[](/sites/default/files/uploads/2013/05/im.jpg)A number of conservative politicians and pundits signed a letter and held a conference this week to dispel the rumors, they say, that new immigration bill S.744 will inevitably pass and that it has the broad support of conservatives everywhere.
The letter was signed by well-known conservatives like Monica Crowley, Erick Erickson, Victor Davis Hansen, and David Horowitz. On a conference call introducing the letter, several prominent conservatives explained their opposition to the bill. The letter opened by stating unequivocally that the current bill is beyond repair and should be scrapped entirely.
We write to express our serious concerns regarding the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill, S. 744. We oppose this bill and urge you to vote against it when it comes to the Senate floor. No matter how well-intentioned, the Schumer-Rubio bill suffers from fundamental design flaws that make it unsalvageable. Many of us support various parts of the legislation, but the overall package is so unsatisfactory that the Senate would do better to start over from scratch.
On the conference call, several prominent conservatives attacked individual parts of the proposed bill. Carol Swain is a professor at Vanderbilt University, and she said that if this bill were to pass it would only lead to more unemployment of American workers, and especially in the African-American community.
“The proposed legislation works directly against the interest of American workers, especially those with a high school education or less.
“We can safely predict increases in black unemployment, as well as incarceration rate.”
Swain continued, “The last thing that America needs is another guest worker program for low-wage, unskilled workers. What America needs is an investment in American workers.”
Andrew McCarthy is a former US Attorney in the administration of George W. Bush and he was the lead prosecutor in the successful conviction of the so-called “blind sheikh,” Omar Abdel Rahman, the man responsible for the original World Trade Center attack in 1994. McCarthy said that passage of this bill would hurt national security.
“Sponsors of the immigration bill promised us security and enforcement first, and legalization only when that was achieved.”
Instead, said McCarthy, the bill that has been agreed upon gives provisional status to all illegal aliens immediately, even as politicians make yet another promise to secure the border at a later unspecified date. McCarthy concluded with what he would like to see from immigration reform.
“Enforce the law, establish a track record of enforcing the law, and then come back to us [the American people] in five years with a track record of enforcement.” (And to ask for some sort of amnesty at that point.)
Meanwhile, Senator Jeff Sessions pointed out a mandatory biometric system was voted down, and that the new bill scraps the e-verify system in favor of another untested system.
The proposed bill has been going through a furious period known as mark-up. It finally passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee with a 13-5 vote. A vote in the full Senate is expected in the next week and the process will then move to the House of Representatives, where the members appear close to announcing their own immigration reform bill.
For immigration reform to be effective there must be aggressive border enforcement, work enforcement, as well as visa tracking and enforcement. While proponents of the bill have maintained that enforcement will be a priority, numerous troubling details covered by FrontPage Magazine have shown that true enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws continues to be lacking.
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