Despite Government Shut Down, Looming Debt Crisis and 20 Million Unemployed Americans, Nothing Trumps Amnesty

On October 2, House Democrats unveiled an immigration bill with the usual suspects making the predictable statements. U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA) erroneously predicted that the bill would pass if the full House voted on it. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) compounded Lofgren’s lie when she said that “Every piece of this legislation has bipartisan support, and that’s important to us.”

Another Pelosi statement is more ominous than her shameless deceit about amnesty’s popularity. Pelosi revealed her true agenda when she said that the House (meaning the Democratic immigration extremists’ faction like Lofgren and herself) is willing to do whatever it takes to go to conference with the Senate. Conference with the hardliners like Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) could spell doom for our efforts to kill amnesty.

The Democrats’ new bill is identical in most respects to S.744 which passed in June but that House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has repeatedly said would not be taken up. Pelosi is relying on her inclusion of legislation the House Homeland Security Committee unanimously passed this summer as a possible route to conference, namely H.R.1417, the Border Security Results Act.

Unfortunately, the House bill weakens existing border security provisions. Under H.R.1417, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary would not have to gain 100 percent operational border control as the existing law mandates. Instead, H.R.1417 would require the Secretary to submit a plan to gain operational control only of the border’s "high traffic areas" within five years. That translates into at least five years of unchecked illegal immigration.

Based on its own estimates of the numbers of individuals it failed to apprehend, DHS defines operational control as when it’s turned back at least 90 percent of would-be aliens in those high traffic areas.

There’s no chance that the House will move on Pelosi’s version of immigration. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), who introduced H.R.1417, firmly said the House will not “go that route” and, when asked if there were any chance Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) would put the bill on the calendar, spokesman Rory Cooper gave a one-word answer: “No.”

To all but the most radical pro-amnesty, anti-American immigration anarchists, Pelosi’s advocacy is lunatic. More than 20 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed. For those lucky enough to have a job, their wages have been flat for decades.

Pelosi insists that she and others of like-mind in the Congress will not bend on the proverbial path to citizenship of 11 million aliens, and will thus put them in direct competition with Americans looking for a job or Americans hoping not to lose their job to cheap labor.

This week, CAPS is running radio spots throughout California to remind Congress that American workers, not illegal aliens, deserve to be the focus of Congress’ attention. Listen to them here.