House Speaker John Boehner and the Republican insider-elite assure us that immigration reform (amnesty) isn’t going to happen this year. So why are talk radio hosts from across the country planning to gather in Washington this spring for another Hold Their Feet to the Fire collective broadcast?
Because we know better, that’s why.
Earlier this year, House GOP leadership put in motion a series of smaller immigration bills that would have simply replicated last year’s massive Senate bill (S-744). Shortly afterwards, conservative pundits and media -- and most powerfully talk radio -- questioned the wisdom of introducing a divisive issue during a midterm election year in which the Republicans appear to have the upper hand. And even more vocally, Americans who are desperately scrambling for work questioned how flooding the labor market with millions of additional foreign workers would result in anything but increased competition for scarce jobs and reduced wages.
Boehner finally pulled his head out of the Beltway bubble, assessed the political climate and -- for the moment -- has backed off a bit. But make no mistake, this is a temporary condition. Isn’t it always? There’s just too much money pushing for amnesty, the Chamber of Commerce is not going to take no for an answer and the Speaker has not come this far to stop this soon. He still wants to do it. For Boehner this is not a question of should he do it, but rather when.
And that “when” happens precisely the moment the pressure is off. So we head to Washington with on-going resistance and persistence and several messages in mind for a Speaker of the House who just doesn’t seem to understand the issue.
We support principled immigration that assures that our laws are enforced and the public interests are served.
There is one, and only one, principle for true immigration reform: Like any other public policy it should serve the greatest interests of the greatest number of Americans. It should be serviceable to the national purpose and help, not hinder what we want to accomplish as a nation. For most of us those goals are balancing the supply and demand for labor by limiting foreign and illegal competition, protecting our national security, making sure that our limited social service resources are not drained dry by excessive levels of immigration, and protecting our natural resources and energy supplies.
Unfortunately, immigration policy is being used to achieve political ends by cheap labor business lobbies, illegal alien special interests, and political parties dictating the debate for their own benefit. The American worker and American taxpayers are the real stakeholders and their interests come first and their voices must be heard.
Our existing laws must be enforced. The only thing truly “broken” with our immigration system is this administration’s unwillingness to do what Congress intended when they wrote the laws. Speaker Boehner has suggested that he won’t move forward with immigration reform because he believes that this president can’t be trusted to enforce our immigration laws. If the Speaker truly believes this, then the job ahead is quite clear; Boehner and his House of Representatives must immediately compel Obama to start enforcing existing laws and prevent him from further abusing his executive authority.
Finally, let’s give Americans the protection they need, Congress needs to enact an E-Verify bill that would keep illegal aliens from working jobs they have no legal right to.
In short, do what the law says and what the public wants. It’s not too much to ask and we’ll be pressuring our lawmakers to do it while we’re in Washington.
Hear us, fear us, and join us. We’re talk radio -- America’s Electronic Town Hall -- and we’re proud of speaking the truth and holding our public officials accountable for the one basic thing we’ve elected them to do; serving our broad national interests.
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