following the Schumer-Rubio medicine show have heard, amnesty for the illegal population would require only that Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security submit a plan to control the border (technically, two plans — a “Comprehensive Southern Border Security Strategy” and a “Southern Border Fencing Strategy”). The idea that such parchment barriers, as Madison might have called them, are sufficient to ensure that amnesty isn’t followed by continued illegal immigration has occasioned much derision. It’s just another way that Rubio and the rest of Chuck Schumer’s Republicans are saying, through their support of this travesty, that “We Trust Barack Obama.”...

Congress has already tried this approach of specifying the details of a border-control strategy, to little effect. The Secure Fence Act of 2006 (pdf here, but don’t worry — remarkably, it’s only three pages long) lays out in extraordinary detail where “at least 2 layers of reinforced fencing” are supposed to be built along the Mexican border:

• ‘‘(i) extending from 10 miles west of the Tecate, California, port of entry to 10 miles east of the Tecate, California, port of entry;
• ‘‘(ii) extending from 10 miles west of the Calexico, California, port of entry to 5 miles east of the Douglas, Arizona, port of entry;
• ‘‘(iii) extending from 5 miles west of the Columbus, New Mexico, port of entry to 10 miles east of El Paso, Texas;
• ‘‘(iv) extending from 5 miles northwest of the Del Rio, Texas, port of entry to 5 miles southeast of the Eagle Pass, Texas, port of entry; and
• ‘‘(v) extending 15 miles northwest of the Laredo, Texas, port of entry to the Brownsville, Texas, port of entry.

In other words, Congress crafted the border plan at the outset, specifying where some 650 miles of fencing was to be placed, rather than leave the details up to the Obama Bush administration. How’d that work out?

There are only about 40 miles of such double fencing, with no plans for any more... Read more about Rubio Continues to Not Get It on Immigration

With an estimated 1.1 million people in L.A. County illegally, officials fear that the county will get stuck with many costs for those who apply for citizenship.

In the contentious debate over immigration policy, three groups have dominated public and political attention: the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants seeking to become legal, the skilled foreign workers bound for high-tech jobs and relatives waiting to be reunited with their families.

A bipartisan immigration bill pending in the Senate would strengthen the Social Security trust fund by adding millions of workers to tax rolls, and provide a boost to the overall economy, according to an analysis Wednesday by the Social Security Administration.

Jim DeMint, president of the Heritage Foundation, comments on a study that shows immigration legislation would cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion to provide government benefits for millions of people now living in the U.S. illegally.... 

Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint prefaced his condemnation of immigration legislation Monday with the same form of inoculation conservatives often use on such occasions: He quoted Emma Lazarus.

"There's a statement at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty," said the former Republican senator who just took over as chief of the powerful think tank. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses ... ."

He and his colleagues then went on to outline their version of immigration reform: No poor and huddled need apply.

"We feel that the best immigration system is one that focuses on bringing high school [graduate] immigrants in," said Robert Rector, the Heritage scholar seated beside DeMint for the rollout of a new study on the costs of immigration. "We think the proper policy is that you shouldn't be bringing immigrants into the U.S. that by and large are going to impose additional costs on U.S. taxpayers by getting more benefits than they pay in taxes."

DeMint called this a "merit-based" system in which those who are skilled and can pay their way are admitted. "A properly structured, merit-based lawful immigration system holds the potential to drive positive economic growth and increase the standard of living of American citizens," he said. "We need an immigration system that attracts workers our economy needs and encourages patriotic assimilation."

Latinos have been suspicious of Republicans in part because they assume that conservatives' desire to crack down on illegal immigration may extend to legal immigration as well. Republicans invariably proclaim that they are big fans of legal immigration. But the Heritage doctrine undermines that, because it would sharply curtail Hispanic immigration — legal and illegal alike.

Of the Mexican-born people in the United States age 25 and older, nearly 60 percent didn't graduate from high school ...

CAIRCO Research

The Statue of Liberty was erected in 1886, when world population was little more than one billion and the U.S. population was 60 million. Many do not realize that the Statue of Liberty was a gift to the U.S. from France, with the title, "Liberty Enlightening the World". The statue and its symbolism had nothing to do with immigration, but rather hope that the rest of the world would adopt Democracy. The Emma Lazurus plaque (it is not chiseled in the base), "send me your huddled masses" was added ten years later during the immigration peak of that age.

The sonnet, "New Colossus", was written by Emma Lazarus in 1883 as part of a literary campaign to raise funds for the completion of the Statue's pedestal. Not much attention was paid to it until the tide of immigration surged at the turn of the century. Proceeds that were raised from its auction were used to complete the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. This plaque memorialized the sonnet in 1903 and was placed on the inner wallof the Statue's pedestal. It currently is displayed inside the Statue of Liberty museum.

Since then, U.S. population has expanded by 4 1/2 times. The U.S. is the world's highest-consuming (and most wasteful) nation, and is no longer in need of settlement. Read more about No poor and huddled need apply-immigration legislation would cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion

The Gang of Eight’s 844-page immigration reform legislation makes it easier for asylum seekers to come to America. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the Boston Marathon bomber suspect, who was apprehended last Friday, after he was found wounded in a boat in Watertown, Boston, after the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and injured nearly 200 others, came to America legally by claiming asylum with his father ...

  Read more about Gang of Eight makes it easier for Asylum Seekers, like Boston Marathon Suspects, to come to U.S.