Judicial Watch Panel Discusses the Motivation behind Amensty
Yesterday, Judicial Watch hosted an Amnesty panel, featuring Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), the Center for Immigration Studies' Mark Krikorian, and NumbersUSA's Rosemary Jenks. The panel discussed the impact of passing and amnesty, who's really behind the push, and provided an update on the the prospects of passage in the 113th Congress.
Rep. King said that amnesty was a slap in the face to the rule of law and offered heavy cricism of the administration's policy that grants deferred action and work permits to certain illegal aliens.
"To grant amnesty is to pardon immigration lawbreakers and reward them with the objective of their crime," Rep. King said. "Whatever they brkel the law for, we don't know what the motivation was. Maybe it was citizenship, maybe it was for a job, maybe it was to live in the shadows, maybe it was to live here in the United States unencumbered, maybe it was so that they could send money back to their home country, maybe it was to be with their family. But whatever it was, whatever their objective is, the advocates of amnesty are seeking to grant them their objective."
In recent weeks, amnesty advocates have attempted to increase their visability in Washington by setting up a fasting tent on the National Mall and protesting the adminstrations claim of record-level deportations. Using the holiday season as their motive, amnesty advocates are calling for a stop to breaking up families. Jenks, however put an different spin on the situation, saying that two-thirds of all women in American prisons and 55% of all men have children under the age of 18.
"My question is, when was the last time anyone here saw a protest because our prisons and jails are separating American parents from their American kids when they go to jail?" she said. "And yet every day, the mainstream media bombards us with how mean and viscous we are because we separate immigrant parents who have broken the law from their children. Why is there a different standard? America was build on the basis of equal protection under the law."
Jenks challenged the claims by amnesty advocates, saying the federal immigration agents are only allowed to remove violent criminals. She also pointed out that a Texas judge said that the administration's policy of granting deferred action is illegal.
"He said in one of his rulings that the Department of Homeland Security does not have the right to violate the law under DACA," she said. "They are ordering ICE agents to break the law that Congress wrote."
She also noted that big business is the driving force between the current amnesty push, and the driving force for certain Republicans.
"I think what explains the Republican drive for amnesty, and what drives Speaker Boehner hiring Becky Tallent to do immigration reform for him, is a draw to big business, to money. It's about the money," she said.
"We have the lowest labor force participation rate since women started entering the workforce in the 1970s. We have unemployment of 7.2%. We do not have a labor shortage in this country. We have a job shortage. We need to ensure that our representatives in Congress represent us."
Krikorian explained just how big a stake big business has in passing immigration reform, but also explained why he doesn't think it'll pass in the 113th Congress.
"$1.5 billion has spent on lobbying for amnesty over the last 6 years, and it's not going to work. And here's why it's not going to work. Much of the public would be willing to go along with some sort of an amnesty, if it were the last amnesty," he said. "Nobody believes that tomorrow's immigration laws will be enforced any better than today's. That's the trust gap. "
"I'm taking early bets that the President will not have an amnesty bill on his desk in 2014."
Watch the full panel below.