illegal immigration

The Schumer-Rubio bill, which will be debated by the full Senate starting next week, would allow unprecedented increases in the number of temporary workers. A new Center for Immigration Studies analysis of the bill finds that, in the first year, the bill (S.744) would admit nearly 1.6 million more temporary workers than currently allowed. After that initial spike, the bill would increase annual temporary worker admissions by more than 600,000 each year over the current level – an increase four times larger than the one called for in the 2007 Bush-Kennedy proposal (about 125,000).

As a result, this bill would roughly double the number of temporary workers admitted each year (nearly 700,000 in 2012). These workers are classified as "non-immigrants" and would be in addition to S.744's large proposed increase in annual permanent legal immigrants competing for jobs (more than 30 million in the next decade).

The 2007 bill was defeated in part due to widespread concerns over the increase in the number of guest workers. While the sponsors of S.744 have suggested that this bill more responsibly manages the number of guest workers than the rejected 2007 proposal, it allows for dramatically more guest workers than the 2007 plan did. Such a large number by definition will displace American workers and the chronically unemployed. It will also reduce job opportunities for legal immigrants. By any measure, S.744 is worse for workers, at a worse time, than previous attempts at comprehensive reform. As Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) recently put it in an interview, "This is a massive effort to attract cheap labor, a great disservice to American workers."

In addition to expanding the controversial H-1B program, known for its association with overseas-based body shops and also a 20 percent fraud and non-compliance rate, the Schumer-Rubio bill adds several new guest worker programs. For instance, it creates a new H-1B-style visa for workers from countries that have a free trade agreement with the United States, offering 5,000 visas to each of more than 30 countries. This provision could add 155,000 new guest workers each year, which is greater than the current H-1B program. Farm worker visas would more than double under the plan, and a new visa for unskilled workers would bring in at least 20,000 per year... Read more about Senate Bill Doubles Annual Flow of Guest Workers

The Senate is expected to take its first procedural vote this week on the Schumer-Rubio amnesty bill. Aside from its specific provisions, an important characteristic of such "comprehensive" legislation is its size. At 209,000 words in 1,077 pages, the legislation is almost impossible for even the educated layman to comprehend, rendering it inherently undemocratic.

To provide an sense of how long the bill is, here are a few comparisons:

• 27 times longer than the Constitution (7,600 words)
• 14 times longer than the Social Security Act of 1935 (15,000 words)
• 28 times longer than the Hart-Celler Act of 1965 (7,300), which ushered in the modern immigration era
• 5 times longer than the last big amnesty law, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (42,000)
• Twice the length of Orwell's 1984 (89,000)
• Longer than Homer's Iliad (150,000)
• About the same length as Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment
• End-to-end, the pages would stretch more than three football fields, be taller than the Washington Monument, and nearly as tall as New York's Chrysler Building
• Reading it aloud, at 120 words per minute, would take 29 straight hours.

Unemployment ticked up to 7.6%, in May, according to the Payroll Survey. The economy created 175,000 jobs about the same average monthly job growth for the past year, but the labor force grew faster than employment. Nevertheless, the labor force participation rate for native-born Americans is lower this May than it was last May—signaling a lack of confidence in job prospects.

Immigrants, meanwhile, outpaced the native-born in jobs, participation rates, and unemployment reduction over the past 12 months. Remember that about 90,000 legal immigrants are admitted to the U.S. every month.

And among the native-born, Hispanics grabbed most of the new jobs...

To put it another way, after four years of President Obama’s economic “recovery,” native-born employment has finally clawed its way back up to the same level it was on his (first) inauguration day. Immigrants are already way ahead...

...one new point: While Hispanics accounted for 15.7% of total U.S. employment in May, the BLS report also shows they received an astounding 86% of the jobs created—273,000 of the 319,000 total.

With immigrant job growth relatively small in May, we can safely conclude they were mainly native-born Hispanics—children or even grandchildren of immigrants. America’s post-1965 immigration disaster is metastasizing, at the expense of the historic America population, both white and black.

  Read more about National Data | May Jobs: Immigrants Still Far Ahead Of Americans—And Native-Born Hispanics Grab Most New Jobs

In President Barack Obama's weekly address [June 8, 2013], he makes a hard sell for the Senate to pass the immigration reform bill currently under consideration. While describing a path to citizenship, the President takes an uncharacteristically harsh stance:

CAIRCO Notes:

This is perhaps not the first time President Obama has openly lied to the American people.

Lie: "learning English". The truth is that amnestied illegal aliens only need to sign up for an English Class, not take it.

Lie: "paying taxes". No taxes will be assessed to illegal aliens who worked off the books or used fradulent Social Security numbers. Back taxes will only be collected if the IRS has already assessed them - which can only be done with those who have filed legitimate tax returns and who then underpaid taxes.

Half truth: "paying a penalty". The truth is that the Department of Homeland Security can waive the very modest fine imposed upon amnestied illegal aliens. This is the same DHS that is not enforcing border security today. On June 7, Senator Sessions stated: “Mr. [Karl] Rove says they have to pay a $1,000 fine over 6 years,” Sessions said. “What is that--$170 dollars a year, $15, $12 a month? So this is the punishment?" 

Lie: "going to the back of the line...". The truth is that illegal aliens, when amnestied, will get to live and work in the US, while those who wish to immigrate here legally actually do have to wait in line in their home country. Millions of illegal aliens - described as DREAMers and agriculture workers - could green cards and citizenship within just five years of passage of this disastrous bill. Illegal aliens would immediately have access to state and local welfare benefits.

Inaccuracy: "11 million individuals". The truth is that the figure of 11 million illegal aliens living in the United States is stale and deliberately understated. It is likely that 20 to 40 million illegal aliens live in the US.

Perhaps President Obama should actually read the nation-destroying S.744 Amnesty bill. It's only 1,000 pages, give or take a few. He's had experience reading that many pages - remember Obamacare?

  Read more about Obama: [Lies] Illegals Must Learn English, Go to Back of Line for Citizenship

John Hickenlooper had a chance to bring a breath of fresh air to the governor’s office.

Imminently likable and with a charmed political career, he could have been the rare maverick moderate Democrat – strong enough and bold enough to be a governor for all Colorado. He could have been the adult in the room when liberal legislators ran amok on the lunatic fringe.

For two years, he largely fit the bill. With a Republican majority in the state House offset by Democrats controlling the Senate, playing the centrist required little effort.

This year, however, he has been all too reminiscent of his feckless predecessor, signing virtually any bill on the wacky wish list of the loony Left...

To supposedly make us safer, he signed House Bills 1224 and 1229 that impose such ridiculous burdens on gun owners that most everyone who owns a gun will unwittingly violate one or both of those laws. These bills were so incompetently written that their supporters, including Hickenlooper, expressed hope that they won’t be strictly enforced.

But with a stroke of Hickenlooper’s pen, law-abiding gun owners are likely to become breakers of an arbitrarily and irrational law...

Sadly, for those of us who hoped to find a Democrat governor who would give a damn about people beyond his political base, we now know that he’s not a better governor than his predecessor – just a better talker.

CAIRCO Notes:

The article fails to mention that Hickenlooper privately signed into law on June 5, 2013 a bill giving driver licenses to illegal aliens in Colorado. This affront to Colorado citizens flies in the face of a Rasmussen Report poll of likely voters in Colorado on December 12, 2007 that found that 75% oppose granting drivers' licenses to illegal aliens. There will be no criminal background checks for illegal aliens who apply for driver licenses under this bill.

On April 29, 2013, Hickenlooper signed SB13-033 giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens and giving illegal alien students access to the College Opportunity Trust funds and other student aid. This law circumvents to the 1996 federal law prohibiting tuition breaks for illegal alien students except where the same rate is afforded to all US residents by using the "California model". It does so by  avoiding the term "resident" and instead associating eligibility with attendance at a Colorado high school.

Hickenlooper also signed into law on April 26, 2013 the anti-cooperation bill to repeal SB90. SB90 was the bipartisan 2006 ban on sanctuary cities for illegal aliens.

Even back in 2005-2006, CAIRCO was aware of then-mayor Hickenlooper's open borders agenda - see photos of our surprise visit to the Burrito Breakfast with Mayor Hickenlooper supporting Denver's El Centro illegal alien hiring hall. It seems that Colorado voters are only now begining to recognize the dangers of a liberal leftist Governor and state Legislature. Read more about Hickenlooper: The Governor That Might Have Been

During debate on the Department of Homeland Security’s appropriations bill, the House voted cut off funds for implementing Administration policies that shield most illegal aliens from the threat of deportation. The 224-201 vote on an amendment sponsored by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) could be a harbinger of the difficulties amnesty proponents face in the coming debate over immigration reform [amnesty for illegal aliens].

  Read more about House Votes to Overturn Obama Administration No-Deportation Policies

Next week, the U.S. Senate is expected to begin deliberation on S.744, the Gang of Eight's secretly-negotiated bill that promises to deliver "comprehensive immigration reform." By "comprehensive," the sponsors mean giving amnesty to an estimated 12 million [to 20 million to 40 million] illegal aliens...

They also mean turning the United States government into the world's largest personnel agency, dispatching "needed" skilled and unskilled workers to business interests that no longer feel the need or the inclination to recruit, train and fairly compensate American workers.

And, of course, "comprehensive" also means solemn pledges to the American people that this time we really will enforce our immigration laws: Our borders will be secured, the magnet of jobs for illegal aliens will be cut off, American workers will not be displaced from jobs, American taxpayers will not be burdened with the costs of social services and benefits to amnesty recipients...

If it feels like you've heard all this before, it's because you have. This is exactly the "comprehensive immigration reform" package the American public was sold in 1986. And, if anyone cares to hear it again, C-SPAN has preserved video footage of the key players in the 1986 debate - " including some who are still in Congress and behind the Gang of Eight bill - " making precisely the same arguments we are hearing in 2013.

To be sure, some of the promises made in 1986 were kept. Some 3 million illegal aliens got amnesty, many of them fraudulently. Business interests have been able to take advantage of millions of foreign workers - both illegal aliens and guest workers.

Then there were the promises made to the American public - the ones about immigration enforcement. Of course none of those promises were kept.

...a little historical refresher is in order:

Our borders will be secured.

Promise broken. And it won't happen under S.744 either. The bill requires that the secretary of Homeland Security, within 180 days of enactment, submit to Congress a plan to secure our borders. Implementation of the plan would not be required until five years after enactment...

The magnet of jobs will be cut off.

Promise broken. Even under the best case scenario, that powerful magnet would not be ended by S.744 for quite some time. It could be a decade or more... In the meantime, state laws that protect American workers by requiring employers to use E-Verify would be preempted.

American workers will be protected.

Promise broken. S.744 won't do any better. In fact, provisions of the bill will actually make it easier for employers to bypass high skilled American workers and hire guest workers...

We will never again grant amnesty to illegal aliens.

Needless to say, promise broken. Here we are 27 years with a bill before Congress that would legalize at least four times the number of people who got amnesty under the 1986 bill.

...consider the words of at least two of the Gang of Eight.

  Read more about What Americans Need to Understand about 'Comprehensive Immigration Reform'

The story so far: the 2013 Schumer-Rubio Amnesty/ Immigration Surge bill, which aims to double legal immigration from what are already historic highs, must be regarded as the 1965 Immigration Act on steroids. The 1965 Act notoriously unleashed an era of mass immigration after a 40-year lull, and shifted the ethnic mix of new immigrants from predominantly European to Hispanic and Asian. It is responsible for setting the US on the path to a white minority by 2040 or so...

Immigration increases the poverty rate in two ways: firstly, it increases labor market competition, tending to lower wages and displace American-born workers, forcing more of them into poverty; secondly, many immigrants are simply poor—the U.S. is literally importing poverty...

Data for 2011 show that the poverty rate for recent (non-citizen) arrivals is nearly twice that of natives...

Worse, optimism about second- and third- generation immigrants is misplaced: The poverty rate for native-born Hispanic adults, a community largely created by post-1965 public policy, is 21.5%—more twice the corresponding rate for whites...

The 1965 Immigration Act was a disaster for America. Incredibly, the 2013 Amnesty/ Immigration Surge Act aims to compound that disaster.

  Read more about Another Lesson From 1965: More Immigrants = More Poverty

In at least one critical aspect, the Gang of Eight's immigration bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee the same way it went in: there is no enforcement required before 11 million illegal aliens start to receive their legal status and work permits.

Nothing changed during the markup. The legalization begins as soon as Secretary Napolitano submits two plans for border security and fencing. The plan for fencing does not have to include additional fences. The plans don't have to be carried out. They don't even have to be approved by Congress.

The question of whether to put amnesty before enforcement or enforcement before amnesty is central to the debate. Yet, some reporters still struggle to explain this fundamental aspect of the bill...

Nobody summed up the enforcement "triggers" better than amnesty advocate and bill supporter Frank Sharry of America's Voice, who boasted, "The triggers are based on developing plans and spending money, not on reaching that effectiveness, which is really quite clever."... Read more about Media Still Struggling to Explain Legalization-First Foundation of Immigration Bill