Barack Obama's immigration speech in El Paso May 10 was an exercise in electioneering and hypocrisy. Hypocrisy, because while Obama complained about "politicians" blocking comprehensive immigration bills, he was one himself.
In 2007, when such a bill had bipartisan backing from Senate heavyweights Edward Kennedy and Jon Kyl, Sen. Obama voted for union-backed amendments that Kennedy and Kyl opposed as bill-killers.
In 2009 and 2010, President Obama acquiesced in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to pass cap-and-trade and bypass immigration and in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision not to bring an immigration bill to the floor.

Both times the votes were probably there to pass a bill. Obama didn't lift a finger to help.

But that didn't stop the president, who's constantly calling for civility, to heap scorn on those seeking stronger enforcement. "They'll want a higher fence. Maybe they'll need a moat," he said to laughter from the largely Latino audience. "Maybe they'll want alligators in the moat. They'll never be satisfied."

Was that on the teleprompter, or was it ad-libbed? Either way, Obama was showing his contempt for those who bitterly cling to the idea that the law should be enforced. That's no way to assemble a bipartisan coalition to pass a bill.

Nothing like the legalization provisions considered in 2007 can pass in this Congress. They'd never pass the GOP House, where Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith is a longstanding foe and Speaker John Boehner won't schedule a bill not approved in committee.

Nor will this Congress pass the most attractive proposal Obama mentioned, the Dream Act, providing a path to legalization for those brought in illegally as children who enroll in college or serve in the military.

Some new approach is needed, yet Obama did little to point the way. One idea, advanced by a bipartisan Brookings Institution panel, is a bill that would strengthen enforcement and shift us away from low-skill and toward high-skill immigration, as Canada and Australia have done. With a sluggish economy, it makes little sense, as current law does, to give preference to low-skill siblings of minimum-wage workers rather than to engineering and science Ph.D.s.
But the lobbying forces backing comprehensive legislation don't favor such an approach. Latino groups and lobbies for employers of low-skill workers want to legalize the low-skill Latinos who make up most of the 11 million illegal immigrants.

High-tech firms seek more H-1B visas for high-skill graduates, but these tie immigrants to particular employers. They don't have an interest in provisions allowing these people to work for anyone they don't like or to start their own businesses.

In the absence of significant lobbying support, the only way to get backing for Brookings-style legislation is a bold presidential initiative.

Obama didn't come close to doing that in El Paso. He included a few words about letting in more high-skill folks, but didn't suggest any reduction in low-skill immigration. And he said only a few words about workplace enforcement, on which his administration has developed a valuable tool: a refinement of the E-Verify electronic system, in which employers can verify the Social Security numbers of new employees.

The Homeland Security Department has been ironing out glitches in E-Verify and, as former National Security Agency General Counsel Stewart Baker reports, DHS now allows job-seekers in some states to use E-Verify before applying for a job.

The administration has been attacking state laws requiring employers to use E-Verify. If Obama were serious about enforcement, he'd be calling for mandatory E-Verify. That would be a more effective tool against illegal immigration than even the strongest border enforcement.

But as Obama's record makes clear, he's not really interested in passing a law. He knows his support has been slipping among Latino voters, and he wants to goose it. El Paso was about election 2012, not immigration reform.


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/obama_immigration_hypocrisy_TaUXpeOV5Ug1FBHTB4pfQM#ixzz1MW3bEr53

Screw Reform. Our Immigration policy is much more accommodating than many other countries.

Screw Amnesty and the Dream Act.

Let's push the Acts that will give back jobs to Citizens and Legal Immigrants.

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DREAM Act Introduced in the House and Senate; Sen. Lugar not a Co-Sponsor
Thursday, May 12, 2011, 12:00 PM EDT

The bill provides amnesty to anyone under the age of 30,

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The right ways to go;

The SAVE Act

The SAVE Act is the middle-ground answer to the illegal immigration issue. This not only will be the most effective solution, but it is what polls show most Americans want. When given the choice among (a) mass roundups and mass deportations, (b) mass legalizations, and (c) Attrition Through Enforcement & Self Deportation, the public chooses the middle-ground Attrition option.

The bi-partisan SAVE Act was introduced by Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) in the House and Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) in the Senate. It is one of our "5 Great Immigration Reduction Bills".

The SAVE Act is a three-pronged approach to reducing illegal immigration in the United States:

1) Mandates the use of E-Verify for all public and private businesses nationwide
2) increase interior enforcement by increasing grants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and making improvements to the deportation process
3) increase border security through increased manpower, technology and funding.

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Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has introduced the CLEAR Act (H.R.100) that would:

Recognize the inherent authority of states and localities to enforce immigration law;
Improve information sharing between state and local governments and the federal government;
Mandate the federal government to expeditiously remove criminal aliens being detained by states and localities; and
Increase federal resources for local governments that choose to assist in immigration enforcement.

This guy scored a few brownie points with the alleged killing of Osama but if he Iran goes nuclear, things in Pakistan don't change and Qhadafi is still in power this turd is doomed. He will go down in history as one of the worst presidents ever.

No one should be given special rights just because of their proximity to the border. We make all other "workers" pay for a work visa and so should these people.

Do the math..

10 million X $1500 = $15,000,000,000.. whats an extra 15 billion

one step better, make the employer pay it, that would cut down the illegal job factor a bit... think a restaurant would pay 1500 dollars extra a year for a dishwasher?

I have no problem with that.. I think employers should be paying $100,000 per illegal caught working for them.

they do fine the companies that they catch hiring illegals... remember bushes fence? the company that was building it was fined something like 7 million dollars to build it for hiring illegals to keep them out... go figure, huh...

"Either way, Obama was showing his contempt for those who bitterly cling to the idea that the law should be enforced. "





HELLLOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo

many times pre election I said: yanno....this guy is going to be commander and chief of the armed forces hellooooooo

just not qualified

I can see contempt for some laws and disagreement with others, but to publically make derisive comments in front of those who are breaking those laws. and on such a serious issue????


Is that Prez like behavior? ummmm. just. no.

They rarely get caught though. All the white kids around here speak spanish cuz all their nannies. They should go to parks everyday between 9am and 1pm, and do a sweep....that would help. And make the illegals get their tubes tied when they are caught so they arent living off welfare. and yet BANK OF AMERICA is permitted to issue debit cards to the people---hmmm

I watched that on cspan.

He was not stating that things are perfect by a long shot. All he stated was the improvements that have been done so far.

There have been improvements.

Also, I think the people of El Paso would be insulted at being called illegals. I saw the crowd.

And PS---- SOCIAL SECURITY doesnt give a damn either...all the ss card fraud(Immigrants), these people are getting jobs under our numbers. they are getting phone and electricity and everything else under fake ss#'s. Try and call social security, they will tell YOU to run a credit report and do ALL THE F-ING work. And then they wont even enforce it. they will just try and give you a new number...

yup

a couple months ago, an hispanic tire jockey - no english - probably stole my registration when changing a tire on my car ...local police basically said they didn't want to be bothered

I reported it to the BMV, and wish I had gotten the badge ID of the cop on the take

Pretty much, WE are all OUTNUMBERED NOW--and we have no support from our govt. I guess when the Gorillas take over our country and we can all hide in our bunkers for the rest of our lives...while drug cartel shoots up the streets and the police take bribes and get high....OH WELL...what can ya do!

Why would we want alligators in our moat when we could have sharks with laser beams on their head?

move to new jersey

by that time the immigrants will be sick of it and have left for greener pastures so the issues u mention won't apply there

Jersey, than we just dealing with the MOB, hahahaha, JK. Its beautiful there.

eh compared to D.C., the mobsters are school boys

(j/k)

i watched that too... and one of the first things he said was "I did that I set out to do" talking about illegal immigration... so nothing was what he set out to do? thats what has been done, is nothing... 6 billion dollars worth of nothing...

Yeah, I think he said he address it(the issue)...not handle it...