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Immigration Reform On The Backburner

August 11, 2009 RSS Feed Print

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The big political news today is that the president won't be doing anything with immigration reform until early next year at the earliest.

It's interesting that immigration is the issue that can wait, while the administration has sold infrastructure spending, auto company bailouts, healthcare reform, and many other issues as emergencies where action is needed either immediately or close to immediate, lest the economy tank.

Not to dismiss any of those issues, but immigration seems to be highly underrated as a tool for dealing with economic misery. Many economists believe that immigration is the best anti-poverty program governments have ever devised. And we know that immigrants disproportionately start businesses that create new jobs.

So why can't Obama sell immigration reform as part of a stimulus? While it's true that the economic effects of immigration are lagging—it takes a while for someone to get a new business off the ground—we've seen that the stimulus dollars for building new infrastructure have also been to slow to take effect. So that doesn't seem like the best explanation. One simple explanation is that the people who would benefit the most from an easier path to legal immigration can't immediately vote. So, politicians don't stand to gain as much—in the short-term—by looking out for their interests.

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Well, fortunately the American people have much more common sense than Bandyk, the Cato Institure, and open border loons do.
A new Gallup Poll reveals that more Americans are favoring lower immigration numbers as compared to this time last year. 50% of Americans believe that immigration numbers should be reduced from their current rate of more than 1 million immigrants per year, while only 14% think that number should be increased.
Last year, only 39% of Americans thought immigration levels should be lowered, so the new numbers reveal a significant shift in the attitude of Americans.

George S. of IA 7:46PM August 12, 2009

Don't they (Reps and Dems) realize that citizens are the victims here, and that
they haven't done anything to deserve this. Shame on the Government for not having
a good paying job lined up for Scott;
and for allowing high school dropouts that don't speak English to come and steal
the jobs of our highly educated citizens...... Wait, that doesn't make any sense.
It's the home grown high school dropouts without any help the ones who can't
keep their jobs.
Watch out with the new generations of US citizens born to foreign parents. If today's US
citizens don't wake up and start teaching the work ethics and the importance of going to school to their children. Eventually they will be relegated low-skill level jobs
.... wait, that is happening already. The last 3 times that a family member had to undergo surgery, The surgeons were from Asia and the nurses were local. I wonder which of those people are in risk of loosing their homes. I bet it's not the surgeons.
life is not easy anymore. Now you need to compete with more educated and better prepared people. Welcome to the global economy.
I know Amnesty is not going to help me. but if only they forget about it, I will sure be able to pay for my home.
Sincerely
An highly educated and employed foreign born professional.

BobbyJames of VA 5:45PM August 12, 2009

So, why would the Obama administration continue to ram this bill down the throats of Americans when polls show how many voters are opposed? And, why is nothing being said about those 12 million illegal aliens (or whatever the true number is)?
If I were a Democrat looking to "lock up" votes for decades -- centuries? -- to come, I would provide (force) some fundamental social program that would highly benefit a group of voters (that may not yet be legal voters), and then I would secure their votes by amnesty -- which could bypass any waiting period for voter registration...
With 60 votes in the Senate (notwithstanding a few conservative Democrats -- and a few liberal Republicans), if Obama can succeed cramming these two seemingly separate issues through into law, then this will be like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid! The Democrats will have succeeded in bribing millions of (brand new) voters to keep the evil conservatives from putting their programs at risk...
Once securely in power, no conservative will be able to breathe a word about returning to a private Health Care System... It will be like today when they are screaming "Racist"!
If they had already declared amnesty, then this plan would be so obvious, we wouldn't have serious articles asking "why" did he wait to pass health care reform... It would be like the dots are already connected...
And, lest I be labeled a Republican, being unemployed right now, I am ticked at both parties for playing politics with pushing home loans for people who clearly could not pay and then to bail out the companies that they had pushed to make those loans! This leaves me with no job and wondering how I am going to pay for my home!

Scott of OH 3:54PM August 12, 2009

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