Amnesty Advocates Claim Progress in House GOP

migrants
AFP, FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
Neil Munro

Amnesty advocates claim progress in the GOP House towards a quick, no-strings ‘dreamer’ amnesty, but a supposed leading GOP supporter says he actually opposes the ‘clean Dream Act.’

“I don’t support a clean Dream Act,” Virginia Rep. Scott Taylor told Breitbart News.

Amnesty advocates are touting reports that roughly 30 GOP legislators have signed a Taylor-launched letter backing an amnesty for the illegals this December.

But the letter does not tie an amnesty to the 2018 budget, and it does not urge amnesty for the 3 million younger illegals which the Democrats want to amnesty via an unmodified Dream Act,  said Taylor, adding:

Just the [690,000 people in the] DACA population. I don’t think there is a significant amount of GOP folks who favor a clean [unconditional] Dream Act … I think that most of the GOP folks who want to deal with the DACA population would be absolutely willing to negotiate more security and more distinctive for illegal immigration.

It is not going to be the clean Dream Act … there are going to more negotiations on security.

For example, Taylor added that he wants to see an end to the visa lottery program, and he said he supports tougher vetting of would-be immigrants and visitors, plus real cuts to chain migration. Those issues are likely to be part of a larger immigration debate in early 2018. 

The claims of current progress towards a Christmas amnesty — and Taylor’s  denial — are part of a larger effort by amnesty advocates to build apparent momentum in the media for the no-strings quick amnesty. This week “some of the Democrats were trying to use our letter for their own advantage,” Taylor said.

For example, Todd Schulte, the director of a pro-amnesty lobbying group for investors, dubbed FWD.us, touted Taylor’s supposed support.

Schulte’s group is pushing for a no-strings amnesty, in part, because it wishes to block the immigration curbs required by President Donald Trump’s popular immigration principles. Those principles would likely shrink the foreign supply of cheap white-collar labor, so pushing up the salaries that FWD.us’ investors would have to pay white-collar Americans in the marketplace.

Similarly, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus touted claim of amnesty progress by linking to an article about Taylor and his letter. The article is titled “DACA advocates see efforts gaining steam in the House”:

Alida Garcia, an organizer for Schulte’s FWD.us, also claimed progress in the push for a no-strings Dreamer amnesty.

Another group, dubbed #Vote4Dream, is claiming progress for making “personal contact” with legislators, even though “contact” is not an endorsement or pledge of support.

But the actual movement of GOP towards a no-strings Christmas amnesty is minimal.

Two GOP legislators have signed a discharge petition, Arizona Rep. Mark Amodei and Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman, alongside 196 Democrats. If 218 legislators sign the petition, then the ‘Dream Act’ amnesty would be sent to the chamber for a full vote. As of December 1, the discharge petition has only 198 votes.

Roughly 33 Republicans have co-sponsored the “Recognizing America’s Children Act,” drafted by Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo. The bill would provide an amnesty to roughly 2 million illegals, without requiring any safeguards or offsetting reductions in migration. The act of co-sponsoring the legislation carries little risk because few legislators expect the bill ever to get a vote. One reason for the bill’s unimportance is that the Democratic leadership is backing the more generous ‘Dream Act.’

The Taylor letter is also being promoted by amnesty advocates. According to a CNN’s Tai Kopan:

The letter, organized by Virginia Rep. Scott Taylor and Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse, already has signatories numbering in the 20s, according to a source familiar with the letter, and could reach into the 30s by the time it is sent. Taylor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter originated with the Republican Main Street Caucus and will remain open for signatures with the hope of sending it by next week, according to the office of Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis, who chairs the nascent caucus.

Neither the GOP legislators nor the pro-amnesty activists have released the letter, but Breitbart News has learned that it does not include the demands or timelines preferred by advocates. For example, the letter asks House Speaker Paul Ryan to help the 690,000 DACA beneficiaries, not the 3 million younger illegals, dubbed ‘dreamers’ by business lobbyists, progressives, and Democratic legislators. The letter requests legislation by the end of the year but does not link the amnesty to the 2018 budget. The letter does not endorse a “clean Dream Act,” but instead urges Ryan to include additional border security measures to any amnesty, and also leaves room to incorporate growing GOP consensus for reforming “chain migration.”

On Thursday, November 30, Ryan again shot down business’ hopes for a quick win, after noting that Democratic leaders bailed out from a White House meeting when President  Trump slammed their push for the no-strings Dream Act:

You gotta show up if you want to make your point, and I don’t think the Democrats are in a very good position to be making demands if they are not even going to participate in the negotiations that are necessary to move legislation forward and to solve problems. Do we have to have a DACA solution? Yes, we do. The deadline is March, as far as I understand it. We’ve got other deadlines in front of that, like fiscal year deadlines and appropriation deadlines, but if they want to get to a solution, they ought to come to the table and start talking.

Also, Ryan has repeatedly said he has no plans to include an amnesty in the 2018 budget. His Task Force on immigration is debating whether to go for a big bill that would combine some form of amnesty with an overhaul of the chain-migration system.

On December 1, Politico reported that Ryan’s deputy, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, also dismissed chances for a quick amnesty, saying:

I don’t think the solution for DACA — I don’t see it out there right now. So I don’t see how you would get it done this month … DACA’s timeline is further out in March, you still have time to solve that problem.

Both President Trump and the Senate’s GOP leadership have developed proposals that would tie an amnesty to a larger package of reforms, including an end to chain migration. That broader immigration reform is likely to be debated in early 2018 — and perhaps play a role in the 2018 election.

A Nov. 27 report by the McClatchy news service included an admission by an amnesty proponent that the push for a December amnesty is losing ground:

“Two months have now passed, and I’m sad to report that we’re arguably further away from a solution today than we were then,” said Neil Bradley, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s chief policy officer.

Although nearly all Democrats have signed the Dream Act discharge petition, Democrats have not faced the task of selling a no-strings amnesty which threatens the wages of their blue-collar voters. For example, the Blue Dog Caucus consists of 18 Democrats who are somewhat centrist. Since October 1, the group’s Twitter feed has not endorsed the DACA or Dream Act causes.

Also, the Congressional Black Caucus has backed Dream Act legislation, but voters in the members’ districts may strongly oppose any amnesty which delivers more foreign cheap-labor workers into their workplaces. In an October 12 statement, CBC leaders Rep. Cedric Richmond and Rep. Yvette Clarke declared:

Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant principles are an affront to the millions of people who have travelled from across the world to make America their home. Many of these people, through DACA, TPS, and other programs, were brought here at a young age and have known no other country but the United States as their home. They are among the thousands of Black DACA recipients, and more than 60,000 Black TPS recipients from Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, and Haiti.

If Donald Trump has his way, they would be forced to return to war-torn countries and areas affected by cholera, famine, and other inhumane conditions. The time has come to build bridges, not walls, and reject Donald Trump’s unprincipled immigration principles. Congress must pass legislation that protects both DREAMers and those granted TPS.

Democrats embrace the industry-funded “nation of immigrants” polls that shame Americans to say they welcome migrants. But the alternative “fairness” polls show that voters put a much higher priority on helping their families, neighbors, and fellow nationals get decent jobs in a high-tech, high-immigration, low-wage economy. The political power of the voters’ fairness priorities was made clear during the GOP primaries and again in November 2016.

The workplace impact is being highlighted by a bakery in Chicago, which was forced to hire Americans to replace 800 illegal immigrants this year. The enforcement and subsequent reorganization cut revenue at the Cloverhill bakery by 7.5 percent, and trimmed profits from 16 percent to 9.5 percent of revenue once up to $176 million was redirected towards higher wages.

Public support for a “dreamer” amnesty is also declining. Giving “children … protection from deportation” is the “top priority” for only 11 percent of American voters who identify as independents and “a top priority” for 23 percent of independents in a November poll by Morning Consult and Politico, which was headlined in “Polling Shows Waning Enthusiasm for Congressional Action on Dreamers.”

Also, new evidence is undermining business claims that DACA and dreamer illegals are vital for business. According to a Migration Policy Institute report, only 1.7 percent of older ‘dreamers’ and 4 percent of DACA recipients have earned a college degree, compared to 18 percent of comparable-age Americans.

Each year, four million Americans turn 18 and begin looking for good jobs in the free market.

But the federal government inflates the supply of new labor by annually accepting one million new legal immigrants, by providing almost two million work-permits to foreigners, by providing work-visas to roughly 500,000 temporary workers, and doing little to block the employment of roughly eight million illegal immigrants.

The Washington-imposed economic policy of mass-immigration floods the market with foreign labor and spikes profits and Wall Street values by cutting salaries for manual and skilled labor offered by blue-collar and white-collar employees. It also encourages discrimination against American workers, drives up real estate prices, widens wealth gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, and hurts kids’ schools and college education. Furthermore, it pushes Americans away from high-tech careers and reduces the work activity rate below the rate in foreign rivals, which sidelines millions of marginalized Americans and their families, including many who are now struggling with opioid addictions.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.