Latest sanctuary schemeState agencies in New York have reportedly found about 4,000 entry-level jobs they want to fill with illegal immigrants. 
Jon Feere, director of investigations for CIS, says these people already have federal work permits and are employable by federal law "simply because they came across the border and claimed asylum." "As we know, this administration is passing out work permits to any illegal alien they can," he notes. Feere says there are some similarities between New York and California, which has likewise tried to go around laws to hire illegal aliens on a university campus. The difference is it is technically legal in New York's case. Before it is too late, he advises red states to mandate E-Verify, which would make it difficult for businesses to hire illegal aliens. But with so-called sanctuary cities looking to hire otherwise unemployable people, Feere predicts employment standards will go down, which he says is "part of a bigger effort about lowering standards everywhere in society." "We should be raising standards, in my opinion," he says. |
The bipartisan border proposal, which took months to negotiate, was praised by Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats at the beginning of the week but, by Tuesday, it appeared to be doomed after House Speaker Mike Johnson said it was dead on arrival.
“This bill is even worse than we expected,” Johnson said.
After being negotiated for months in secret, with Sen. James Lankford leading the GOP side, Senate Republicans pored over the measure and revolted.
“An utter disaster,” Sen. Ted Cruz, writing on Twitter, said of the legislation.
“This is worse than bad negotiation. It’s betrayal,” Sen. Mike Lee, in a Twitter post, similarly complained.
One of the worst and most-cited portions of the bill is allowing 5,000 illegal aliens a day into the U.S.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), tells AFN she wouldn’t call the legislation a “border security” bill at all.
“[It’s] an asylum expediting bill that provides more incentives for people to come and cross illegally,” she says, “and institutionalizes the disastrous policies of the Biden administration."
Soon after the bill was reviewed, the political fireworks began on Capitol Hill and now political observers say Lankford has been tossed under the bus by wily House Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“It looks to me and to most our members as if we have no real chance here to make a law,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday.
But it was McConnell himself who negotiated behind the scenes with Democrats over the last several months, according to a Federalist story that calls that an “open secret” in Washington.
That may be why Sen. Cruz, also on Tuesday, was suggesting it was time for McConnell to go.
“I think a Republican leader should actually lead this conference and should advance the priorities of Republicans,” said Cruz.
“I think we can all agree that Sen. Cruz is not a fan,” McConnell, appeared unworried about the blame, told reporters.
Sen. Cruz and other senators did not criticize Lankford, however, according to a Washington Times story.
"This just blew up in Leader McConnell‘s face,” said Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson. “This does more harm than good, and that’s not James Lankford’s fault — that’s Leader McConnell‘s fault.”
"I think leadership sent him out on a kamikaze mission, and I think it was very cynical of Republican leadership to do that," Cruz told reporters.
Bill weakens asylum claim rules
Vaughan and CIS know the ins and outs of U.S. immigration law, which is a bureaucracy of rules and procedures, so CIS legal expert Andrew Arthur pored over the 400-page bill and summarized it in a lengthy post published Monday. In that post, he said the bill’s language about asylum sets up an interview process with a federal immigration officer that weakens the current rigorous process of foreigners being granted asylum protection.
Even an illegal alien whose asylum claim is denied – which is currently most of them – now has a new process to appeal, Arthur points out. So, in reality, few illegal aliens will ever be removed from the country, he writes.
In an op-ed published at The New York Post, CIS executive director Mark Krikorian says the bill “gives automatic work permits to the relatives of certain temporary workers and others, speeds the issuance of work permits to illegal aliens seeking asylum (thus increasing the incentive to come), and provides taxpayer-funded lawyers to certain illegal aliens, which is currently prohibited by law.”
The bill elsewhere creates a new emergency order in which a U.S. president can shut down the border but also mandates the admission of “a minimum of 1,400 inadmissible aliens each calendar day” if the border is closed, Krikorian points out.
The border bill was also reviewed by immigration watchdog FAIR, or the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
“There was nothing in there that would prevent asylum abuse,” FAIR spokesman Ira Mehlman tells AFN. “There isn’t even anything in there that really would end catch-and-release.”
