The Boston Marathon Bombing and Amnesty for Illegal Aliens

The Boston Marathon bombing was a glaring and painful lesson in the premise of the much touted gun-control legislation, which was thankfully defeated this week in the Senate. Liberals and the administration were angry that their own brethren, the Democrats, could not gather enough votes to pass the anti-gun legislation that only 4 percent of Americans supported. This legislation would have denied 2^nd Amendment rights to 96 percent of Americans who wished to defend themselves against home invasions.

An entire town was in lock down, held hostage to the idiotic creed that somehow, leaving everybody vulnerable, without guns to defend themselves, shaking in fear behind closed doors, while one 19 year old criminal was on the loose, would make everybody safer and prevent harm to one’s family. I wondered how many citizens wished they had the non-existent “assault weapon” or any weapon to protect their loved ones.

On the other hand, how was it possible that a goofy-looking 19 year old required a massive man-hunt comprised of an entire SWAT team, police, and National Guard, armed with semi and fully automatic rifles, similar to semi-automatic AR-15 that liberals said that law-abiding Americans should not own?

Astonishingly, 46 Democrat and Independent Senators voted this week to give away Americans’ Constitutional rights to a foreign power, the United Nations. The U.N. Small Arms Treaty which had been promoted by the current administration would have placed a global ban on the importation and exportation of small firearms. All private gun owners in the U.S. would have been affected, requiring an international gun registry on all private guns and ammunition. Would criminals have abided by the treaty? I don’t think so. The narrow vote of 53-46 prevented the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty - for now.

The two Chechen brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the alleged bombers in Boston, stole a car with a “COEXIST” bumper sticker. Liberals love to display this sticker on their Priuses and Smart Cars in order to show their tolerance towards other cultures and religions that are usually not so tolerant or peaceful. Ironically, the elder brother was taken to a Jewish hospital in an attempt to save his life.

Both brothers, devout Islamists, were not so tolerant after all and did not wish to “COEXIST” in peace. They thanked the Bostonians that took them in, gave them food and shelter, free education, scholarships, mentorship, a mosque to pray in, legal residence, and even citizenship, by killing and maiming Americans in cold blood on the day celebrating life, American history, and marathon tradition in Boston, on Patriot’s Day.

According to Glen Howard, president of the Jamestown foundation, there are less than 200 Chechen immigrants in the U.S., mostly in the Boston area. Seventy percent of the immigrants are women. The Treasury Department lists the Islamic International Brigade, the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment, and the Riyadus-Salikhin Battalion as radical groups on a terrorist list. These groups were implicated in the Moscow theater hostage bombing that killed 129 people and the 2004 Beslan school massacre in which 320 children were killed.

The Tsernaev family emigrated to the U.S. as refugees after the outbreak of the 1999 Russia-Chechnya war. There were four brothers, mom, and an assorted number of relatives. The alleged bombers attended the Boston Latin School which prides itself as being the oldest school in the U.S., founded in 1635, “serving an economically and culturally diverse population,” with students representing 83 nations. The liberal ideology of diversity did not seem to work out so well with certain groups of immigrants.

Because they claimed refugee status, the Chechens, who are Sunni Muslims, were admitted into the U.S. when Dzhokhar was six years old. Educated in the diversity of Boston, where being American is feeling guilty for perceived past transgressions and wrongdoings of the “evil empire” against the rest of the world, Dzhokhar became an American citizen last year.

Tamerlan was absent from the U.S. for six months yet that did not raise suspicions. Ordinary, law-abiding permanent legal residents who leave the country for more than 30 days are flagged by Immigration and must be moved to the back of the line if they petition to become citizens.

It would seem that U.S. citizens should decide who immigrates to the U.S. What was the benefit of these radicalized Muslims to U.S. citizens? How has unchecked immigration benefitted Americans in the past? It encouraged chain migration of low skilled workers who brought their extended families and later became a financial burden to the U.S. taxpayers to the tune of billions of dollar each year.

Why do liberals insist on bringing refugees from third world nations for the sake of diversity? We are quite diverse and inclusive as a nation as long as people are willing to become part of us, to grow together. Why bring people in who hate America, its culture, its Christian foundation, religion, and its language? Why do educators teach anti-Americanism? What purpose does it serve to politicize tragic events and point leftist fingers at “right wingers” just because ideologies collide? When tragedy strikes, we are all Americans, regardless of skin color, religion, or ideology.

We are a nation of laws yet 11 million illegal aliens, mostly Latinos, who broke our laws and crossed the border illegally, demand to be recognized and rewarded with a path to citizenship while four million foreign nationals with visas are waiting patiently in other countries to come to America lawfully.  How many potential terrorists are hiding among these 11 million illegal aliens?

The Gang of Eight senators promises that the border will be secured after these 11 million illegals come out of the shadows. Who stands to gain from this massive immigration bill? Big business, big labor unions, and representatives of “unauthorized immigrants” (the new euphemism which replaced “undocumented Americans”) such as La Raza (the Race) will benefit from “legislated amnesty.” Only four percent of Americans who were polled think that amnesty is a good idea. Ninety six percent of Americans oppose amnesty in any form.

It is not just the fact that illegals do not want to be assimilated and live in their own self-appointed enclaves, trying to transform America into the repressive country they’ve escaped from.

According to Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, amnesty would cost taxpayers more than $2.5 trillion and is currently working to revise the number upwards. Millions of illegal immigrants would qualify for federal benefits (welfare, Social Security, earned income credit, etc.), college grants, and would receive healthcare through Obamacare exchanges since they are not excluded from the Affordable Care Act.

Sen. Rubio said that amnesty would be granted without government benefits but that is just wishful thinking. As soon as illegal aliens get legal status, they will be transitioned to citizenship, to federal benefits, and, most importantly, to voting.

Millions of new Democrat voters will change the political landscape forever. Latinos may be conservative with their religious values but they believe that the source of financial success and prosperity is big government and that will never change.

When Ronald Reagan amnestied 3 million illegals in 1986 with the Congressional promise that the border will be enforced, the security never happened. The amnesty caused more illegal immigration which brought us to the 11 million illegals today. Only 37 percent of those amnestied in 1986 voted Republican. Furthermore, this 1986 amnesty caused Republicans to lose California to the Democrats.

Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, and entitlement programs represent trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities to taxpayers. Adding more recipients to the welfare rolls and retirement benefits rolls will increase the already out of control national debt. Most illegal aliens have a tenth grade education or lower, collecting more in benefits than they pay in taxes. The broken immigration system should be fixed first before giving illegals citizenship and federal benefits. (Heritage Foundation, Jim DeMint)

The inability and willingness to control the flow of potential terrorists among the illegal aliens is just the tip of the iceberg. We cannot afford trillions of dollars in extra government spending. We cannot afford millions of illegal aliens in front of the employment line when 20 million Americans who want to work cannot find a job. We cannot afford to sponsor an endless chain of relatives most of whom have no means of financial support or education to earn a living.

We cannot afford $900,000 to fund White House tours for our American children but the Immigration bill wants to spend $50 million to help illegal immigrants file for the “registered provisional immigration status.” Would it not be cheaper if we enforce the current immigration laws and deport the illegals back to their respective countries while stopping the “anchor baby” automatic citizenship which was meant for the children of slaves not illegal immigration?

 

 

 

 

Illegal Aliens and Federal Benefits

Theoretically, the law forbids illegal aliens from receiving benefits reserved for American citizens with the exception of emergency Medicaid. In practice, it does not prevent any of them from applying for and receiving benefits paid for by American taxpayers who sometimes, are themselves denied benefits.

Emergency Medicaid provided in emergency rooms, although well intentioned, has been used and abused by illegal aliens as their own personal physician, resulting in the bankruptcy of many small hospitals across the nation, particularly in California.

Federal benefits distributed to illegal aliens include: grants, contracts, loans, professional and commercial licenses, retirement, welfare, WIC, disability, public housing, college education, Pell grants, food stamps, tax credits, earned income credits, tax refunds, and unemployment benefits.

The Census Bureau reports 40 million foreign-born people residing in the United States. In this category, one-third is estimated to be illegal aliens. Liberal main stream media calls them “undocumented workers,” “in the shadows residents,” or “unauthorized residents.”

According to the Pew Hispanic Center there were 11.2 million “unauthorized immigrants” in 2010.  Their in-house demographer, Jeffrey Passel, used 2008 Current Population Survey (CPS) to estimate “the number of persons living in families in which the head of household or the spouse was an authorized alien,” for a total of 8.8 million families. Liberals like to redefine illegal aliens with euphemisms that suit their agenda. Other sources publish much higher numbers of illegals.

Illegal alien families are likely to have U.S. citizen children or “anchor babies.” These families are given “mixed status” by the Congressional Research Service. Passel also estimates that one in three illegal alien children is poor. This is obvious since illegal aliens have fled their home countries mostly for economic reasons and dire poverty.

Liberals lobby Congress to deal with illegal aliens based on controversies such as demographic issues, how to treat illegal families that have “anchor babies” who are U.S. citizens, and how strict identification requirements may hurt Americans who are denied benefits.

Once a foreign national had crossed the border illegally, they have committed a crime which is not punished lightly in most countries. In the U.S. however, progressives demand that illegal aliens have due process rights, eligibility for federal assistance, educational opportunities paid by taxpayers, military service opportunities, employment rights, and pathways to citizenship. No other country in the world rewards law breaking with citizenship but the United States.

Illegal aliens, a.k.a. “unauthorized residents,” come in three categories:

-          Visitors who overstay their nonimmigrant visas

-          Foreign nationals who enter illegally (“surreptitiously” as liberals like to say)

-          Foreign nationals who enter with forged documents

-          Pregnant foreign nationals who enter illegally in the last month or trimester of pregnancy in order to deliver “anchor babies” (These foreigners have spawned organized “anchor baby tourism” in cities like New York)

 According to “jus soli,” codified in the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, children of slaves born on U.S. soil are American citizens. Liberals extended this principle to the children of any illegal alien who happens to give birth on U.S. soil. Thus a new breed of families is codified by the Pew Hispanic Center as “mixed-immigration status families.” However, foreign diplomats’ children who are born on U.S. soil are citizens of their parents’ respective countries and not American citizens.

The Congressional Research Service which produces data for Congress identified another category of illegal immigrants, “Quasi-legal migrants.” In certain cases, the Department of Homeland Security issues temporary employment authorization documents (EADs) to aliens who are not authorized to reside in the United States. They can, however, obtain Social Security cards. The CRS identified several groups in this “quasi-legal” category:

-          Those with temporary humanitarian relief who have Temporary Protected Status (TPS)

-          Asylum seekers with cases pending for at least 180 days

-          Those awaiting in the U.S. the resolution of legal permanent residency process (family and fiancées of legal residents)

-          Tourists, students, and temporary workers who overstayed nonimmigrant visas with petitions awaiting to adjust status as employment-based LPRs (legal permanent resident)

The “quasi-legal” groups are often denied approval for legal permanent resident status. Twenty-five percent of asylum seekers and generally, 80-85% of LPRs petitions are eventually approved.

Special illegal alien immigrant juveniles (under the age of 21 and unmarried) who were homeless, orphans, or victims of abusive family situations are eligible for permanent legal residence and become dependents of the courts. The court grants custody of the child to a state agency, declares him/her eligible for foster care, and determines that it is not in the best interest of the child to return to his/her country of birth. Taxpayers then become de facto supporters of such children. According to CRS, since 2008, such children exceeded 1,000 each year.

“Permanently residing under the color of law,” (PRUCOL) has been used historically to give benefits to foreign nationals who are known to be residing in the U.S. yet the government has no plans to deport. “Quasi-legal” aliens fall in this category of PRUCOL.

Social Services Block Grants and migrant health center services are offered as limited exceptions within the 1996 welfare act:

-          Treatment under Medicaid for emergency medical conditions (except organ transplant)

-          Short-term emergency disaster relief

-          Immunizations

-          Testing and treatment for communicable diseases

-          Soup kitchens, crisis counseling, short-term shelters

-          HUD assistance

Although the law clearly states to the contrary, pre-natal care, treatment, and assistance under Medicaid, CHIP,  nutrition programs, and other benefits are given to illegal aliens, all funded by U.S. taxpayers.

Title IV of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation ACT (PRWORA) of 1996 (P.L. 104-193) “established comprehensive restrictions on the eligibility of all noncitizens for means-tested public assistance, with the exceptions for LPRs with a substantial U.S. work history or military connection.” PRWORA expressly bars illegal aliens from most state and locally funded benefits.

The Department of Labor estimated $53.8 billion in unemployment benefits were paid to illegal aliens in 2002 and IRS paid $4.2 billion in refundable tax credits in 2010 to illegal aliens. Unemployment compensation overpayment of 0.51% of total was made to illegal aliens. (Congressional Research Service, “Unauthorized Aliens’ Access to Federal Benefits: Policy and Issues, Ruth Ellen Wasem, September 17, 2012)

The Food Stamp Program reported that 1.9 million U.S. citizen children (“anchor babies”) living with illegal alien parents received food stamps, or 7% of all participants. Medicaid spent $2.5 billion, $2.2 billion on treatment for the uninsured, and $1.9 billion on food assistance programs, including emergency Medicaid and school lunch programs. According to Steven Camarota, Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies, “Many of the costs associated with illegals are due to their American-born children, who are awarded U.S. citizenship at birth…greater efforts at barring illegals from federal programs will not reduce costs because their citizen children can continue to access them.” (Steven A. Camarota, The High Cost of Cheap Labor: Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget, Washington, D.C.: Center for Immigration Studies, August 2004)

At a time when so many Americans are unemployed, underemployed, out of the labor force, and 47 million Americans are on food stamps because of the disastrous economic policies pursued by the current administration, should we continue to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on illegal aliens who are the responsibility of their own countries?