Posts

Amnesty Could Add Millions to Obamacare Rolls

/5 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: ncbronteComprehensive immigration reform could make millions of people suddenly eligible for assistance under President Obama’s healthcare law, assuming a final deal paves the way for undocumented immigrants to receive papers.

Illegal aliens are now prohibited from purchasing coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges, which will launch next year.

They are also ineligible for Medicaid under most circumstances, making the law’s expansion of the program fruitless for people without documents.

Even young illegal immigrants with “deferred action” status, known as “DREAMers,” cannot access the law’s benefits.

But the picture could change completely if Hispanic lawmakers get their wish — an overhaul of U.S. immigration policy that includes a path to legalization.

Read more from this story HERE.

Groundhog Day for Immigration

/2 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: gage skidmore

The Wall Street Journal profile on Rubio’s amnesty plan makes me want to take piano lessons or learn ice sculpture — because it’s Groundhog Day for immigration policy, and it’s like yesterday never happened.

I don’t mean that politicians should necessarily be chastened by past defeats. There are no lost causes and no gained causes in a democracy (or not many, anyway), and if the side that was defeated by the bipartisan surge of public anger in 2007 wants to try a comeback, that’s the way the game is played.

But the specific policies Ned Ryerson Rubio is selling are just the same old, same old: “earned” amnesty for illegal aliens plus de facto unlimited immigration, in exchange for promises to some day implement E-Verify and build more fencing.

Even worse, what makes me want to throw a toaster into the bath tub is the utter lack of awareness that nothing Rubio’s saying is even remotely novel. Either he or the writer, Matthew Kaminski, or both, don’t seem to realize we’re hearing I Got You, Babe all over again. Rubio’s plan is described as one that “charges up the middle,” between “the liberal fringe that seeks broad amnesty for illegal immigrants and the hard right’s obsession with closing the door” — as though any element of Rubio’s proposal would be a deal breaker for the left.

Read more from this article HERE.

Obama To Begin Aggressive Push for Amnesty

/4 Comments/in , , /by

WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to push Congress to move quickly in the coming months on an ambitious overhaul of the immigration system that would include a path to citizenship for most of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, senior administration officials and lawmakers said last week.

Mr. Obama and Senate Democrats will propose the changes in one comprehensive bill, the officials said, resisting efforts by some Republicans to break the overhaul into smaller pieces — separately addressing young illegal immigrants, migrant farmworkers or highly skilled foreigners — which might be easier for reluctant members of their party to accept.

The president and Democrats will also oppose measures that do not allow immigrants who gain legal status to become American citizens one day, the officials said.

Even while Mr. Obama has been focused on fiscal negotiations and gun control, overhauling immigration remains a priority for him this year, White House officials said. Top officials there have been quietly working on a broad proposal. Mr. Obama and lawmakers from both parties believe that the early months of his second term offer the best prospects for passing substantial legislation on the issue.

Mr. Obama is expected to lay out his plan in the coming weeks, perhaps in his State of the Union address early next month, administration officials said. The White House will argue that its solution for illegal immigrants is not an amnesty, as many critics insist, because it would include fines, the payment of back taxes and other hurdles for illegal immigrants who would obtain legal status, the officials said.

Read more from this story HERE.

The Rush to Amnesty: Five Reasons to Slow Down

/2 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: mexicanos sin fronteras

The November election results frightened Republican leaders. They were especially spooked by the number of Hispanic votes they didn’t get. Accordingly, many prominent Republicans are saying that “comprehensive immigration reform” is inevitable and should be passed right away.

In other words, they’re calling for a massive amnesty. But these GOP leaders are as wrong as wrong can be. Amnesty won’t solve any of the GOP’s problems and will create several new ones.

Here are the top five reasons Republicans should reject amnesty.

Reason 1: Amnesty will not stop or slow down illegal immigration.

Sometimes amnesties make sense. For example, in the 1970s American draft dodgers who had fled to Canada rather than fight in Vietnam were given blanket amnesty. The war was over and it was time to repair the damage. Nobody else was going to be crossing the Canadian border for that reason.

But giving amnesty to America’s 12 million illegal aliens doesn’t make sense. Although the recession slowed border crossings way down a few years ago, illegal immigration is increasing again now that the construction industry is recovering. The number of illegal aliens in this country will soon increase to 13, then 14, then 15 million. Giving them amnesty will only encourage more illegal immigration. Why? Because people in other nations will see (again!) that America will give amnesty to anyone who can get into the U.S. and stay here for a few years.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Immigration Reform Push To Begin This Month

/2 Comments/in , /by

WASHINGTON — Despite a bruising fiscal cliff battle that managed to set the stage for an even more heated showdown that will likely take place in a matter of months, President Barack Obama is planning to move full steam ahead with the rest of his domestic policy agenda.

An Obama administration official said the president plans to push for immigration reform this January. The official, who spoke about legislative plans only on condition of anonymity, said that coming standoffs over deficit reduction are unlikely to drain momentum from other priorities. The White House plans to push forward quickly, not just on immigration reform but gun control laws as well.

The timeframe is likely to be cheered by Democrats and immigration reform advocates alike, who have privately expressed fears that Obama’s second term will be drowned out in seemingly unending showdowns between parties. The just-completed fiscal cliff deal is giving way to a two-month deadline to resolve delayed sequestration cuts, an expiring continuing resolution to fund the government and a debt ceiling that will soon be hit . . .

Good news for immigration advocates may have come Tuesday night, when Boehner broke the so-called “Hastert Rule” and allowed the fiscal cliff bill to come for a vote without support from a majority of his Republican conference. Given opposition to immigration reform by many Tea Party Republicans, the proof that Boehner is willing to bypass them on major legislation is a good sign, the Democratic aide said.

“If something is of such importance that the GOP establishment [is] telling Boehner, ‘You must do this. You need to get this off the table soon,'” the Democratic aide said, the speaker could break the Hastert Rule again.

Read full story HERE.

Establishment Republicans to Start New Pro-Amnesty Super PAC (+video)

/9 Comments/in , /by

Former George W. Bush Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez is starting a super PAC that will support comprehensive immigration reform — or amnesty — and candidates that support it. Gutierrez recently said that English should not be the official language of government.

The super PAC argues that “all undocumented immigrants should be given a path towards legality.”

Gutierrez, who worked on the Romney campaign as his Hispanic Outreach Coordinator (Romney won 27% of the Hispanic vote), is starting the “Republicans For Immigration Reform” super PAC with Charlie Spies, who co-founded the biggest pro-Romney super PAC, Restore Our Future.

Gutierrez trashes conservatives and blame us for Romney’s loss:

Gutierrez talks about his plans to form a Super-PAC:

Read more from this story HERE.

Amnesty Would Only Make Republican Woes More Dire

/3 Comments/in , /by

Mitt Romney lost Latino votes Tuesday by a 44-point margin, a number that has caused some very principled conservative thinkers to panic unnecessarily.

Premiere Radio host Sean Hannity broke first, telling listeners Thursday: “We’ve gotta get rid of the immigration issue altogether. It’s simple for me to fix it. I think you control the border first, you create a pathway for those people that are here, you don’t say, ‘You gotta go home.’ And that is a position that I’ve evolved on. Because you know what — it just — it’s gotta be resolved.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer quickly followed suit, writing: “For the party in general, however, the problem is hardly structural. It requires but a single policy change: Border fence plus amnesty. Yes, amnesty. Use the word. Shock and awe — full legal normalization (just short of citizenship) in return for full border enforcement. … The other party thinks it owns the demographic future — counter that in one stroke by fixing the Latino problem.”

Hannity and Krauthammer are tremendous talents who have done much good promoting conservative values and ideas. But on immigration and amnesty they appear to have a very short memory.

In 1984, President Reagan won re-election despite losing Hispanics 2-to-1. In 1986, Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which both tightened immigration enforcement at the border and granted amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants. In 1988, Hispanics rewarded the Republican party by voting … even more heavily Democratic. President Bush lost Hispanics by 40 points, 70 percent to 30 percent. So much for amnesty as the “single policy change” capable of “fixing the Latino problem.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Boehner ‘Confident’ GOP, Obama Can Reach Deal on Immigration Reform

/5 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: medilldcSpeaker John Boehner said Thursday he was “confident” Republicans could agree to a comprehensive immigration bill.

Boehner (R-Ohio) made the comment in an interview with ABC News released two days after President Obama’s decisive reelection victory over Mitt Romney.

Obama’s win was fueled by Hispanic voters, who made up a larger portion of the electorate than they did four years ago and voted overwhelmingly for Obama. The president won Latino voters by 44 points, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

The defeat and those figures have triggered a round of soul-searching by Republicans.

Boehner offered optimism that his party could come to an agreement with Obama on immigration, a subject that has hurt the GOP with Hispanic voters.

Read more from this story HERE.

“Capitulation to Lawlessness”: Obama’s new plan to protect illegal alien criminals

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo credit: Kevin Coles

President Obama’s new immigration plan will provide safe harbor to criminal illegal immigrants and will lead to a “capitulation to lawlessness” that could threaten public safety, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said.

Fox News has obtained an internal document detailing how the Department of Homeland Security plans to implement what critics say amounts to an amnesty policy for what could be more than one million illegal immigrants.

According to the documents, illegal immigrants convicted of felonies or misdemeanors under “state immigration laws” may be granted deferred action. Those who have repeatedly entered the United States illegally will also be eligible. And traffic violations would not be considered a misdemeanor.

“It is a direct threat to the rule of law and to the demonstrated desire of the American people for a lawful system of immigration,” Sessions said. “I believe this administration has utilized this policy to basically undermine and negate the ability of the law officers to do what they have been hired and paid to do.”

Read more from this story HERE.