Thanks to NumbersUSA.com
WHITE HOUSE AMNESTY MEETING REVEALED DIFFICULTY FOR PASSAGE
Breathe a little sigh of relief.
The amnesty meeting at the White House yesterday gave Pres. Obama a
very clear image of just how polarized the immigration issue is and
what a high cost he might pay if he lets the Congressional Hispanic
Caucus bully him into pushing an amnesty this year -- or next. (See our story on the President's reaction.)
True, the President invited an incredibly unbalanced representation of
the Senate and House, disproportionately from the Hispanic Caucus. And
although he included a lot of Republicans to show balance, most of the
Republicans were from the most open-borders fringe of their Party.
We took a look at the Recent Immigration-Reduction Grades earned by the 30 Members present (you can see the full list at the bottom of this story). Here's what we found:
- A -- 3 Members
B -- 2 Members
C -- 2 Members
D -- 5 Members
F -- 18 Members
Some overzealous anti-amnesty groups started an irate phone campaign against these three for attending, fearing that they were caving. But we can be proud that the three did attend because they threw buckets of cold water on the fevered rhetoric of the pro-amnesty forces. My argument for years has been that our side essentially wins in every setting, no matter how unbalanced the line-up if we have at least two strong spokesman (preferably three) present to show how illogical the open-borders side is.
For several days hundreds of open-borders organizations (backed by tens of millions of dollars from wealthy foundations) had hyped the White House meeting with Members of Congress as the "kick-off" for a sprint to pass a giant amnesty later this year.
Because of the presence of sane Members, DHS Sec. Janet Napolitano was repeatedly challenged for reducing immigration enforcement, countering Pres. Obama's rhetoric at the meeting that his Administration was moving forward in showing that it can provide the enforcement to justify an amnesty.
Pres. Obama was also challenged to put the 14 million unemployed Americans first in considerations of what to do about immigration.
Sen. Menendez (D-N.J.) argued that illegal aliens need to be made U.S. citizens so they can save Social Security. He was immediately challenged with information recently gathered at the Social Security Administration that the illegal aliens will never pay as much into the fund as they take out -- a strange way to "save" the system.
Of course, because of the 6-1 pro-amnesty ratio at the closed-door meeting the prevailing mood was that passing an amnesty is a majority wish. But among the pro-amnesty supporters there was major dissension that bodes well for stalling amnesty legislation this year.
Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Graham (R-S.C.) were the chief pro-amnesty Republican spokesmen in the meeting. But they as much as said that that Democrats will need to throw the unions overboard if they are going to get McCain's and Graham's votes on an amnesty. The unions are insisting that the amnesty not include a giant new guest worker program. McCain and Graham said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce won't go along with it and, presumably because of that, McCain and Graham won't go along with a low-guest worker amnesty either.
Some Democrats indicated they very well might stiff their union supporters to allow for a lot more foreign guest workers if McCain would silence the right-wing critics of amnesty in Congress. McCain indicated that he would bring congressional right-wingers around.
After the meeting, though, union leaders said they had no intention of budging on their insistence against expanded guest worker programs.
So, will Obama and Democratic leaders stick it to the unions in order to get the Chamber's and McCain's support? Sounds like trouble in the amnesty family.
Pres. Obama left little doubt that he truly wants to reward more than 11 million illegal aliens with permanent work permits and U.S. citizenship. But the words of his spokesmen and his own words indicated that he is stalling. He is forming "working groups" inside the Department of Homeland Security to work on different aspects of an amnesty bill. Presumably, some Members of Congress will be invited to be part of that and report back later. The fact that Obama included in the meeting 3 A-Grade and 2 B-Grade Members also indicates that he wanted to impress on the amnesty zealots that the arguments against amnesty and in favor of unemployed Americans are not going to be easy to overcome.
Yesterday, Obama's words showed him to be an ideologue. But his actions and his announced actions showed him to be much more of a pragmatic politician. We will continue to root for the pragmatist.
Thanks,
Roy Beck
NumbersUSA President and CEO
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