Immigration News

House Democrats are expressing strong opposition to the Davis-Oliver Act recently introduced by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) (See previous news item.) The bill would penalize cities that break federal law with their sanctuary policies while enacting other steps to strengthen internal enforcement of immigration law. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA ) stated, "We have to call it Trump's mass deportation act. It is a hard anti-immigrant enforcement only proposal. It is a welcome mat to racism. . . . A repudiation of the very values that have defined our great nation since its inception." Jayapal didn't explain how enforcing laws against lawbreakers is racist, or why it is contrary to American values to do so.

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) has introduced legislation to improve immigration law enforcement. It is H.R. 2431, also known as the Davis-Oliver act, in memory of two law enforcement officers who were killed by illegal aliens. Labrador is vice-chairman of the House Judicial Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee. Among its provisions, H.R. 2431 legally clarifies the right of localities to assist immigration law enforcement, penalizes sanctuary jurisdictions, and authorizes the hiring of 12,500 more ICE officers.

The Trump Administration has appointed Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach as the Vice Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The commission will investigate charges of voter fraud, including voting by non-citizen immigrants and illegal aliens. Kobach has long advocated effective enforcement of immigration laws, which has prompted heavy criticism from illegal alien advocates. In response to these critics, who often resort to name calling, Kobach observed that "When . . . they don't have any arguments left. . . . They just attack you as a person. They call you a racist; they call you a vote suppressor. They just come up with these stupid names."

President Trump seems to be going back on his campaign promise to consider a reduction of legal immigration. At more than one million a year, it is at the highest sustained level in our country's history. An interviewer for the Economist, pro-globalist magazine, asked Trump, "Do you want to curb legal immigration? . . . [are you] not looking to reduce the numbers?" The president replied, "No, no, no, no, we want people coming in legally. No, very strongly." Washington observers say Trump is feeling strong pressure from pro-immigration interests, and that pressure from his base of supporters will be necessary to put him back on course.

The New York Times reported on the effort of Democrat politicians in Howard County, Maryland, to make the county a sanctuary jurisdiction to benefit illegal aliens. It noted that the politicians were surprised that a number of legal immigrants in the country testified against the proposal. Apparently they didn't consider that people who play by the rules resent those who don't.

The DUI suspect who plowed his truck into a family driving home from Disneyland, then fled the scene, was an illegal alien who had...

Emory University in Atlanta is offering to cover the full tuition of illegal aliens who enroll there. A legal foreign student would have to pay a total $70,000 to enroll. An Emory spokeswoman stated that “Emory accepts undocumented students for admission and financial aid . . . [in order to have] students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds.” Evidently, the university views lawbreaking as a form of diverse enrichment.

Immigration advocates commonly maintain that refugees pose no terrorist threat to Americans because they go through background checks. They neglect to note that background checks are often difficult in their countries of origin. In recent testimony before Congress FBI Director James Comey pointed out that in more than 2,000 "violent extremist investigations . . . about 300 of them [15 percent] are people who came to the United States as refugees."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed an anti-sanctuary law which imposes fines on the"sanctuary" jurisdictions in the state which refuse to cooperate with federal immigration law enforcement. In addition to the fines, police chiefs and sheriffs who support sanctuary policies face jail sentences under the new law. Said Abbott, “My top priority is public safety, and this bill furthers that objective by keeping dangerous criminals off our streets.”

It is estimated that as many as 40 percent of illegal aliens in the U.S. did not illegally cross the border to get there. They are people who came with legal visas and remained after their visas expired. The Department of Homeland Security has specifically identified 1.2 million individuals who are probably in this category, but in 2015 only managed to arrest about 3,400 of them. The government still lacks the means to check the departures of visa holders, even though this has long been promised. Several of the 9/11 terrorists were visa overstay illegal aliens.