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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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« Reply #300 on: September 16, 2014, 01:26:44 pm »

http://www.newschannel10.com/story/26542244/safety-concerns-increasing-at-the-texas-mexico-border
Safety concerns increasing at the Texas-Mexico border
9/16/14

Brownsville, TX - Officials report that increased numbers of militia members are showing up along the Texas-Mexico border.

The border patrol says the growing number of militia members is an increasing concern for them. A new website called 'Patriots Information Hotline' says there are about 16 militias along the border in Texas and they are encouraging more to come.

Militias have flocked to the Rio Grande Valley to help secure the border and many plan to participate in the September 20th protest to shutdown ports of entry, but agents say militias complicate law enforcement efforts.

Right now, the National Guard, hundreds of state troopers and 3,600 border patrol agents are all patrolling the border in the valley and they say adding groups that are not connected could be dangerous.

In August, an agent was pursuing a group of immigrants in the Brownsville area when he came across a man holding a rifle. The agent fired shots at the man who was later identified as a militia member. That man was not injured, but agents said this situation could have ended a lot worse.

Agents also go through weeks of training to understand immigration laws and say that people who are not trained on those standards could violate someone's civil rights and open themselves up for a civil lawsuit.

That very reason is why the border patrol stand by their message of leaving border security to them.
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« Reply #301 on: September 18, 2014, 03:58:44 pm »

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/09/18/Boehner-Immigration-Reform-Would-Help-Our-Economy
9/18/14
Boehner Touts Immigration Reform: 'The Sooner We Do It The Better'

America’s immigration system is a “mess” and reforming it would help the economy, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday.

Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute about “resetting America’s economic foundation” Boehner addressed immigration reform when asked by a member of the audience.

“Yeah, I think immigration reform would help our economy, but you’ve got to secure the borders first — we’ve got a mess and I think everybody knows we’ve got a mess. Our legal system is broken, our borders aren’t secure. And then we’ve got the problem of those that are here without documents,” Boehner said.

“It needs to be fixed,” he continued. “We’re a nation of immigrants. The sooner we do it the better off the country would be.”

House Republicans did not move forward on immigration reform this year due what Boehner and many other Republicans said was a lack of confidence that President Obama would apply the law as passed.

“I told the president what I have been telling him for months: the American people and their elected officials don't trust him to enforce the law as written.  Until that changes, it is going to be difficult to make progress on this issue,” Boehner said in a statement this summer responding to Obama’s assertion that the Speaker told him the House would not move on immigration reform this year.

Earlier this month Boehner raised the possibility of moving on immigration reform next year, as long as Obama followed the law.
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« Reply #302 on: September 24, 2014, 10:25:23 pm »

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/09/24/Massive-Residential-Center-to-Open-in-Texas-for-Illegal-Immigrants
9/24/14
Massive 'Residential Center' to Open in Texas for Illegal Immigrants

HOUSTON, Texas -- A large new immigrant housing center will be opened in South Texas. The South Texas Family Residential Center will ultimately hold 2,400 individuals, primarily families, who were apprehended while crossing the Texas- Mexico border. During their stay at the center foreigners will be provided with taxpayer-funded "medical care, play rooms, social workers, educational services, and access to legal counsel," Breitbart Texas has learned.

The facility will open in November in Dilley, Texas, which is located about 70 miles southwest of San Antonio. This is the fourth facility of its kind to be built in Texas, according to Fox News. 

The new center is opening amid claims that the border crisis has slowed down; it could signal that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is expecting the number of crossers to pick up again.

An ICE spokeswoman refused to give Breitbart Texas answers to specific questions and instead provided a statement that said the agency"plans to open and operate a new residential center in Dilley, Texas to house adults with children in response to the influx of adults traveling with children apprehended along the southwest border. "

The massive facility, which will lie on a 50-acre property, will be "ready for full capacity within 210 days," the agency's statement continued.

Such centers are used to house immigrants while they wait to be "processed" by ICE. Once processed, the migrants are placed in the custody of President Obama's Health and Human Services (HHS).

At this time, many young immigrants are placed with families or in foster homes throughout the United States. The HHS website states that the federal government is required to "feed, shelter, and provide medical care for unaccompanied children until it is able to release them to safe settings with sponsors (usually family members), while they await immigration proceedings. These sponsors live in many states."

They are expected to attend an immigration court hearing in the future, but most never show up and ultimately get lost in the woodwork or forgotten about.
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« Reply #303 on: September 26, 2014, 01:11:59 am »

http://www.naturalnews.com/047004_illegal_immigrants_free_education_border_crossing.html
Illegal Immigrants get free education, housing and healthcare for crossing border; Americans get $5,000 fine

9/25/14

(NaturalNews) Scores of polls taken over the past few years have regularly shown that the majority of Americans do not want amnesty for illegal aliens, do not want the federal government to continue conveying taxpayer-supported benefits onto them and do not support legal measures that legitimize them in any way. The Obama Administration and too many in Congress, however, are not paying attention to the will of the people.

And now, there comes one additional insult: The Department of Homeland Security is fining Americans for accidentally crossing borders, but our government gives free education and other benefits to those who break our laws and sneak into our country illegally.

As reported by InfoWars.com and other alternative media, DHS has fined an American and a Canadian $5,000 apiece for cross the U.S./Canadian border, though fines are never given to the tens of thousands of illegals who are detained by U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) and other agencies on a daily basis.

According to a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol press release, the two men -- a 40-year-old American and 44-year-old Canadian -- had been walking down a dirt road with mountain bikes near the border when they were approached by a USBP agent.

"Questioning by the agent revealed that the two suspects illegally entered the U.S. from Canada," a USBP press release stated. "Subsequently, both males were arrested for violation of U.S. law and transported to the Rangeley Station for further processing."

"Following database verifications, Border Patrol agents turned over both subjects to CBP officers at the Coburn Gore port of entry for assessment of fines and penalties," said the release.


The government assessed for both men "a $5,000 civil penalty under 19 USC 1459 for Failure to Report" to border patrol officials. As InfoWars.com stated sardonically, it isn't very likely the two men crossed into the U.S. in quest of President Obama's de facto amnesty for illegal aliens.

Americans and Canadians pay, but illegal crossers don't

"Since this is an administrative fine, the individuals do not have to go through a judicial process and will have approximately 30 days to pay the fine," the press release added.

Are their political implications involved in the administration's decision to fine Americans and Canadians but not illegal aliens? Of course there are; immigrants -- once they are able -- are eight times more likely to vote for Democrats than Republicans, which makes it all the more confusing why too many Republicans would support amnesty in the first place.

Nevertheless, those who break into the country are not fined; most, under the current administration, are increasingly being allowed to stay in the country, especially minors. And all are given taxpayer benefits like free food, shelter, medical care and primary education.

Obama Administration officials say that the illegal border crossers are given "notices to appear" before immigration judges -- before they are taken to destinations throughout the U.S., again at taxpayer expense -- but courts are heavily backlogged. Court dates are being scheduled for four years from now.

"They know they are going to be processed and released and they are free to go wherever they want to go in the United States and the likelihood of them ever showing up for their court date is slim to none," Stu Harris of National Border Patrol Council Local 1929 told Infowars.

Aimed his gun at the scout's head

The site added:

This selective enforcement of immigration laws, in which an American is fined for crossing the border while thousands of illegal aliens are encouraged to do so, exemplifies how the Obama administration is directing federal agencies to target peaceful Americans but not illegal immigrants the White House is exploiting for political gain.

For instance, in July federal agents detained a Boy Scout Troop, of all people, for taking pictures near a border checkpoint. In that case, one agent aimed his weapon at a scout's head.

"He hears a snap of a holster, turns around, and here's this agent, both hands on a loaded pistol, pointing at the young man's head," Troop 111 leader Jim Fox told KCCI.

Meanwhile, American citizens will continue to suffer these indignities until those in power get the message that voters are tired of being ignored.
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« Reply #304 on: September 26, 2014, 01:27:20 am »

http://www.inquisitr.com/1496910/illegal-immigrants-enrolled-in-obamacare-by-the-thousands-senator-claims/
Illegal Immigrants Enrolled In Obamacare By The Thousands, Senator Claims
9/24/14

Illegal immigrants by the thousands have reportedly been able to enroll in Obamacare. The individuals who entered the United States illegally have also been able to enjoy taxpayer-funded subsidies to help cover the cost of their health insurance premium, according to Louisiana Senator David Vitter and a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

A recent CMS report revealed that 115,000 individuals enrolled in Obamacare had not provided proof of citizenship by the September deadline, and will therefore be dropped from the program by September 30. But, those individuals with “immigration data-matching issues” will be allowed to keep their Obamacare coverage for six months.

The Obama administration is bending over backwards to give Obamacare to illegal immigrants but won’t protect hardworking American citizens who are losing their healthcare coverage,” Senator David Vitter told The Washington Times.

“The Obama administration has been granting deadline extensions, making excuses, and turning a blind eye to falsified documents by illegal immigrants. Enough is enough, and they need to provide answers to why they think illegal immigrants should be eligible for Obamacare,” the Louisiana Senator added.

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) stated that Obamacare eligibility rules “sacrifice document standards, authentication assurance, and identification integrity” for the sole purpose of maximizing enrollment in the federal healthcare program as quickly as possible.

“Rapidly expanding health coverage to some 40 million people, coupled with relaxed ID and verification standards, only increases the likelihood of fraud and improper enrollment of ineligible people, including aliens. Furthermore, the combination of relaxed verification and documentation standards could enable certain identity fraud schemes to be developed,” a statement from the Center for Immigration Studies reads.

CMS Deputy Administrator Andy Slavitt had this to say in regards to the latest controversy whirling around the Obamacare program, “If people are willing to pay their premiums, and they are eligible for coverage, they will continue to get coverage.”

The federal government extended the mandatory deadline for enrollment for those members who did not comply with the residency documentation policy, but not for natural-born citizens struggling to pay their monthly premium or medical bills not covered until an extremely high-deductable kicks in. Approximately five million Americans lost their insurance coverage due to the Obamacare mandate.

Prior to Obamacare, independent contractors and small business owners could shop around for the best coverage and the best deal online. Although such searching is still permitted, it is nearly impossible to find a policy with less than a $1,000-per-month price tag. Many Obamacare family policies are also $1,000-per-month or higher, but taxpayer-funded subsidies decrease the out-of-pocket expense for some policyholders to around $300 or less each month.

Before Obamacare, my family had portable and affordable Anthem insurance. The monthly premium was $358-per-month with a $2,500 deductable. The policy evaporated, and a vaguely similar replacement was extremely expensive. Forced to enroll in Obamacare or risk a fine, we chose a “Bronze” family plan with a $1,0115-per-month premium and a $12,500 annual deductable. Has your health insurance and related medical expenses improved or declined since Obamacare became law?
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« Reply #305 on: September 26, 2014, 05:15:22 pm »

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/09/25/Report-70-Percent-of-Illegal-Immigrant-Family-Units-Released-Into-U-S-Failed-to-Report-to-Feds
9/25/14
Report: 70 Percent of Illegal Immigrant Families Released into U.S. Failed to Report to Feds

About 70 percent of the tens of thousands illegal immigrant family units detained crossing the U.S./Mexico border and released into the United States have failed to fulfill their obligation to report back to immigration officials, according to a new report.

The Associated Press reports it has obtained audio of a confidential Immigration and Customs Enforcement meeting with immigration advocates working on detention policies that occurred on Wednesday.

On the recording, according to the AP, an ICE official revealed that about 70 percent of the illegal immigrant families detained and then released into the United States did not show up for their required appointments 15 days later with federal immigration officials.

“Since only a few hundred families have already been returned to their home countries and limited U.S. detention facilities can house only about 1,200 family members, the 70 percent figure suggests the government released roughly 41,000 members of immigrant families who subsequently failed to appear at federal immigration offices,” the AP’s Alicia Caldwell reported Thursday.

Caldwell further reported that the unnamed official added that 860 people in family units detained at the border had been ordered for removal but only 14 of them had reported to federal officials.

Since October more than 66,000 family units have been detained illegally entering the United States — the vast majority of those detained have been from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Most of them have been released into the United States.

The influx of illegal immigrant family units occurred in conjunction with the increase in illegal immigration by unaccompanied minors, both of which have strained government resources and captured headlines. Since October more than 66,000 unaccompanied illegal immigrant minors have been detained and the vast majority have been released into the U.S.
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« Reply #306 on: September 26, 2014, 11:16:18 pm »

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/09/25/dhs-secret-revealed-tens-of-thousands-of-illegals-released-during-the-border-crisis-didnt-show-up-for-their-immigration-hearings/
9/25/14
DHS secret revealed: Tens of thousands of illegals released during the border crisis didn’t show up for their immigration hearings
posted at 6:01 pm on September 25, 2014 by Allahpundit

Of course they didn’t. Who thought they would? This is precisely what amnesty shills have in mind when they demand “due process” for illegals. You’re detained, you’re given a date to meet with immigration agents or appear before an immigration judge to decide whether you’ll be deported, and then you’re sent on your merry way into the United States — never to be seen by the state again. The point of “due process” is to give illegals an easy way to avoid the process. DHS understands this.

So rest easy. Our immigration system is working exactly the way it’s supposed to.

    An official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed that about 70 percent of immigrant families the Obama administration had released into the U.S. never showed up weeks later for follow up appointments.

    The ICE official made the disclosure in a confidential meeting at its Washington headquarters with immigration advocates participating in a federal working group on detention and enforcement policies. The Associated Press obtained an audio recording of Wednesday’s meeting and separately interviewed participants.

    On the recording obtained by the AP, the government did not specify the total number of families released into the U.S. since October. Since only a few hundred families have already been returned to their home countries and limited U.S. detention facilities can house only about 1,200 family members, the 70 percent figure suggests the government released roughly 41,000 members of immigrant families who subsequently failed to appear at federal immigration offices.

The same ICE official admitted in the meeting that, of at least 860 people caught entering the U.S. since May and subsequently slapped with an order of final deportation, 14 showed up to be deported. Let me stress, in case the boldface above didn’t catch your attention, you’re not supposed to know any of this. It’s potentially a giant headache for Obama as he tries to muster the courage to issue his executive amnesty later this year, after the voting suckers of America have cast their ballots and can’t punish his party for another two years. That’s why, as the AP notes, officials in the White House and DHS repeatedly dodged questions about the number of immigration scofflaws (at least seven separate times) in June when AP reporters demanded to know if they had any data. Apparently, only pro-illegal friends of the Most Transparent Administration Ever can be trusted with this information. In fact, I assume the reason it was shared with them is because DHS knew how happy it would make them to know that the system’s performing as terribly as they’ve hoped. That’s a nice consolation prize for amnesty shills after O broke their hearts by delaying his order for a few more months.

Give me a reason why the appropriate House committee shouldn’t return to D.C. next month and hold a hearing on why these numbers weren’t publicly released but rather reserved for the White House’s amnesty allies. Don’t tell me “they’re busy campaigning.” That’s stupid three times over: Some things are obviously more important than campaigning; the number of Republicans called back as part of the committee would be small to begin with; and given the fact that amnesty’s become more important to midterm voters as Obama inches closer to an illegal executive order, a hearing on just how broken the process is would be fine politics. Let’s go.
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« Reply #307 on: September 30, 2014, 12:15:49 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/teens-crossed-us-border-alone-enter-schools-081105187.html
Schools scramble to help teens who crossed border
9/29/14

FRANKFORD, Del. (AP) — American schools are scrambling to provide services to the large number of children and teenagers who crossed the border alone in recent months.

Unaccompanied minors who made up the summer spike at the border have moved to communities of all sizes, in nearly every state, Federal data indicates, to live with a relative and await immigration decisions. The Supreme Court has ruled that schools have an obligation to educate all students regardless of their immigration status, so schools have become a safe haven for many of the tens of thousands of these young people mostly from central America living in limbo.

Delaware's rural Sussex County has long attracted immigrants, partly because of work in chicken factories, and soybean and corn fields. The district's population is more than one-quarter Hispanic, and for years has offered an early learning program for non-English speakers.

Still, officials were caught off guard by about 70 new students mostly from Guatemala — part of the wave crossing the border — enrolling last year, mostly at Sussex Central High School. The Indian River School District over the summer break quickly put together special classes for those needing extra English help.

On a recent school day, a group of these mostly Spanish-speaking teenage boys with styled spiky hair and high-top sneakers enthusiastically pecked away on hand-held tablets at the G.W. Carver Education Center, pausing to alert the teacher when stumped.

"If you don't know what you're supposed to write on the line, look at my examples, OK?" Lori Ott, their English language teacher, told one.

The students are eager but face barriers. Some can barely read or write in their native language.

The district's goal is to get them assimilated — and eventually into a regular high school. There, they can earn a diploma, even if that means participating in adult education programs and going to school until they are 21.


"They just crave it, and they will come and ask questions," Ott said. "How do you say this? And, how do you say that? They just participate and you can't say enough about them."

Donald Hattier, a school board member, said advance warning would have helped with planning. The federal government, he said, "just dropped this on us." He wonders what's next.

"The kids are still coming across the border. This problem has not been solved," Hattier said.

Educators in Delaware and elsewhere say many of these students, who fled poverty and violence, have years-long gaps in schooling. For teenagers, learning in English can prove more difficult than for younger students. They also may be living with relatives or others they didn't know, and the workings of an American school can be confusing.

Others experienced trauma, either in their home country or while crossing the border, and may need mental health help.

"It's a new culture and they already feel that they are alone. ... Some of them don't have their parents here," said English language instructor Alina Miron at Broadmoor High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The school has about a dozen of these students enrolled

In districts like hers, the influx means hiring new English language instructors.

Two foundations donated money to the Oakland Unified School District in California to help fund a person to connect about 150 unaccompanied students with legal and social services; many didn't have legal representation at immigration hearings.

"We feel that we have moral obligation to serve these students as long as they are in the United States," said Troy Flint, a district spokesman. "Until their fate is decided, we're responsible for ensuring they get an education and we embrace that opportunity."

In Louisiana, the Broadmoor principal, Shalonda Simoneaux, said attending high school and learning English is a motivating factor for teenagers who want "want to blend in."

"Whatever is being said, whatever is going on, they are really learning more from listening from other teenagers, even more so than from the teachers because it's high school," Simoneaux said.

For cash-strapped districts, providing for these students' needs can be arduous, particularly if they arrive after student headcounts are taken to determine school funding.

In Miami, the school board voted to seek federal help after 300 foreign-born students, many from Honduras and traveling alone, enrolled toward the end of the last school year.

Margie McHugh, director of the nonprofit Migration Policy Institute's National Center on Immigrant Integration, says it's critical that children allowed to stay are integrated into American life and educated.

Indian River School District officials say that's their plan.

"We do have a very open heart and an open mind and any student who comes in our system, we're going to give the most appropriate services that we can," said the Delaware district's superintendent, Susan Bunting.
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« Reply #308 on: October 03, 2014, 11:08:58 pm »

http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=1105359#.VC9d-s709B1
Immigrants from Ebola outbreak nations caught along the border
10/3/14

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a level three warning for US citizens to avoid traveling to West African countries experiencing an outbreak of Ebola.

Immigrants from West African countries have entered the US illegally, according to Chris Cabrera with the National Border Patrol Council.

"Not too long ago we did catch some people, I believe, from Liberia," he said.

During the 2013 fiscal year, statistics from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website show Border Patrol agents apprehended 112 immigrants from Guinea, 231 from Liberia and 145 immigrants from Sierra Leone, which are the three countries currently experiencing the most cases of Ebola.

"Our main concern like it’s always been is the health and safety of our agents," Cabrera said.

He worries agents are not properly protected in the event they come across an immigrant with the Ebola virus.

"Our agents are trained, however, they are not medical professionals," he said.

If an immigrant with the virus does make it past agents, he worries they could possibly pass the contagious virus to other immigrants while in a stash house like they saw recently during a scabies outbreak.

"Some of our agents did contract scabies, and some of the other things that illegal aliens had. Luckily it's not something deadly like Ebola," Cabrera said.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirms agents are trained to recognize signs of illnesses, including Ebola, and are told to contact to the CDC immediately if they find someone they believe to be infected.

The union worries immigrants with the disease may slip by because sometimes symptoms of the virus do not show up for 2-21 days.

"We need to be more pro-active about trying to prevent it from coming in as opposed to trying to contain it once its hear," Cabrera told Action 4 News.

CBP is working with the CDC to develop procedures to identify travelers and immigrants with contagious diseases.
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« Reply #309 on: October 22, 2014, 09:00:33 pm »

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/feds-getting-ready-executive-action-immigration-n230771
Feds Getting Ready for Executive Action on Immigration
10/21/14

BY SUZANNE GAMBOA
León Rodríguez, the new head of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), recalled how he was put on the “wait list” and eventually denied admission to Georgetown Law School, where he spoke Tuesday.

He tried to persuade the school’s officials to let him in and was told he was lucky to be on a wait list. The story is a metaphor for immigration policy, he said.

“What we do in immigration policy is decide who we want to admit to the U.S. and who we don’t,” he said.

Now Rodríguez is heading Citizenship and Immigration Services, a part of the Department of Homeland Security.

“Looking back Georgetown, would you have admitted me? Would you have had different policies?” he said to chuckles from an audience attending an immigration law and policy conference.

Rodríguez’s agency will be front and center once President Barack Obama announces the executive action he’ll take on immigration. Obama said he would take executive action after the elections but before the end of the year.

“We’re going to be ready,” Rodríguez said. “Our agency will be shouldering the primary responsibility for executing whatever it is.”

Rodríguez declined to elaborate when he was asked by a reporter to give more details on what types of preparations he is making.
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« Reply #310 on: October 22, 2014, 09:26:53 pm »

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/19/Exclusive-Obama-Admin-Quietly-Prepares-Surge-Of-Millions-Of-Immigrant-IDs
10/19/14
Exclusive: Obama Administration Quietly Prepares 'Surge' Of Millions Of New Immigrant IDs

Despite no official action from the president ahead of the election, the Obama administration has quietly begun preparing to issue millions of work authorization permits, suggesting the implementation of a large-scale executive amnesty may have already begun.

Unnoticed until now, a draft solicitation for bids issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Oct. 6 says potential vendors must be capable of handling a “surge” scenario of 9 million id cards in one year “to support possible future immigration reform initiative requirements.”

The request for proposals says the agency will need a minimum of four million cards per year. In the “surge,” scenario in 2016, the agency would need an additional five million cards – more than double the baseline annual amount for a total of 9 million.

“The guaranteed minimum for each ordering period is 4,000,000 cards. The estimated maximum for the entire contract is 34,000,000 cards,” the document says.


The agency is buying the materials need to construct both Permanent Residency Cards (PRC), commonly known as green cards, as well as Employment Authorization Documentation (EAD) cards which have been used to implement President Obama's “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA) program. The RFP does not specify how many of each type of card would be issued.

Jessica Vaughan, an immigration expert at the Center for Immigration Studies and former State Department official, said the document suggests a new program of remarkable breadth.

The RFP “seems to indicate that the president is contemplating an enormous executive action that is even more expansive than the plan that Congress rejected in the 'Gang of Eight' bill,” Vaughan said.

Last year, Vaughan reviewed the Gang of Eight's provisions to estimate that it would have roughly doubled legal immigration. In the “surge” scenario of this RFP, even the relatively high four million cards per year would be more than doubled, meaning that even on its own terms, the agency is preparing for a huge uptick of 125 percent its normal annual output.

It's not unheard of for federal agencies to plan for contingencies, but the request specifically explains that the surge is related to potential changes in immigration policy.

“The Contractor shall demonstrate the capability to support potential 'surge' in PRC and EAD card demand for up to 9M cards during the initial period of performance to support possible future immigration reform initiative requirements,” the document says.

A year ago, such a plan might have been attributed to a forthcoming immigration bill. Now, following the summer's border crisis, the chances of such a new law are extremely low, giving additional credence to the possibility the move is in preparation for an executive amnesty by Obama.

Even four million combined green cards and EADs is a significant number, let alone the “surge” contemplated by USCIS. For instance, in the first two years after Obama unilaterally enacted DACA, about 600,000 people were approved by USCIS under the program. Statistics provided by USCIS on its website show that the entire agency had processed 862,000 total EADs in 2014 as of June.

Vaughan said EADs are increasingly coming under scrutiny as a tool used by the Obama administration to provide legalization for groups of illegal aliens short of full green card status.

In addition to providing government approval to work for illegal aliens, EADs also cost significantly less in fees to acquire, about $450 compared to more than $1000. In many states, EADs give aliens rights to social services and the ability to obtain drivers' licenses.

Vaughan noted there are currently about 4.5 million individuals waiting for approval for the green cards having followed immigration law and obtained sponsorships from relatives in the U.S. or otherwise, less than the number of id cards contemplated by the USCIS “surge.”

USCIS officials did not provide additional information about the RFP by press time.
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« Reply #311 on: October 24, 2014, 08:00:59 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/court-tosses-arizonas-no-bail-law-immigrants-180641130.html
10/15/14
Courts reject another Arizona immigration law

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona's authority to confront its illegal immigration woes was again reined in Wednesday when a federal appeals court threw out a 2006 voter-approved law denying bail to people in the country illegally who are charged with certain crimes.

A small number of the state's immigration laws have been upheld, including a key section of its 2010 law that requires police to check people's immigration status under certain circumstances.

But the courts have slowly dismantled other laws that sought to draw local police into immigration enforcement as frustrations in the state grew over what critics said was inadequate border protection by the federal government.

"It's proved to be a failed experiment," said Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor who specializes in immigration law.


On Wednesday, an 11-member 9th Circuit panel struck down a law that denies bail to immigrants who are in the country illegally and have been charged with a range of felonies that include shoplifting, aggravated identity theft, sexual assault and murder.

The panel ruled the law violates due-process rights by imposing punishment before trial. The court also said the law was a "scattershot attempt" at confronting people who flee from authorities, and there was no evidence it dealt with a particularly critical problem.

The court said no studies, statistics or other evidence showed that people in the country illegally pose a greater risk of fleeing from authorities than people in the country legally.

An aide to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was sued as part of the challenge to the no-bail law, said he believes the sheriff's office will ask the 9th Circuit to reconsider its ruling. If that doesn't succeed, it will petition the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case.

Arpaio aide Jack MacIntyre rejects the view that many of the state's immigration laws were illegitimate.

"When the federal government abandons its interest in enforcing immigration law and leaves them on the books, it generates contempt for the law in general — and that is not good for a country that's based on the rule of law," MacIntyre said.

For years in Arizona, many officials resisted suggestions that local and state police agencies confront illegal immigration, long considered the sole province of the federal government. But the notion gained political traction as the public's frustration with the state's porous border with Mexico grew.

One key victory for people who pushed those laws was a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld a 2007 state law that prohibited employers from knowingly hiring people who weren't authorized to be in the country.

The Supreme Court also upheld the most contentious section of the state's landmark 2010 law — the requirement that police, while enforcing other laws, question the immigration status of those suspected of being in the country illegally.

But over the past 18 months, other policies have been rejected by the courts.

A federal judge ruled that Arpaio's office, which made immigration enforcement one of its top priorities, systematically racially profiled Latinos in its immigration and regular traffic patrols — a finding that the sheriff vigorously disputes.


Another judge later prohibited Arpaio and the county's top prosecutor from using a contentious tactic in which immigrants who paid to be sneaked into the country were charged with conspiring to smuggle themselves across the border.

And this past summer, a federal appeals court ruled the state cannot deny driver's licenses to young immigrants who are allowed to stay in the U.S. under a 2012 Obama administration policy.
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« Reply #312 on: October 29, 2014, 06:31:51 pm »

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/222208-cornyn-pathway-to-citizenship-for-kids-makes-much-more-sense
October 29, 2014, 12:53 pm
Cornyn: Pathway to citizenship for kids makes 'much more sense'

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) this week signaled his support for immigrant children in the coutnry illegally to have a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

“For children who came with their parents into the country and did not comply with our immigration laws, they are guilty of nothing other than coming with their family,” Cornyn said during a Tuesday night Senate debate. “We ought to provide them with an opportunity not only to go to school, but eventually serve in the military or complete a college education and earn American citizenship.”

In 2003, he voted for the DREAM Act, which would have created a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants who went to college or the military and were not deemed dangerous to the public. But Cornyn voted against the 2010 iteration of the bill.

On Tuesday, Cornyn called education “the way out” and added that illegal children should be treated the same as other children throughout their college process, including as regards financial aid. Texas already allows children living in the state illegally to pay in-state tuition.

“It makes so much more sense for us to have these young people here in Texas and here in America as productive citizens,” Cornyn said. “It makes absolutely no sense to condemn them to minimum wage jobs for the rest of their lives when they can be so much more."

Cornym made the comments during his debate with Democratic challenger David Alameel. The Senate’s No. 2 Republican is expected to sail to reelection — and could be in line for a promotion if Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) loses his race.
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« Reply #313 on: November 07, 2014, 12:24:38 pm »

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/11/07/Report-The-Boehner-Obama-Immigration-Talk-Breakdown
11/7/14
REPORT: BOEHNER'S SECRET AMNESTY TALKS WITH OBAMA REVEALED

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) warned President Barack Obama again against taking executive action on immigration Thursday, telling Obama he would be playing with matches and risk burning himself.

“[H]e’s going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path,” the House Speaker said.

The Wall Street Journal reports that there was additional subtext to Boehner’s warning, specifically a year of discussions — unreported until now by the WSJ — between the two men about achieving a legislative compromise on immigration reform.

According to the report, in the summer of 2013, Boehner and Obama began discussing ways to achieve a move forward with immigration and building trust. The WSJ notes they “bonded over a shared passion for golf.”

Such confidence building included an ask by Boehner to Obama not to create additional hostility on the issue by publicly criticizing Republicans on immigration, something Obama agreed to do — according to the report — and did not go through with a series of 2013 trips to battleground states with large Hispanic populations.

Additionally, the WSJ reports, in November, Obama went along with the idea for Congress to adopt a step-by-step process to reform, rather than that type of massive bill passed by the Senate. The men also discussed ways to deal with the millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

More often, however, the two men talked past one another, aides said. Mr. Boehner told colleagues that he found it hard to squeeze a word in, and that Mr. Obama didn’t grasp how Washington works. Mr. Obama and White House officials grew skeptical that Mr. Boehner could sell any deal to House Republicans.

In January, Mr. Boehner asked the president to stop signing executive orders on other issues, such as the minimum wage, while they worked on a deal. The speaker thought such a gesture might appease Republican lawmakers accusing Mr. Obama of abusing presidential power.

“We can’t move forward on this when there’s mistrust about whether or not you’re going to enforce the laws that we pass,” Mr. Boehner told the president.

According to the report, while the White House thought Boehner was using the trust issue as an excuse for not having enough votes, Obama’s compromise to Boehner was to not take executive action until after the summer to allow the House to act.

While Boehner expressed frustration after calls with Obama — “aides said, for Mr. Boehner to hang up the phone with Mr. Obama and sigh: 'He just doesn’t get it.'” — the White House saw Boehner “as a leader perpetually vulnerable to being deposed.”

The WSJ reports that the culmination of the talks occurred in June at the White House, before a Professional Golfers’ Association event.

The speaker requested a meeting with the president before the event. That got the White House’s attention. Previously, it was Mr. Obama who initiated contact.

Seated around a table outside the Oval Office, Mr. Boehner told Mr. Obama that the window for passing legislation was as narrow as it gets. His caucus was rattled by a child-refugee crisis on the Mexico border and the primary defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, in which immigration played a part.

During the 15-minute conversation, Mr. Boehner also informed Mr. Obama the House planned to file a lawsuit over his use of executive authority.
“Now you’re suing me?” Mr. Obama said to the speaker.

The following day Mr. Boehner announced his lawsuit. A week later, Mr. Obama publicly declared any change to the immigration system dead for the year. He blamed Mr. Boehner.

Obama is hosting congressional leaders at the White House for a post-election lunch Friday.
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« Reply #314 on: November 08, 2014, 07:43:11 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/arizonas-immigrant-smuggling-law-struck-down-161237142.html
Another Arizona immigration law struck down
11/8/14

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona's frustrations over federal enforcement of the state's border with Mexico spawned a movement nearly a decade ago to have local police confront illegal immigration. Now, the state's experiment in immigration enforcement is falling apart in the courts.

A ruling Friday that struck down the state's 2005 immigrant smuggling law marks the latest in a string of restrictions placed by the courts on Arizona's effort to get local police to take action on people living in the U.S. illegally. The smuggling law, like similar state statutes, was tossed because a judge concluded it conflicted with the federal government's immigration powers.

"There may be some broad sympathy within a constituency for these laws, but that constituency isn't enough to overcome the problems those laws pose," said Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor who specializes in immigration law.

For years in Arizona, many officials resisted suggestions that local and state police agencies confront illegal immigration, long considered the sole province of the federal government. But the notion gained political traction as voters grew frustrated over the state's status as the nation's then-busiest immigrant smuggling hub and over what critics said was inadequate border protection by Washington.

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« Reply #315 on: November 14, 2014, 12:47:49 pm »

AP Sources: Executive order to affect millions
http://news.yahoo.com/ap-sources-executive-order-affect-millions-211434324--politics.html
11/14/14

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is poised to act soon to unveil a series of executive actions on immigration that will shield possibly around 5 million immigrants living in the country illegally from deportation, according to advocates in touch with the White House.

Timing of the announcement is unclear, though it's expected before the end of the year. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Obama would review final recommendations after returning from his Asia trip next week.

Congressional Republicans are strongly opposed to Obama's plans, and as lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill this week following midterm elections in which the GOP retook the Senate, they vowed to oppose him.

"We're going to fight the president tooth and nail if he continues down this path. This is the wrong way to govern. This is exactly what the American people said on Election Day they didn't want," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday. "And so, all the options are on the table."

Some conservatives in the House and Senate announced plans to push for language in must-pass spending bills to block the president from acting. But other Republicans warned that such a push could result in another government shutdown like the one last year over Obama's health care plan.

"My sense is that the vast majority of us want to do everything we can to stop it, but also want to avoid outcomes that would prove bad for the country as a whole," said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. It wasn't clear, though, what other options Republicans had.

Traveling in Asia, Obama said Friday Congress could simply undo his executive actions by passing comprehensive immigration legislation.

"I would advise that if in fact they want to take a different approach, rather than devote a lot of time trying to constrain my lawful actions as the chief executive of the U.S. government in charge of enforcing our immigrations laws, that they spend some time passing a bill," he said during a news conference in Yangon, Myanmar.

The immigration advocates, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a public announcement, said that final details of the plan remained in flux. But the White House is likely to include parents and spouses of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, stipulating that they've resided in the U.S. for some period of time — possibly as little as five years. That group totals around 3.8 million people, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Although Obama is not able to grant citizenship or permanent resident green cards on his own without Congress, he can offer temporary protection from deportation along with work authorization, as he has done in the past.

Adjustments also are expected to the existing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that allowed immigrants under 31 who had arrived before June 2007 to apply for a reprieve from deportation and a work permit. More than 600,000 young immigrants have been shielded from deportation to date under the program. Removing the upper age limit so that applicants don't have to be under 31 — one option under consideration — would make an additional 200,000 people eligible.

There may also be tweaks to business visa programs to speed up visas or make more available for high-tech workers or others.

Changes are also expected on the law enforcement side, including to a controversial program called Secure Communities that hands over people booked for local crimes to federal immigration authorities. A former administration official with knowledge of the plans said the Secure Communities program would be eliminated or at least renamed, although some of the concepts would remain. Priorities for immigrants to be picked up by immigration authorities will also be revised to eliminate some of the less serious conduct that previously would have caused someone to be detained, said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose private details.

In an interview on CBS' "Face The Nation" Sunday, Obama said he would prefer to sign comprehensive immigration legislation like the bill passed last year by the Senate. But absent that, "I am going to do what I can do through executive action." He said the Homeland Security Department is "deporting people who don't need to be deported."

Advocates are gearing up to embrace the long-sought changes, which Obama has delayed twice, most recently under pressure from Senate Democrats concerned about the midterm elections. At the same time they intend to keep pushing for wider protections and a legislative solution.

"This is definitely a step in the right direction and we would still encourage the administration to go even bigger than the estimated 5 million," said Kica Matos, of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement. "This is a temporary fix and Republicans need to understand that the immigrant rights movement intends to wage a ferocious fight until we have permanent solution and that is through legislation."
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« Reply #316 on: November 17, 2014, 01:15:13 pm »

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IMMIGRATION_PRECEDENT_?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-11-17-13-14-51
11/17/14
2 GOP PRESIDENTS ACTED UNILATERALLY ON IMMIGRATION

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two presidents have acted unilaterally on immigration - and both were Republican. Ronald Reagan and his successor George H.W. Bush extended amnesty to family members who were not covered by the last major overhaul of immigration law in 1986.

Neither faced the political uproar widely anticipated if and when President Barack Obama uses his executive authority to protect millions of immigrants from deportation.

Reagan's and Bush's actions were conducted in the wake of a sweeping, bipartisan immigration overhaul and at a time when "amnesty" was not a dirty word. Obama is acting as the country - and Washington - are bitterly divided over a broken immigration system and what to do about 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally.

Obama wants to extend protection from deportation to millions of immigrant parents and spouses of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, and expand his 2-year-old program that shields immigrants brought illegally to this country as children.

A tea party-influenced GOP is poised to erupt, if and when Obama follows through on his promise.

"The audacity of this president to think he can completely destroy the rule of law with the stroke of a pen is unfathomable to me," said GOP Rep. Steve King of Iowa, an outspoken opponent of relaxing U.S. immigration law. "It is unconstitutional, it is cynical, and it violates the will of the American people."

Some Republicans have even raised the possibility of impeachment.

Here's a timeline of then and now:

-1986. Congress and Reagan enacted a sweeping overhaul that gave legal status to up to 3 million immigrants without authorization to be in the country, if they had come to the U.S. before 1982. Spouses and children who could not meet that test did not qualify, which incited protests that the new law was breaking up families.

-1987. Early efforts in Congress to amend the law to cover family members failed. Reagan's Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner announced that minor children of parents granted amnesty by the law would get protection from deportation. Spouses and children of couples in which one parent qualified for amnesty but the other did not remained subject to deportation, leading to efforts to amend the 1986 law.

-1989. By a sweeping 81-17 vote, the Senate in July voted to prohibit deportations of family members of immigrants covered by the 1986 law. The House failed to act.

-1990. In February, President George H.W. Bush, acting through the Immigration and Naturalization Service, established a "family fairness" in which family members living with a legalizing immigrant and who were in the U.S. before passage of the 1986 law were granted protection from deportation and authorized to seek employment. The administration estimated up to 1.5 million people would be covered by the policy. Congress in October passed a broader immigration law that made the protections permanent.

-2012. In July, the Obama administration announces a new policy curbing deportations for certain immigrants brought illegally to the country as kids. The policy, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, applies to people younger than 30 who were brought to the U.S. before they turned 16 and meet other criteria such as graduating high school. It has now granted two-year deportation reprieves and work permits to nearly 600,000 people.

-2013-2014 (Congress). After months of work, the Senate in June of 2013 passes, 68-32, a huge immigration overhaul bill that includes a path to citizenship for immigrants who meet strict criteria. The House fails to act.

-2014 Frustrated by Congress' inability to act on immigration, Obama announces in June that he'll use executive powers to cover as many as 5 million people. Like Bush, Obama is expected to extend deportation protections to families of U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Obama's anticipated action would not award legal status, but it would offer temporary protection from deportation and the possibility of obtaining a work permit.
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« Reply #317 on: November 21, 2014, 04:03:00 pm »

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/11/21/obama-signs-executive-orders-delaying-deportations-for-millions-illegal/
11/21/14
Obama signs executive orders delaying deportations for millions of illegal immigrants

(DEVELOPING): President Obama signed two executive orders on Friday that would delay deportation for millions of illegal immigrants. The president, who signed the controversial policies aboard Air Force One, then spoke about his action at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas.

Del Sol is the same school where he laid out his blueprint for immigration overhaul nearly two years ago.

Several hundred protestors lined the streets holding “No Amnesty” and “Impeach Obama” signs.

Others chanted “worst president ever,” as he drove by.

 His order will grant “deferred action” to two illegal immigrant groups- parents of United States citizens or legal permanent residents who have been in the country for five years, and young people who who were brought into the country illegally as of 2010.

Hispanics are a growing and powerful constituency in Nevada and the state serves as fertile ground for the president to rally public support.

During a 15-minute primetime speech Thursday, Obama said his administration will start accepting applications from illegal immigrants who seek the deferred actions.

Those who qualify will be granted protections for three years, Obama said, as he laid out his sweeping plan to the public Thursday night from the East Room of the White House.

“Mass amnesty would be unfair,” Obama said during the primetime address. “Mass deportation would be both impossible and contrary to our character.”

Obama, who pitched his plan as a “commonsense, middle ground approach,” said “if you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law” but warned “if you’re a criminal, you’ll be deported.”

The president did not specify how many in each "deferred action" group would be granted the new status. According to recent reports, the parental group could involve upwards of 4.5 million immigrants, with those brought into the country illegally making up close to 300,000 new applications. There are an estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally.

But Republicans have been quick to criticize and say the executive action is an example of Obama stretching his powers as president.

Even before the speech, conservatives said they were willing to do whatever was necessary to stop Obama’s plan.

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who will become the majority leader in January when the new congressional class is sworn-in, said Obama would regret choosing to ignore the will of the American people.

McConnell, who made his statements from the Senate floor Thursday morning, has led the charge against the president and has promised a legislative fight when Republicans take full control of Congress in 2015.

“If President Obama acts in defiance of the people and imposes his will on the country, Congress will act,” McConnell said.

Utah Rep Jason Chaffetz, who will replace Rep. Darrell Issa as chair of the House Oversight Committee, told Fox News that the president’s timing on announcing the plan was “crystal clear.”

“It’s all about politics,” Chaffetz said. “He just got slaughtered in an election.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in an op-ed in Politico Wednesday that if Obama acts, the new GOP majority in the Senate should retaliate by not acting on a single one of his nominees – executive or judicial – “so long as the illegal amnesty persists.”
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« Reply #318 on: November 27, 2014, 11:38:45 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/california-sees-record-breaking-thanksgiving-heat-011726398.html
California sees record-breaking Thanksgiving heat
11/27/14

SAN DIEGO (AP) — While the East and Midwest shivered, Thanksgiving was hotter than a roasting turkey in California as a high-pressure ridge caused record-breaking highs in several cities.

The National Weather Service says San Diego's Lindbergh Field hit 85 degrees on Thursday, breaking a 111-year-old record by two degrees.

Los Angeles had a high of 86 — one degree hotter than the 1977 record.

Santa Ana's 90 toppled a 1922 record of 86. Riverside's 91 beat the 89 set in 1945, and Escondido's 89 broke the 1945 record of 86.

Records also were tied or broken in downtown Oakland, Paso Robles, Santa Maria, Sandberg, the Salinas airport, Oceanside, Vista, El Cajon, Alpine, Big Bear, Palomar Mountain and Lake Cuyamaca.

In Phoenix, temperatures reached 87 degrees, tying Nov. 23, 1950, for the warmest Thanksgiving on record, according to 12 News meteorologist Matt Pace, the Arizona Republic reported.

Sea breezes should start returning Friday, dropping temperatures through the weekend. There could be night and morning coastal fog.

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« Reply #319 on: December 02, 2014, 04:03:56 pm »

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/12/02/Boehner-Negotiates-Terms-Of-Surrender-To-King-Barack-s-Executive-Amnesty
12/2/14
BOEHNER NEGOTIATES TERMS OF SURRENDER TO KING BARACK'S EXECUTIVE AMNESTY

Republicans in Washington, under the tutelage of House Speaker John Boehner, are planning a full-scale cave to President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty, by aiming to fund Obama’s immigration action in full this week.

Boehner on Tuesday pitched colleagues on a plan that utilizes bills from the reliably conservative Reps. Ted Yoho (R-FL) and Tom Price (R-GA), but ultimately fully funds Obama’s executive amnesty until at least March—and then will likely do so at that point in time as well.

The government funding portion would keep most of the government open until September 2015 but would only supply monies to the Department of Homeland Security until March, Politico’s John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman note in a Tuesday piece.

Current government funding runs out on Dec. 11, so to avoid a government shutdown before Christmas, Congress has to do something soon. But conservative-movement leaders say the forthcoming plan from Boehner and the other members of GOP leadership (including Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise) using Yoho and Price is a phony, toothless battle.

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« Reply #320 on: January 15, 2015, 07:37:56 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/immigrants-now-mexican-birth-certificates-us-061932104.html
Immigrants can now get Mexican birth certificates in US
1/15/15

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — For Mexicans living in the U.S. illegally and hoping to stay in the country under President Barack Obama's new immigration policy, things just got one step simpler.

On Thursday, the Mexican government began issuing birth certificates to its citizens at its consulates in the United States.

That will make it a little easier for Mexicans hoping to obtain U.S. work permits, driver's licenses and protection from deportation.

Up until now, Mexico required its citizens to get birth certificates at government offices in Mexico. Many of those living in this country had to ask friends and relatives back home to retrieve the paperwork.

Pedro Zamora, a 52-year-old cook, took advantage of the new program to obtain his birth certificate at the Mexican consulate in Santa Ana, California. He plans to apply for a California driver's license this week.

Before the change took place, Zamora had to ask his sister-in-law to pick up his son's and daughter's birth certificates in Colima, Mexico, so they could apply for Obama's immigration program for those brought to the U.S. illegally as children. But Zamora said the paperwork got lost in the mail — twice.

"It would take seven or 15 days and there was a risk of losing it," Zamora said.

While Republicans in Congress are trying to undo Obama's plan to shield millions of immigrants living illegally in the U.S. from deportation, Mexico is trying to help them stay here and continue sending money back to relatives across the border.

About half the 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally are from Mexico, and immigration experts say roughly 3 million of them could be eligible under the administration's plan.

Immigrants will probably need to produce photo identification such as a passport to apply for the program. And to get a Mexican passport, they need a birth certificate.

That has proved to be a problem for many Mexican immigrants.

Those who cross the border illegally to reach the United States rarely carry documents with them on the treacherous journey, partly to avoid detection. And some Mexicans born in remote, rural communities do not make the necessary journey to the nearest government office to start the process of obtaining a birth certificate.

Mexico's 50 consulates in the U.S. can now access data in Mexico and print birth certificates here, said Arturo Sanchez, consul for press and commercial affairs in Santa Ana.

Consulates should be able to issue birth certificates for nearly all places in Mexico, though some villages where documents are not digitally recorded may not be covered, Sanchez said.

The new practice comes two weeks after California — home to more Mexicans than any other state — began issuing driver's licenses to immigrants who are in the country illegally.

After handing out birth certificates in Santa Ana, Jose Antonio Meade, Mexico's secretary of foreign affairs, said his government hopes Obama's program moves forward and that "the gap that today exists between the rights of citizens and the rights of immigrants every day will continue closing."

Rep. Duncan Hunter, who represents a San Diego-area congressional district, complained that U.S. and Mexican policies have combined to send more people across the border illegally.

"The administration's position and efforts seem to better align with Mexico's interests than they do with our own — and that's disappointing," he said.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, said she believes Mexico is trying to make it easier for its citizens to stay here because of the money they send back.

Mexican migrant workers living abroad sent home $21.6 billion to their families in 2013, according to the country's central bank.

Vaughan, whose organization wants tighter limits on immigration, said ensuring birth certificates are authentic is critical because they are used to obtain key identity documents such as passports.

"If we can trust the Mexican government to do its due diligence and establish a system with integrity, then this will work," she said. But she added: "That is a big if."
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« Reply #321 on: January 16, 2015, 04:02:31 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-try-chart-path-immigration-moves-083533547--politics.html
Republicans plan to offer their own solutions on immigration
1/16/15

HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) — Republican lawmakers determined to counter President Barack Obama on immigration want to advance solutions of their own, starting with a border security bill and perhaps moving on to tackle other aspects of the broken system.

It's a goal House Republicans have tried and failed to achieve for the past two years, even as the Senate passed a comprehensive, bipartisan bill that ultimately died because of inaction in the House.

But as House and Senate Republicans met for a joint retreat in this capital of chocolate and sweets, lawmakers said that with the Senate now under GOP control, they have a new opportunity to take aim at immigration with their own, step-by-step approach. Many viewed the Senate's bill as amnesty because it included a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally, and they want to take a much different tack.

"It is happening now because members want it to happen, the American people want it to happen," Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., a conservative on the issue, said Friday as the retreat wrapped up and lawmakers headed out of the homey Hershey Lodge to board buses and vans back to Washington.

"We should do a border bill first, secure our borders," Barletta said. "It's a big job, and it's going to be a tough bill."

Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, outlined proposed border legislation to lawmakers at the retreat, including penalties for select administration officials who fail to comply with border security provisions within the bill.

The discussions came as lawmakers struggled for a path forward on a related issue: How to stop Obama's executive actions on immigration that have offered work permits and protection from deportations to millions.

Republicans oppose Obama's moves as an unconstitutional overreach, and the House offered one response earlier this week. House Republicans attached language to a must-pass, $39.7 billion spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security that would undo Obama's actions, in the process exposing hundreds of thousands of younger immigrants to deportation. Obama has threatened to veto the bill.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pledged Thursday that the Senate would vote on the House bill, but he was not predicting it would pass.

"We're going to try to pass it. That'll be our first choice," McConnell told reporters. "If we're unable to do that, we'll let you know what comes next."

At a town hall-style meeting in Goffstown, New Hampshire, on Friday, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., was more blunt when questioned by a reporter: "I don't think it could get 60 votes in the Senate," she said of the House bill.

Although the Senate is now under GOP control, Republicans are still six votes shy of the 60-vote margin needed to advance most legislation, and a number of Senate Republicans have concerns with the House approach. In the wake of the Paris terror attacks, lawmakers don't want Homeland Security legislation jeopardized with veto-bait amendments.

Funding for the Homeland Security Department expires at the end of February, so Republicans have until then to resolve the issue. Republican leaders renewed pledges Thursday not to let funding for the Homeland Security Department expire or risk a government shutdown.

Lawmakers and aides said that whether they're able to move forward on broader immigration legislation — and how — will depend on how the fight over Obama's executive actions is resolved.
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« Reply #322 on: January 22, 2015, 10:29:29 am »

New GOP Border Security Bill Removes Border Fences
http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/21/new-gop-border-security-bill-removes-border-fences/
1/21/15

The new border bills drafted by Republican leaders require the actual removal of at least 66 miles of weak border fencing between laborers in Mexico and employers in the United States.

The border bills also only require for the construction of 27 miles of effective double-layer fencing along the 2,000-mile border.

“It is a remarkable that the direction of our progress is going backwards, from a goal of building 700 miles of double-layer border fencing [in 2006] to only 27 miles [in 2015],” said a Hill staffer who opposes the leaders’ bills.

“Where the double-layer fence has been put in, it has worked spectacularly. The public is with us 80, 90 percent on this issue,” he added.

Extra fencing would be a waste of money, according to Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
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« Reply #323 on: January 23, 2015, 06:39:45 am »

New GOP Border Security Bill Removes Border Fences
http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/21/new-gop-border-security-bill-removes-border-fences/
1/21/15

The new border bills drafted by Republican leaders require the actual removal of at least 66 miles of weak border fencing between laborers in Mexico and employers in the United States.

The border bills also only require for the construction of 27 miles of effective double-layer fencing along the 2,000-mile border.

“It is a remarkable that the direction of our progress is going backwards, from a goal of building 700 miles of double-layer border fencing [in 2006] to only 27 miles [in 2015],” said a Hill staffer who opposes the leaders’ bills.

“Where the double-layer fence has been put in, it has worked spectacularly. The public is with us 80, 90 percent on this issue,” he added.

Extra fencing would be a waste of money, according to Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.


The republicans (so called) blatantly support the multi national corporations so this action should be no surprise.
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« Reply #324 on: February 01, 2015, 04:38:44 pm »

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2015/02/us_government_cancels_thousand.html
2/1/15
US government cancels thousands of immigration hearings; delays could extend past 2019

SAN ANTONIO -- Thousands of immigrants seeking legalization through the U.S. court system have had their hearings canceled and are being told by the government that it may be 2019 or later before their futures are resolved.

Some immigration lawyers fear the delay will leave their clients at risk of deportation as evidence becomes dated, witnesses disappear, sponsoring relatives die and dependent children become adults.

The increase in cancellations began late last summer after the Justice Department prioritized the tens of thousands of Central American migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, most of them mothers with children and unaccompanied minors.

Immigration lawyers in cities that absorbed a large share of those cases, including New York, San Antonio, Los Angeles and Denver, say they've had hearings canceled with little notice and received no new court dates. Work permits, green cards, asylum claims, and family reunifications hang in the balance.

Denver immigration lawyer David Simmons said he's never seen such a standstill in nearly 30 years of practice. "There is no maneuverability," he said. "It's as if we have no court at all."

One of Simmons' clients, Maximiano Vazquez-Guevarra, 34, recently won his appeal to become a legal permanent resident. But his case still needs to go in front of an immigration judge one last time, and it has been pulled from the docket.

Vazquez, who is from the Mexican state of Guanajuato, entered the U.S. illegally in 1998. He has been fighting deportation since 2011, when he came to authorities' attention after his second driving under the influence charge. He lives in suburban Denver with his American wife, Ashley Bowen, and their 6-year-old daughter, and they are expecting their second child in August.

Meanwhile Vazquez's brother in Mexico is dying of kidney failure, and Vazquez can't leave the country. "It's sad," Vazquez said in a telephone interview. "I feel bad not seeing him, to say one last goodbye."

Before July, only immigrants in detention were considered a priority for the courts. Under the new policies, unaccompanied minors and families facing deportation also have priority status, regardless of whether they're in detention.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Justice Department body that oversees the nation's immigration courts, could not say precisely how many hearings had been canceled. But it said more than 415,000 immigrants who are not in detention have cases pending.

Hearings are being rescheduled for Nov. 29, 2019, as a way to keep cases on the docket, said Lauren Alder Reid, legislative and public affairs counsel for EOIR. Most, however, are likely to receive other dates -- either earlier or later, as docket times become available, she said.

Simmons said thousands of non-priority cases in Denver alone have had hearings canceled.

When the surge hit last summer, immigration courts there were already short two judges because of retirements. Two of the three remaining Denver immigration judges are hearing, via videoconference, cases of families detained in a new detention center in South Texas. The third Denver judge is hearing cases involving unaccompanied minors who've been placed with relatives.

David Martin, a law professor at the University of Virginia who worked for two Democratic presidents, criticized Congress and the Obama administration for not funding more immigration judges.

"You fund more investigators, more detention space, more border patrol, almost all of these are going to produce some kind of immigration court case," he said. "You are putting a lot more people into the system. It's just going to be a big bottleneck unless you increase the size of that pipeline."

San Antonio's immigration courts, which like Denver's are handling a large number of unaccompanied children and detained families, also have seen the cancellations of all non-detainee hearings, which are not considered priority.

Lance Curtright, a San Antonio lawyer, said hearings have been postponed for hundreds of cases his firm is handling. Longtime green card holders facing deportation over minor crimes or procedural issues are going to suffer needlessly, along with their families, he said.

"This is their home, and they don't know if they are going to be forcibly removed from it," he said. "And they are not going to get any resolution on that until 2019."

Limbo does not jeopardize all immigrants facing deportation as many are still able to work under existing permits until their cases can be heard. The delays might even provide some immigrants with weaker petitions more time to build a stronger case.

"Moving the docket back four years to some people will be devastating," said Anthony Drago, an immigration lawyer in Boston. "To other people it's, wow, four years in the United States."

Asylum seekers, who often have had to leave behind families in countries ravaged by war and violence, are among the hardest hit, said Bryan Johnson-Xenitelis, an immigration lawyer in New York. His firm has had eight case hearing cancellations so far, including that of a severely disabled young man from Ukraine with an asylum petition. Another dozen asylum claims at his firm have not been scheduled.

Many fear that cases like these will linger indefinitely at the bottom of the pile if there's another wave of Central American migrants.

"Starting May or June, there is likely going to be another surge of unaccompanied kids or families," said Manoj Govindaiah, a lawyer for the San Antonio-based Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. "Presumably this issue is going to continue."
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« Reply #325 on: February 03, 2015, 02:03:53 pm »

http://www.breitbart.com/california/2015/02/03/u-s-requires-measles-vaccine-for-legal-immigrants/
2/3/15
DID BORDER CRISIS TRIGGER MEASLES OUTBREAK?

The sudden outbreak of measles across the United States raises questions about how the disease arrived in the country after it was eradicated here in 2000.

A quick review of the U.S. State Department visa requirements for immigrant visas reveals that applicants must be vaccinated for measles prior to their approval. Measles vaccination is not required for tourist visas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nor is it required for any other disease.

That leaves three possibilities. One is that a tourist present legally in the U.S. brought measles to the country while visiting. This is the most plausible explanation, given that the outbreak began at Disneyland.

Another possibility is that an illegal immigrant brought measles to the country.

And the third, probably most remote, possibility is that a legal immigrant who was vaccinated still managed to contract the disease abroad, since the vaccination is not 100% effective in all cases.

There was a sudden arrival of illegal immigrant children over the summer. However, many of those children were from countries and regions that have high rates of immunization.

The highest rates of under-vaccination in the U.S. are to be found in low-income communities where illegal immigrants may live–but also in high-income communities where many residents have graduate degrees, and some are attracted to alternative methods of healing and non-Western medicine.

Reports from the border last year did indicate some problems with diseases, including illnesses likely to be spread rapidly in cramped holding facilities. Border patrol officers told Breitbart News at the time that they do not screen for diseases among those detained.

From the border, many detainees were scattered to processing centers throughout the country, and many entered local schools this fall. The spread of measles from Disneyland across the country is far more recent, however.
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« Reply #326 on: February 05, 2015, 02:59:56 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-decries-conditions-migrants-us-mexico-border-175637109.html
Pope: 'Inhuman' conditions for migrants on US-Mexico border
2/5/15

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has decried the "inhuman" conditions facing migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and has encouraged communities there not to judge people by stereotypes but welcome migrants and work to end discrimination.

Francis made the appeal in a letter to a Jesuit priest who helps organize Catholic teens in Nogales, Arizona, to support the Kino Border Initiative, which advocates a more humane solution to migration. The letter was dated Dec. 19 but was made public on Kino's website recently.

"These young people — who have come to learn how to strive against the propagation of stereotypes, from people who only see in immigration a source of illegality, social conflict and violence — can contribute much to show the world a church without borders," Francis wrote.

Rev. Sean Carroll, executive director of Kino Border Initiative, said student were very excited and very touched after receiving the letter from Francis.

"They cross the border every day to serve meals to the migrants," said Carroll, who wrote the cover letter to accompany the teens' messages to the Pope. "I think receiving this letter affirms the work they are doing."

Lucy Howell, a board member of Kino Border Initiative, said the letter was share at a recent board member. "We're ecstatic," Howell said. "We're all touched."

Francis has made migration one of the priorities of his pontificate and will likely raise the issue when he visits the U.S. in September. On Thursday, U.S. officials confirmed he would address Congress on Sept. 24, the first pope to do so.

Francis has said he would have loved to have entered the U.S. via the Mexican border in a "beautiful ... sign of brotherhood and of help to the immigrants." But he said the trip's itinerary was too tight to let him visit the border.

Carroll said a papal visit to the border would be a "transformative event" that might change minds of certain U.S. residents on the issue of immigration. "It would help people reflect deeply on the issue of migration," Carroll said. "I think his visit would have a significant impact."

In his letter, Francis praised migrant initiatives in cities like Nogales "which live daily with the phenomenon of immigration, and the ensuing inhuman situations of all type that it creates." He urged the Kino supporters to "never tire of working to build fraternity and welcome against discrimination and exclusion."

Arizona in 2010 passed tough legislation cracking down on illegal immigration, although much of the law was eventually gutted.

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

Hhhhmmm...why isn't Joe "America's Toughest Sheriff" Arpaio making a BIG deal out of this?? Roll Eyes Oh wait...it's b/c he's a ROMAN CATHOLIC! Shocked
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« Reply #327 on: February 08, 2015, 09:52:48 pm »

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2015/02/07/frustration-undocumented-immigrants-grows-as-us-courts-cancel-hearings/
2/7/15
Frustration of undocumented immigrants grows as US courts cancel hearings

LOS ANGELES –  The priority given by the Justice Department to children of Central Amerian families who entered the U.S. in 2014 has meant that the hearings of almost 500,000 undocumented immigrants have been suspended indefinitely, as occurred with Ricardo Pérez Luna, whose day in the Los Angeles Immigration Court was canceled.

"It's been a long wait. It's not fair that after all this effort, and I was finally on the point of getting my residence permit, they don't even tell me when I'll get to see the judge," Pérez, a native of Oaxaca, Mexico, told Efe.

The immigrant had a hearing scheduled for Jan. 28, the date when the judge was to award him his permanent residence, but his hopes vanished when he was notified that his hearing was canceled, as has happened to thousands of undocumented immigrants in recent days.

"The saddest thing is that there's no date, I don't know if it's going to be months, a year, two...we don't know what's going to happen," a frustrated Pérez said.

For Fernando Romo, the attorney representing Pérez, this case is a perfect example of the damage caused by congestion in the nation's 230 immigration courts.

"It was a mere formality - my client had complied with all the requisites and only needed the judge's approval. Ten minutes, that's all we needed," he said.


Pérez entered the United States without papers in 2002, and, after investing more than $22,000 in representation and processing fees, the Mexican hoped to get his residence permit at last, but now he could be left waiting until the year 2019.

"Thousands of people are affected, not only those who were about to obtain their residence permit, but also those whose cases were still up in the air. They could even lose their eligibility," Romo said.

Maria Angela Caceres applied for the cancellation of her deportation order so she could take care of her son, who suffers from a congenital disorder, and had a hearing set for Feb. 17, but that too was canceled this week.

"God gave me two children - the eldest, a girl, whom I brought with me from Mexico, and my little boy, who depends on me for everything. I'm asking the judge to let me stay with my son and daughter because it would not be right to separate us," Caceres said.

In California alone there are more than 85,000 people waiting for hearings by an immigration judge, of whom more than 50,000 are in Los Angeles. After California, Texas has 70,099 cases pending, New York has 58,818, Florida 21,862 and New Jersey 19,828.

The wait for a hearing in the Los Angeles Immigration Court takes almost 800 days, though in courts like those in Otay Mesa, near the U.S.-Mexico border, immigrants have had to wait as long as 6,056 days.
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« Reply #328 on: February 13, 2015, 08:07:52 pm »

http://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2015/02/13/senate-gop-leaders-prepare-to-cave-on-amnesty/
2/13/15
SENATE GOP LEADERS PREPARE TO CAVE ON AMNESTY

Even as reports emerge demonstrating that President Obama’s executive amnesty will precipitate voter fraud by granting driver’s licenses and social security numbers to illegal immigrants, Republican leaders are already preparing to cave on the immigration issue.

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security except for President Obama’s executive amnesty program. Now, the Senate is stonewalling, with Democrats voting repeatedly not to take up the bill, insisting instead that Republicans pass a bill funding the executive amnesty along with the rest of the DHS.

Which means that we’re nearing Republican surrender.


Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) maintains that it is time for Democrats in the Senate “to get off their *** and do something other than vote ‘no.’” But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is preparing the groundwork for the cave, stating, “I think it’s clear we can’t go forward in the Senate unless you all have heard something I haven’t. And so the next move, obviously, is up to the House.”

That’s nonsense. When Republicans represented the Senate minority during the Obamacare shutdown, the media declared that Republicans were obstructionists. Now that Democrats are in the minority, the shoe is on the other foot. And despite Republican fears that the Obamacare shutdown would crush electoral prospects, Republicans won a sweeping victory in 2014.

But Republican leaders are frightened nonetheless. They are frightened of media members blaming them for any flaws in security stemming from DHS funding, and too afraid to say what Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) has correctly said:

It’s a very dangerous game. If we have a successful terrorist attack – all the dead Americans from that should be laid at the feet of the Democratic caucus…In the end, [Democrats] have to defend the country. They have sworn the allegiance to do that. They need to live up to their oaths of office. In the Democratic mind, politics is everything. I would say to them, politics is not everything. If you don’t have a country to defend, what is the purpose of politics?

Many top Republicans don’t have Kirk’s backbone. And so they fall into the trap of blaming other Republicans for a DHS shutdown even though Democrats are fully responsible for that shutdown. Or, more cynically, they seek to garner mainstream media love for throwing their colleagues under the bus.

Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) says, “I certainly do not think that’s a good idea at this time, when we have lots of national security interests.” Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said, when asked how to avert a shutdown, “I don’t know. I don’t know…We should not cut off funding for the Department of Homeland Security.” Senator John Thune (R-SD) agreed: “We’re not going to shut the government down, including that. We recognize it’s important that we fund the government. Now that we are in the majority, we have the responsibility to do that.” Senator Jim Risch (R-ID) added, “We are unable to get on this bill to amend it. And a result of that, the House is going to have to send us another bill that we can get on.” Democrats, Risch said, “are locked up against it.” He concluded, “There’s nothing we can do.”

Republicans could stand tall. But in the Senate, they won’t. They could force Democrats to keep filibustering – and they could force an actual filibuster, rather than the pro forma filibuster to which Americans have grown accustomed. They could invoke the nuclear option and kill the filibuster altogether, forcing President Obama to veto funding for the Department of Homeland Security. They could even split the DHS funding bill into separate smaller bills funding each section of DHS specifically, and forcing Democrats to stonewall those bills.

Or they could wait for Boehner to cave. And it seems that the latter possibility is also the most likely. On Wednesday, Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) told House Republicans that they couldn’t get the 60 votes necessary to put the bill to a vote. House Republicans, for now, told the two Senators to go back to the Senate and work on it.

But several members of the House have already come out in favor of a cave. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said, “I didn’t necessarily think this was the best ground to fight on because I’ve seen this movie before.” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) told CNN yesterday, “We won’t shut the government down, that would be really, really stupid.” Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) said, “From a political perspective … you’re better off passing a clean Homeland Security appropriations bill, because it makes a lot of important changes, many of this in the Republican side wanted — more detention beds and all sorts of improvements of border control.”

The Republican leadership is still split on the immigration issue. But it’s unlikely that they’ll remain split for long. When in doubt, bet on surrender.
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« Reply #329 on: February 17, 2015, 01:43:35 pm »

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/17/federal-court-ruling-against-obama-amnesty-could-break-democrat-blockade-of-dhs-funding-bill/
2/17/15
FEDERAL COURT RULING AGAINST OBAMA AMNESTY COULD BREAK DEMOCRAT BLOCKADE OF DHS FUNDING BILL

Before a federal judge in Texas ruled President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty unconstitutional—and ordered its implementation immediately halted—Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest chairman Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said such a ruling would mean Democrats must stop obstructing the passage of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill.

“I think it would have a huge impact,” Sessions told the Huffington Post last week about such a ruling. “I would think it would be further proof that the president overreached and shouldn’t be funded, and it would cause the Democrats to re-evaluate their obstruction.”

Other conservatives, like Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), echoed Sessions’ statement.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for the Senate Democrats to actually allow our bill to move forward,” Huelskamp said last week. “There should be no concerns to them if the courts are saying this is not going to be implemented.”

On Monday night, Judge Andrew S. Hanen of the federal district court in Brownsville, Texas, ruled that Obama’s executive amnesty is unconstitutional and issued an injunction immediately halting its implementation.

“The court finds that the government’s failure to secure the border has exacerbated illegal immigration into this country,” Hanen wrote in his opinion. “Further, the record supports the finding that this lack of enforcement, combined with the country’s high rate of illegal immigration, significantly drains the states’ resources.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praised the ruling and the injunction, saying in a statement that Obama “abdicated his responsibility to uphold the United States Constitution when he attempted to circumvent the laws passed by Congress via executive fiat” and that Hanen’s ruling “rightly stops the President’s overreach in its tracks.”

Hanen’s ruling came in response to the lawsuit brought by Texas and originally joined by 16 states, a number that has since grown to include 26 states—more than half of the states in the union.

Senate Democrats have stood united in obstructing the House-passed DHS funding bill that blocks the use of any taxpayer money on the now-officially-ruled-unconstitutional Obama executive amnesty order. House Republicans, including Speaker John Boehner and Majority Whip Steve Scalise, have been pressuring the Senate Democrats to stop their blockade, and now, because of this ruling, they may be forced to.

“The House has acted. We’ve done our job. Senate Democrats are the ones putting us in this precarious position,” Boehner said on Fox News Sunday when asked about the potential of a DHS partial shutdown if no agreement is reached by Feb. 27, when current funding for the Department runs out.

“The only path forward on DHS is for the Senate to get on the bill,” Scalise added in a Breitbart News exclusive last week. “It must go through the Senate to get to the president’s desk. If obstructionist Senate Democrats have an issue with the content of the bill, they will have time to address their concerns during open debate. As House Republicans, we did our job – we kept our promise to the American people that we would take action to stop the president’s executive overreach – now it’s time for the Senate to do theirs.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had called for the House to go to a “Plan B” after Democrats used a procedural motion to obstruct Congress, but has since rejoined House Republicans in demanding that the Senate Democrats stop blocking consideration of the House-passed bill. McConnell said in a statement last week

For two weeks now, Democrats have continued to filibuster funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats are filibustering Homeland Security funding for one reason: to defend actions President Obama himself referred to as ‘unwise and unfair,’ and ‘ignoring the law.’ For two full weeks, Democrats have prevented the Senate from even considering legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats won’t allow the Senate to even debate this funding. Democrats won’t allow the Senate to even consider amendments to this funding.

McConnell called on the Democrats to abandon their blockade because they’re engaged in “strained logic” that is “hard to follow”—and Democrats would be able to offer amendments if they stopped obstructing the bill.  McConnell said:

We understand Democrats might be having a tough time kicking this years-long gridlock habit of theirs. But it’s about time they did. I’ve already offered a fair and open debate to them several times now. It’s a debate that would allow for amendments from both parties. That means amendments from Democrats too. If you want to make changes to the bill, colleagues, that is your chance. But to do so, you first need to end the weeks-long Democrat filibuster of Homeland Security funding. Get serious instead. Let the Senate fund the Department of Homeland Security.

Republicans in Congress have also unleashed some new tactics in attempting to break through the Democratic blockade of the DHS funding bill. For instance, Rep. Ryan Zinke—the at-large freshman Republican House member from Montana—is calling on his Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester to drop his opposition to the DHS bill.

“There are some things that are not negotiable,” Zinke said in an interview with Breitbart News last week, adding later that:

I would encourage my friend, my fellow legislator, Sen. Tester, to uphold his duty and to reject the president’s unlawful and unconstitutional actions. It isn’t just about immigration. It’s about the unconstitutional overreach of the president, to disregard Article I or Article II of our Constitution. The bill, I think it’s an appropriate bill. I would encourage Sen. Tester to pass the bill and uphold his duty. If the president wants to talk about immigration, then let’s talk about immigration. That means we’ll sit down with the president and go through reasonable immigration reform and probably negotiate out some of the amendments that were there, but you have to work it in the terms of the Constitution. I’m not going to blink.

Tester’s office has thus far ignored Zinke’s comments, and hasn’t responded to a Breitbart News request for comment on them—but Tester himself has come out in public opposition to Obama’s executive amnesty, a position that hasn’t been represented by his voting pattern in helping the liberal Democrats block the DHS bill votes.

Indiana Republicans united to unleash similar pressure on their Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly.

“As you know, DHS funding will expire in 15 days,” the Indiana GOP House delegation—Reps. Larry Bucshon, Marlin Stutzman, Susan Brooks, Luke Messer, Todd Rokita, Jackie Walorski, and Todd Young—wrote to Sen. Donnelly last week. “It is imperative that we work together to fund the critical functions at DHS to ensure Americans are safe at home and abroad. Our constituents and the American people demand action.”

In the letter, the GOP hoosiers wrote that they agree with Donnelly’s public opposition to Obama’s executive amnesty—and note that his role in helping Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid block the DHS bill votes is antithetical to his publicly stated position on the issue.

“Furthermore, we agree with your November 20, 2014 declaration that Congress has the sole authority to alter immigration law and that, ‘…the president shouldn’t make such significant policy changes on his own,’” they wrote to Donnelly. “President Obama made similar claims on 22 different occasions. Unfortunately, your three votes to prevent debate from proceeding last week cannot be reconciled with your previous statements or the president’s.”

Donnelly responded by attacking them in a public statement, according to a local news outlet, that accused his Republican colleagues of playing politics:

It appears my colleagues are more interested in pointing fingers than solving problems. They have refused to even consider a bill that would fix our broken immigration system. They have also failed to come up with a responsible plan to fund our Department of Homeland Security. Sending a letter is easy; working in a bipartisan way to actually solve problems is harder. I know because I was a part of the bipartisan effort in 2013 to pass an immigration reform bill and, today in the Senate, there is bipartisan support for a responsible plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security. If my colleagues are as interested in solving problems as they are in scoring political points, I suggest they do the hard work.

But now, with the federal court system coming down initially on the side of Republicans against Obama’s executive amnesty in an extraordinarily harsh manner—such an injunction that Hanen issued to stop the executive amnesty implementation immediately is not common—Republicans may have what they need to break Democrats like Donnelly, Tester and others away from Reid’s clutches once and for all.

“This should finally be the straw that breaks the Senate Democrats’ protective wall around Obama’s dictatorial amnesty and gets them to join Republicans in defunding it,” a GOP congressional aide told Breitbart News late Monday evening. “To fund amnesty now would be to fund Congress’ own demise.”

A second GOP aide, also reached late Monday, said that “now is the time to double down” and “Congress needs to seize the moment.”

It’s certainly going to be very difficult for Democrats to defend continuing to block the House bill now. The question becomes whether the Republicans stand strong, holding the line moving forward, or if they back down on fighting “tooth and nail”–in the words of Boehner–using all available options to degrade Obama’s executive amnesty.
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