By Joe Guzzardi
08/29/2008
Applying the question only to the immigration views advocated by Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Joe Biden, the short answer is that he’s really bad.
Over his way-too-long Senate career (35 years!) Biden’s various and sundry immigration related positions include these:
Summing Biden up, one observation says it all: for 16 years, he’s been a top ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary where he’s consistently voted against Americans' well-known desire to severely limit immigration.
This is Biden, above the radar.
But like many in the U.S. Senate, Biden has an equally treacherous profile below the radar.
Let’s examine it.
Ann Corcoran, whose website Refugee Resettlement Watch is an essential immigration reform source, has been tracking Biden’s addiction to more refugees. As far as Biden is concerned, America cannot have too many of them.
In June, Biden supported a plan conceived by Teddy Kennedy to create a senior White House position that will "coordinate, develop and implement strategies to more effectively address the plight of Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons."
Biden and his like-minded friends envision relocating for "humanitarian purposes" as many as 5 million Iraqi "refugees" and "displaced persons." Interestingly, Kennedy puts the total at 4 million — perhaps to add to the deception?
But Biden’s plan has a catch — what I call the Sam Brownback/Kennedy provision: "Let’s welcome refugees — but in your backyard, not mine."
You're hard pressed to find refugees in Delaware, Kansas or Nantucket.
I have previously eviscerated Brownback and Kennedy for their refugee duplicity. And since nominee Biden is today’s topic, let’s look at his hypocritical stance that Corcoran has carefully documented.
To begin with, Biden is one of the original 1980 co-sponsors of the Refugee Act (along with Kennedy, the Democratic Party’s about-to-be canonized hero). Many of Biden’s then-colleagues are now either dead or have long since retired from the Senate.
Despite Biden’s enthusiasm for refugees, only a few have actually landed in Delaware — between 1998 and 2003, 747 to be exact. By way of comparison, another small state — Rhode Island — has settled ten times as many as Delaware.
In her analysis of Biden’s Iraqi refugee promotion, Corcoran makes a critically important point.
"Note that they (meaning the refugee advocates) always say that the supposed millions displaced are the result of our 'invasion' in 2003. They never tell you that at least a million of the displaced were forced from their homes by the policies of Saddam Hussein. And of course they never mention the inconvenient fact that some of those who high-tailed it out of Iraq were the bad guys. Here is just one post where we addressed the Iraqis displaced prior to our arrival in that country."
And Corcoran sums up the patriotic immigration reform community’s feelings when she observes that she would have at least "some respect" for the refugee’s political advocates like Biden if they:
"…Mentioned that Saddam Hussein displaced maybe more than a million who are still displaced. But they don’t; they lie and exaggerate to make their political points in trying to convince the American public that the US is bad and should feel guilty and thus be airlifting Iraqi refugees from all over the Middle East to a city where you live."
Also never discussed in the resettlement fanfare is Homeland Security’s discovery that 365 Iraqis who applied for refugee status are listed on the Defense Department’s database of suspected terrorists.
Assuming that the Iraqi War drags on in some form or another for anywhere from 5 to 20 years, it’s conceivable that if we use as our guide the Southeast Asian resettlement program that lasted for more than 30 years after the war ended and analyzed here by our Thomas Allen, the US will be taking in refugees from Iraq until 2060!
That’s not good!
Which government entity has the money to pay for the social services the refugees require? And where are the jobs that they will need when the handouts end?
Politicians like Biden and Barack Obama prey on American generosity to persuade us that embracing refugees is our moral duty.
African refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia and Nigeria can barely contain their joy at the prospect of an Obama presidency that they view might open America’s doors to more of them.
Said Anthony Opare from Ghana:
"The fact that Obama’s been able to come this far has opened doors for Africans and African descents," To the African, it tells us that … one can work hard and get whatever you want. This is the land of opportunity." [African Immigrants Among Obama’s Enthusiastic Backers, by Darryl Fears, Washington Post, July 6, 2008]
Obama wants more Caribbean Islanders, too — especially Haitians.
The growing threat to America is mass legal immigration.
When it’s couched in the touchy-feely terms of refugee resettlement, the danger is particularly great.
Refugees' net effect on American society is the same as that of illegal aliens: they add to the population, strain social services, disrupt cultural unity and threaten American workers.
If you doubt me, just consider that to a manufacturing company whether the employees are illegal aliens or a legal refugee is no concern. Either can replace an American as well as the other.
Your reaction to the prospect of more of legal refugees should be just as critical as it is toward illegal immigration.
To help you more fully understand the futility of the US refugee policy, I have a Labor Day homework assignment for you.
Watch NumbersUSA Executive Director Roy Beck’s famous gumball demonstration. More than 6 million viewers have seen Roy’s video at the NUMBERSUSA website and on YouTube here.
If you have never watched Roy’s five-minute presentation before, you will be astonished.
And even though I have seen it no less than 50 times, I am always re-energized for the good fight we're waging because Roy makes it so clear how senseless our federal immigration policy is.
Joe Guzzardi is a California native who recently fled the state because of over-immigration, over-population and a rapidly deteriorating quality of life. He has moved to Pittsburgh, PA where the air is clean and the growth rate stable. A long-time instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, Guzzardi has been writing a weekly column since 1988. It currently appears in the Lodi News-Sentinel.
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