“Comprehensive Immigration Reform- What Would President Lincoln Have Likely Said?"

Hi Gang:

My most recent commentary for the CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization) website is attached below.  It compares the lofty ideals for the way that the government of the United States would represent the best interests of Americans, that President Abraham Lincoln so eloquently articulated in his Gettysburg Address, with the harsh reality of how Comprehensive Immigration Reform would do irreparable harm to national security and to the ability of American workers to find good jobs with decent wages.
My article is entitled:
Comprehensive Immigration Reform- What Would President Lincoln Have Likely Said?”


America’s immigration laws were enacted to protect innocent lives and the jobs of American workers- jobs, I might add, that are in short supply.  Comprehensive Immigration Reform as I note in my piece ignores the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 commission and would provide unknown millions of illegal aliens with official identity documents without the ability to verify the identity of these aliens.  There would therefore be no way of determining when or where they actually entered the United States or what their reasons for evading the inspections process that is supposed to prevent the entry of those whose presence would pose a threat to the safety and well being of America and Americans.

It makes no sense to add massive numbers of newly authorized foreign workers into a labor pool of American and lawful immigrant workers who, in record numbers, cannot find decent jobs today.  
My concerns about the real world impact of Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the failures to effectively enforce the immigration laws already “on the books” have been the focus of previous commentaries I have written for CAPS.  Here is the link to my previous articles for that website:

http://www.capsweb.org/caps-blog/michael-w.-cutler


Immigration is not a single issue but a singular issue that impacts nearly every challenge and threat confronting the United States today!  Simply stated, the immigration laws were enacted to save lives and protect the jobs of American workers.

It is not “Anti-Immigrant” to be Pro-American!

Our armed forces are charged with securing America’s borders externally while the DHS is supposed to secure those same borders from within.  The failures of the DHS to live up to its half of the equation are undermining the efforts, valor and incredible sacrifices of Americas men and women who serve in our military!

If our government’s failures to protect American jobs by securing our nation’s borders and effectively enforcing our immigration laws concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation! 

All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!

We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.

This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!

You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

Lead, follow or get out of the way!


-michael cutler- 

Please check out my website:

https://www.michaelcutler.net/

       

On Friday evenings from 7:00 PM until 8:00 PM Eastern Time, I host my show, “The Michael Cutler Hour” on the USA Talk Radio Network on Blog Talk Radio.

Call in and join the conversation!  The phone number is 310-982-4145

I hope you will be listening!  (Please tell your friends and neighbors!)

Here is a link to the program:

http://www.usaradionetwork.com/cutler.htm




Comprehensive Immigration Reform- What Would President Lincoln Have Likely Said?”

Michael W. Cutler, Senior Special Agent, INS (Ret.)

Senior Fellow, Californians for Population Stabilization


One hundred and fifty years ago President Abraham Lincoln made what is one of the most momentous speeches ever made by any leader of any country, the Gettysburg Address.

President Lincoln delivered his address at the dedication of the Soldiers’ Cemetery at Gettysburg. It consisted of fewer than 300 words and took mere minutes to deliver, yet its eloquence has made this speech one of the most remembered speeches of all time. It ended with these words:

…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The purpose of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the all-encompassing body of laws pertaining to the admission and presence of aliens in the United States, was to protect the lives and jobs of American citizens. This is certainly commensurate with the concept of a government that was “…of the people, by the people , for the people…”

Today the advocates for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) ignore the plight of struggling American workers and their families but are quick to make assertions that it is compassionate to enable unknown millions of illegal aliens to be granted lawful status and ultimately a “pathway to United States citizenship.” They ignore that there would be absolutely no way to interview what might well turn out to be tens of millions of illegal aliens to make the most superficial attempt to verify the information contained in their applications. There would be no resources to conduct field investigations in conjunction with this massive amnesty program.

This process would violate all of the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and would undermine national security and public safety.

Advocates for S.744 blithely ignore that record numbers of American and lawful immigrant workers are unemployed and underemployed and that dumping millions of competing foreign workers into that overflowing labor pool of Americans living below the poverty line, would make it all but impossible for impoverished American families to climb out of poverty. It would all but eradicate the American Dream for American families.

On August 7, 2012, CAPS posted one of my previous articles:

60 Minutes” Report Shows American Families Hiding in the Shadows that focused on the plight of the American workers who can no longer support themselves and their children.

My commentary was predicated on a heart-breaking report that aired on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday, July 29, 2012 that they entitled, “Hard Times Generation: Families living in cars.”

Also ignored by advocates for CIR is that increasing the number of foreign workers in the United States would increase the remittances, money wired from the United States to the countries from which those workers came. Last year it is estimated that these remittances totaled approximately $200 billion.

America’s middle class was created and nurtured by the effective enforcement of the immigration laws by the Labor Department in the years before World War II which shielded American workers from unfair foreign competition. Alan Greenspan has called for a total reversal of such measures and made it clear when, in testifying before the Senate Immigration Subcommittee at a hearing on April 30, 2009 his prepared testimony stated in part,

“The second bonus (to greatly increasing visas for high tech workers) would address the increasing concentration of income in this country. Greatly expanding our quotas for the highly skilled would lower wage premiums of skilled over lesser skilled. Skill shortages in America exist because we are shielding our skilled labor force from world competition. Quotas have been substituted for the wage pricing mechanism. In the process, we have created a privileged elite whose incomes are being supported at noncompetitively high levels by immigration quotas on skilled professionals. Eliminating such restrictions would reduce at least some of our income inequality.”

S.744 would have acceded to Greenspan’s demands and not only would have tripled the number of H-1B visas for high tech workers but would have, for the first time, provided the spouses and adult children of H-1B visas holders with Employment Authorization Documents which would have given them as much right to work in the United States as an American worker desperate to support himself (herself) and his family.

Clearly this would not be consistent with President Lincoln’s dream of a United States of America that first and foremost, makes its own citizens, of every race, religion and ethnicity the priority of the government of the United States.



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