MCRI ·
Republicans remain clueless on immigration
By Dave Gorak, 08/20/2013
A couple of news items during the past several days caught my eye and again convinced me that when it comes to the immigration issue, leaders of the Republican Party are unable to find their rear ends even while using both hands.
Let's start with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who said Aug. 16 that Mitt Romney's use of the word self-deportation during last fall's presidential campaign was "horrific" and a "big mistake."
If "Hispanic Americans perceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States (i.e. self-deportation), they will not pay attention to our next sentence . . ."
Taking a cue from the nation's lazy and biased media whose members have made blurring the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants an art form, Prebus' statement is grossly misleading because this is not about Hispanic-Americans but about people who have no right to be here.
If there is a horrific element in this issue, it is that both parties and our immoral federal government continue to permit 7 million illegal aliens to keep their non-ag payroll jobs while 20 million Americans can't find full-time work. It is a war of attrition by all three against the very people that they are supposed to be protecting.
In the "welcoming" state of California, which is home to more than 2 million illegal aliens, Republicans there are whining that they "ignored demographic changes." Another misleading statement; it is more accurate to say that California Republicans ignored the rule of law and refused to demand enforcement of our immigration laws. Now the party of cheap labor is lying awake at night trying to figure out how they can entice the very people they allowed into this country to vote for Republicans instead of Democrats who come bearing all the gifts one associates with big government.
What Priebus & Co. doesn't get is that most of the nation's low-wage earners, including Hispanic-Americans, will have virtually no chance of becoming part of the middle class as long as we continue to grant amnesties to illegal aliens and doubling annual legal immigration to 2 million people, which is exactly what the recently passed Senate amnesty bill would do.
You don't need an advanced degree in economics to understand how an unending flow of cheap foreign workers affects the native-born as well as legal immigrants. If the GOP wants to make points with all American workers, the party should say, "Unlike the Democrats, we see our job as being one that protects your jobs; that means sharply reducing legal immigration and strict enforcement of our immigration laws."
This is the Republican message that should be repeated again and again during town hall meetings, in newspaper opinion pieces and during TV appearances. Wisconsin's open-borders advocate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-1st) is doing nobody any favors promising a shot at the American Dream to people who will never have a shot because of a labor market flooded with foreign workers willing to work for paltry wages.