Jun 10 2007
What The GOP Wrought On Immigration, Part I
I guess I have the sad duty of demonstrating to the country what the GOP did for us when they killed of a bill that had holes, imperfections – but a lot of good ideas and needed changes. All legislation is made up of the good and the bad. If you focus only on the bad, like the far right did, you end up emphasizing marginal details (like using fake SS IDs to prove legal status – no benefists) and just ignore the bigger issues. The bigger issue on the bill now on life support was the ability to expidite and fast track deportation for convicted violent criminals.
The current deportation process for being here illegally (which is not a feloney) is a long process which allows the perp several opportunities to fix the situation, and to stay on the streets. It doesn’t look at extenuating circumstances – like convictions. This is the status quo which the far right tells us is all we need, forget the bill. I say, tell these people to forget the bill. Tell the mother of the sexualy abused child by his immigrant daycare provider – who appears to be here LEGALLY:
A teary-eyed mom recounted to a Queens jury yesterday how horrified she was when her 4-year- old son described unimaginable sexual abuse at the hands of his trusted female child-care provider.…
Bedessie, a 38-year-old Guyanese immigrant, is charged with rape, …
This woman would be deported if convicted The mother would know, as would all parents, that she was now as far away from other kids and she was paying a huge price for her crimes. At least that would be what she would be looking at if the GOP hadn’t salvaged her ability to stay here in the US after she does whatever time she will be doing. We know who to thank for keeping the criminals amongst us.
Another example is the drunk illegal alien who killed two young girls in VA Beach earlier this year. He has been charged with drunk driving, but when he get’s out of jail will he be deported because he committed a felony AND he was here illegally? Under the new law there would be no question. He would be out of here, fast tracked over other illegal aliens in a different manner than what worries the immgration opponents. They were about law abiding workers getting on a path to citizenship. They are so obsessed with this nonsense they knowingly dismissed the fast track to deportation that was in this bill for the violent criminals who are aliens.
Or how about the man who killed his best friend with a knife. He will be back on the streets in a little over 4 years. And he can stay on the streets – thanks to the GOP. Clealry the man is a danger – but he is a legal immigrant. He can stay to kill again.
The inane cries from the left say we can use existing laws to deal with this problem. Well, no we cannot – as this case clearly shows:
The Second Circuit’s opinion in Blake v. Carbone (2d Cir. 2007), released on June 1, 2007, expands the possibility that aliens convicted of certain aggravated felonies can receive relief from deportation under former § 212(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
The appeal involved four lawful permanent residents who had pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a minor, federal racketeering, first degree manslaughter, and murder in the second degree, respectively. Each petitioner was charged with deportability under the INA for having been convicted an aggravated felony after admission to the United States. Each petitioner sought relief from deportation under former § 212(c) of the INA. The BIA found each petitioner ineligible for a § 212(c) waiver.
Relief under § 212(c) was originally available only for aliens in exclusion, rather than deportation, proceedings. In Francis v. INS, 532 F.2d 268 (2d Cir. 1976), the Second Circuit expanded the availability of § 212(c) relief to ensure equal protection for deportees who were similarly situated to excludees. To determine whether a deportee was similarly situated to an excludee, the BIA had used a “comparable grounds” test that compared the language of INA sections on deportation and exclusion grounds. The BIA denied the petitioners’ requests for § 212(c) waivers because their deportation grounds – aggravated felony convictions – lacked comparative exclusion grounds.
In Blake v. Carbone, the Second Circuit held that the BIA’s comparable grounds test does not comport with the holding of Francis. The court found that similar statutory language is not required for a ground of deportation to be have an equivalent ground of exclusion. Eligibility for a 212(c) waiver must turn on the underlying criminal offenses, rather than the broad ground of deportation. Thus, the Second Circuit found the petitioners to be eligible for § 212(c) waivers if their particular aggravated offenses could lead to exclusion under INA § 212(a) as crimes involving moral turpitude. The Second Circuit remanded the case to the BIA to assess the nature of the petitioners’ individual aggravated felonies.
There are laws on the books, but they have been so watered down by years of appeals and lawyers and protecting rich, violent immigrants they are useless now. These people are still on the street. The GOP left them on the street to look for loopholes and whacked out judges (we all know they exist). This case should not be in doubt. Manslaughter and Murder? But it is in doubt. Serious doubt.
The GOP has a bunch of people blocking progress for mythical reasons they have created out of thin air. The courts have knocked apart all the efforts to deport violent criminals, made it a long process to process immigrants (leaving them on our streets). We have repeat offenders of violent crimes who are here in the US legally and illegally. The results shows the reality. The system is as dysfunctional as those who defended keeping it in place. And these people use as their last resort excuse “no one will try anyway”.
Actually, a lot of people are trying and put up legislation to cut out loopholes, strengthen laws, deport criminals much easier – and the ones who would not try were the GOP. By their definition, they are the problem. They are the ones who will not try and, instead, leave the status quo in place. Two years in a row that has been their claim to success. They have salvaged the status quo – before any possible progress made it into law.
The future victims of these criminals will know who to thank for their pain and suffering. BTW, I plan to do what the immigration hypochondriacs did for years. Highlight the crimes we see here because the system is broke. Yes, we need to deal with violent aliens here. And we need to deal with those who keep putting up barriers to our efforts to deal with them. Left and Right. And if we need to highlight the examples of what these people have given us through their blind, partisan efforts then so be it. Inaction is an act in of itself. They have been all over the airwaves patting themselves in their backs. I see nothing wrong with giving them all the credit they are due. They stopped this bill and all its promise.
Is this important? Yes. We do not have a lot of time before the status quo becomes permanent for another two years at least. And from the heart of the prolem in Arizona we see that there are people who see the urgency:
If the bill does not come back for a vote before August, it will likely become extinct — at least until after the 2008 presidential election.
This is not good.
The issue is at the top of the agenda for most voters. Some like the bill, some hate it and others, including this newspaper, believe that while the compromise measure is hardly the medicine that will solve all immigration problems, it is a necessary first step.
If nothing else, it at least makes a start at addressing some of the thornier issues, such as the fate of an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.
But now the fate of the bill, like the fate of the illegal immigrants, remains in limbo — and needlessly so.
The article goes to lay blame all around. But only one group is crowing about this mess they left – the far right of the GOP. Since they are the ones in the way of progress, then we need to work around them. Unless people want the status quo for 2-10 years to come.
Update: Sister Toldjah stills has the patience to try and reason with the far right and lays out a long and detailed post on immigation which I can say is indentical to my thinking on this matter. Good luck Sister! I applaud your patience and determination.
In my case it is different. I gave up hope on the far right and see them as the defenders of the criminals and the screwed-up status quo. No matter what bizarre raionalizations they use to get there, the end result of the far right has been the continued mess. They destroyed the conservative coalition with their vile accusations on opponents being traitors. In my view being obsessed and caught up in the mob mentality is nowhere near the same level of impingement on character as being called a triator because all humans are imperfect and subject to losing their perspective through the mob emotion. Being human is not an insult. Being a traitor is an unforgivable accusation. We are not Adam Gaddans for supporting the immigration bill. We are not Benedict Arnolds. The people who stated or implied we are equal to the American Taliban and those who exposed our national security efforts to our enemies are lost causes. They exist in the fevered swamps. They are not worth listening to anymore.
Aj:
I got to hand it to you, you do not give up, even when people come on your blog and treat you with no respect.
Big Lizards has an interesting post up on this. And in the comment section he has a nice reality check for a commenter about what it takes to get a fence built.
Some of these people obviously do not have a clue. One guy said we should let Israel do it. Well according to the CIA fact book Israel is about the size of New Jersey and if you look at this link you can see how long they have been working on their as of yet uncompleted fence.
Nothing is a simple as people seem to think it is.
The GOP will do just fine after the Immigration fight…
While some like my blogging pal AJ Strata are eulogizing the demise of the GOP after the immigration bill went down (for now) in flames, let’s not forget it wasn’t the uber right or left that killed it, it was America.
I been perusing polli…
Thanks Terrye, Keep up the good fight.
Captain’s Quarters said that one of the reasons this bill failed was because this bill did not go through the appropriate committees and sub-committees in order to be improved, reworked, and identify loopholes.
I think that many conservatives will stay conservative. They will not be happy with any of the democratic presidential candidates. Hopefully, they will not sit at home to void their votes in ’08 elections.
Didn’t Captain’s Quarters say that Harry Reid decided to allow it to go to the floor to be defeated so that it will appear to be a defeat for Bush because of Bush’s words to his conservative base?
If that’s the case, then we need to make the American Public aware that Harry did not allow this bill to go through the committees and sub-committees.
Hopefully, this bill in a reworked fashion, will be passed as one of the last major domestic successes for Bush before he retires from the Oval Office.
Sounds like many programmers will be hired to develop programs for this new bill!
Lurker,
The GOP is touting the fact they killed it. Let them earn their rewards.
Aj let me say some elements in the GOP are touting they defeating it. Others are working hard to get tje process moving
sister who? she’s as delusional as the rest of the hypochondriacs you so famously talk about. the collapse of this bill had nothing to do with the far right or the far left. keep deluding yourself with these little vignettes of illegal immigrants.
this bill went down in flames because it did not enforce the border. the Secure Fence Act signed last october called for over 700 miles of double reinforced steel fencing to be completed by the end of 2008–with most of it to be completed in 18 months from the date of signing. the bill that they tried to sneak by called for half that with most of it being reduced to guard rails and electronic fencing. the senate could not even enforce the provisions of a bill passed just last october.
“To date, only 12 miles of the 854 miles of border fencing called for in the Secure Fence Act have been constructed. While it’s a start, the 370 miles of fencing promised by DHS represents a significant departure from what’s required by federal law. Let’s be perfectly clear: it’s not enough. Even the 854 miles of fence legislated last year is only a beginning. Legislation presently under consideration by the U.S. Senate to reform our immigration system also reaffirms DHS’ decision to only build 370 miles of fencing. This legislation is weak on enforcement, comprehensively fails to make border security a priority and wrongly retreats from the mandates of the Secure Fence Act. ” congressman duncan hunter co-sponsor
and why we don’t trust virtual fencing: from the washington post
“Since 1995, spending on border security has increased tenfold, from $1.2 billion to $12.7 billion, and the number of Border Patrol agents has more than doubled, from 5,000 to 12,319, according to the House Appropriations Committee. Yet the number of illegal immigrants in the United States has jumped from 5 million to more than 11 million.
In that same time no less than 2 “virtual fences” have been tried and failed. They obviously don’t work and other than someone scratching someones business buddies back to the tune of $2.5 billion in taxpayer money, the latest “virtual fence”, called the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet) awarded to Boeing, is doomed to failure as well.
The Department of Homeland Security and the former Immigration and Naturalization Service spent $429 million since 1998 on video and remote surveillance on the borders. But nearly half of 489 planned cameras were never installed, 60 percent of sensor alerts are never investigated, 90 percent of the rest are false alarms, and only 1 percent overall resulted in arrests, the Homeland Security inspector general reported in December.”
and why we don’t trust politicans or the white house any longer:
The incoming Democratic chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee says his top priorities would be ensuring that all cargo containers are scanned before arriving at U.S. seaports, increasing funding and security for rail and mass transit systems, passing an authorization bill for the Homeland Security Department, and possibly reversing legislation that calls for building a 700-mile fence along the border with Mexico.
“It’s a good time to be a Democrat,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking member of the committee who is poised to take over the helm when the new Congress convenes in January.
72% of americans could care less about the mindless trivia of who’s on first, they care only about closing the southern border before ANYTHING else is done. no temp cards, no triggers no nada.
when border security is completed to the minimum requirements of the secure fence act the rest of the bill will pass in a landslide. but hey, don’t let the obvious keep you from typing away……..
It appears some need flash (as in a so-called fence) instead of substance. This has been a power struggle within the conservative movement (party?) and we all know it. The problem is we have those who, like the hard left, prefer to be right than to truly get the job done protecting all of America.
Amnesty by any other name is still amnesty. If people who come here illegally are allowed to stay under any circumstances that is amnesty. They broke the law. We aren’t allowed to break the law and get away with it. Nobody gives us 10 or 15 years to get our act together before we have to answer for our crimes. America has spoken. No Amnesty! Period. Just about every community in this country is inundated with foreigners speaking in unknown tongues. Everywhere we go we are confronted with hoards of them. They are everywhere. I live in a rural area 20 miles from civilization. We have two department stores in this area. A WalMart and a Goodwill store. This whole area is overrun with them. If there are hundreds of them here there must be thousands of them in more populated areas. They can’t possibly all be doing jobs nobody else will do. Numerous local men have been fired or laid off from the few jobs available in this area and “Mexicans” brought in to take their places. We are tired of it. And apparently the rest of the country feels the same way. We want them out of here. If they are needed let them come in the right way. That way everyone will know that they are indeed doing jobs Americans won’t do.
The local people here know that there have been numerous fights and at least one riot in our local high school between Hispanics and local students. None of this has been reported in the national news. If these incidents aren’t being reported, it makes one wonder if all such stories aren’t being surpressed. However, if it should by chance get reported our local kids would be portrayed as Bigots and Racists, not as normal kids defending their turf.
There is no excuse for illegal alien criminals getting away with breaking the law and being allowed to stay here. Our government has the authority to revoke cituzenship and deport people. If it is not deporting criminals here illegally it is not doing it’s job and should be replaced. When people get good and fed up with all this they will vote people into office who will do their jobs and not make excuses. And if the government, both federal and state, would stop giving our tax money to these so called charitable organizations who provide lawyers to clog up our courts with endless challenges and appeals the problem with getting rid of undesirables would become a lot easier.
It all comes down to this. The majority of my fellow citizens and I are fed up and we don’t want no more stinkin’ illegal foreigners sneaking in here , speaking languages we don’t understand and causing us more problems than we can solve. We got enough problems of our own. We don’t’ needMexico’s or any other country’s dumped on us.
This is just another example of why we need some political party that actually uses its brain rather than legislates via emotional knee-jerks and set agendas. The Democrats are retarded when it comes to fiscal policy and national security. The Republicans are retarded when it comes to immigration and social policy though I will give the Democrats their share of retardation when it comes to certain social issues.
This Atlas is just about ready to shrug.
The “far right” (read: most of the Republican base) of course supports all measures that facilitate the deportation of criminals. It is the supporters of “comprehensive immigration reform” that have historically destroyed the ability of the US to deport violent criminals.
Of course, it is tragic that irresponsible opportunists such as the President of the United States will hold border and national security issues such as expedited deportation and border protection hostage to his own end of amnesty for all illegals. However, giving in to blackmail is rarely the answer.