Throw them a bone – Part 2

There is another group of restless natives (well, actually non-natives) waiting to receive Obama’s promises. Illegal aliens.

He said it would be a top priority in the first year in office. Well? Where’s the amnesty program?

So far the biggest thing he’s given them is the Luis Gutierrez Road Show last summer. It was a real hit. The Catholic church got involved and the cameras rolled and Nancy Pelosi called the trespassers “very patriotic.” But that was it.

And Latinos are important to the democrat candidates in the mid-terms. They aren’t very likely to vote for the GOP, but they do tend to stay home on election day…and Obama would hate for that to happen.

So, here comes the bone. Obama sent Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to give a speech at the Center for American Progress. Full text here>>
http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/speeches/sp_1258123461050.shtm

Now the Center for American Progress is about as progressive as you can get. John Podesta heads it up. (You remember him…ACORN board member…frequent White House visitor…transition team leader…buddy with Al Gore and Bill Clinton…you get the picture. Suffice it to say that he and his social justice movement have more in common with Mao and Marx than Monroe and Madison.)

So, here’s J-Nap herself at a far left think tank talking about the next steps for immigration reform.

She starts out with the old excuse that Obama has been busy. Then she baits the hook: “So even as we press to end this recession and get America back to work, we are determined to deal with long lingering problems that cloud our future. And another problem that has been punted from year to year, from Congress to Congress, from Administration to Administration, is the clear need for immigration reform.”

She talks about how much better things are at the border since she took charge. “For starters, the security of the Southwest border has been transformed from where it was in 2007. The federal government has dedicated unprecedented resources to the Mexican border in terms of manpower, technology and infrastructure—and it’s made a real difference.

“Last March, the Obama Administration announced a Southwest Border Initiative that has increased the resources the government is dedicating to combating drug cartels, and the smuggled cash and illegal weapons they thrive on.”

You see, no one called her on that one. She has spent about a BILLION new dollars at the Mexican border. That is true. BUT THOSE RESOURCES HAVEN’T DONE SQUAT WHEN IT COMES TO STOPPING ILLEGALS FROM ENTERING THE UNITED STATES.

All that effort has been looking for guns and cash moving SOUTH FROM the USA INTO MEXICO. That’s not keeping people OUT.

She said, “and it’s made a real difference.” What hype. If she means that the border towns of Juarez, Tijuana and Reynosa have turned into shooting galleries, that’s a difference. But I wouldn’t say it has been a positive one.

Later in the speech she claims that they have kept people OUT, but even she admits that the real deterrent is the economy. And the fence building was a scant 100 miles again. It was 400 miles in 2007, 100 in 2008, and 100 in 2009.

She says she’s made 287g better, when in fact she has made it worse.

She claims to have improved worksite enforcement, but she has not.

Secure Communities has identified 111,000 illegal aliens, but don’t ask her how many of them have actually been deported. (Identifying them is easy. Any police department can identify far more than ICE is willing to handle.)

Like Chertoff before her, Napolitano waved the white flag of surrender, telling us that Homeland Security needs immigration reform. She’s right about the need for more money from congress. And some of the penalties need to be stiffened.

But then she says we need amnesty. “In order to have fully effective law enforcement, we need Congress to create the legal foundation for bringing the millions of illegal immigrants in this country out of the shadows, require them to register and pay all taxes they owe, and enforce the penalties that they will have to pay as part of earning legal status. Let me emphasize this: we will never have fully effective law enforcement or national security as long as so many millions remain in the shadows.”

Oops! Did she really say “pay all taxes they owe” AND pay penalties besides? The libs aren’t going to like that. Back taxes were a sticking point before.

But I still don’t get the part about amnesty and law enforcement. Sure, they can’t just remain in the shadows…but did you ever think of enforcement that includes deportation? J-Nap is a smart woman. She know there are billions of people in the world who are a flight away from coming here. Surely she knows that amnesty is only going to encourage them to come here.

Then she goes on to talk about visas for professionals and family unification. Obviously, for her higher levels of legal immigration are a foregone conclusion. The thought that 250,000 TOTAL immigrants a year is a reasonable number has never occurred to her. The fact that we have more than enough youth and unskilled citizens who are unemployed to fill the employment needs has never occurred to her. That was true in 2006 and it is even more true today.

Well, it wasn’t much of a bone, but at least we know who Obama has assigned to feed the dog.