U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, PA-11

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, October 28, 2011
Contact: shawn.kelly@mail.house.go v

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, PA-11, sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement asking for an explanation as to how the agencies claim a record number of illegal aliens were deported in 2011.

On Oct. 18, ICE claimed credit for deporting a “record” 397,000 illegal aliens during the fiscal year (which ended Sept. 30). But President Obama himself admitted that number does not reflect reality.
According to CNN, the president told a group of Hispanic journalists, “The statistics are actually a little deceptive.” There has been “a much greater emphasis on criminals than non-criminals,” the president said, and “with stronger border enforcement, we’ve been apprehending folks at the borders and sending them back. That is counted as a deportation even though they may have only been held for a day or 48 hours.” (“Obama’s deportation record: inside the numbers, CNN.com, Oct. 19, 2011)

Additionally, ICE delayed reporting the 2010 deportations of 19,000 illegal aliens, instead adding them to the 2011 number, according to U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“ICE claims there were a record number of deportations of illegal aliens in fiscal 2011, but the president says the number is „deceptive.‟ I‟d like to hear the truth, and the American people deserve to hear the truth. Just a few months ago, the administration unilaterally changed American immigration policy when it said it would no longer deport „non-criminal‟ aliens. Then it released these statistics that claim the U.S. government is deporting a record number of illegal aliens. This sounds more like a public relations ploy than enforcement of our immigration laws,” Rep. Barletta said. “When an illegal alien is stopped at the border, is this administration counting that as a „deportation‟?”

“I would like Secretary Napolitano and ICE Director John Morton to explain how the administration calculated these „record‟ numbers. I know that in my district, in far too many cases, when local law enforcement officers catch illegal aliens, ICE tells them to let them go,” Rep. Barletta added. “At a time when we‟re cutting waste, fraud, and abuse, the bureaucrats in Washington openly allow people to defraud the system. Millions of illegal aliens steal jobs from legal American workers, and the administration has given illegal aliens permission to stay and continue stealing those jobs. Ten million to 12 million jobs are being stolen by illegal aliens. Imagine if we could give 10 million unemployed Americans a job. Think about what that would do for their families, for their communities, and for our nation.”
###

Center for Immigration Studies

Amnesty by Any Means
Memos Trace Evolution of Obama Administration Policy

By Janice Kephart
October 2011

Janice Kephart is the Director of National Security Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies.

Introduction

Analysis of a series of leaked memos from within the Department of Homeland Security’s highest ranks shows that the Obama administration has sought for the last year and a half to form a strategy to achieve amnesty for the illegal population without input from Congress. The goal? Ultimately, according to a June 2010 memo, the administration seeks to “reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization.” Well aware of the potential political fallout among both Congress and the American people, the administration provided internal briefs on the pros and cons of varying strategies to gain an administrative amnesty.

The course eventually decided on appears to be the now infamous June 2011 “prosecutorial discretion” memo issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton. This memo, embraced by the White House a few weeks ago, sets a course that prevents the enforcement of immigration law, provides a de facto amnesty, and is effectively worker authorization for much of the current illegal population. The current course of non-enforcement is in contrast to the initial proposed strategies of proactive immigration law rewrites.

In this memo is a thorough analysis of the extent the Obama administration is willing to go to deceive America into accepting unprecedented executive branch immigration law rewrites and changes in immigration processing to get around their federal responsibility to enforce immigration law. Obama administration actions taken to peel back visa interviews abroad, reduce enforcement on our physical borders, replace worksite enforcement to worksite audits, take actions against states seeking to enforce the law but no action against sanctuary cities, and support of only two immigration enforcement programs — Secure Communities and E-Verify — make sense when placed against the backdrop of these memos. On September 29, 2011, more evidence that this agenda is on track came in a Washington Post front page story describing the Obama administration’s overt actions to discourage states from attempting to get their illegal populations under control:

Obama Administration Escalates Crackdown on Tough Immigration Laws

“The Obama administration is escalating its crackdown on tough immigration laws, with lawyers reviewing four new state statutes to determine whether the federal government will take the extraordinary step of challenging the measures in court.

“Justice Department attorneys have sued Arizona and Alabama, where a federal judge on Wednesday allowed key parts of that state’s immigration law to take effect but blocked other provisions. Federal lawyers are talking to Utah officials about a third possible lawsuit and are considering legal challenges in Georgia, Indiana and South Carolina, according to court documents and government officials. The level of federal intervention is highly unusual, legal experts said.”

None of these actions have been pursued without a foundational goal of “amnesty by any means.” That is why 9/11 Commission findings of fact and recommendations have been rolled back or purposefully misconstrued; these policies fly in the face of our national security and our economic security. Below is a detailed account of a DHS/White House pursuit of amnesty.

Background

Four administration memos, taken together, show the evolution of the immigration law enforcement meltdown currently underway. The story begins in February 2010 with proposals to amend immigration law categories and policies through a series of regulatory rewrites. In addition, the memos consider prying open narrow immigration exceptions into wide cross-cutting remedies to permit the entry and legalized stay of large classes of illegal immigrants through an expensive “registration process.” “Political Considerations” riddle the first two memos, with chief concerns including “The Secretary would face criticism that she is abdicating her charge to enforce immigration laws” and “A program that reaches the entire population targeted for legalization would” be characterized by opponents as amnesty…

MORE

Marietta Daily Journal

Activist D.A. King: Obama taking both sides on immigration

MARIETTA — Immigration activist D.A. King is accusing President Barack Obama of taking both sides of the immigration issue, but federal immigration officials dispute his claims.

King, president of Marietta-based pro-immigration enforcement group the Dustin Inman Society, points to recently released U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement figures that claims the U.S. deported a record 396,906 illegal immigrants in fiscal year 2011. An ICE news release said the record is in line with the Obama administration’s focus on identifying and removing illegal immigrants who have broken laws, threaten national security, are recent border crossers, are repeat immigration law violators or immigration court fugitives.

King said this is an example of Obama trying to portray himself as tough on illegal immigration.

“President Obama desperately needs to create an image of enthusiastic immigration enforcer,” King said.

But when he is dealing with Hispanic voters, Obama turns the focus elsewhere, King said. He points to an account of an online roundtable hosted by Yahoo!, MSN Latino, AOL Latino and HuffPost Latino Voices, in which Obama distanced himself from the ICE figures, saying they were “a little deceptive,” according to a Yahoo! Story about the event.

Obama said the numbers could be misleading because they included apprehensions made at the border, not just illegal immigrants taken into custody inside the United States, according to the online story.

But King said it is Obama who has moved away from past reporting methods and instead had the Department of Homeland Security combine the statistics. He points to Customs and Border Protection statistics that show border apprehensions exceeding 1 million in 2004 and 2005.

“The President of the United States is pulling a fast one on the American public with the assistance of the media,” he said. “These are nowhere near record numbers.”

But ICE spokeswoman Danielle Bennett said the numbers the agency released only include apprehensions made within the United States. Immigrants caught at the border are calculated by the border patrol, she said.

While she said the agency did make a change in 2007 that started counting people who are deported voluntarily in its figures, that happened while George W. Bush was still president.

“There has never been any change related to how we count removals from one administration to the next,” she said.

A voluntary deportation means the subject faces no penalty for returning to the U.S. because they were never formally charged

ICE statistics do show jumps in deportation numbers in the years after voluntary removals were counted. In fiscal year 2006, the agency removed 207,776 illegal immigrants. That increased to 291,060 in 2007, 369,221 in 2008 and has continued to rise every year since.

Michael Opitz, founder of the Marietta-based Madison Forum, points to a news release from Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which accuses Obama of “cooking the books” and enacting “amnesty through inaction” by including voluntary removals of immigrants.

In 2010, 64,000 of the claimed of the 392,862 illegal immigrants removed from the United States were voluntary, Jessica Baker, spokeswoman for the Republican staff of the Judiciary Committee, said in an e-mail.

“A single alien can show up at the border and be voluntarily returned numerous times in a single year — and counted each time as a removal,” she wrote.

Opitz said he feels someone needs to look into the claims.

“Somebody is not telling the truth,” he said. “And that’s all the more reason for an investigation.”

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal – Activist D A King Obama taking both sides on immigration

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal – Activist D A King Obama taking both sides on immigration

CNN

Dems consider another amnesty push

Democratic sources tell CNN that it’s likely that Democrats on Capitol Hill –with the approval of the White House– will re-introduce some form of immigration reform, possibly as early as December. At this point, the details of any plan are unclear. But what is clear is that Democrats are interested in using their version of reform as a “contrast issue” to Republicans, who largely emphasize border security…

HERE

Rep. Lamar Smith — Politico

Obama deportation numbers a ‘trick’

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last week announced that the Obama administration has deported a record number of illegal immigrants in the past year. — But the Obama administration is using smoke and mirrors to achieve its so-called historic record. Take away the illusion, and the facts show that the administration conjures up its deportation statistics…

HERE

Gov. Rick Perry’s Remarks to the Border Summit
Wednesday, August 22, 2001 • Speech

Thank you Senator Lucio. President Nevarez, UT-Pan American is to be commended for its vision and leadership in hosting this unprecedented border summit in the beautiful Texas town of Edinburg. My friends from Mexico, including Governor Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba of Tamaulipas, and Governor Fernando Canales Clariond of Nuevo Leon, it is an honor to be in your presence. I want to extend my gratitude to our Mexican neighbors for hosting me this July as I sought to learn one of the world’s great languages, Spanish. I enjoyed your hospitality, and was grateful for your patience as I worked on my vocabulary. No longer do I refer to “la verdad” as “la verdura.” I am delighted to see friends from the U.S. side of the border as well, including our distinguished members of the Legislature, and our county and city leaders along the border.

Today we begin a new dialogue about our shared future, a future of promising potential if we work together to solve the challenges we both face. It is fitting that we convene this summit where the great, meandering river known as the Rio Grande – or the Rio Bravo – forms the long border between Texas and Mexico. In years past, that famed body of water has been seen by many as a dividing point, If you were to walk along its banks and look to the other side, based on the stereotypes of the past, you would think you were seeing things a million miles away, instead of a stone’s throw away. But I am here today to say that while we have honest differences, there is more that unites us than divides us. The Rio Grande does not separate two nations, it joins two peoples. Mexico and the United States have a shared history, and a common future. And it is along this border where we will either fail or succeed in addressing the education, health care and transportation needs of our two peoples.

Critical to our future is meeting our border infrastructure needs. We must get traffic moving along the border so that businesses along the border and thousands of miles away can deliver products on time, and continue to grow. Companies from Spokane, Washington to Concord, New Hampshire depend on Texas highways and Texas bridges to move their products south. Seventy percent of all U.S.-Mexico truck traffic goes to, or through, the Lone Star state. Fifteen of our twenty-seven border crossings with Mexico are located in Texas. Fifty-four percent of all U.S.-Mexico trade crosses just between Brownsville and Laredo. This year the Texas legislature appropriated approximately $1 billion more in transportation funding. But more can be done.

With Texas serving as the Gateway to Mexico, it is time that we receive congressional funding that reflects the instrumental role our state plays as a port of entry. With a Texan in the White House, I believe there is no greater opportunity to end the funding discrimination that crippled Texas infrastructure under the previous administration. Good infrastructure is essential to the free flow of commerce. It is a matter of economic fact that free trade lifts the tide for all the boats in the harbor. U.S. trade with Mexico has increased by 500% since 1994. Exports and imports between Texas and Mexico now exceed $100 billion dollars annually. Thousands of jobs have been created for Texas and Mexican workers, confirming the indisputable fact that trade with Mexico is big business for Texas.

The fruits of NAFTA have just begun to ripen. At the same time, we must not allow the roots of the tree to become poisoned. The NAFTA agreement not only signaled a new era of economic possibility, but a new era of bi-national cooperation. That is why it is wrong, and inherently detrimental to our relationship with Mexico for the U.S. Congress to pursue a protectionist policy that forbids Mexican trucks from U.S. roadways. It is bad public policy, and it violates the terms of the NAFTA agreement we agreed to. Mexican trucks that meet our safety standards should be given the same access to U.S. roads as our Canadian neighbors to the north.

Mexico, too, must be vigilant in realizing its treaty obligations. For more than half a century, under the 1944 Water Treaty our two nations have cooperated so that the water needs of both countries are met. But as of late, Mexico is behind in delivering the water it has promised to the U.S. A Mexican judicial injunction now threatens the livelihood of our Rio Grande Valley farmers, and has become a source of contention between our two nations. It is time to end this dispute. I would ask that the Mexican government meet its obligation under the treaty, Texas growers are depending on it.

There are other challenges that require a unified approach, especially in the area of health care. A lack of preventative medicine means conditions that could have been eliminated through childhood immunizations show up in disturbing numbers later in life. Limited availability of medical specialists means conditions like heart disease and diabetes go untreated at alarming rates. In Texas, we recently placed a strong emphasis on preventative care when we expanded access to Medicaid for more low-income children by making the Medicaid enrollment process simpler. We allocated an additional $4 billion to the Medicaid program, and more than $900 million to the Children’s Health Insurance Program. I urged legislators to pass a telemedicine pilot program that will enable, through technology, a sick border resident of limited financial means to receive care from a specialist hundreds of miles away. But the effort to combat disease and illness requires greater cooperative efforts between our two nations. It is a simple truth that disease knows no boundaries. An outbreak of drug-resistant tuberculosis, for example, endangers citizens of both our nations. We have much to gain if we work together to expand preventative care, and treat maladies unique to this region.

Legislation authored by border legislators Pat Haggerty and Eddie Lucio establishes an important study that will look at the feasibility of bi-national health insurance. This study recognizes that the Mexican and U.S. sides of the border compose one region, and we must address health care problems throughout that region. That’s why I am also excited that Texas Secretary of State Henry Cuellar is working on an initiative that could extend the benefits of telemedicine to individuals living on the Mexican side of the border.

As a compassionate state, we know that for our children to succeed, they must not only be healthy, but educated. The future leaders of our two nations are learning their fractions and their ABC’s in classrooms all along this border. Immigrants from around the world are being taught in Texas classrooms, and our history is rich with examples of new citizens who have made great contributions. We must say to every Texas child learning in a Texas classroom, “we don’t care where you come from, but where you are going, and we are going to do everything we can to help you get there.” And that vision must include the children of undocumented workers. That’s why Texas took the national lead in allowing such deserving young minds to attend a Texas college at a resident rate. Those young minds are a part of a new generation of leaders, the doors of higher education must be open to them. The message is simple: educacion es el futuro, y si se puede.We also know that poverty is not unique to either side of the border. Some of Texas’ poorest citizens live in colonias all along the border. They often lack basic infrastructure many of us take for granted. Just today, the North American Development Bank announced it will provide $6.3 million in funding to hook up colonia residents in six border cities to water and wastewater lines. More than 18,000 residents will benefit from these water or wastewater hookups. And this November, by approving Proposition 2, Texas voters can ensure that their neighbors in colonias have quality roads so that school buses, emergency vehicles and postal trucks can reach residents, and residents can get to a job or a school reliably.

President Fox’s vision for an open border is a vision I embrace, as long as we demonstrate the will to address the obstacles to it. An open border means poverty has given way to opportunity, and Mexico’s citizens do not feel compelled to cross the border to find that opportunity. It means we have addressed pollution concerns, made substantial progress in stopping the spread of disease, and rid our crossings of illicit drug smuggling activity. Clearly we have a long way to go in addressing those issues. At the same time we must continue to deepen our economic ties, expanding opportunities for Mexican and U.S. companies to do business on both sides of the border. The outlook is promising, even if the road to prosperity is a long one. We share a bond as neighbors, and we find our culture north of the Rio Grande to be increasingly defined by the strong traits of people of Hispanic descent. Texas has long enjoyed a unique identity, an identity forged by an independent spirit, and the convergence of many different peoples. We must welcome change in the 21st Century as we have in every century before it.

Today, as we look to the south, we see a rising sun. It is perched above a people whose best days are in front of them. Let us endeavor to make the most of this new day through a new dialogue. Let us work together to combat disease, expand trade and provide educational opportunities. If we do, there are no limits to what we can accomplish for the betterment of all of our citizens. Thank you, and God bless you.
http://governor.state.tx.us/news/speech/10688/

Marietta Daily Journal

Activist D.A. King: Obama taking both sides on immigration

October 21, 2011

MARIETTA — Immigration activist D.A. King is accusing President Barack Obama of taking both sides of the immigration issue, but federal immigration officials dispute his claims.

King, president of Marietta-based pro-immigration enforcement group the Dustin Inman Society, points to recently released U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement figures that claims the U.S. deported a record 396,906 illegal immigrants in fiscal year 2011. An ICE news release said the record is in line with the Obama administration’s focus on identifying and removing illegal immigrants who have broken laws, threaten national security, are recent border crossers, are repeat immigration law violators or immigration court fugitives.

King said this is an example of Obama trying to portray himself as tough on illegal immigration.

“President Obama desperately needs to create an image of enthusiastic immigration enforcer,” King said.

But when he is dealing with Hispanic voters, Obama turns the focus elsewhere, King said. He points to an account of an online roundtable hosted by Yahoo!, MSN Latino, AOL Latino and HuffPost Latino Voices, in which Obama distanced himself from the ICE figures, saying they were “a little deceptive,” according to a Yahoo! Story about the event.

Obama said the numbers could be misleading because they included apprehensions made at the border, not just illegal immigrants taken into custody inside the United States, according to the online story.

But King said it is Obama who has moved away from past reporting methods and instead had the Department of Homeland Security combine the statistics. He points to Customs and Border Protection statistics that show border apprehensions exceeding 1 million in 2004 and 2005.

“The President of the United States is pulling a fast one on the American public with the assistance of the media,” he said. “These are nowhere near record numbers.”

But ICE spokeswoman Danielle Bennett said the numbers the agency released only include apprehensions made within the United States. Immigrants caught at the border are calculated by the border patrol, she said.

While she said the agency did make a change in 2007 that started counting people who are deported voluntarily in its figures, that happened while George W. Bush was still president.

“There has never been any change related to how we count removals from one administration to the next,” she said.

A voluntary deportation means the subject faces no penalty for returning to the U.S. because they were never formally charged

ICE statistics do show jumps in deportation numbers in the years after voluntary removals were counted. In fiscal year 2006, the agency removed 207,776 illegal immigrants. That increased to 291,060 in 2007, 369,221 in 2008 and has continued to rise every year since.

Michael Opitz, founder of the Marietta-based Madison Forum, points to a news release from Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which accuses Obama of “cooking the books” and enacting “amnesty through inaction” by including voluntary removals of immigrants.

In 2010, 64,000 of the claimed of the 392,862 illegal immigrants removed from the United States were voluntary, Jessica Baker, spokeswoman for the Republican staff of the Judiciary Committee, said in an e-mail.

“A single alien can show up at the border and be voluntarily returned numerous times in a single year — and counted each time as a removal,” she wrote.

Opitz said he feels someone needs to look into the claims.

“Somebody is not telling the truth,” he said. “And that’s all the more reason for an investigation.”

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal – Activist D A King Obama taking both sides on immigration

The Dustin Inman Society

MEDIA ADVISORY 19 October 2011

The Dustin Inman Society
www.TheDustinInmanSociety.org
3595 Canton Rd. A-9/337
Marietta, Ga. 30066
Contact: D.A. King
DA@TheDustinInmanSociety.or g

Pro-enforcement immigration watchdog group urges national media to challenge Obama administration’s claim of record deportations – disputes accuracy and methodology

D.A. King, president of the Dustin Inman Society (DIS) and a recognized authority on illegal immigration today urges pro-enforcement Republicans and members of the media to investigate the administration’s suspect declaration that Fiscal Year 2011 saw more removals of illegal aliens than any time in the history of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“The existence of the statistical shell game concerning immigration enforcement that has been perpetrated in the White House since inauguration has been common knowledge among immigration experts and enforcement personnel for years” noted King today.

King went on to outline his doubts: “Veering from past deportation record-keeping methods, Obama’s DHS has constantly combined removals of illegals apprehended at our borders by Border Patrol Agents with illegal alien fugitives captured and processed in the interior of the nation. Happily, this fact was noted in an October 2011 Reuters report .” [[ note from D.A. added 20 October 2011: also reported in the Washington Times HERE ]]

The DIS statement goes on: “while DHS has made it difficult to obtain a breakdown of the removal totals they provide to easily illustrate this faulty reporting system, the president reportedly recently admitted to the combination of two different sets of statistics to create misleading and higher totals.”

King noted that Progressive Radio Network contributor and ‘The Ticket’ political reporter/blogger, Rachel Rose Hartman, recently reported on remarks made by the president to moderators during a Hispanic online roundtable – “Open for Questions”- hosted by Yahoo!, MSN Latino, AOL Latino and HuffPost LatinoVoices “Obama was asked to address an increase in deportations that has occurred during his tenure. He said the numbers are “a little deceptive”- apprehensions at the border are counted as deportations in the reported statistics, Obama said…”

King says he agrees with President Obama on the “deceptive” point.

“The latest claim of record-setting removals from ICE and DHS are well worth close inspection by responsible members of the media” remarked King. “To further the cause of amnesty-again, President Obama must manufacture public confidence in a policy of enthusiastic immigration enforcement. Working toward re-election, candidate Obama apparently sees a need to apologize to the anti-enforcement ethnic lobby and to explain and deflate announced deportation numbers” explained King.”

“Even adjusting to individuals from “events”, with more than one-million Border Patrol apprehensions in 2004, 2005 and 2006 ,” King noted that using the tracking system to which the president has admitted, past “removal/deportation” figures and reports would be far in excess of the 397,000 claimed in the recent release from ICE.”

Pro-enforcement on immigration, the Dustin Inman Society is a Georgia-based, non-partisan, multi-ethnic organization opposed to a repeat of the illegal immigration amnesty of 1986.

Getty images

Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Jul 3, 1984. pg. 1

REVIEW & OUTLOOK (Editorial): In Praise of Huddled Masses

Amid the fireworks and picnics as this nation celebrates its independence tomorrow, we hope Americans stop to ask, what is the United States? The question is especially appropriate at this moment in the history of a nation of immigrants; upon returning from its July 4 recess Congress will try to finish work on the Simpson-Mazzoli bill.

The answer to the question is in the first words of our Constitution, “We, the people.” It was the people, and especially new people, who worked this land into a New World. We hope today’s gentlepeople, the descendants of the tired and poor who sought refuge on these shores, can still spare a thought for today’s huddled masses, yearning to be free.

Simpson-Mazzoli, we are repeatedly told, is a carefully crafted compromise. It is in fact an anti-immigration bill. Note well that despite its grant of amnesty for aliens who have been residents long enough, its most outspoken opponents are the Hispanics, who would prefer to live with the present laws. Its constituency is an interesting and perhaps portentous alliance of the “nativist” Americans who still dominate Mountain States politics and the “Club of Rome” elitists of the Boston-Washington corridor.

Full Text (835 words)
Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jul 3, 1984
Amid the fireworks and picnics as this nation celebrates its independence tomorrow, we hope Americans stop to ask, what is the United States? The question is especially appropriate at this moment in the history of a nation of immigrants; upon returning from its July 4 recess Congress will try to finish work on the Simpson-Mazzoli bill.

The answer to the question is in the first words of our Constitution, “We, the people.” It was the people, and especially new people, who worked this land into a New World. We hope today’s gentlepeople, the descendants of the tired and poor who sought refuge on these shores, can still spare a thought for today’s huddled masses, yearning to be free.

Simpson-Mazzoli, we are repeatedly told, is a carefully crafted compromise. It is in fact an anti-immigration bill. Note well that despite its grant of amnesty for aliens who have been residents long enough, its most outspoken opponents are the Hispanics, who would prefer to live with the present laws. Its constituency is an interesting and perhaps portentous alliance of the “nativist” Americans who still dominate Mountain States politics and the “Club of Rome” elitists of the Boston-Washington corridor.

We can hope that the bill will die in the House-Senate conference, which still must resolve such contentious differences as whether or not to have a program of temporary guest workers for agriculture. If it survives conference, President Reagan would be wise to veto it as antithetical to the national self-confidence his administration has done so much to renew.

If Washington still wants to “do something” about immigration, we propose a five-word constitutional amendment: There shall be open borders. Perhaps this policy is overly ambitious in today’s world, but the U.S. became the world’s envy by trumpeting precisely this kind of heresy. Our greatest heresy is that we believe in people as the great resource of our land. Those who would live in freedom have voted over the centuries with their feet. Wherever the state abused its people, beginning with the Puritan pilgrims and continuing today in places like Ho Chi Minh City and Managua, they’ve aimed for our shores. They — we — have astonished the world with the country’s success.

The nativist patriots scream for “control of the borders.” It is nonsense to believe that this unenforceable legislation will provide any such thing. Does anyone want to “control the borders” at the moral expense of a 2,000-mile Berlin Wall with minefields, dogs and machine-gun towers? Those who mouth this slogan forget what America means. They want those of us already safely ensconced to erect giant signs warning: Keep Out, Private Property.

The instinct is seconded by the “zero-sum” mentality that has been intellectually faddish this past decade. More people, the worry runs, will lead to overcrowding; will use up all our “resources,” and will cause unemployment. Trembling no-growthers cry that we’ll never “feed,” “house” or “clothe” all the immigrants — though the immigrants want to feed, house and clothe themselves. In fact, people are the great resource, and so long as we keep our economy free, more people means more growth, the more the merrier. Somehow the Reagan administration at least momentarily adopted the cramped Club-of-Rome vision, forgetting which side of this debate it is supposed to support. Ronald Reagan, we thought, marched to different bywords — “growth,” for example, and “opportunity.”

If anyone doubts that the immigration and growth issue touches the fundamental character of a nation, he should look to recent experience in Europe. Some European governments are taken in by the no-growth nonsense that economic pies no longer grow, and must be sliced. They are actually paying immigrants and guest workers to go home: the Germans pay Turks, the French pay North Africans, the British pay West Indians and Asians. It was this dour view of people as liabilities, not assets, that led to the great European emigration to the U.S. in the first place. Meanwhile, Europe today settles into long-term unemployment for millions while the U.S. economy is booming with new jobs.

The same underlying difference in vision applies in political ideals. The individual is the lightning rod of 20th-century politics. The totalitarians of the Communist Bloc don’t allow their people to leave. The foremost use of the machinery of the state is to wall in the citizens. If we cannot change their regimes, the least we can do is to offer refuge to those of their peoples with the opportunity and courage to arrive here. To do otherwise is to say that the ideals upon which this Republic was founded are spent, that what is left is to negotiate the terms of surrender.

America, above all, is a nation founded upon optimism. The Republic will prosper so long as it does not disavow this taproot. The issue is not what we offer the teeming masses, but what they offer us: their hands, their minds, their spirit, and above all the chance to be true to our own past and our own future.

http://www.bizzyblog.com/ThereShallBeOpenBorders_WSJ070384.html

Below is my MDJ column today in which I have added numerous links to educate the reader. There is a comments section on the MDJ site.

Marietta Daily Journal

D.A. King: Open borders high on Perry’s agenda

October 11, 2011

Recently in this space, we outlined some of the little-publicized objections to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s record on “immigration.”

It drew a lot of mail, mostly from Perry supporters who were miffed at reading inconvenient facts that made them ask themselves why they picked him as candidate in the first place. Granting instate tuition to illegals is only a small part of Perry’s problematic record.

We noted that Perry had dismissed any consideration of a state immigration enforcement law such as Arizona, Georgia and other states struggled to put in place; had proposed a bi-national health insurance program with Mexico (PerryCare?); has expressed his support for legalizing the fugitive illegals who have escaped capture at American borders (it’s not amnesty, it’s a guest worker plan!); and refused to use the power of his office for any E-Verify legislation in Texas. So what if that state has one of the highest number of illegals in the country?

To educate readers on the state of the state of Perry’s Texas, we included a quote from the Jacksonville, Ill., Courier-Journal: “Texas has the second-highest poverty rate among the 50 states, behind only Mississippi. It has the second-highest percentage of population without a high school diploma. Texas leads the nation in the percentage of people with no health insurance, over one quarter. It is tied with Mississippi for having the biggest percentage of workers paid at or below the minimum wage.”

Perry is still standing on a magical “jobs creation” in Texas myth. Let’s add to the facts with this from Mark Krikorian on National Review Online — “Jobs for Whom?” — citing a report from his Center for Immigration Studies. “Remember all those new jobs in Texas Gov. Perry keeps talking about? Would it surprise you to learn that the overwhelming majority went to newly arrived immigrants and not to Americans? Surprise! From 2007 to 2011, 81 percent of the job growth went to recently arrived foreign workers — about half legal, half illegal.” Krikorian writes.

“Nor did all this wonderful job creation for foreigners seem to benefit Americans indirectly — native-born Texans saw the same doubling of unemployment that Americans elsewhere experienced during the recession. So, to the extent Perry has anything to do with all this — and he’s the one boasting of his role in making it happen — his main accomplishment seems to have been to dissolve the workforce and elect a new one. Maybe this is what the plantation owners want, and certainly their immigrant laborers aren’t complaining, but what’s in it for the rest of us?”

With the recently released demands from the anti-American loons who are known as “Occupy Wall Street,” it seems a good time to add Perry’s most alarming but unreported position.

Like former Mexican president Vicente Fox, Perry, the would-be guardian of American security and sovereignty, has proclaimed his support for open borders more than once since becoming governor of Texas.

You read that correctly.

Astute readers may recall El Presidente Fox’s 2009 visit to Kennesaw State University and his day-long seminar on open borders and creating a “North American Community” similar to the one now foundering in Europe. Fox is not alone in that dream. Open borders is also one of the central demands of the no-longer amusing mob who are “occupying” Wall Street.

A Perry quote from a 2001 border summit taken from the Texas Office of the Governor Website: “President Fox’s vision for an open border is a vision I embrace, as long as we demonstrate the will to address the obstacles to it. An open border means poverty has given way to opportunity and Mexico’s citizens do not feel compelled to cross the border to find that opportunity” said Perry.

A one-time slip of good “sovereignty/security sense?” No. According to the Associated Press, in 2007, while he was in Mexico City for a trade mission, Perry said he would support a “free flow of individuals between these two countries who want to work and want to be an asset to our country and to Mexico.”

Open borders has long been the dream of the radical anti-enforcement left and corporate masters who call the shots in far too much of American politics. One example? In 1984, the Wall Street Journal put forth a front page demand for a five word amendment to the U.S. constitution: “There Shall Be Open Borders.”

Perry is rapidly dropping in public opinion, but leading in campaign fund raising.

Follow the money.

D.A. King is a nationally recognized authority on illegal immigration and president of the Cobb-based Dustin Inman Society which is actively opposed to open borders. On the Web: www.TheDustinInmanSociety.org

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal – D A King Open borders high on Perry’s agenda