Bring Back the Old Harry Reid

[peejay 327]

Bring Back the Old Harry Reid

by Rep. Tom Tancredo

Posted 07/20/2010 ET

When asked about figures released by the Pew Hispanic Center that found that 14% of the nation’s construction workers are illegal aliens, Harry Reid responded, “That may be some place, but it’s not here in Nevada.”

Reid is right. The number is much higher in Nevada. According to the same report, Nevada has the highest level of illegal aliens in the workforce at 12.2%—2.3% higher than the next highest state.

When asked to justify why he blocked the amendment proposed by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to require government-contracted construction workers use E-verify to prevent them from hiring illegal aliens with the taxpayer’s money, he replied: “That’s the reason we need to do comprehensive immigration reform. We cannot do it piecemeal.”

In other words: he refuses to enforce our immigration laws unless we pass amnesty.

Earlier in the year, Reid wrote a detailed outline with Senators Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) and Robert Menendez (D.-N.J.) of what they wanted “comprehensive immigration reform” to look like.

It isn’t pretty. The bill will gut enforcement, voiding all state and local laws such as the one just passed in Arizona. It will also greatly increase legal immigration levels—adding at least 550,000 permanent work visas and 3.4 million permanent family visas.

It will grant amnesty to every single illegal alien present in this country the day it is passed. Besides rewarding the lawbreakers who are already here, this will encourage additional illegal immigration as the bill is debated. The bill even allows illegal aliens with multiple criminal convictions to receive amnesty.

Needless to say, this is not the type of immigration reform that Americans want.

Harry Reid did not always support amnesty. In 1993 he introduced the Immigration Stabilization Act, and he reintroduced it the following year.

Upon introducing the bill, Reid said, “Our borders have overflowed with illegal immigrants placing tremendous burdens on our criminal justice system, schools and social programs… Our federal wallet is stretched to the limit by illegal aliens getting welfare, food stamps, medical care and other benefits often without paying any taxes.”

While “comprehensive immigration reform” is now used as a euphemism for amnesty, Reid’s office called the bill “the first and only comprehensive immigration reform bill in Congress.”

And comprehensive it was.

Reid’s bill would have ended giving birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens, increased border security, created new sanctions against illegal aliens and their employers, and barred illegal aliens from receiving government benefits.

Additionally, the bill reduced legal immigrant admissions by 500,000 people a year. It achieved this by eliminating the visa lottery, limiting work visas to truly skilled immigrants with advanced degrees and extraordinary abilities, and limiting family reunification to children and spouses.

What has changed since Reid introduced the bill? In 1994, there were approximately 3 million illegal aliens living in the United States. Today there are 11 million. In 1994, we accepted 800,000 legal immigrants each year. Today, we accept 1.1 million. In 1994, unemployment was at 6.6%. Today it is officially at 9.5%, and these numbers do not include the temporary census workers who will soon be out of a job. The Census Bureau reports that one out of every six workers in America is foreign born, with eight million illegal immigrants in the workforce.

Things are even worse in Nevada. In addition to having the highest number of illegal aliens in the workforce, it also has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 14%.

One thing that has certainly changed since 1994 is Harry Reid. As Senate Democratic Leader, he now sees illegal aliens and foreign workers as future Democratic voters and believes that pandering to Hispanics will help him win votes. The Arizona Republic recently ran a piece entitled “Harry Reid's dislike of Arizona law may aid re-election.”

Fortunately for Nevadans and Americans, Reid’s repositioning on immigration will most likely backfire. Hispanics only make up 12% of the electorate, and many are patriotic citizens who support Arizona’s law. As a whole, 57% of Nevada voters support Arizona’s law and 63% oppose the Obama Administration’s lawsuit to prevent it.

While illegal immigration has become a hot-button political issue, no politician of either party has introduced legislation for across-the-board cuts on legal immigration since I introduced the Mass Immigration Reduction Act of 2004.

The fact that this is not getting any attention is outrageous. Despite skyrocketing unemployment, we actually increased the number of foreign workers we accepted into the country in 2009, with over 1.1 million permanent green cards issued in addition to over 880,000 visas to temporary foreign workers.

With our immigration and economic problems out of control and politicians refusal to fully address the issue, we need the Harry Reid of 1993 and 1994 more than ever.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38142

[IndigoSkies 168]

The thing to understand is that there are 11 million illegals in America. This was a few years ago. It's probably 15 millions now. How the hell are you going to pass an immigration reform act without answering what you are going to do with these 15 million people who are already here. There probably is going to have to be some sort of amnesty or we'll continue to see the status quo to continue as is. When the economy gets tough you'll hear people complain; when things get easier, everyone will go back to their lives and stop whinning about illegals. You just can't deport 15 million people to 200+ countries around the world. Logistically it's not possible.

The only solution the "right" has is making the illegal's lives so miserable that they self deport. People don't become miserable overnight. It takes years and years. Also we forget that miserable life in America is far better than miserable life in Ghana, for example. So the idea of self-deportation will not work completely. The solution really is a comrephensive reform that includes deportation, amnesty, making it criminal offense to hire undocument workers, etc.

The are two groups of people here. The left and the right. What the left demands, the right will not give. What the right demands, the left will not give. Meanwhile, things will continue on as is. Seriously. The only reason people are talking about immigration is because of the tough time. If America was as affluent as it was during the Clinton years, none would be barking about illegal aliens.

Edited July 20, 2010 by IndigoSkies

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Bring Back the Old Harry Reid

by Rep. Tom Tancredo

Posted 07/20/2010 ET

When asked about figures released by the Pew Hispanic Center that found that 14% of the nation’s construction workers are illegal aliens, Harry Reid responded, “That may be some place, but it’s not here in Nevada.”

Truth... ** style.

[SMR 368]

The thing to understand is that there are 11 million illegals in America. This was a few years ago. It's probably 15 millions now. How the hell are you going to pass an immigration reform act without answering what you are going to do with these 15 million people who are already here. There probably is going to have to be some sort of amnesty or we'll continue to see the status quo to continue as is. When the economy gets tough you'll hear people complain; when things get easier, everyone will go back to their lives and stop whinning about illegals. You just can't deport 15 million people to 200+ countries around the world. Logistically it's not possible.

The only solution the "right" has is making the illegal's lives so miserable that they self deport. People don't become miserable overnight. It takes years and years. Also we forget that miserable life in America is far better than miserable life in Ghana, for example. So the idea of self-deportation will not work completely. The solution really is a comrephensive reform that includes deportation, amnesty, making it criminal offense to hire undocument workers, etc.

The are two groups of people here. The left and the right. What the left demands, the right will not give. What the right demands, the left will not give. Meanwhile, things will continue on as is. Seriously. The only reason people are talking about immigration is because of the tough time. If America was as affluent as it was during the Clinton years, none would be barking about illegal aliens.

Life may not become miserable over night. But it doesn't take long for it to be clear that you're on the down-hill slope. I have always said the solution to illegal immigration as it touches economic migration (as opposed to national security issues) is to simply ignore the illegal aliens. We need to make it so that if someone cannot prove their legal presence, they can't get a job, can't get health care, can't get education, can't get any sort of government aid or recognition, can't own property, can't rent property, and can't have a bank account or have access to financial services.

What would be left? I suppose if someone wanted to live on the street with literally nothing then you couldn't stop them. But who would chose that life? Illegal immigrants would leave en masse. Sure, some of them would stay. But they would no longer be much of a drain on the economy because they can't take anything from the economy.

[IndigoSkies 168]

Life may not become miserable over night. But it doesn't take long for it to be clear that you're on the down-hill slope. I have always said the solution to illegal immigration as it touches economic migration (as opposed to national security issues) is to simply ignore the illegal aliens. We need to make it so that if someone cannot prove their legal presence, they can't get a job, can't get health care, can't get education, can't get any sort of government aid or recognition, can't own property, can't rent property, and can't have a bank account or have access to financial services.

What would be left? I suppose if someone wanted to live on the street with literally nothing then you couldn't stop them. But who would chose that life? Illegal immigrants would leave en masse. Sure, some of them would stay. But they would no longer be much of a drain on the economy because they can't take anything from the economy.

What you are asking for is basically taking away everything from a person and throwing them in the street. Can you honestly do that? Wouldn't your morality come into question if you could do that? Should America do that having 14 trillion dollars economy a year (which is growing.)

Illegal immigrants are not only consumers. They are producers too. They work and add to the GDP. When it comes to taking, they don't take much. Most illegal aliens don't get food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, free education as you seem to suggest. Illegal aliens steer clear of such institution in fear of being caught. Maybe you have proof showing otherwise. I would like to see the proofs.

Overall the USA economy is growing. in 2007, the GDP was 13.7 trillion. In 2008, it was 14.6 trillion. The data for 2009 isn't available yet. The times are a-tough for people who made bad, bad decisions in their lives. To them, we say: This is capitalism, b!tches. Survive and thrive or be squashed. Acquire new skills or see your livelihood shipped off to China because an illiterate Chinese can do your job much better than you at a surprisingly lower cost.