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Steps toward a North American Union

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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again!  Smiley
October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
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Psalm 51:17
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« Reply #30 on: January 28, 2013, 11:27:52 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-reform-amnesty-produce-more-illegal-immigration-013500775.html

1/28/13

Immigration reform: Will 'amnesty' produce more illegal immigration?
Supporters of immigration reform that includes of a path to citizenship say that the US is not as attractive a destination as it once was for illegal immigration.


Immigration reform is in the air. A bipartisan Senate group unveiled its proposals on Monday, and the president is scheduled to announce his own package on Tuesday. Both contain provisions for legalizing some 11 million undocumented immigrants now in the US.

But, just as there promises to be no easy consensus on a final deal, there is little agreement about how much the overall reforms will actually stem the flow of illegal immigration across America’s borders. Critics of the proposals say a path to citizenship invites more undocumented migrants, while supporters of the move to legalize many who have lived and worked in the US for years say it is not an open invitation to new illegal immigration.

Critics point to the lessons from the last time Congress tackled his issue, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), a 1986 law that legalized 3 million undocumented immigrants. Both sides acknowledge the law produced substantial fraud, leading to nearly triple the number of new residents created by the law.

"The message will go out,” says Ira Mehlman, Seattle-based national spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), “telling people to bring their rent receipts and pay stubs real or not.” The situation will be a replay of the 1986 law, only on a larger scale, he says. It’s simple math, says Mr. Mehlman, adding, “how can you possibly do background checks on 11 million people? It just won’t happen.

This expectation sells this target population short, says Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). “Nobody wants to go where they are not wanted and cannot legally find a job to support them or their family,” he says. “I do not foresee a wave of illegal immigration, because most of these people realize the political situation in the US is very dire when it comes to undocumented immigrants.”

Census data released at the end of 2012 show a slowing of the immigration tide. The number of undocumented immigrants fell to 11.1 million, down from a high of some 12 million in 2007, following more than a decade of increases. A Pew Center analysis of these data finds that “there is net zero migration taking place from Mexico to the United States,” points out Villanova University immigration specialist Catherine Wilson, via e-mail.
The proposed reforms will not encourage illegal immigration in the future for three reasons, says David Koelsch, director the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.

The proposed pathways to legal status will be long and expensive, he says via e-mail, “So any reward for future illegal immigration is distant.”
The birth rate in Mexico is in rapid decline and domestic industry's wages are rising, “making the US less attractive,” he says.

The US economy is still not recovered, "so there is not a strong draw for illegal immigration,” he adds. A sustained 1.75 to 2.25 percent growth rate does not even keep our native population employed, he says.

The reality “is that our border is more secure than it has been in years past and as immigration talks heat up, our border agents and patrol will be well aware of the need for greater vigilance,” says immigration lawyer and law professor Michael Wildes, who is managing partner of Wildes & Weinberg in New York City and represented the government in immigration cases in his time as a US Attorney.

The law needs to have enough teeth that it doesn't open the door to greater illegal immigration, he adds. “Whether that means tougher sanctions or steeper fines is up to Congress to decide. But the penalties need to be more stringent because once a pathway to citizenship is defined, there is even less of an excuse for employers to hire undocumented workers and for folks to come here illegally and remain illegal.”

While the numbers tell a story of declining illegal immigration, still a path to citizenship for those now in the country illegally may be a political problem for those who want to pass comprehensive immigration legislation, says David Mark, editor-in-chief of the website, Politix.

“It just seems like common sense to most people that if you make it easier to become legal, that will attract others as well,” he adds. “It is naive to think otherwise.”

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« Reply #31 on: January 29, 2013, 04:54:09 am »

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says Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). “Nobody wants to go where they are not wanted and cannot legally find a job to support them or their family,” he says. “I do not foresee a wave of illegal immigration, because most of these people realize the political situation in the US is very dire when it comes to undocumented immigrants.”

What a load of Latino propaganda that is!  Roll Eyes

"Very dire"? This guy is delusional. The situation for illegals hasn't been better.

And it keeps getting better, like in Illinois (Obama's home state!) where they just passed law that allows driver's license for illegals.

I am so sick of this junk by these people, and the government not enforcing it's own laws. The hypocritical attitudes are so obvious it grates on the nerves.
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« Reply #32 on: February 07, 2013, 03:15:37 pm »


Mar_3:26  And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end.

1Pe_4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?


http://news.yahoo.com/catholic-bishops-conflicted-over-gays-immigration-184526146.html

2/6/13

Catholic bishops conflicted over gays, immigration

The nation's Roman Catholic bishops are in a difficult position as the debate over immigration reform gets underway: The immigrant-built American church, known for advocating a broad welcome for migrants and refugees, could end up opposing reform because it would recognize same-sex partners.
 
Proposals by President Barack Obama and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus include the same-sex partners of Americans among those who would be eligible for visas. The Human Rights Campaign and other gay advocates welcomed the recognition, arguing current laws unfairly treat people in gay or lesbian relationships "as strangers." The idea has the backing of the National Council de la Raza and other liberal Latino groups.
 
But Catholic bishops, with the support of evangelicals and other theological conservatives, have sent a letter to Obama protesting his proposal. In a sign of the sensitivity of the issue, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops would not provide a copy of the statement, saying the signatories agreed not to make the letter public. Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the bishops, would say only that recognition of gay couples in the president's reform proposals "jeopardizes passage of the bill."
 
Galen Carey, public policy officer for the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 40 denominations and has been lobbying for new immigration laws, said, "Our view is immigration reform is not the place to have this discussion." The theologically conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod also signed the Catholic bishops' letter.
 
"The issue of immigration on its own is so controversial, so polarizing," said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of the evangelical National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. He was in the Las Vegas audience last week when Obama presented his plan. "Let's not play politics with 11 million undocumented immigrants."
 
It is far too early to know how much of a factor gay relationships will become in what is expected to be a complicated and emotional debate. The plan unveiled last week by eight leading Democratic and Republican senators did not mention same-gender partners. Many other major religious groups lobbying for reform, such as The Episcopal Church, either support gay marriage or don't make homosexuality a focus. In a conference call this week with reporters, White House Domestic Policy Council director Cecilia Munoz was asked whether Obama would support a bill that didn't acknowledge same-sex partners. Her only response: "The president's position on that is very clear."
 
Still, endorsements from traditional denominations may carry more significance in the current political climate, in which conservative-leaning lawmakers are worried about political damage from backing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
 
"The bishops' support, I think, is going to be critical for swinging moderates in the House to support this bill," said Stephen Schneck, a political scientist at Catholic University of America and chair of the anti-abortion Democrats for Life, who was part of the Catholics for Obama re-election effort.
 
It seems unlikely the bishops would accept any provision for same-sex partners— even for an issue as important to the church as immigration. In their drive for greater orthodoxy among Catholics, bishops have made preserving traditional marriage a priority. Last week, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who leads the bishops' marriage efforts, said the struggle against gay marriage is a gift from God "and by overcoming it we may achieve spiritual greatness." He made the comments in an interview with The Catholic Herald, a news outlet in Britain.
 
The bishops' stand against Obama's health care law provides some indication of their thinking when they view a core moral teaching in conflict with a long-held social justice goal.
 
For decades, the bishops had advocated for improved access to health care, especially for the poor. But church leaders concluded that the president's plan, known as the Affordable Care Act, would provide financing for ending pregnancies. The administration and Democratic supporters of the law insisted the bishops were wrong, and said no taxpayer money would fund abortion coverage. But the bishops ultimately opposed the legislation.
 
Yet, immigration seems even more critical than health care to the church.
 
Americans church leaders have spent decades lobbying for revisions that would keep families together and fulfill what the church considers the duty of all countries, especially wealthier ones, to do as much as possible to help the poor and persecuted. The church and Catholic groups run a network of aid programs for migrants, refugees and illegal immigrants, taking positions that recognize the country's right to protect its borders, but that still fall "to the left of the Democratic Party," Schneck said.
 
This position is rooted in papal and Gospel teachings so extensive that evangelicals often borrow the theological framework for their own advocacy. In a 2003 joint plea for immigration reform, called "Strangers No Longer," U.S. and Mexican bishops stated, "Regardless of their legal status, migrants, like all persons, possess inherent human dignity that should be respected."
 
The issue is of special historic importance to the American Catholic church, which was built by waves of Irish, Italians, Poles and others. The immigrant presence in the pews is now growing as American-born white Catholics drop out in significant numbers. Researchers estimate that a third of the 66 million U.S. Catholics are Latino.
 
"This is an issue that has been a huge priority for the church for a really long time," said Kristin Heyer, a professor at Santa Clara University in California who studies immigration and Catholic social thought. "The wider Catholic community, in addition to the bishops, has mobilized in a major way."
 
Ultimately, the controversy could split Catholics, in much the same way that Catholics divided over health care. Despite enormous pressure from the bishops, the Catholic Health Association, a trade group that represents hospitals, provided critical backing for the president's health care legislation. Surveys have found that large majorities of lay Catholics back same-sex marriage or civil unions.
 
Given the importance of Latinos to the U.S. church, political observers wonder how bishops could explain their opposition to Hispanic parishioners.
 
Kim Daniels, an attorney and director of Catholic Voices USA, a conservative-leaning lay group that defends church teaching, has been urging Catholics across the political spectrum to drop their differences and get behind immigration reform. Still, she said, "being Catholic in the public square means standing up for all our issues."
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« Reply #33 on: February 08, 2013, 08:09:10 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/condoleezza-rice-forming-bipartisan-immigration-group-203407565.html

2/8/13

Condoleezza Rice forming bipartisan immigration group

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is working to put together a group of high-profile Republicans and Democrats to find on bipartisan solutions to the immigration problem, a source familiar with the plans said on Friday.
 
Rice, a political science professor at Stanford University in California and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, is setting up the group with former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, a Republican, and two Democrats, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, the source said on condition of anonymity.
 
Formation of the group comes as President Barack Obama and both houses of Congress confront how to overhaul U.S. immigration laws in ways that both toughen security along the U.S.-Mexico border and provide a pathway to citizenship for as many as 11 million illegal immigrants.
 
Rice gave a well-received speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa last summer but has not shown many political aspirations since leaving the State Department at the end of the George W. Bush administration four years ago.
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« Reply #34 on: February 10, 2013, 02:08:23 pm »

http://news.msn.com/politics/among-us-evangelicals-surprising-support-for-immigration-reform

2/10/13

Among US evangelicals, surprising support for immigration reform

With Hispanic attendance at their churches rising, some evangelical leaders are among the loudest advocates of one of President Barack Obama's top priorities.

WASHINGTON — Thou shalt compromise, at least on immigration reform.

That is the message being heard from some leading evangelicals in the United States. After decades of promoting traditionally conservative causes like opposition to abortion, many evangelical leaders are now wielding their formidable influence to persuade Republican lawmakers to back one of President Barack Obama's top priorities.

With Hispanic attendance at their churches rising, these evangelicals are among the loudest advocates of a U.S. immigration reform. A group of pastors has launched a 40-day campaign to have churchgoers pray, read scripture passages about welcoming the stranger and lobby their members of Congress, many of them in the conservative South.

"We have pastors preach in pulpits to parishioners in Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas — in all the wonderful red states across America," that aiding immigrants, illegal or not, is a Christian duty, said Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, one of the country's most prominent Hispanic evangelicals.

While evangelicals have been a major force in Republican politics for years, Republican lawmakers will take some persuading to back the sort of immigration reform supported by President Barack Obama, which includes a "pathway" to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally.

Conservatives in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives want to focus the debate initially on securing the border with Mexico and making sure illegal immigrants are not rewarded with an amnesty.

"Some of them don't necessarily see or acknowledge the changing demographics or the electoral merits of passing immigration reform, but I do think that many of these religious leaders could push them in that direction by really referencing the humanitarian interest, or moral argument," said Republican strategist Ford O'Connell.

Rodriguez and other pastors are speaking to members of Congress "on a daily basis" to ask them to legalize the status of 11 million undocumented immigrants.

Targeted lawmakers include Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, who chaired a House hearing on immigration last week, and Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho — a leading Tea Party thinker on immigration.

Unlikely as it may have seemed at the height of the "culture wars" of the last two decades, these evangelicals are attempting to nudge Republicans to the center. The effort is well timed, coming as the Republican Party strives to improve its appeal to Hispanic voters who went solidly Democratic at 2012 elections.

"This is one area where social conservative input is extremely welcomed by the Republican Party," said O'Connell.

Pastors are asking worshippers to email their lawmakers and tell them: "I am a Christian, a conservative and I vote. I want you to support immigration reform this year," said Rodriguez.

RARE BIPARTISAN FORAY

Support for an immigration overhaul among Christian conservatives has been growing over time. In 2011, the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention — the country's largest Protestant body — called for "a just and compassionate path to legal status" for illegal immigrants while urging the government to secure U.S. borders.

A Public Religion Research Institute poll in 2010 showed white evangelicals support, by a margin of 2-1, an immigration reform that would allow illegal immigrants to become Americans.

After the election, a group of evangelical leaders signed a letter to Obama endorsing "a path toward legal status and/or citizenship" for immigrants. Among the signers was Tim Daly, president of the Focus on the Family ministry.

Immigration is providing a rare foray into bipartisanship for evangelical veterans of fights over gay marriage and abortion like lawyer Mathew Staver, vice president of Liberty University, founded by evangelical leader Jerry Falwell in Lynchburg, Virginia. Staver's Liberty Counsel group threatened to sue a Florida library in 2000 for promoting witchcraft by encouraging young people to read a "Harry Potter" novel.

As recently as last November, Staver wrote on Liberty Counsel's website that Obama won re-election because, "Millions of Americans looked evil in the eye and adopted it."

But now he acknowledges that Obama deserves credit, along with the Republican head of the House Judiciary Committee and Senators from both sides of the aisle, for drawing up plans for an immigration overhaul
.

James 1:8  A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

"I think it is incumbent upon us to work together and I applaud the bipartisan committee in the Senate and I applaud the leadership of Bob Goodlatte," Staver said. "I applaud President Obama too, I just don't want to use this as a political ping pong."

But any talk of an alliance between the White House and evangelicals to win immigration reform is stretching it.

Christian conservatives strongly oppose a proposal by Obama to give spousal visas to same-sex foreign partners of American gays and lesbians. And evangelical leaders disagree among themselves on whether to grant undocumented immigrants the full right to U.S. citizenship or allow them some other, more limited, legal status in the United States.

Neither option is acceptable to some conservative evangelicals, like Iowa pastor Cary Gordon who opposes loosening immigration laws and accuses his co-religionists of "unbiblical naivete."

'I WAS A STRANGER'

Much of the Christian case for helping illegal immigrants is based on stories of Biblical "immigrants" like Abraham and Moses and passages such as Matthew 25:35: "I was a stranger and you invited me in."

"The scriptures command us to take care of the immigrant. It's not just one verse here or there, it's a repeated command throughout the Biblical text," said Matt Soerens of the World Relief organization, who lectures churches on immigration.

U.S. Representative Doug Collins, an Air Force Reserve chaplain, says hospitality to foreigners is fine but must be balanced with respect for immigration laws.

"Scripture also teaches very clearly that there is government and civil authority and that there is an understanding of rule of law," said Republican Collins, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee.

He represents a strongly conservative district in Georgia which has seen a spike in undocumented workers in the poultry and construction industries and opposes giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

The evangelicals' pro-immigration passion reflects changes in the conservative Christian movement which, while still predominantly white, has taken on a Latin tinge.

Rodriguez, the pastor, who heads a U.S. Hispanic organization with 40,000 member churches, gave a benediction at the Republican National Convention in Tampa last year.

While some two-thirds of U.S. Latinos are Catholic, Hispanics form the fastest-growing group in evangelical churches and are seen as a bulwark against dropping attendance.

Rodriguez put the number of Hispanics in the United States who are either "born-again" or evangelical Christians at between 10 million and 16 million, and growing fast.

While numbers are hard to come by, "there are lots of indirect pieces of evidence" that point to the growth of Latino evangelicals, said Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, who studies Hispanic politics.

Six percent of evangelicals were Latinos in 2007, according to a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll. Eight percent of evangelical or "born-again" voters in a Reuters/Ipsos exit poll at last November's election said they were Hispanic.

Worshipping together with newly arrived Christians — as well as the new emphasis on Biblical teachings on immigration — is melting conservatives' doubts about illegal immigrants, said Danny Carroll, an Old Testament professor at an evangelical seminary in Colorado.

He is part of a congregation at a church in Aurora that is attended mostly by white Americans on Sunday mornings. In the afternoons, the church then hosts separate services with their own pastors for Hispanic, Korean, Filipino and Russian immigrant groups

"Once a quarter, all these congregations get together for a worship service so all of a sudden you are sitting next to someone with a different face, different color, different language. Once you put a human face on it, the whole conversation changes," he said.

Editing by Fred Barbash, Tiffany Wu and Todd Eastham.
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« Reply #35 on: February 10, 2013, 02:17:46 pm »

Jer 20:4  For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.
Jer 20:5  Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.

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« Reply #36 on: February 10, 2013, 07:11:03 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/cantor-children-illegal-immigrants-u-citizenship-171338467.html

2/10/13

Cantor: children of illegal immigrants should get U.S. citizenship
By Andy Sullivan | Reuters – 2/10/13

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. Republican lawmaker said on Sunday he would support granting citizenship to children who are in the country illegally in a sign that conservatives who oppose immigration amnesty will be playing defense as Congress takes on immigration reform in the coming months.
 
Representative Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, said Congress could make quick progress on immigration if lawmakers agreed to give citizenship to children - an idea he opposed when it came up for a vote in 2010 as the DREAM Act.
 
"The best place to begin, I think, is with the children. Let's go ahead and get that under our belt, put a win on the board," Cantor said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
 
Cantor is leading an effort to improve his party's image as many Republicans worry they will be consigned to irrelevancy in coming years if they do not reach out to the fast-growing Latino electorate, which strongly supports immigration reform.

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« Reply #37 on: February 11, 2013, 04:17:43 pm »

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/marco-rubio-the-republicans-new-voice/article8454932/?cmpid=rss1

Marco Rubio: The Republicans' New Voice

2/11/13

A struggling Republican party is hanging ever more hope for its revitalization on Sen. Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American seen by many as a top contender for its 2016 presidential nomination.

Rubio is fast becoming a star. Republican leaders picked the 41-year-old to give the party’s response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday. That’s an honour typically reserved for the party’s most impressive rising figures.

He’s young, a deft communicator and may have the political talents needed to span a growing split in Republican ranks, to patch over divisions between the no-compromise, small-government, low-tax Tea Party wing and the more pragmatic, old-line establishment. He also could have the kind of national appeal that chips away at middle-of-the-road support for Democrats.

But that kind of moderation might end up alienating his strong base among the most conservative Republicans and could damage his presidential aspirations in party primaries in 2016.

Still, he is clearly in the political spotlight. Time magazine put Rubio’s picture on its latest cover, calling him the “Republican Savior.”

A charismatic politician like Rubio embodies the skills his party sees as necessary if it is to somehow remodel its image after a poor showing in the November election. He stands out in a party that tends to hand power to older white men. And his race and full-throated backing for immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for illegal residents, could improve the party’s poor standing with Hispanics, a growing part of the electorate. In the 2012 election, Obama captured 71 per cent of the Hispanic vote. Opponent Mitt Romney pulled down just 27 per cent after saying he favoured “self-deportation” of illegal immigrants: making their lives in the country so difficult that they wouldn’t want to stay.

Asked this week about his White House ambitions, Rubio was coy.

“I really believe that if I do the best job that I can in the Senate, in a couple years I’ll be in a position to make a decision about whether I want to run for re-election, leave politics and give someone else a shot, or run for some other position,” he said.

Rubio is unquestionably conservative, yet he avoids the divisive, over-the-top rhetoric that frightens moderates.

“Ultimately, the real answer is to convince people that what we stand for, that free enterprise and limited government is the best way to create the conditions for their dreams to be possible,” he said.

He proved his talent for selling himself and his immigration ideas with an appearance on the talk-radio program of Rush Limbaugh, long a beacon for the most conservative Americans. Limbaugh and his admirers are intense opponents of relaxing immigration laws, particularly of offering citizenship to illegal immigrants — a move they equate with granting amnesty to criminals.

But Rubio proved persuasive. When he was done, Limbaugh praised the senator
.

What you are doing is admirable and noteworthy,” Limbaugh said. “You are recognizing reality. I’m just worried the president is trying to change reality.” Limbaugh didn’t note that Obama’s plan differs little from the one backed by Rubio.

While being vague about his plans, Rubio has been trying to cultivate Republicans who would be critical in a presidential run. Right after the November election, he visited Iowa, the Midwestern state that holds the first-in-the-nation caucus that will mark the start of the long process of choosing a presidential candidate in 2016. In December, he and other potential candidates spoke at a high-profile dinner attended by top Republicans.

Rubio’s speech suggested that poverty and education might be central to a 2016 campaign.

“The path to a prosperous and growing American middle class,” Rubio told the dinner gathering, “is the combination of a vibrant economy that creates these middle-class jobs and a people with the skills needed for these new jobs.”

Rubio had been a darling of his party’s Tea Party wing after his 2010 victory in the race for the Florida Senate seat, a political battle that saw him humiliate Florida’s once-popular Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who ran as an independent after it became clear that Rubio would win the Republican nomination.

While Rubio took a hard line against immigration reform then, things have changed.

Many centrist Republicans, realize that party positions on an array of issues — immigration perhaps first and foremost — no longer appeal to much of America’s increasingly diverse electorate. They know they must remodel the party’s image. By taking a softer stand on immigration, though, the party might win more Hispanic support.

But many bedrock conservatives still see a change on immigration as a renunciation of party ideals. Some prominent Republicans have already denounced Rubio’s stance. Sen. David Vitter said Rubio is “amazingly naive on this issue.” Rick Santorum, a former senator and Republican presidential contender, said Rubio was playing with “a dangerous group.”

That creates a potential risk for Rubio. Pushing for an immigration overhaul could alienate the very voters that produced his overwhelming Senate victory. Those same voters would be critical for him to win his party’s presidential nomination.

The American system of primary elections to decide a party’s candidate for elected offices tends to favour candidates on the extremes of the political spectrum. Primary voters often prefer candidates most committed to their ideologies, rather than moderates whose broad appeal boosts prospects for victory in the general election.

That tendency could also doom chances of passing an immigration overhaul like the one favoured by Rubio. Key Republican senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn of the border state of Texas, have withheld judgment until a draft of any proposal is ready. They are among Republicans facing re-election in 2014 who could see challenges from more conservative rivals. Republicans have already lost several congressional seats after long-standing moderate members lost primaries to right-wingers, who were then defeated by Democrats in the general election.
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« Reply #38 on: February 12, 2013, 10:09:55 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/republicans-support-path-citizenship-unless-obama-involved-152009543--election.html

2/12/13

Republicans support path to citizenship—unless it’s Obama’s idea Roll Eyes

About 60 percent of Republicans in a Washington Post poll said they think the nation's illegal immigrants should be able to gradually earn their citizenship, a centerpiece of a new immigration reform blueprint proposed in the Senate.
 
But when President Barack Obama is mentioned, much of that Republican support vanishes.
 
When the question mentions that Obama proposed the path to citizenship, only 39 percent of Republicans said they backed such a move.
 
The polling suggests that the more closely associated the president is with immigration reform, the harder it might be for Republicans to drum up conservative support for a bill. Obama campaigned on passing immigration reform in his second term and will almost certainly stump for the issue in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night.

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1Cor 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
1Co 5:7  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
1Co 5:8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.


Mat 12:30  He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
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« Reply #39 on: February 12, 2013, 07:31:38 pm »

Gal 5:9  A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/baby-steps-house-republicans-launch-spanish-language-twitter-190026447--election.html

Baby steps: House Republicans launch Spanish-language Twitter handle

The House Republican Conference on Tuesday announced the launch of a Spanish-language Twitter account, @GOPespanol, as part of the party's nationwide outreach program to minority voters.
 
The act is a small one, of course, but it's in line with a broader effort to bring Hispanic voters into the party after it lost a bruising national election in 2012. (More than 70 percent of Hispanic voters voted to re-elect President Barack Obama.)
 
“GOPespañol is part of our commitment to take our conservative message and values to every corner of America—to young people and seniors, to Hispanics and African-Americans, to men and women alike," Conference Chair Rep. McMorris Rodgers of Washington said in a written statement.
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« Reply #40 on: February 12, 2013, 07:53:08 pm »

Flashback from July 18, 2010!

Obama courts 4 evangelical leaders to push ILLEGAL immigration

No, these are NOT *real* evangelists...

Normally on the opposite side of political issues backed by the Obama White House, these leaders are aligning with the president to support an overhaul that would include some path to legalization for illegal immigrants already here. They are preaching from pulpits, conducting conference calls with pastors and testifying in Washington — as they did last Wednesday.

I am a Christian and I am a conservative and I am a Republican, in that order,” said Matthew D. Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a conservative religious law firm. “There is very little I agree with regarding President Barack Obama. On the other hand, I’m not going to let politicized rhetoric or party affiliation trump my values, and if he’s right on this issue, I will support him on this issue.”

When President Obama gave a major address pushing immigration overhaul this month, he was introduced by a prominent evangelical, the Rev. Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois. Three other evangelical pastors were in the audience, front and center.

Their presence was a testament, in part, to the work of politically active Hispanic evangelical pastors, who have forged friendships with non-Hispanic pastors in recent years while working in coalitions to oppose abortion and same-sex marriage. The Hispanics made a concerted effort to convince their brethren that immigration reform should be a moral and practical priority.

Hispanic storefront churches are popping up in strip malls, and Spanish-speaking congregations are renting space in other churches. Some pastors, like Mr. Hybels, lead churches that include growing numbers of Hispanics. Several evangelical leaders said they were convinced that Hispanics are the key to growth not only for the evangelical movement, but also for the social conservative movement.

“Hispanics are religious, family-oriented, pro-life, entrepreneurial,” said the Rev. Richard D. Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm. “They are hard-wired social conservatives, unless they’re driven away.

“I’ve had some older conservative leaders say: ‘Richard, stop this. You’re going to split the conservative coalition,’ ” Dr. Land continued. “I say it might split the old conservative coalition, but it won’t split the new one. And if the new one is going to be a governing coalition, it’s going to have to have a lot of Hispanics in it. And you don’t get a lot of Hispanics in your coalition by engaging in anti-Hispanic anti-immigration rhetoric.”

Congress is unlikely to pass an immigration law this year. Republicans and Democrats who face re-election in November are skittish about the issue, given the broad public support for Arizona’s new law aiming to crack down on illegal immigration.

The support of evangelical leaders is not yet enough to change the equation. But they could mobilize a potentially large constituency of religious conservatives, an important part of the Republican base better known for lobbying against abortion and same-sex marriage. They already threaten the party’s near unity on immigration.

“These cross-cutting clusters are just splinter groups, so far,” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “Support for the Arizona law is so strong within the G.O.P. that it will be difficult for the comprehensive-immigration-reform evangelicals to have much short-term impact.”

But some evangelical leaders said their latest strategy was to push a handful of lame-duck Republicans to join Democrats — probably after the midterms — to pass an immigration bill on the ground that it is morally right.

Although other religious leaders have long favored immigration overhaul — including Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants, Jews and Muslims — the evangelicals are crucial because they have the relationships and the pull with Republicans.

My message to Republican leaders,” said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, the president of the evangelical National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and one of the leaders who engaged his non-Hispanic peers, “is if you’re anti-immigration reform, you’re anti-Latino, and if you’re anti-Latino, you are anti-Christian church in America, and you are anti-evangelical.” [/color]

About 70 percent of Hispanics in the United States are Catholic, but some 15 percent are evangelicals, and they are far more likely than the Catholics to identify themselves as conservative and Republican.

Evangelicals at the grass-roots level are divided on immigration, just as the nation is. But among the leaders, recent interviews suggest that those in favor of an immigration overhaul are far more vocal and more organized than those who oppose it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/us/politics/19evangelicals.html?_r=2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uhm...you're WRONG Mr. Rodriguez...

James 2:1  My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
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« Reply #41 on: February 13, 2013, 09:54:19 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-reform-congress-obama-public-not-far-apart-175753883--politics.html;_ylt=AjTykWeLBCs_UkMN3KdX1DzNt.d_;_ylu=X3oDMTVxYzJoOHFwBGNjb2RlA2dtcHRvcDEwMDBwb29sd2lraXVwcmVzdARtaXQDQXJ0aWNsZSBNaXhlZCBMaXN0IE5ld3MgZm9yIFlvdSB3aXRoIE1vcmUgTGluawRwa2cDZDlkNWU5NmUtMmM4Zi0zZTEyLTg1ZjItYmFiODQ1MGE4MGI1BHBvcwM0BHNlYwNuZXdzX2Zvcl95b3UEdmVyAzUwN2QwOTUwLTc1M2UtMTFlMi04ZDdiLWY2OTU3OWI4ZjQ1ZQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTQ0YXRscjAxBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDOTRhYmY3MjMtYTZjOC0zMGZiLTgzZjgtN2ZlM2QyYjg1MDk4BHBzdGNhdANoZWFsdGh8c2VuaW9ycy1hZ2luZwRwdANzdG9yeXBhZ2UEdGVzdANpcHRjX3NreXNjcmFwZXJfcmVsYXRlZA--;_ylv=3

2/12/13

Immigration reform: Congress, Obama, and public are not so far apart

Both the bipartisan Senate plan and President Obama's proposal on immigration reform – which he's expected to mention in his State of the Union address tonight – show how Republican and Democrats aren’t as far apart on policy as politics might have us believe
.

In spite of some disagreement among lawmakers on the best path forward, momentum for US immigration reform continues to grow – and is moving in one clear direction. A bipartisan group of senators unveiled a framework for reform a few weeks ago, and shortly thereafter President Obama announced his own policy push on immigration, which he is expected to touch upon again in his State of the Union address Tuesday. In the House, a range of ideas are being floated, but a bipartisan bill is expected to emerge soon.
 
Both the Senate and White House proposals are remarkable for what they share, particularly with respect to providing a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country. And despite some important differences, they are even more remarkable for establishing a united front on what kinds of solutions are seen as reasonable and politically viable in the coming debate over immigration reform.
 
In short, the two plans, particularly the Senate proposal, show how policymakers aren’t as far apart on policy as politics might have us believe. And they chart a way to bring lawmakers together – particularly on the pivotal issue of citizenship.
 
House Republican leaders are already struggling to find a way to distinguish themselves from these proposals without sounding too extreme, but their tentative forays into a “no citizenship for the undocumented” proposal are likely to place them outside the mainstream of the debate – and public opinion.
 
At the core of both the White House and Senate proposals is a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States today. Both proposals also include border reform, updating the legal immigration system and reducing current backlogs, and expanding employment-based visas to include more green cards for high-skilled workers.
 
There are differences, as well. For example, Mr. Obama’s framework makes more overtures to progressives, including support for equal treatment of same-sex couples for immigration purposes, curbing border patrol abuses involving racial profiling, and immigration court reform.
 
The Senate proposal is more centrist, making the path to citizenship conditional on first completing enhanced border-security measures and requiring legalization applicants to go to the “back of the line” before obtaining their lawful permanent resident status – or eventual citizenship. Because extraordinary backlogs in visa processing currently exist, most people expect the Senate to authorize additional visas to reduce the backlog. Nonetheless, legalization applicants would likely wait many years to receive their “green cards.” Obama’s plan calls for a more straightforward path to citizenship with fewer strings attached.
 
The Senate proposal also explicitly calls for a reformed and expanded temporary-worker program flexible enough to meet the demand for jobs when the economy is good and to scale back accordingly when it is not.
 
In short, the Senate proposal seeks to balance often conflicting interests and concerns – border security vs. legalization, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants vs. fairness to those who went through legal channels, and the need for immigrant skills and labor across the whole economic spectrum vs. concern for worker protections and increasing opportunities for native-born workers.
 
The Senate plan aims to earn buy-in from both Republicans and Democrats on issues such as border enforcement, visa reforms, and temporary workers to garner broader support for full reform and legalization.
 
The strong support for legalization that includes eventual citizenship, however, is emerging as the issue that some House Republicans balk on, as evidenced by the first hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on immigration in the 113th Congress. Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R) of Virginia called citizenship an “extreme” solution for the 11 million. It’s a sentiment echoed by Rep. Raul Labrador (R) of Idaho, who argues that he is the voice of immigration reform for House Republicans, and that those who come to the country illegally don’t merit citizenship.
 
Opponents to offering undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship argue that doing so rewards lawbreaking and encourages a new wave of illegal immigration. They argue that the 1986 legalization program, in which roughly 3 million undocumented immigrants received legal status, failed to end illegal immigration, as its supporters promised.
 
What is often left out of that critique, however, is that the 1986 law did not address the question of future immigration flow – the management of permanent and temporary immigration to the United States. When jobs or family are located within the US, but when no visas are available, new enforcement measures alone will not stop illegal immigration.
 
Thus, those opposed to citizenship are missing the larger point of immigration reform and aren’t necessarily reflecting the views of all Republicans. For instance, Darryl Issa (R) of California, who is generally a hardliner on immigration matters, has endorsed a path to citizenship. Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who has stayed mum on the Senate proposal, endorsed citizenship for "DREAMers" and the children of the undocumented last week.
 
In other words, House Republicans are in disarray on the issue, and it is likely to get more confusing soon when a long rumored House bipartisan bill that has been in the works for several years is unveiled. That bill is widely expected to endorse a path to citizenship – as well it should, given that poll after poll shows the majority of the public supports citizenship for the undocumented.
 
In fact, the possible problems created by leaving 11 million people in a permanent limbo status – one in which they can never fully participate in American democracy by voting or becoming US citizens – goes to the core of American values. Once the public accepted that we must build a new immigration system that allows unauthorized immigrants to transition to a lawful permanent resident status, the debate over citizenship was already a non-starter.
 
Americans won’t accept an in-between category that creates second-class status for 11 million of their neighbors. It’s just not in our nature to think that such positions are a fair or practical basis for building healthy and productive communities.
 
It’s likely that the trial balloons denouncing a path to citizenship sent aloft by House Republicans last week are exactly that – efforts to see just how much the electorate cares and how far Republicans will have to move to appear “in the center.”
 
But based on competing proposals from the Senate, Obama, and even from within the House, it will become clear in the coming weeks that opposition to citizenship really is off the political map entirely.
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« Reply #42 on: February 14, 2013, 08:28:15 pm »

Mat_12:26  And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

http://news.yahoo.com/why-gop-sees-conspiracy-environmental-groups-join-fight-105440099--politics.html

2/14/13

Why GOP Sees a Conspiracy As Environmental Groups Join Fight Against Immigration

Groups opposing proposals to legalize undocumented immigrants receive grant money from environmentalist population-control groups. It’s not a secret. You can find the evidence right there on the foundation websites. The immigration groups don’t deny it either.
 
Republicans who are advocating for a comprehensive immigration overhaul see the environmental link to these groups as a smoking gun that undermines their conservative credentials, even though the groups themselves don’t adopt liberal or conservative labels. But because Numbers USA, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, and the Center for Immigration Studies all argue for reducing immigration into the United States, they tend to align with many Republicans on the issue.
 
These groups also receive money from foundations that are concerned about overpopulation. The Colcom Foundation funds all three groups; it also gives money to Negative Population Growth and the Conservation Fund. The Weeden Foundation funds the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association as well as the Environmental Paper Network; it also consistently funds CIS and has given grants to Numbers USA in the past.
 
The three groups that want reduced immigration are not, in fact, conservative. They are “single-issue” organizations whose members hold a variety of viewpoints on climate change, population growth, and abortion. “We are an immigration policy group. We see [immigration growth] as a precursor for rapid population growth, which most people think isn’t good for the country. We are being attacked by both sides,” said FAIR Media Director Ira Mehlman. “As individuals, we are interested in a lot of different things.”
 
Republicans think I’m a liberal. Democrats all immediately think I’m a conservative Republican,” said Roy Beck, the executive director of Numbers USA. He laughs at the conspiracy theories being floated by Republicans who disagree with his perspective on immigration.
 
An example of the criticism being aimed at the trio by conservative immigration-reform advocates: These groups are in no way conservative. They were founded, and are funded and staffed, by radical environmentalists and zero-population activists,” said Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.
 
Beck is flattered by the attention. “To think that I would be able to run an organization for 17 years with a secret purpose—a proabortion, white nationalist agenda. It’s amazing,” he quipped.
 
Steven Camarota, director of research at CIS, is a scholar on population numbers. He has consistently argued that low-skilled immigrants are a drain on the economy. Even without changes in the current immigration laws, he predicts that the country will add 100 million new residents over the next 50 to 60 years. “If they get this legislation, it might be more,” he said. “What you can’t argue is that it won’t have an effect.… You can say more population creates more business in the same way you can say it creates more congestion, sprawl. The question is, are there trade-offs? It’s a very important question.”
 
Camarota will be hard at work parsing legislative language once the Senate Judiciary Committee produces a draft immigration bill, trying to determine exactly how many new U.S. residents it would produce. In the past, those numbers have scared Republicans and Democrats from supporting similar legislation.
 
Beck points out that liberals also don’t like his group. America’s Voice, a liberal organization advocating for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, routinely calls the trio of reduced-immigration groups “restrictionist” and “anti-immigrant.”
 
“That’s very helpful to us for fundraising,” Beck said. “Look how important people think we are!”
« Last Edit: February 14, 2013, 08:57:56 pm by BornAgain2 » Report Spam   Logged
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« Reply #43 on: February 16, 2013, 10:07:07 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/report-bill-set-8-path-residency-033407053--politics.html

Report: Bill would set an 8-year path to residency

2/16/13

WASHINGTON (AP) — A newspaper report says that a draft of an immigration bill prepared by the White House lays out an eight-year process for illegal immigrants to become legal permanent residents.
 
In a story published online Saturday, USA Today says the draft bill would allow illegal immigrants in the U.S. to apply for newly created "Lawful Prospective Immigrant" visas. The bill would also provide more security funding and require that businesses verify the immigration status of new hires within four years.
 
President Barack Obama has said he will send an immigration bill to Congress if lawmakers do not move on the issue "in a timely fashion."
 
A White House spokesman, Clark Stevens, says in a statement Saturday that a final immigration bill has not been prepared but that progress is being made.
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« Reply #44 on: February 17, 2013, 02:20:23 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-presses-ahead-immigration-overhaul-140554929--politics.html

White House presses ahead on immigration overhaul

2/17/13

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's chief of staff says the White House hasn't proposed "anything to Capitol Hill yet" on immigration even as a leading Republican criticizes a reported draft proposal regarding illegal immigrants.
 
That draft, according to USA Today, would create a visa for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States and allow them to become legal permanent residents within eight years.
 
Obama aide Denis McDonough tells ABC's "This Week" that the White House is working with a bipartisan group of senators.
 
GOP Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida says if such a measure was proposed, it would be "dead on arrival" in Congress.
 
McDonough says "let's make sure that it doesn't have to be proposed" because the White House and Congress are able to work out a deal.
 
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« Reply #45 on: February 17, 2013, 02:23:36 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-calls-draft-immigration-plan-backup-175932790--politics.html

2/17/13

White House calls draft immigration plan a backup

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans and Democrats alike on Sunday predicted President Barack Obama would fail if he pushed forward with his own effort to overhaul the nation's immigration system and urged the administration to hold off while lawmakers work on a bipartisan measure.
 
Republican Sen. John McCain predicted the administration's efforts would come up short if the White House went forward with a proposal to put the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. on a long pathway to citizenship. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, who met with Obama on Wednesday at the White House to discuss progress, urged his allies in the administration to give a bipartisan group of eight lawmakers the time to hammer out a deal on their own.
 
Obama's newly appointed top aide, chief of staff Denis McDonough, said the White House would only send its plan to Congress if the lawmakers stumble in their efforts and cast its efforts as a backup plan.
 
"Well, let's make sure that it doesn't have to be proposed," McDonough said of the president's pitch, first reported on USA Today's website late Saturday.

more
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« Reply #46 on: February 18, 2013, 05:15:12 pm »

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/02/18/texas-democrats-republican-say-immigration-reform-needed/

2/18/13

Texas Democrats & Republicans Say Immigration Reform Needed

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) – President Obama’s former advisor says it was probably a mistake that the Commander in Chief’s immigration plan was made public. Regardless, Democratic state Representative Rafael Anchia (Dallas District 103) says it’s time for immigration reform.
 
“Our broken immigration system has very negative impacts on a number of states, like Texas. So what we need to do is create a system that matches willing workers with willing employers, in a legal and transparent system.”

Just last week, Anchia and Houston-District 143 Representative Ana Hernandez Luna filed a comprehensive immigration reform resolution in Austin. “Make sure that people play by the rules, that they undergo background checks, that they learn English and American civics. Those are all the things that we advocated for in our house concurrent resolution,” Anchia explained. “We advocated in broad strokes comprehensive immigration reform that included both a guest worker program and a path to legal status, for the 11 million or so that are in this country undocumented.”
 
In Texas, where we’ve been fighting the immigration battle nonstop for more than a decade, Republicans like Brad Bailey, a Texas GOP precinct chair, also say that now is the time for reform. He said claims by his fellow conservatives that any reform plan is ‘amnesty’ for people who have broken the law, are not helpful and not true. “By having to come out of the shadows, for having to pay a fine, for having to pay back taxes, for having to serve a probationary term for breaking the law, you’re serving your debt to society.”
 
Bailey said conservatives and Republicans need to support immigration reform, because the current system is broken and has begun to hurt the country’s economy.
 
Republicans accuse the Obama administration of meddling in bi-partisan Congressional plans for immigration reform, to score political points. Anchia said it’s time to focus on the bigger plan… not the political bickering. “Little by little consensus will begin to form, whether through the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” (a group of U.S. senators composed of four Democrats and four Republicans) or through a proposal from the White House, about what is politically doable.”
 
Ultimately, Anchia said there needs to be a clear signal from Congress and The President that when it comes to immigration reform something is going to get done. “Our broken immigration system has very negative impacts on a number of states, like Texas. So what we need to do is create a system that matches willing workers with willing employers, in a legal and transparent system.”
 
Texas House Concurrent Resolution 44 urges the U.S. Congress to “swiftly enact and fund comprehensive immigration reform that creates a road map to citizenship.” Both Anchia and Hernandez Luna said the resolution takes a middle-of-the-road, or even conservative stance, that they are hoping House Republicans will support.
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« Reply #47 on: February 19, 2013, 08:55:59 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-backup-immigration-reform-bill-13-max-citizenship-210341024.html

2/19/13

Obama’s backup immigration reform bill: 13-year max for citizenship

Illegal immigrants would face a maximum of a 13-year wait to become citizens if the Obama administration's version of immigration reform passed, according to a leaked draft of the bill obtained by the Miami Herald.
 
The unfinished bill, first published by USA Today over the weekend, was drafted as a backup plan in case Congress fails to vote on legislation, according to White House chief of staff Denis McDonough on Sunday. Under the plan, undocumented immigrants would have to pay a fine, enroll in a Department of Education-approved English and U.S. civics course (or prove their English skills are already up to par) and pass a background check to gain temporary legal immigration status.
 
Once approved, immigrants would have to wait either eight years or until current legal immigration backlogs are cleared (whichever comes first) before gaining permanent legal status, commonly referred to as a green card. Once immigrants gain green cards, they must wait five years before applying for citizenship.
 
Under the 1986 immigration reform law that eventually legalized 2.7 million immigrants, the waiting period before being allowed to apply for a green card was just 18 months.
 
Sen. Marco Rubio, one of four Republicans in the Senate's bipartisan working group on immigration, said in a statement that Obama's bill is “dead on arrival” in part because it does not contain the same border security provisions the working group wants. Under the senators' still-evolving plan, undocumented immigrants could not get permanent legal status before the border is declared secure by a panel of experts and politicians. Immigrant rights groups have argued this border security trigger could mean decades-long waits for citizenship for the country's illegal immigrants.
 
Groups that oppose immigration reform say the senators' plan does not differ all that much from the president's, because both agree that most of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants should have an eventual path to citizenship.
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« Reply #48 on: February 20, 2013, 03:49:37 am »

Obama advances globalist '2-ocean' plan
Grandiose expansion of 'North American Union' pushed by Bush


President Obama has revived George W. Bush’s Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America effort with a grandiose trade plan that transcends the continent to encompass both the Atlantic and Pacific spheres.

In his State of the Union address Feb. 12, Obama announced a two-ocean, globalist free-trade agenda.

“To boost American exports, support American jobs and level the playing field in the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership,” he said. “And tonight, I am announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union – because trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/obama-advances-globalist-2-ocean-plan/#Pe4ab9DvPQWYCxG4.99
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« Reply #49 on: February 20, 2013, 09:18:16 am »

Obama advances globalist '2-ocean' plan
Grandiose expansion of 'North American Union' pushed by Bush


President Obama has revived George W. Bush’s Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America effort with a grandiose trade plan that transcends the continent to encompass both the Atlantic and Pacific spheres.

In his State of the Union address Feb. 12, Obama announced a two-ocean, globalist free-trade agenda.

“To boost American exports, support American jobs and level the playing field in the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership,” he said. “And tonight, I am announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union – because trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/obama-advances-globalist-2-ocean-plan/#Pe4ab9DvPQWYCxG4.99


When Bush II was in office, he couldn't even barely get off any kind of illegal immigration reform bill off the ground.

We are definitely living in some interesting times now...
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« Reply #50 on: February 20, 2013, 10:38:32 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/mccain-defends-immigration-plan-angry-residents-004915369.html

2/19/13

McCain defends immigration plan to angry residents

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona took center stage in the national immigration debate Tuesday as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano toured the state's border with Mexico and Sen. John McCain defended his proposed immigration overhaul to an angry crowd in suburban Phoenix.
 
The presence of the top officials is the latest sign that Arizona will play a prominent role in the immigration debate as President Barack Obama looks to make it a signature issue of his second term.
 
Napolitano toured the border near Nogales with the highest-ranking official at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the incoming chairman of the Senate's homeland security committee and an Arizona congressman. Napolitano, Arizona's former governor, said afterward that comprehensive immigration reform will strengthen the nation's border against criminals and other threats.
 
Also Tuesday, McCain hosted two town hall meetings in Arizona, during which he defended his immigration plan to upset residents concerned about border security. A bipartisan group of senators — including Arizona Republicans McCain and Jeff Flake — want assurances on border security as Congress weighs what could be the biggest changes to immigration law in nearly 30 years. Arizona is the only state with both of its senators working on immigration reform in Congress, a sign of the state's widely debated border security issues.
 
Immigration activists and elected officials say it's only natural for Arizona to continue to take the forefront in the national conversation on immigration after years of internal debate on the topic.
 
"No state in this country has had more experience with enforcement-only immigration laws than Arizona," said Todd Landfried, executive director of Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform, which opposes the state's tough immigration laws.
 
During a heated town hall gathering in the Phoenix suburb of Sun Lakes, McCain said the border near Yuma is largely secure, but he said smugglers are using the border near Tucson to pump drugs into Phoenix. He said immigration reform should be contingent on better border security that must rely largely on technology able to detect border crossings.
 
McCain said a tamper-proof Social Security card would help combat identity fraud, and noted any path to citizenship must require immigrants to learn English, cover back taxes and pay fines for breaking immigration laws.
 
"There are 11 million people living here illegally," he said. "We are not going to get enough buses to deport them."
 
Some audience members shouted out their disapproval
.

 
One man yelled that only guns would discourage illegal immigration. Another man complained that illegal immigrants should never be able to become citizens or vote. A third man said illegal immigrants were illiterate invaders who wanted free government benefits.
 
McCain urged compassion. "We are a Judeo-Christian nation," he said. McCain's other town hall meeting took place in Green Valley, south of Tucson.
 
Arizona gained international recognition as an epicenter of the U.S. immigration debate when it passed its tough anti-immigrant law in 2010. A handful of other states — including Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah — have since adopted variations of Arizona's law.
 
Arizona has the nation's eighth-highest population of illegal immigrants, according to the Pew Research Hispanic Center. In 2010, illegal immigrants represented roughly 6 percent of the state's population.
 
Activists said Arizona's anti-immigrant laws inspired many illegal immigrants to demand more rights. Last week, some college students rallied outside Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's office for driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.
 
"They no longer are afraid to come and say, 'I am not able to vote, but I can make my voice heard, and they have to listen to me,'" said community organizer Abril Gallardo.
 
A report released in January showed the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson sector remains the busiest along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Tucson sector accounted for 38 percent of all drug seizures and 37 percent of all apprehensions along the border.
 
Brewer said last week the border cannot be declared safe until the people living near it feel secure from drug and human trafficking.
 
But Democratic Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona told Latino and black community leaders at a Phoenix luncheon Tuesday that Arizonans need to spread the word on how much more secure the border has become.
 
"There are lots of folks who don't live in Arizona who have no idea what the border is like," Sinema said.
 
Napolitano toured the border Tuesday afternoon with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Deputy Commissioner David Aguilar, Democratic Rep. Ron Barber of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware. Carper is the incoming chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
 
She said in a statement after the tour that border crossings are down 50 percent since 2008 and 78 percent since their peak in 2000.
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« Reply #51 on: February 20, 2013, 02:09:40 pm »

Quote
Activists said Arizona's anti-immigrant laws inspired many illegal immigrants to demand more rights. Last week, some college students rallied outside Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's office for driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

That's basically true. Well, at least the "activists" that sponsor these various demonstrations by illegals are getting bolder because they know the feds won't do anything, and they stir up Latinos, including illegals, with protests and demonstrations.

Quote
McCain said a tamper-proof Social Security card would help combat identity fraud, and noted any path to citizenship must require immigrants to learn English, cover back taxes and pay fines for breaking immigration laws.

Aside from McCain being a total nutcase, he is right about a couple things, like learning English and paying fines for breaking immigration laws. But I think each one needs to leave the country and re-enter if they choose with some kind of waiting period. Why should these people be rewarded and move ahead of the line for breaking the law? That simply wouldn't be fare to all the millions of legal immigrants.

Tamper-proof SS card? Of course he would suggest such a thing. So John, what do you have in mind, say insert a device in a person's forehead?  Roll Eyes
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« Reply #52 on: February 20, 2013, 08:12:03 pm »

Churchianity, believe it or not, is the one that endorses illegal immigration reform. But on the contrary, it's mostly the unbelievers that are AGAINST it?

It seems like whatever up is down, and down is up nowdays... Undecided

http://news.yahoo.com/majority-u-citizens-illegal-immigrants-deported-010930979.html

Majority of U.S. citizens say illegal immigrants should be deported

2/20/13

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than half of U.S. citizens believe that most or all of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants should be deported, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday that highlights the difficulties facing lawmakers trying to reform the U.S. immigration system.
 
The online survey shows resistance to easing immigration laws despite the biggest push for reform in Congress since 2007.
 
Thirty percent of those polled think that most illegal immigrants, with some exceptions, should be deported, while 23 percent believe all illegal immigrants should be deported.
 
Only 5 percent believe all illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the United States legally, and 31 percent want most illegal immigrants to stay.
 
These results are in line with other polls in recent years, suggesting that people's views on immigration have not changed dramatically since the immigration debate reignited in Congress last month, according to Ipsos pollster Julia Clark.
 
"It's not Americans' views that are shifting. It is that the political climate is ripe for this discussion," after the November election when Hispanics voted overwhelmingly in favor of Democratic President Barack Obama, she said.
 
"Democrats feel that the time is right to capitalize on their wins and Republicans feel that they had a bad blow and are eager to reach out to Hispanics," she added.
 
Polls show that most Americans back immigration reform, although they often have different ideas of what that means, with some people favoring looser immigration laws while others want to see greater border security.
 
A group of eight U.S. senators are working on a bipartisan deal to enact immigration reform, the first major attempt since a similar overhaul died in Congress six years ago.
 
The senators' proposal calls for a full path to citizenship for illegal immigrants once they pay back taxes and a fine and wait in line behind others applying to become Americans.
 
A plan by Obama has similar provisions, but the senators want any move to relax immigration laws dependant on boosting security on the southern border.
 
ISSUE POLARIZES POLICYMAKERS
 
Attitudes toward immigration are polarized by party, according to another the Reuters/Ipsos poll. Seventy-five percent of Republicans think all or most immigrants should be deported, compared to 40 percent of Democrats who think the same.
 
Republican Senator John McCain, one of the eight senators in the group, had his own encounter with citizens angered by illegal immigration on Tuesday when residents of his state of Arizona complained bitterly at a town hall meeting about the lack of security on the border with Mexico.
 
One man asked why troops had not been deployed to the border.
 
"Why didn't the army go down there and stop them? Because the only thing that stops them I'm afraid to say, and it's too damn bad, is a gun," the man said,
 
Another resident, Keith Smith, got into a testy exchange with McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate whose views on immigration have fluctuated over the years.
 
"Cut off their welfare and all their stuff and they'll go back," Smith said, referring to undocumented workers.
 
McCain had been trying to explain his position: "You're not telling these people the truth. They mow our lawns, they care for our babies, they clean . . . that's what those people do," he said.
 
The Arizona lawmaker, whose position on immigration hardened during the 2010 midterm elections before softening again, is a key part of the Republican side of the senators' bipartisan immigration effort.
 
Wednesday's Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted Friday through Tuesday and surveyed 1,443 Americans over the age of 18.
 
The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online poll is measured using a credibility interval. In this survey, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
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« Reply #53 on: February 21, 2013, 11:11:32 am »

This news item is on the front page of the Dallas Morning News(which I get) this morning(so a new article) - when I opened up the paper and saw it, felt pretty disgusted.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20130220-conservative-evangelical-christians-sign-on-for-immigration-overhaul-pitch.ece

2/20/13

Conservative evangelical Christians sign on for immigration overhaul pitch

AUSTIN — After years of silence and even hostility to modifying immigration laws, conservative evangelical Christians have become unlikely allies in pressing for a path to citizenship for those here illegally because, they say, the Bible told them so.

A coalition of religious leaders in Texas and elsewhere, many with strong credentials as social conservatives, is engaging congregations in a coordinated call for Congress and the White House to deal with 11 million illegal immigrants.

“Circumstances culturally and politically have thrown evangelicals back on their biblical authority to ask, ‘What does the Bible really say about this?’” said George Mason, senior pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. “There may be lots of political positions that differ on how we accomplish it, but they want to be on the side of God in their minds.”

While moderate and liberal religious groups have long been a part of the immigration debate, the increasingly active involvement of conservative evangelicals marks what Mason called “a sea change” by an important group that could help move Washington toward political consensus.

**Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.  Undecided

“I can assure you our folks are strongly conservative — an overwhelming majority vote Republican and conservative in every way, socially and politically,” said David Fleming, pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston. “But this is an issue that transcends that category.”

Does this include pro-abortion, anti-gun, pro-gay rights people like Mitt Romney and John McCain? Roll Eyes Oh - Bush I and II were Skull and Bones, and Reagan was a 33rd Degree Freemason. And Mormon Romney is pro-universal healthcare. WHOOPS!

“I’ve had people say to me and write me, ‘You’re going to get fired because you’re out of step with your people,’” said Fleming. “Look, I pastor these people. I know their hearts. And if you can show them from the Scriptures that we’re to be both just and compassionate and, practically speaking, must solve the problem, they’ll say of course we do.”

White evangelical Protestants have been among the least supportive religious groups on a comprehensive immigration approach. A Pew Research poll conducted six years ago found a majority of white evangelicals believe immigration to be a threat to American culture and a burden on the economy.

But a recent survey found considerable evangelical support for keeping families together and following the biblical injunction to welcome the stranger — two themes in a campaign by a national network of diverse religious leaders, the Evangelical Immigration Table
.

Gospel of Matthew

The network has launched an effort featuring a passage from the Gospel of Matthew that includes videos, sermon notes, prayer guides and lobbying efforts in Washington to press a bipartisan solution that balances border security with respect for families.

Several thousand congregations in 40 states have been encouraged to read at least one Scripture a day pertaining to immigration. In one video, Southern Baptist leader Richard Land makes the argument that immigration reform can be consistent with conservative values.

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, called the “I Was a Stranger” project linking liberal and conservative faith groups “historic” and “unprecedented.”

In his recent State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama made immigration reform a top priority for his second term. Both members of Congress and the White House have advanced ideas for providing a pathway to legal status, creating a guest-worker program and further securing the border.

Critics insist that security “triggers” be met before any path to citizenship is instituted. And there remains considerable resistance among conservatives to overhauling the law. At a town-hall meeting in a Phoenix suburb Tuesday, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, an architect of a bipartisan plan in the Senate, faced a hostile crowd demanding deportation.

“We are a Judeo-Christian nation,” McCain said, as the crowd shouted that illegal immigrants must never be allowed to vote or become citizens.

Fleming said the immigration debate has been held hostage to two polar opposite views.

“One was to grant everyone amnesty and throw away the law and let everybody do what they want. That didn’t seem like a workable solution and certainly didn’t conform to my biblical worldview,” he said. “But the other extreme was just as impractical, and that was to build a fence and deport 15 million people by tomorrow. Two different poles and both of them throwing rocks at each other.”

Election loss

Politically, many Republicans have come around to the idea of an immigration overhaul following election losses in which the party has failed to attract a growing Hispanic voting constituency. Business leaders want changes that will provide a reliable source of low-wage workers. And local police have resisted acting as de facto border agents, which diverts resources from dealing with crime.

The effort to engage evangelicals is framed in biblical terms. The Evangelical Immigration Table dovetails with other groups, including the National Immigration Forum, an alliance of religious leaders, business and law enforcement, under the rubric “Bibles, Badges and Business.

The goal is a system that’s both fair to immigrants who are here legally and compassionate to those who are not that provides eventual “earned” citizenship and border security.

Dedicated Christians may disagree on what the solution is, but everybody acknowledges there must be a solution,” said the Rev. Rick Scarborough, an East Texas evangelist and head of the politically conservative Vision America.

Scarborough said he has been “conflicted” on the issue as both a socially conservative Republican and a Christian pastor. But he said if a solution couples border security and a requirement that illegal immigrants seeking naturalization go to the back of the line, “the majority of evangelicals will sign on.”

One caution, he said: “The majority of the Republican leadership has to understand that this is not going to win a majority of Hispanics to their cause. The Democrats have won that argument.”

When congregations hear a conservative pastor encourage support for immigration policies from the pulpit as a moral, not political issue, it can have considerable influence, he said.

“If not, we pastors ought to resign our posts,” he said.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have these people even read the book of Matthew, by any chance?

Mat 4:17  From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Mat 3:16  And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
Mat 3:17  And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.


Mat 23:13  But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
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« Reply #54 on: February 21, 2013, 11:29:42 am »

When Cruz ran for Senate last year, they painted one of his opponents in the GOP primaries(David Dewhurst, sp) as a "moderate". Dewhurst also is the same guy who's the LT Governor here in Texas(where Rick Perry is governor). And at the same time, they threw in Craig James, a former NFLer-turned-ESPN-analyst into the mix(even though James didn't do much, he pretty much "played his role").

Overall, as you can see, the whole dog-and-pony-show ended up turning out into this Tea Partier's favorite(Cruz), and is ultimately playing his part in this Hegelian Dialectic game.

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20130220-sen.-ted-cruz-says-obama-wants-immigration-bill-to-fail-to-hurt-gop.ece

Sen. Ted Cruz says Obama wants immigration bill to fail to hurt GOP

Sen. Ted Cruz said Wednesday that President Barack Obama wants Congress to fail at overhauling the nation’s immigration system so Republicans will suffer with Hispanic voters in upcoming elections.
 
“His objective is to push so much on the table that he forces Republicans to walk away from the table because

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« Reply #55 on: February 21, 2013, 07:48:12 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/behind-scenes-deal-pushes-immigration-reform-closer-reality-232550031.html

2/21/13

Behind-the-scenes deal pushes immigration reform closer to reality

The US Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO came up with a framework for solving one of the thorniest issues in immigration reform. The agreement shows momentum is growing.


A compromise agreement announced Thursday between the nation’s largest labor union and the top advocate for American business underscores the enormous momentum now behind immigration reform.
 
The agreement touches on what was seen to be potentially one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the immigration reform debate – namely, how the country should handle the flow of low-skilled, temporary foreign workers.
 
In finding middle ground, the AFL-CIO and the US Chamber of Commerce – two powerful organizations often at loggerheads – have taken a “strong step forward” in resolving the issue, says Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum. Moreover, they have added to the impression that important stakeholders – seeing immigration reform as increasingly likely – are putting aside public posturing in order to hammer out solutions.

“This particular slice of the pie is the most important piece: What does our immigration system look like moving forward?” Mr. Noorani says. “Every day, [the Chamber and the AFL-CIO] are going to continue to put more meat on these bones.... For them to agree, even on the bones, means that they've been engaged in a really serious negotiation.”
 
Praise for the deal came from both sides of the aisle – House majority leader Eric Cantor (R) of Virginia and Sen. Charles Schumer (D) of New York. "We are very hopeful that an agreement can be reached on a specific proposal in the next few weeks," said Senator Schumer, a member of the bipartisan Senate group working on an immigration compromise, in a statement.
 
The principles of the agreement call for creating an independent commission that would study the labor market and propose tweaks to the number of lower-skilled workers admitted to the country. Currently, the number of temporary workers allowed into the country is set predominantly by quotas that continue at stable rates from year to year no matter the economic condition in the US
.
 
The problem with the current system, all sides agree, is that it leaves worker shortages when the economy is surging and allows too many workers to enter the country when economic activity slackens. The AFL-CIO and the US Chamber of Commerce addressed this in their joint statement on Thursday.
 
“Our challenge is to create a mechanism that responds to the needs of business in a market-driven way, while also fully protecting the wages and working conditions of U.S. and immigrant workers,” it read.
 
While important details remain to be worked out, the Chamber and AFL-CIO said Thursday that the goal was achievable.
 
“The power of today’s technology enables us to use that knowledge to craft a workable demand-driven process fed by data that will inform how America addresses future labor shortages,” the two groups said in the statement.
 
Interestingly, the general concept of a commission to propose changes to visa numbers is one whose intellectual foundation lies within the labor movement. It is the brainchild of Ray Williams, a secretary of Labor under President Carter and a co-founder of the liberal Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
 
But Chamber and AFL-CIO leaders, who attested to a productive working relationship during frequent meetings during the last several months, both broadly endorsed the concept Thursday.
 
“We recognize that there is no simple solution to this issue,” the statement says. “We agree that a professional bureau in a federal executive agency, with political independence analogous to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, should be established to inform Congress and the public about these issues.”

In 2011, the US admitted more than 2 million temporary workers, a figure that swells to more than 3 million when the workers’ families are included, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Roughly half of those, ranging from seasonal agricultural workers to nurses to electrical engineers, could be governed by a new flexible-visa regime.
 
But deciding which low skilled workers would have an opportunity to obtain permanent residency or, eventually, citizenship, will be a key debate. The groups also have not come to an accord on high-skilled workers.
 
Liberal groups were supportive of the agreement.
 
“We salute the notion of using real world data about labor markets and demographics to determine the future flow of employment-based immigrants and temporary foreign workers,” said Ross Eisenbrey, a vice president and economist at EPI, in an e-mailed statement. “This is an important step forward for achieving comprehensive immigration reform.”
 
Critics say that fine-tuning such a system is beyond the reach of any government agency.
 
It is over-ambitious, but it’s more than that,” Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Monitor earlier this month. “It’s based on an idea that we can manage government by experts. It just doesn’t work. Everybody who has tried it everywhere crashes and burns.”
 
The AFL-CIO and Chamber statement does not explicitly put the commission in control of visa levels, offering that such a body would be able to “advise” on such issues. The ideal system would “automatically” adjust to economic changes, according to the principles released Thursday.
 
“We are now in the middle – not the end – of this process,” the groups’ statement concludes, “and we pledge to continue to work together and with our allies and our representatives on Capitol Hill to finalize a solution that is in the interest of this country we all love.”
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« Reply #56 on: February 22, 2013, 01:01:35 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/carlos-gutierrez-resigns-citigroup-head-republican-immigration-reform-153153508--election.html

2/22/13

Carlos Gutierrez resigns from Citigroup to head up Republican immigration reform effort

Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez has left his job at Citigroup to head up a political action committee designed to support Republicans who back immigration reform.
 
The recently formed super PAC, called Republicans for Immigration Reform, will financially back Republicans who embrace "common-sense" comprehensive reform, which includes giving legal status to most of the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. It's conceivable that conservative politicians who vote for a pathway to citizenship for this group could face primary challenges from people running to the right of them on immigration, for instance. In those cases, Gutierrez told The Washington Post, the PAC will provide "backup" to Republicans who supported reform.
 
Gutierrez, who served as secretary of commerce under George W. Bush, immigrated from Cuba with his family when he was 6 years old. He served as CEO of the Kellogg company and more recently as vice chairman of Citigroup.
 
"The upcoming immigration reform debate will be one of the most important public policy discussions America engages in this century," Gutierrez said in a statement. "In this spirit and understanding, I've decided to dedicate my full time and energy to Republicans for Immigration Reform and this critical legislative effort."
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« Reply #57 on: February 23, 2013, 03:46:48 pm »

http://thetruthwins.com/archives/will-americans-soon-not-be-able-to-buy-sell-or-get-a-job-without-a-global-id-card

Will Americans Soon Not Be Able To Buy, Sell Or Get A Job Without A Global ID Card?

 By Michael, on February 21st, 2013

A plan being pushed in Congress right now by senators from both major political parties would force all Americans to get a biometric national ID card.  It is being promoted as a key "immigration reform" measure, but the truth is that a national ID card is much more about the government's endless appetite for more control over the American people.  If this national ID card plan is passed by Congress, you will not be able to get a job without one.  So how are you going to survive if you can't work?  In addition, this national ID card would undoubtedly soon be used to identify us for all sorts of other purposes.  For example, have you tried to open up a bank account lately?  They make you jump through all sorts of hoops to prove that you are who you say that you are.  So what would happen if the government decided to require you to show your national ID card before opening up a bank account?  If you refused to get a card, how would you be able to function in society without a bank account?  Would you try to conduct all of your transactions in cash only?  That might work for a while.  And of course you would not be able to drive or get on a plane without your national ID card.  So forget about going anywhere.  Are you starting to get the picture?  Unfortunately, the push for a national ID card in the United States is only a small part of the overall push toward a "global ID card" that is happening all over the planet.  The eventual goal is to have a "universal ID" that every man, woman and child on the planet will be forced to take.
 
That is why it is so important for the American people to speak up about this.
 
Right now, all of the big mainstream media outlets are lining up on the side of a national ID card.  For instance, just check out this short excerpt from a recent Washington Post article entitled "The case for a national ID card"...

Quote
An effective solution would be to issue tamper-proof, biometric ID cards — using fingerprints or a comparably unique identifier — to all citizens and legal residents. Last week, both President Obama and a bipartisan group of eight senators seeking immigration reform urged something along those lines, without calling it a universal national identity card. That’s a major step forward.

And of course the Wall Street Journal is reporting on this too...

Quote
Key senators are exploring an immigration bill that would force every U.S. worker—citizen or not—to carry a high-tech identity card that could use fingerprints or other personal markers to prove a person's legal eligibility to work.
 
The idea, signaled only in vaguely worded language from senators crafting a bipartisan immigration bill, has privacy advocates and others concerned that the law would create a national identity card that, in time, could track Americans at airports, hospitals and through other facets of their lives.

According to investigative reporter James Tucker, there are those in the Obama administration that are optimistic that they will be able to get a national ID card through Congress now that Ron Paul has left the House of Representatives...

Quote
At a recent reception in Washington, D.C., an AMERICAN FREE PRESS source overheard Thomas E. Donilon, a White House national security advisor and past Bilderberg member, speaking of Paul’s retirement and the good chance that the global card could now be shepherded through Congress. Paul’s son, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), would not object to the plan, added the individual with whom Donilon was talking. He was referring to the fact that Senator Paul has backed off from the strong pro-nationalist positions of his father because he is fantasizing about being elected president in 2016.

So will anyone in Congress step up and fight this on behalf of the American people?
 
Let's hope so.
 
But of course there are many other large nations that are actually far ahead of the United States when it comes to implementing this global ID card scheme.
 
Just check out what is going on in Indonesia...

Quote
Since the start of the government of Indonesia’s multi-modal biometrics-based National Electronic ID Card (e-KTP) program in August 2011, record enrollments are being achieved across the country’s population of 172 million ID-eligible residents.
 
More than 103 million people have been enrolled and de-duplicated in one year with 80% or 140 million residents of the eligible population already enrolled and 85% already processed. Statistics show that over 1 million de-duplication transactions are being achieved in a single day in the data center and 600,000 enrollments being achieved in a single day in the field. In addition 60 million ID cards have been printed.

And India is currently collecting biometric information on more than a billion people...

Quote
In India, a massive effort is underway to collect biometric identity information for each of the country’s 1.2 billion people. The incredible plan, dubbed the “mother of all e-governance projects” by the Economic Times, has stirred controversy in India and beyond, raising serious concerns about the privacy and security of individuals’ personal data.
 
The plan is moving ahead at a clip under the auspices of the National Population Register (NPR) and the Unique ID (UID) programs, separately governed initiatives that have an agreement to integrate the data they collect to build the world’s largest biometric database. Upon enrollment, individuals are issued 12-digit unique ID numbers on chip-based identity cards. For residents who lack the necessary paperwork to obtain certain kinds of employment or government services, there’s strong incentive to get a unique ID. While the UID program is voluntary, enrollment in the NPR program is mandatory for all citizens.

Are you starting to understand what is happening?
 
This is a global effort.
 
At this point, there are approximately 100 countries that now issue mandatory ID cards, and undoubtedly this campaign to gather the biometric information of every person on earth will continue to spread.
 
In fact, soon you may not even be able to log in to your favorite Internet sites without a fingerprint or an iris scan.
 
Does that sound crazy to you?
 
It doesn't sound crazy to the major technology firms that are a part of the Fast Identity Online Alliance...

Quote
Imagine logging on to your eBay account with your fingerprint. Or perhaps accessing your Facebook account via an iris scan.
 
It might seem a bit much for the average computer user, but it may not be that far off if an initiative is successful.
 
The use of biometric data as an added security measure is just one of the solutions being proposed by a consortium of firms who have come together to form the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance.

We live in a world that has become obsessed with information and obsessed with security.
 
At first, we may all just be forced to carry around ID cards, but eventually cards will not be considered to be good enough.
 
Cards are easily lost, they can be stolen, and they can be forged.
 
But what about an electronic tattoo?
 
Wouldn't that be much more secure?
 
That is the argument that will be made.
 
And the advancements that have been made in the field of electronic tattoos lately have got a lot of scientists very excited...

Quote
Temporary electronic tattoos could soon help people fly drones with only thought and talk seemingly telepathically without speech over smartphones, researchers say.

Does that sound "cool" to you?
 
That is how these changes will be marketed to the public.  They will be sold as the "hip" and "cool" things to do.
 
But the truth is that these electronic tattoos are incredibly dangerous.  They can receive electrical signals from your brain, and they can also send electrical signals to your brain...

Quote
The devices are less than 100 microns thick, the average diameter of a human hair. They consist of circuitry embedded in a layer or rubbery polyester that allow them to stretch, bend and wrinkle. They are barely visible when placed on skin, making them easy to conceal from others.
 
The devices can detect electrical signals linked with brain waves, and incorporate solar cells for power and antennas that allow them to communicate wirelessly or receive energy. Other elements can be added as well, like thermal sensors to monitor skin temperature and light detectors to analyze blood oxygen levels.

This is very frightening stuff.
 
But most people just do whatever the "authorities" tell them to do without thinking about it.
 
So will you take a national ID card if Congress requires you to?
 
Will you take an electronic tattoo on your hand or your forehead someday if the authorities require it for "security" reasons?
 
The control freaks that run things just love to find new ways to watch us, track us and control us.
 
For example, just check out what is going on in New York City.  The following is from a recent article in the Telegraph...

Quote
Created by Microsoft and the New York Police Department, the Domain Awareness System, known as "the dashboard," is state-of-the-art crime fighting technology.
 
"The dashboard," instantaneously mines data from the NYPD's vast collection of arrest records, emergency 911 calls, more than 3,000 security cameras, license plate readers and portable radiation detectors and aggregates it into a user-friendly, readable form in the control room.
 
Eventually, that data will be able to be seen in real time by officers on laptops in their squad cars and on mobile devices as they walk their beat.

Could you imagine how much more intrusive such a system would be if "national ID cards" were constantly feeding information about all of us into their computers?
 
But the "authorities" insist that all of this "security" is making life so much "better" and "safer" for all of us.
 
Well, what about for 3-year-old Lucy Schulte?
 
She is a sweet little disabled girl in a wheelchair that has Spina bifida.  Recently she was getting ready to get on a plane to go to Disney World, but TSA workers decided that she was a potential terrorist and so they manhandled her and confiscated her stuffed toy.
 
You can see very disturbing video of this incident below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oPloe08a3Q&feature=player_embedded

Is this really want we want America to become?
 
For much more on how America is being transformed into a Big Brother police state, please see the following article: "29 Signs That The Elite Are Transforming Society Into A Total Domination Control Grid".
 
So what do you think about all of this?
 
Do you believe that a global ID card is a good idea or a bad idea?
 
Would you take a national ID card if Congress made it mandatory?
 
Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below...
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Kilika
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« Reply #58 on: February 24, 2013, 02:57:06 am »

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Right now, all of the big mainstream media outlets are lining up on the side of a national ID card.

The thing is, bible prophecy tells us this WILL happen. It's not something that people can prevent. It's a done deal. It's not if, but when.

And no, I would not take any new ID card, period. When my driver's license expires, I'm done. No new ID's for me.

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So how are you going to survive if you can't work?

"...the just shall live by faith"
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Psalm 51:17
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« Reply #59 on: February 25, 2013, 07:26:39 pm »

It seems like with each passing day, more people are getting on board...

http://news.yahoo.com/tech-leaders-plan-virtual-push-immigration-160223441--politics.html

Tech leaders plan virtual push on immigration

WASHINGTON (AP) — High-tech leaders including the former heads of AOL and Mozilla are organizing a "virtual march for immigration reform" aimed at pressuring lawmakers to enact sweeping changes to the nation's immigration laws.
 
The effort unveiled Monday is particularly focused on making it easier for the U.S. to attract highly educated immigrants and those aiming to work in high-tech fields.
 
Silicon Valley leaders and others have long complained of the difficulties of bringing high-tech workers to the U.S. and allowing them to stay once they're here, and immigration legislation taking shape on Capitol Hill is expected to address the issue.
 
The new effort, backed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Partnership for a New American Economy, aims to collect supporters and organize a date this spring for them to flood lawmakers' offices via Twitter, Facebook, and other means.

So gun control is not the only agenda on Bloomberg's desk?
 
"What we're essentially doing is having tech leaders use technology to influence the debate," said John Feinblatt, Bloomberg's chief policy adviser. "In the in the old days, people used to hire a lobbyist."
 
The possibilities of such an approach were illustrated last year when Congress dropped legislation to crack down on online piracy after a massive campaign by Internet services and users.
 
The new effort brings together an array of high-tech heavy hitters including Steve Case, co-founder of AOL and chief executive of Revolution; John Lilly, former chief executive of Mozilla and partner at Greylock Partners; venture capitalist Mike Maples; and Brad Feld, managing director of the Foundry Group.
 
"We've got to make the case that in today's economy the currency is talent, and we need the talent in this country if we want to continue to be the great economic leader that we are," Feinblatt said.
 
The group's priorities for emerging immigration legislation include more visas for high-tech workers; a new visa for entrepreneurs, something some other industrialized nations already offer; and permanent resident status for immigrants who graduate from U.S. universities with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.
 
These are all measures supported by President Barack Obama and are likely to be embraced to some degree in legislation being written in the Senate by a bipartisan group of negotiators.
 
Current law limits the number of immigrants who can come to the U.S. to work for high-tech companies and provides no straightforward path for top-tier graduates to stay here. More so than other areas of the immigration debate, such as border security and a path to legalization for the 11 million illegal immigrants already here, boosting high-tech immigration tends to enjoy bipartisan support, although there've been disputes in Congress over how to accomplish the goal.
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