Department of Homeland Security Scorches Bipartisan Amnesty Bill

Photo by Ada Be via Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/adambelles/5044281763/).
Photo by Ada Be via Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/adambelles/5044281763/).

A little earlier today, the Department of Homeland Security delivered what can only be called an impassioned response to the immigration proposal that the media has decided, a la the ‘journolist,’ to frame as the bipartisan option. The bill, or more accurately an amendment to a bill that hasn’t been written, is the brainchild of Chuck Schumer, Susan Collins, Mike Rounds, and Angus King. Three Democrats (because King is actually a Democrat) and a quisling Republican is all that is necessary to get the bipartisan stamp.

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What does DHS find objectionable? Well hold onto your hat:

The Schumer-Rounds-Collins proposal destroys the ability of the men and women from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to remove millions of illegal aliens. It would be the end of immigration enforcement in America and only serve to draw millions more illegal aliens with no way to remove them. By halting immigration enforcement for all aliens who will arrive before June 2018, it ignores the lessons of 9/11 and significantly increases the risk of crime and terrorism.

It is an egregious violation of the four compromise pillars laid out by the President’s immigration reform framework. Instead of helping to secure the border as the President has repeatedly asked Congress to do, it would do the exact opposite and make our border far more open and porous. It would ensure a massive wave of new illegal immigration by exacerbating the pull factors caused by legal loopholes. By keeping chain migration intact, the amendment would expand the total legalized population to potentially ten million new legal aliens – simultaneously leading to undercutting the wages of American workers, threatening public safety and undermining national security.

Why would they say that?

It eviscerates the authority of DHS to arrest, detain, and remove the vast majority of aliens illegally in the country by attempting to limit DHS enforcement by codifying a “priorities” scheme that ensures that DHS can only remove criminal aliens, national security threats and those who arrive AFTER June 30, 2018 creating a massive surge at the border for the next four months.

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I kid you not. It gives legal protection to all illegals who do not have a felony conviction who were present in the U.S. before June 20, 2018.

This is the DREAMer portion:

  • In addition to the 3 million DACAs, it ensures a path to citizenship for their 6 million parents through the use of a faux-prohibition provision that is likely unconstitutional as well as administratively and judicially impossible to administer.
  • There are no real eligibility requirements. Much of the eligibility criteria can be waived.
  • Gives citizenship to criminal aliens: Many criminals can benefit from the DACA provision as the bars for criminals are overly narrow and the eligibility to waive criminal conduct for applicants is overbroad.
  • Expands maximum age of entry into the United States for DACAs to age 18— ensuring it applies to illegal aliens who have spent most of their lives in their home countries and who came to the United States recently and who are decidedly not children.
  • Grants immigration benefits to individuals who are not “DREAMers”: expands conditional permanent resident status to certain aliens in Temporary Protected Status who otherwise meet the eligibility requirements designed to address the DACA population.
  • Persons who are under the age of 43 years old TODAY are eligible to apply for DACA now – these are not children, and haven’t been for some time.
  • Additionally there is no maximum age limit: meaning that, a “DREAMer” who is eligible today could wait years before applying, thus we could have DACA “children” benefiting receiving citizenship when they are in their 60s and 70s.
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On chain migration:

Under current law, illegal aliens are unable to legally bring over their foreign relatives through chain migration. By providing a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens while leaving chain migration intact across the entire U.S. immigration system, these individuals would then be able to bring over all of extended families through chain migration, who in turn could bring in their foreign relatives, potentially increasing the legalized population of aliens to 10 million.

The Visa Lottery system is intact.

This is nothing more or a less than a huge f***-you directed at Trump. It pointedly ignores all four pillars of his proposal and goes out of its way to create so much distance between this proposal and the White House offer that no deal is possible.

Justice objects, too.

I would like to take a moment to address the Schumer-Rounds-Collins proposal introduced in the Senate yesterday. I’ve seen these proposals before, and I know what this means.

It means that if you can get in the country today (or even any time through June), you can’t be deported.

This is open borders and mass amnesty and the opposite of what the American people support.

This amendment— plain as day— will invite a mad rush of illegality across our borders. It would protect from deportation millions of illegal aliens present in the United States today and countless others who will most certainly flood across the border.

The obvious intent of this amendment is to lay the groundwork for a mass amnesty— an amnesty which would likely benefit illegal aliens who are not even in the United States today.

Among its other flaws, it fails to close existing loopholes in law that permit the near unfettered entry of unaccompanied minors and family units— an unacceptable flaw that dooms this legislation. This past election, the American people spoke strongly of their desire to fix these problems. Legislation like this raises questions as to why we even have elections and undermine confidence in the public process.

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And the White House says it will veto this bill.

It is really obvious that the Democrats will not stop at anything short of legal residency for every illegal in the nation. These are not serious people and I’m ready to say that we should start treating DREAMers as what they are, deportable illegal aliens, until the Democrats come to the table with an intent to find a solution.

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