US Immigration Contradictions

by Simon 7 Replies latest social current

• 

  Simon

  Are you having a hard time trying to figure out exactly which party (democrat vs republican) is pro or anti immigration?

  Here's my take on it ... they are both, both. That is, both the democrats and the republicans are both pro and anti at the same time but for exctly opposite reasons and this is why they can't agree and sort anything out.

  The republicans are the party of business. They actually like immigrants - who's going to pick the crops and do all those low paid jobs that others won't? So they want them ... but especially the illegal kind. They are the ultimate source of cheap labor - low pay and no rights and crucially, no vote.

  Well, about that 'no vote' thing. They only want them if they are not going to vote democrat and chances are they will if they get the vote so if there's any amnesty or naturalization on the horizon they would much rather get tough on immigration and kick them out. Better a worker shortage than someone voting you out !

  So what about democrats? Well, they are exactly the opposite - they want the immigrants but only if they are going to be voting for them. They know they tend to pull in the minority votes more than republicans and if they hand over some citizenships to the new arrivals then they will be winning more elections. If it's just a bunch of guys working for low wages though then the deals off - they would rather get tough and stop the low wage pressure etc...

  Ultimately. I don't think either bunch really give much of a damn about the actual immigrant families involved and what happens to them.

  Well, that's my take on the sitution !
• 

  prologos

  The government was a law breaker, they did not enforce the existing laws, border control, employment laws. The infiltrators broke the law. so

  another portion of lawbreakers are added to the meltingpot. Many no doubt honest and hard working, but wrought with danger.
• 

  designs

  Under President FDR in 1942 the Bracero Program was started for migrant seasonal workers to come to the US. It lasted until 1964. Some migrants were able to get Green Cards and stay permanently and some workers left farm work and stayed illegally in cities. Following the Bracero Program was the United Farm Workers Union headed by Cesar Chavez and others. Both efforts tried to establish minimum wages and living conditions for workers. Those early workers would be in their 70s now and if they had children here there would be 3-5 generations of children born in the USA, citizens. Millions of people with legal status.

  After 1964 Mexico negotiated the Maquiladora Free Trade Zones along the US/Mexico border to help with the high unemployment in Mexico. In 1994 the Free Trade Agreement saw US companies move across the US Border by the hundreds if not thousands for the cheap labor and unregulated environmental laws. This Agreement accounts for 50% of the Trade between the US and Mexico. The Border Act of 2012 seeks to address the environmental problems along the border under the EPA guidance.

  Nearly every President since FDR has tried to modify Immigration and Guest Worker programs. Ronald Reagan granted Amnesty to over 3 million illegals, he wanted these workers to get regular pay checks and pay into the system. George Bush I granted Amnesty and Guest Worker status to Nicaraguans and El Salvadorians. Under both Presidents millions of children were born here with legal status.

  President Obama seeks to grant further Amnesty to millions while screening for felons, it is not 'blanket amnesty'. The Dream Act 2010 is an attempt to address backlogs in the system and fees paid by migrants. The President will be addressing the Nation on his Executive action for these programs.
• 

  sammielee24

  The President will be addressing the Nation on his Executive action for these programs.

  ---------------------------

  I think it's pretty clear to everyone that this is nothing to do with humanitarian acts - it has to do with votes - it was already reported in the news in South America that refugee status will be given to all the children up to age 21 and unmarriedand, who are related to the 11 million illegals Obama wants to legitimize. The numbers will skyrocket if they decide to allow the inclusion of parents and grandparents from South America to claim refugee status as well - a number of countries are pushing for that inclusion.

  Refugee status provides monetary and other protections that they won't offer to the illegals through amnesty - it's never what a politician says that you have to listen to - its everything they don't say in their double speak that is key to understanding. Obama claims 'they will have to pay'...and on and on, but that's a soft shoe side step when the back door opens and you allow another 11 million to claim refugee status subject to different rules.

  I wonder about all those families who are already in the legal immigration system, some of who wait for years to try and get their kids, their parents etc into the USA to join them as a family. I haven't heard any amnesty for them.

  ------

  President Obama's announcement Thursday night of his plans to overhaul the nation's immigration system is scheduled to happen at an opportune time -- at least if the White House is hoping to reach a captive audience of Hispanic television viewers.

  Obama's 8 p.m. Eastern time announcement will come at the start of the second hour of the 15th annual Latin Grammys , which begins at 7 p.m. Thursday on Spanish-language TV network Univision. At least 9.8 million viewers tuned in to all or part of last year's telecast, meaning Univision defeated CBS, Fox and NBC that night.

  Univision says it will postpone part of the awards show to air Obama's speech, while the big four TV networks, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, currently have no plans to air the address.

  Told about the scheduling coincidence by a pack of reporters, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) the second-ranking GOP senator, said, " Talk about a major pander."

  ----------------------------

  6. Refugees, successful asylum seekers, trafficking victim visa holders, “Cuban-Haitian Entrants” (which are mostly Cuban), S.I.V’s (for Iraqis and Afghanis) and other smaller humanitarian admission groups are eligible for ALL federal, state and local welfare programs 30 days after arrival.

  Refugee access to welfare on the same basis as a U.S. citizen has made the program a global magnet.

  The federal programs available to them include:

  ∙ Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) formerly known as AFDC
  ∙ Medicaid
  ∙ Food Stamps
  ∙ Public Housing
  ∙ Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
  ∙ Social Security Disability Insurance
  ∙ Administration on Developmental Disabilities (ADD) (direct services only)
  ∙ Child Care and Development Fund
  ∙ Independent Living Program
  ∙ Job Opportunities for Low Income Individuals (JOLI)
  ∙ Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
  ∙ Postsecondary Education Loans and Grants
  ∙ Refugee Assistance Programs
  ∙ Title IV Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Payments (if parents are ⌠qualified immigrants – refugees, asylees, etc)
  ∙ Title XX Social Services Block Grant Funds

  17. Welfare use is staggering among refugees. Welfare usage is never counted by officials as part of the cost of the program. Yet, when it is included, the total cost of the refugee program soars to at least 10-20 billion a year.

  As some Americans are pushed off of time-limited welfare programs many refugees are going on to life-time cash assistance programs. For instance, 12.7% of refugees are on SSI – a lifetime entitlement to a monthly check / Medicaid for elderly or disabled. This rate of usage is at least 4 times higher than the rate of usage for SSI among the native-born population and is reportedly rising from these already very high levels.

  Permanent and intergenerational welfare dependence has been allowed to take hold to a significant degree in some refugee groups.

  Find latest welfare usage among refugees here (latest data available is from 2009):https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/orr/fy_2009_annual_report_to_congress.pdf
• 

  designs

  The Vietnamese were offered refugee status in the 1970s-mid 1990s. This program, The Orderly Departure Program, helped hundreds of thousands resettle throughout the world including the USA. Like the Nicaraguan's program it not doubt saved their lives.

  In the mid 1980s I studied the Bible with several of these Boat People families in the Los Angeles area. They all lived 2-3 families in one and two bedroom apartments. The children went to our public schools, received grants for schooling and to open businesses, food stamps and basic health care etc.. Of the children I knew two became doctors, one a math wizard and engineer, and one family opened a Market.

  It was humanitarian and it was public tax dollar money well spent.
• 

  sammielee24

  http://www.washingtontimes.com...

  "President Obama is making his announcement to grant legal status for millions of illegal immigrants on Mexico’s “Revolution Day.”The president’s prime-time address Thursday coincides with the date in 1910 when the Mexican revolution began. The timing hasn’t escaped the notice of the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, a group that opposes the president’s plan.“November 20 is Mexican ‘Revolution Day‘ or Mexican ‘Civil War Day,’ which is the equivalent of America’s 4th of July,” said William Gheen, president of ALIPAC. “Obama’s choice of this date for his departure from his oath of office and the U.S. Constitution creates a permanent symbolic relationship between his actions and Mexico’s violent revolutionary and civil wars from 1910-1920.”Mr. Gheen said the president “is making a powerful and dangerous symbolic declaration to large Spanish media audiences today comparing his new immigration orders to the violent Mexican revolution and civil war.”
• 

  AlphaMan

  This whole immigration controversy is full of contradictions. There are illegal immigration laws on the books, but Obama is willing to accept the vast majority of illegals already here. Yet, a U.S. citizen caught in Mexico without proper immigration paperwork would be lucky to escape a 2 year jail sentence. Even at the U.S/Canada border many good folks are not allowed to cross the border either way because of some minor offence in their past. There is quite a lengthy & expensive process to go through in order to legally immigrate. Are the illegals going to be made to comply with the process or is their criminal act just going to be forgiven? Seems contradictory, unfair to current citizen taxpayers, and unfair to U.S. citizens who would just like to go to Mexico or Canada to live or work.
• 

  Shanagirl

  Obama’s Amnesty Will Loot Social Security To Give Your Money To Illegal Aliens
  
  By George Rasley, CHQ Editor | 11/18/2014
  
  
  "One of the issues that killed the Senate’s hated “Gang of Eight” amnesty for illegal aliens bill was that it allowed the amnestied illegal aliens to immediately access public benefits reserved for citizens and legal immigrants.
  
  House conservatives correctly argued that the “Gang of Eight” bill and its various House companion bills would allow illegal aliens immediate access to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and various other welfare programs, such as food stamps.
  
  While the proponents of the “Gang of Eight” bill tried to finesse the issue the bottom line was and is that once the government gives a Social Security number and card to an illegal alien that opens up a whole smorgasbord of federal, state and local benefits – and it also opens up the possibility of registering to vote.
  
  Now the Federation of American Immigration Reform has produced a stunning report that details how Obama’s planned illegal “executive amnesty” will provide the same free ride that the “Gang of Eight” bill did.
  
  “Obama’s executive amnesty isn’t only unconstitutional but costly; from day one it opens up federal and state benefits to individuals who are still illegal aliens, regardless of the label the President puts on them,” FAIR executive director Julie Kirchner told Matt Boyle of Breitbart News in an exclusive interview in advance of the report’s public release.
  
  The seven-page report from FAIR details how either of the two major mechanisms through which Obama would grant the executive amnesty to millions of illegal aliens would ultimately end up with those millions of illegal aliens taking U.S. taxpayer benefits away from struggling Americans almost immediately.
  
  Obama could give the millions of illegal aliens “humanitarian parole,” something the FAIR report notes is included in statute as a power of the executive branch under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) for “temporary” protections for people from outside the United States. But the Bill Clinton administration in 1998, via a Department of Justice (DOJ) memo, expanded the meaning of “humanitarian parole” to illegal aliens inside the U.S. That memo did not have any “statutory or regulatory basis,” FAIR wrote, but Obama has used it to grant “parole in place to illegal aliens and is expected to expand this practice.”
  
  If that’s how Obama grants executive amnesty to the millions of illegal aliens he plans to, they’ll get near-immediate access to welfare and other public benefits.
  
  “Aliens with parole generally receive work authorization and are eligible for most benefits under federal law,” FAIR wrote. “This is true regardless of whether they have humanitarian parole or parole in place because the eligibility rules for benefits programs make no distinction between the two. Indeed, the longer an alien’s parole, the more benefits he is eligible to receive.”
  
  As for unemployment benefits, aliens with parole for less than a year are also eligible for those despite the fact that states administer unemployment benefits. That’s because state unemployment benefits are “based upon the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), which specifically says that aliens paroled into the U.S. for less than one year are eligible for unemployment benefits provided they otherwise meet the program’s other requirements.”
  
  Such aliens who would get parole would also get immediate access to Social Security and Medicare benefits—meaning they could take Social Security or Medicare away from Americans—FAIR wrote, “so long as they meet other eligibility requirements.”
  
  “By statute, Congress exempted retirement benefits under Social Security from the list of federal public benefits for which an alien must be a ‘qualified alien’ and wait five years for eligibility pursuant to PRWORA,” FAIR wrote. “Instead the Social Security Act only requires that aliens be ‘lawfully present.’ The regulation that defines ‘lawfully present’ for retirement benefits includes aliens paroled into the U.S. for less than one year.”
  
  As for Medicare, the laws and regulations are similar to Social Security—meaning illegal aliens who would get parole status under an Obama amnesty would have almost immediate access to Medicare.
  
  Now here’s what no one on Capitol Hill is talking about, but every Republican and those few Democrats who still actually care about working Americans instead of ethic power politics should care about – adding that many recipients will break Social Security, and the federal budget, almost immediately.
  
  Social Security and Medicare together accounted for 41 percent of Federal expenditures in fiscal year 2013.
  
  According to the Social Security Trustees’ 2014 Annual Report, Social Security’s total expenditures have exceeded non-interest income of its combined trust funds since 2010 and the Trustees estimate that Social Security cost will exceed non-interest income throughout the 75-year projection period.
  
  The federal deficit for Fiscal Year 2014 is $483.35 billion.
  
  Now here’s the kicker: The Trustees project that this annual cash-flow deficit will average about $77 billion between 2014 and 2018 before rising steeply as income growth slows to its sustainable trend rate after the economic recovery is complete while the number of beneficiaries continues to grow at a substantially faster rate than the number of covered workers.
  
  What that means is that the United States is borrowing $77 billion, mostly from the Chinese, to pay benefits to its citizens.
  
  Last year, The Heritage Foundation issued a report estimating the combined 75-year unfunded obligation of the Social Security and Disability trust funds (referred to as the OASDI trust fund) is $12.3 trillion. This is a $1 trillion increase from the previous year’s unfunded obligation of $11.3 trillion.
  
  The combined Social Security and Disability programs are projected to remain solvent—that is, they are expected to have enough revenue from payroll taxes, interest on the trust fund balance, and repayment of borrowed trust fund dollars to pay out scheduled benefits—through 2033.
  
  Heritage noted that if no action is taken to improve the program’s solvency before 2033, benefits will be reduced across the board by 23 percent.
  
  In 2033, the Social Security trust fund will be exhausted, and the program will be able to pay only three-fourths of scheduled benefits.
  
  While the Social Security system is considered solvent until that year, what is the effect of adding as many as 11 million illegal aliens to the Social Security beneficiary pool?
  
  Economics 101 tells us the first illegal aliens to seek amnesty will be the illegal aliens who seek benefits, not the illegal aliens who could conceivably be added to the taxpaying pool that supports those benefits.
  
  This means that the United States will be borrowing billions more from the Chinese to pay benefits to illegal aliens who, by their Obama-granted claim on Social Security and Medicare, will also rapidly advance the bankruptcy of the two programs.
  
  We urge you to call or write your Representative and Senators (the Capitol switchboard is 1-866-220-0044) tell them not to allow Obama’s planned illegal and unconstitutional amnesty to loot Social Security and Medicare. Tell them those programs are for American citizens and legal immigrants, not illegal aliens."
  
  See Matt Boyle's article "EXCLUSIVE -- REPORT: OBAMA'S EXECUTIVE AMNESTY WILL GIVE ILLEGAL ALIENS PUBLIC BENEFITS" through this link.

  Shana