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House GOP Leadership Trusts Obama on Immigration
The House Republican “principles” for immigration legislation haven’t been formally released yet, but Politico‘s report on Paul Ryan’s speech yesterday to Texas employers of illegal labor outlines the GOP leadership agenda pretty clearly.
The core is this: Ryan, along with John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Kevin McCarthy, trust President Obama to follow through on promises of future enforcement in exchange for immediate work visas—i.e., amnesty—for the illegal population. The piece notes that they’re looking for a way to “force” Obama to enforce the provisions of any new amnesty compromise—but if they had the stones to do that, they’d be “forcing” him to enforce the immigration law we already have.
The truth is, as soon as the illegal population is amnestied—which happens all but immediately in the Senate bill and in any other bill any Democrat would be willing to accept — the incentive for Obama or the Democrats (or the Chamber of Commerce Republicans like Ryan) to follow through on implementing the promised enforcement systems disappears.
Reagan fell for this trick in 1986 amid Ted Kennedy’s cackling laughter. But I can’t fault Reagan because it hadn’t been tried before; it seemed plausible that the promised tightening of enforcement would mean that it would be the last amnesty.
We trusted them once and they lied; the amnesty happened but the enforcement didn’t and we have more than twice as many illegals as we did in 1986. This time, enforcement has to be fully implemented, and overcome the ACLU legal onslaught, first, in order to prevent a recurrence of mass illegal immigration. Then we can move on to amnesty for established, non-violent illegals as a way of closing the door on this sorry phase of our history. (An amnesty would need to be part of a deal that included, at the very least, an end to family chain migration.)
Any Republican who falls for another amnesty-before-enforcement deal is a fool.The result will be exactly the same as last time; the illegals will get their amnesty (whether it leads to citizenship or not doesn’t change the fact it’s an amnesty), after which enforcement will peter out and we’ll end up having to do this all over again a few years down the road. Heck, even the Congressional Budget Office report touted by the Schumer-Rubio crowd acknowledged that there would be 7 million illegal aliens here a decade after the bill’s enactment.
There’s a Simpsons episode where Lisa tries to prove that Bart is dumber than a hamster. One of the experiments involves attaching electrodes to a cupcake; the hamster learns not to touch it after one attempt, while Bart keeps grabbing it over and over, learning nothing from the repeated electric shocks.
The Republican Party: Dumber than a Hamster.
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These wouldn’t be the same people who told Sen. Cruz and other conservatives to pipe down for awhile so we could focus on Obamacare, would they?
Mr. Krikorian,
The biggest specific issue Ricochet commenters pummel Chris Christie on is that he is a squish on immigration. Ann Coulter has also written him off due to this issue. My question to you is a) has Christie said anything that has put him beyond the pale for you or your organization, and b) wouldn’t the best way for a Republican to defuse this issue in 2016 be to neutralize the “immigrant bashing” charge the MSM are going to lay on any of our candidates, then when elected point out the compromise has been apparent all along – enforcement first, amnesty close behind?
Welcome back Speaker Pelosi in November.
The biggest specific issue Ricochet commenters pummel Chris Christie on is that he is a squish on immigration. Ann Coulter has also written him off due to this issue. My question to you is a) has Christie said anything that has put him beyond the pale for you or your organization, and b) wouldn’t the best way for a Republican to defuse this issue in 2016 be to neutralize the “immigrant bashing” charge the MSM are going to lay on any of our candidates, then when elected point out the compromise has been apparent all along – enforcement first, amnesty close behind? ·1 hour ago
I make the “enforcement first” argument in the new National Review (paper version); you can read it here for 25 cents: https://www.nationalreview.com/nrd/articles/369264/enforcement-then-amnesty
Basically, I argue that enforcement has to be fully implemented first, and spell out what that entails, then we need a grand bargain of amnesty in exchange for cutting future legal immigration in half.
Even if one could agree on what constitutes immigration reform it is a futile exercise because whatever the R’s get as concessions about enforcement or anything else the Administration will simply refuse to actually implement once the bill is enacted into law. They have now shown this pattern over and over again. It makes compromise impossible because whatever the legislative language reads it will not happen in the real world.
This is a bigger problem that just immigration. Obama’s approach to governance makes it impossible to come to agreement on anything. The degree of executive discretion being employed by the President is damaging to the very foundations of American governance.
Basically, I argue that enforcement has to be fully implemented first, and spell out what that entails, then we need a grand bargain of amnesty in exchange for cutting future legal immigration in half. ·30 minutes ago
Thanks for your response. I understand your reluctance to address questions about specific politicians, but really wish I could get to the bottom of this question about Christie. This issue will not be resolved to our liking by any Democrat, but could possibly be by a Republican that is not tarred as “mean spirited” by the nomenklutura . I look forward to your, or your organization’s, evaluations of the potential candidates in the future.
You’re giving the GOP leadership too much credit.
I doubt they believe there will be any real enforcement.
The dishonesty of this is just as bad as the policy. They think they can deceive their own supporters.
Mr. Krikorian,
Why on Earth would any Republican support amnesty for illegals? I don’t see how they can believe that amnesty is good for the country or good for them politically. What in the world are they thinking?
Why on Earth would any Republican support amnesty for illegals? I don’t see how they can believe that amnesty is good for the country or good for them politically. What in the world are they thinking? ·41 minutes ago
They are thinking that business hungry for cheap labor has bought and paid for them. Additionally, they are considering making as many new minimum wage taxpayers as possible to support the ever expanding federal government.
Either this issue is driven by big GOP donors who want cheap labor, or it’s a feint of some kind to make the issue go away without letting the left use it to make hay amongst Latino voters.
Why on Earth would any Republican support amnesty for illegals? I don’t see how they can believe that amnesty is good for the country or good for them politically. What in the world are they thinking? ·3 hours ago
1) crony capitalist donors want the cheap labor
2) consultants tell them they must do it to get hispanic vote
3) don’t care about getting voted out if there is a cushy lobbying job when they leave as a reward for getting it done
Thanks fellers, but your answers still leave me scratching me head. Maybe after everything I’ve done – everywhere I’ve been, I’m still that naive SEMO farm boy of yesteryear yet living in days of yore.
Why on Earth would any Republican support amnesty for illegals? I don’t see how they can believe that amnesty is good for the country or good for them politically. What in the world are they thinking? ·4 hours ago
For what it’s worth, Paul Ryan seems to believe that he is, literally, on a mission from God. An example of compassionate catholicism and libertarian-Kempite economics producing an incredibly toxic brew…
I wish I could believe Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy were that smart.
Here is a thought – How about processing the huge backlog of legal immigration applications that the INS is currently holding? I know someone who legally became a US Citizen last year. She waited for about 10 years and tells me she has heard some people wait even longer. Why are we talking about amnesty for illegals when we have so many people trying to do it the right way who are going nowhere fast? Republicans need to wake up and not make a huge mistake here.
I don’t see anyone considered a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2016 pledging to enforce the immigration laws the way Romney did in 2012.