It’s time to fisk Kelly Ayotte’s lame Gang of 8 Op-Ed
On Sunday, our otherwise admirable U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte announced her support for the Gang of 8′s immigration bill, which provides for immediate legalization of illegal aliens in exchange for a promise of increased border security, on Face the Nation. She followed it up with an op-ed explaining her position.
Nobody here is calling Kelly Ayotte a RINO, so spare us the indignance. But let’s take a close look at what she has openly embraced as her position. All emphasis is mine.
Everybody agrees that America’s immigration system is broken, threatening our security and holding back our economy. The combination of porous borders and lax enforcement has made us a magnet for illegal immigration.
If everybody agrees our immigration system is broken because of porous borders and lax enforcement, then why is the bill’s immediate priority the legalization of current illegal immigrants? Wouldn’t the priority be border security and enforcing the current laws, ie, fixing the porous borders and lax enforcement?
With an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, the status quo isn’t working — it’s de facto amnesty.
The solution for de facto amnesty? De jure amnesty! This is just a “dumbing down” of the rule of law. If you have illegal activity that’s hard to enforce, just legalize it. One would hope that we don’t threaten criminal prosecution on certain activity just for the hell of it. Let’s hope such activity is morally wrong in some way, or at least would result in unacceptable negative consequences if allowed to be widespread. Dumbing down the rule of law means the previously criminal activity is still with us — we’ve just lazily decided that lowering our standards is easier than exerting the effort to uphold them.
We need immigration reform that serves the best interests of our country, a solution that finally secures our southern border, implements an employment verification system, stops future waves of illegal immigrants, deports undocumented criminals, creates a tough but fair means for those who are here illegally to earn citizenship, and allows high-skilled and other needed legal immigrants to work here and help grow our economy.
This is a well composed summary paragraph that sets the stage for the arguments to come. We’ll scrutinize each in their turn.
For too long, politicians on both sides of the aisle in Washington have failed to lead on this issue.
No, the Democrats have been perfectly happy to lead, vigorously pushing amnesty for years. It’s only the Republicans who have been unable to lead.
And no doubt there will be naysayers in this debate who will continue to make excuses for inaction. But I ran for the Senate to make tough, independent decisions to strengthen our country, and that’s what it will take to solve our nation’s immigration problems.
What a lame false-choice, of the kind Democrats have been employing for years. If you’re not for the Gang of 8, you’re for “inaction,” and presumably, disaster.
Anybody who heard Candidate Ayotte speak in the summer of 2010 remembers her stump speech embraced border-security-first as her position on the immigration issue. Is Senator now accusing herself of spending the campaign “making excuses for inaction”? Does she feel bad for campaigning that “We should do nothing to nothing on the immigration issue”?
This week, the Senate will take up immigration reform legislation that recently passed the Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan basis. After careful review of this bill, and after meeting with Granite Staters, I will support it and plan to vote for amendments offered to strengthen it.
The promise “to vote for amendments offered to strengthen it” is emptier than my spice-rack in college. The Democrats and their GOP allies have already worked to defeat any attempt to “strengthen” the bill, including amendments to allow more high-tech workers, allow legalization but not a path to citizenship, and require border security before legalization. Don’t expect better now that the bill is on the floor. Democrat Leader Harry Reid is requiring 60 votes for any amendment and has blocked a vote on increased border security, which I guess we can expect for any amendment that actually has 60 votes but Harry Reid doesn’t like.
I guess it’s good that Ayotte’s “strengthening” amendments are DOA anyway, but in saying she’ll vote for the bill anyway, she certainly has no bargaining power. She’ll vote for amendments to provide a talking point to placate opponents back home, but in the cloakroom the Democrats can rest assured her vote is in the can.
We need to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, and we need to bring undocumented people out of the shadows . . .
A tired cliche that isn’t even true.. They’re not in the shadows. They’re in restaurant kitchens, hotels, in some cases prisons, and most definitely in the early morning day-labor line.
. . . to separate those seeking economic opportunity from those seeking to harm us (who must be deported). Here’s how this bill does that:
The most effective rhetorical device of the pro-amnesty set has been to portray illegal immigrants as “just wanting to work.” It’s effective because it’s true in most cases. It’s also irrelevant. Having a good motive is, outside of extreme cases like self-defense, not an excuse to commit a crime. The immigrants waiting in their home country to enter the US legally are no less “seeking economic opportunity” as those who took the illegal shortcut.
If I’m flying down I-293 at 80 mph up the West Side, I don’t think I’m immune from prosecution because I’m trying to visit my grandmother. I mean, how can you punish a guy who’s only trying to go visit his grandmother? The fact is nobody is against you visiting your grandmother. But there’s a right way to go about it.
It starts by finally securing our southern border. Consistent with my priorities, the legislation includes more border agents, more fencing and better surveillance technology. And during the upcoming debate, I will support strengthening the legislation’s border security measures even further.
100% false. It doesn’t start with securing our border; it starts with legalization of current illegals. You wouldn’t know this fact by reading Senator Ayotte’s op-ed. Ixnay on the Egalizationay. But it’s no secret — the Gang of 8 is loud and proud about it.
But what about those vaunted border security measures? ”Toothless” would be a compliment. Texas Sen. John Cornyn’s proposal to erect a barrier has been rejected. Instead the bill promises that if there is not at least 90% apprehension of illegals along our southern border . . . there will be a commission. Super Committee, anyone? Oh yeah, DHS has no obligation to implement the commission’s proposals.
Let’s be honest and just say: The Gang of 8 bill trades immediate legalization of illegal immigrants for the future possibility of border security, and even then only once Democrats have squeezed the GOP for more concessions. Great deal!
Also, under this bill all employers would be required to use an employment verification system, known as “E-Verify,” to check that job applicants are lawful for employment. To put teeth into the law, employers would face fines and possible criminal penalties for violations of E-Verify requirements.
Insert your aphorism of choice, be it “closing the barn door,” or maybe “day late and a dollar short.” The time for instituting tougher employment checks was 20 years ago. Democrats have historically opposed tougher employment checks. But now Democrats and employers who want cheap labor have nothing to fear from E-Verify - with the Gang of 8 bill, there’ll be a huge pool of cheap labor they can draw on legally.
Additionally, the legislation cracks down on those who abuse our visa system.
This is more faux bravado to distract from the lameness of the bill’s border security provisions.
Right now, 40 percent of illegal immigrants originally came legally but overstayed their visas. This bill creates an exit system feature that would enable the Department of Homeland Security to more vigorously track, pursue and remove those who overstay their visas.
Those who overstayed their visas include almost all of the 9/11 hijackers. How in the world are we still talking about actually enforcing visa expirations? How is this something Republicans are “getting” in the bargain?
The legislation also includes strict requirements for those illegal immigrants who are already here. Before any of these 11 million could earn a green card . . .
But NOT before legalization, which is the status that used to be represented by a green card. So what’s the point of a green card now? Is that a “dumbing up” of a green card?
. . . they would go to the back of the line . . .
This laugh track-worthy buzz phrase exemplifies the disingenuousness of amnesty proponents. What does “go to the back of the line” mean? You can remain in the country, working, doing whatever a legal immigrant can do. But you’re at the back of the line, y’hear? The response should be, “No, no Br’er Fox, don’t throw me to the back of the line!”
. . . not receive means-tested federal benefits and Obamacare subsidies . . .
They’ll be fully eligible for welfare and Obamacare subsidies when they get their green card.
Remember in 2009, when Barack Obama stood in front of a joint session of Congress and promised that Obamacare wouldn’t cover illegal immigrants? Remember the outrage when South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!”?
Well, Joe Wilson was right. Obama lied. And now Kelly Ayotte is falling for it again.
. . . and they would be required to pay fines, pay taxes. . .
By its terms, the bill only charges legalized aliens for back taxes if the IRS has already assessed them. No IRS invoice yet? You don’t owe anything.
Moreover, does anybody actually believe a single person will be deported for inability to pay fines or taxes? We won’t deport people who are here illegally. We have a hard time deporting people who are both here illegally and commit crimes. There is zero chance we will deport people who are here legally but can’t come up with $5,000.
. . . and pass background checks . . .
Under the bill, the Department of Homeland Security is given the authority to waive virtually any crime to avoid deportation.
. . . learn English. . .
False. Former illegal aliens need only enroll in an English class, and only as a prerequisite to getting a green card. They need not actually learn English.
Once upon a time in the mid-90s, I spent the summer as an ESL teacher in Washington, D.C. The students were uniformly Spanish-speaking. We had a great time and made good progress learning very basic vocabulary. But what I’ll never forget was, during breaks, casually asking students how long they had been in the US. I thought by the level of their proficiency, maybe 2 years. Wrong. It was always 10, 15, and even 25 years. I know the “typical white guy” response would have been outrage. But I felt really bad for them. You’ve been in this society for 15 years, unable to communicate outside your small circle for family and friends? Let’s demand better, for them and for us.
. . . and secure a job.
Seriously? Isn’t the whole point that they’ve come here to work? Kelly Ayotte thinks this is among the “strict requirements”?
The minimum most immigrants would have to wait to earn a green card would be 10 years, and 13 years for naturalization.
Who cares if it’s 20 years? They can love and work here indefinitely .
And this timeline is dependent on first meeting border security and employment enforcement measures.
Again, please don’t pretend the border security provisions are meaningful.
In addition to fixing our illegal immigration problem, the bill also takes steps to modernize our legal immigration system. To help ensure that our hospitality and agricultural sectors are able to fill jobs that Americans won’t perform . . .
The “jobs Americans won’t do” canard. Aren’t politicians like Chuck Schumer and Kelly Ayotte always telling us Americans are indomitable? Evidently, we can reach for the skies and do anything we want . . . except work in hotels or restaurants.
The fact is, Americans, like other human life forms, will do any job for the correct compensation. Thomas Sowell has dismantled the sweet-sounding but illogical and semi-racist argument. But I’ll just add that although Gang of 8 supporters use this “jobs Americans won’t do” as a buzz phrase, it’s as close as one can find to a signed confession as to the intent of amnesty — cheap labor.
. . . the bill creates a new guest worker visa program.
I’ve lived in a society with a guest worker program. The island of Saipan, part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. If you have never heard of it, it’s a part of the United States along the islands north of Guam. It’s had a guest worker program for decades. Can any member of the Gang of 8 tell us how the program has worked in Saipan so we know what to expect?
I’ll give you the short version. It’s ghoulish. It institutionalizes a second-class of sub-humans who are used, abused, lied to, and paid well below minimum wage with impunity. The threat of being shipped back to the Philippines, Bangladesh, or China. I knew Filipina women who were recruited from Manila on promises to be a “waitress” and ended up as escorts to wealthy East Asian businessmen, with no money and no ticket back home. Chinese textile workers were literally prisoners, locked in their dormitories at night, with their wages automatically remitted back to the mainland to prevent them exercising any liberty on the island. There was a Bangladeshi security guard murdered by a local teenager, who was subsequently acquitted by a jury, many of whose members were related to the defendant in some way.
This is the track record of guest worker programs in the U.S. Has our Senator bothered to inquire about any of this?
And the legislation addresses concerns that I’ve heard frequently from New Hampshire’s business community, especially the high-tech industry: the outdated cap on visas for highly skilled workers is holding back our economy.
After companies make every effort to recruit Americans to perform particular jobs and can’t find any — especially those with expertise in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) — they are forced to look elsewhere. This legislation addresses that shortfall by raising the cap on H-1B visas. And to train the American innovators of tomorrow, it creates new STEM education programs, from K-12 to higher education, financed through a $1,000 fee for those applying for H-1B visas.
More sweet-sounding conventional wisdom that collapses under scrutiny. The fact is there is no shortage of STEM graduates in the U.S. The Gang of 8 is as lethal to our high-tech white collar workers as it is to the blue collar working class. Supply up, wages down. Econ 101.
Moving to a more merit-based immigration system is good for our economy. By placing an emphasis on skills, we’re harnessing the expertise and ingenuity of the most talented immigrants, especially those who have been educated in our colleges. They will put their energy and their ideas to work in our country, starting businesses and creating jobs for Americans.
Again, the Gang of 8 wants you to think these new immigrants will be laptop-carrying tech workers. The fact is the bill still retains “family unification” as a priority of our immigration system. As stated before, the Democrats and their GOP allies defeated an amendment to allow additional high-tech workers.
The Gang of 8 will tell you it’s heartless of us to “divide families.” Let’s be clear. We didn’t divide the family. A person left his or her family to enter the US illegally to work. That person can reunite his or her family whenever he or she wants by returning to the home country.
As a nation of immigrants, we must remember that we’re all descended from people who came here from somewhere else in search of a better life. In generations past, immigration has enriched our nation culturally and economically. We are all heirs to the dreams and hard work of the immigrants who helped build this country neighborhood by neighborhood.
I’ve just highlighted the feel-good cliche, but the fact is U.S. immigration has a complex history. Immigration has been great for the vibrancy of the nation. Immigrants have also been used to break strikes, undercut wages, and perform insanely dangerous jobs. And here’s the plain truth: Immigration hurts African-Americans disproportionately. When immigration goes down (such as during the world wars), blacks have prospered. We’ve played the “nation of immigrants” string on our history banjo for a long time. Shouldn’t we play the “let’s do something fair and free to help the persistent black underclass” string?
But the broken immigration system we have now is unworthy of a great nation. It’s time for Washington to tackle this problem head on. If we miss this opportunity, our illegal immigration problems will only get much worse and we will not realize the full economic potential of America.
Again with “legalization first or nothing.” Candidate Ayotte was really enthusiastic about our immigration problems only getting worse. As for the “opportunity,” that means a Democrat president and momentary alliance between Democrats and the Chamber of Commerce.
Does any of this remind you of Obamacare? A large, ill-understood but transformative piece of legislation, negotiated behind closed doors, made possible by an alliance of liberal ideologues and capitalists who will profit from it, riddled with discretionary loopholes and exceptions that will surrender future policy making to executive agencies, mysteriously labeled a “priority” instead of say, improving our catastrophically low labor market participation rate, and rammed through Congress before it can be infected by daylight? Normally, the memory of catastrophe fades after a generation. Here’s it’s only taken 3 years.
Good piece. Makes me sick just thinking these pols waiting with that knife about to be stuck in the back of all natural and naturalized citizens who worked hard to get here. Me suspects there is some dirty tit for tat deal to get Ms Ayotte on board with this bill.
Nice article. For what it’s worth, my take on this can be found here: http://www.girardatlarge.com/?s=ayotte&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&post_type=post
I’ve linked to your story here: http://www.girardatlarge.com/2013/06/blogger-dismantles-comprehensive-kelly-ayottes-immigration-argument/
Hope you don’t mind and will link to our posts on the topic as well.
Thank you!