By Joe Guzzardi
06/12/2009
Put up or shut up!
That’s my challenge to the other side, with whom I am more that usually fed up and disgusted.
If they think they can pass what they are forever referring to as "comprehensive immigration reform" aka amnesty, and then let them either do it or stop talking about it.
I don’t want to hear any more about how there will be immigration legislation just as soon as Congress finishes debating health care or a new energy policy.
Nothing more please about how Congressional leaders anticipate that they'll begin amnesty deliberations this fall just as soon as they wrap up the Supreme Court debate and return from their summer recess.
As for the ethnocentric lobby, stop marching, protesting and demanding. That strategy has gotten you nowhere. As the old saying goes, talk is cheap. And an even more accurate old saw applies: empty barrels make the most noise.
I've just returned from a brief visit to Capitol Hill where insiders tell me that Illinois Senator Dick Durbin claims he has the votes to pass the DREAM Act.
But, Durbin hedges, he’s afraid that if the DREAM Act passes, then it would damage the chances of a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
I say if Durbin thinks he can muster up the votes for the DREAM Act, then he should proceed. But I'll only believe it when I see it.
Durbin has a steep uphill climb. As of the date of my column, H.R. 1551 has 70 co-sponsors, all reliable pro-open borders Democrats and S. 729, 22 like-minded Senators
And then there’s California’s teetering, senile old fool Dianne Feinstein who predictably re-introduced her AgJobs bill. The surest sign of spring in Washington isn’t the cherry blossoms but Feinstein’s AgJobs bill trumpeted by her accompanying statement that there is a "farm emergency."
This year, Feinstein is reduced to passing around a 2006 photo of some over-ripe pears on the ground that, as Steve Sailer pointed out three years ago, never had a shred of credibility in the first place. [Feinstein Offers Guest Worker Proposal, by Michael Doyle, Modesto Bee, May 15, 2009]
Feinstein’s S. 1038 is a bust with no traction and only 17 co-sponsors. Ditto its companion bill in the House, H.R. 2414, with an underwhelming 38 co-sponsors.
One notable but under publicized triumph for our side: so far the Mainstream Media hasn’t written any "crops rotting in the fields" stories. Who knows? Maybe reporters have finally asked for supporting evidence — of which there is none — to back up the long-standing, ludicrous claim.
Of course, nice as it would be, none of these traitors is going anywhere.
The National Council of La Raza’s Janet Murguia, one of the most visible of the lobbyists, earns a tidy six-figure salary to promote her employer’s agenda. We can hardly expect her to announce that, in light of the hopelessness of her amnesty effort, she'll be summering at the Jersey Shore.
But I might miss the other side if they were gone since their offensive remarks provide their goodly share of belly laughs — in a perverse way, of course.
As if Feinstein’s sorry, transparent shilling for the agriculture industry isn’t pathetic enough, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid always like to show his contempt for Americans with his ceaselessly insulting observations.
At a press conference with Hispanic leaders — who else? — Reid said (for the umpteenth time) that passing immigration reform is "going to happen this session. But I want it this year if at all possible."
Then, when asked if Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the top Judiciary panel Republican, could pose a problem, Reid said:
"Check the numbers of Democrats and Republicans on that committee — OK? Democrats hold a 12-7 advantage after Sen. Arlen Specter became a Democrat and a 59-40 advantage in the Senate overall." [Harry Reid Wants Immigration Bill This Year, by Manu Raju, Politico.com, June 4, 2009]
Reid’s idiotic comment suggests that Specter once voted on our side against amnesty. But, as we all too painfully know, Specter is the 100 percent equal to Teddy Kennedy in his enthusiastic advocacy for the proverbial path to citizenship for illegal aliens as well as unlimited numbers of non-immigrant visas for foreign-born workers.
Not to be outdone by Reid, New York Senator Charles Schumer came up with this doozy about Sonia Sotomayor.
After his staff analyzed how Sotomayor voted in 955 immigration cases in which she has participated (siding with the foreigner over the government 144 times) throughout her judicial career and putting a special focus on cases that involved aliens trying to win asylum claims in order to remain in the United States, Schumer said: "These findings should put to rest any doubts about Judge Sotomayor’s fidelity to the rule of law. Even in immigration cases, which would most test the so-called 'empathy factor,' Judge Sotomayor’s record is well within the judicial mainstream." [Schumer: Sotomayor 'Within the Judicial Mainstream' on Immigration, by Amy Goldstein, Washington Post, June 6, 2009]
Never mind that the "judicial mainstream" is far from the true American mainstream.
If Durbin, Feinstein, Reid and Schumer all think that amnesty is a go, well then — stop talking and go for it.
As for me, I've had a belly full.
Remember all the damages that were predicted to befall us after the 2003 Immigrant Freedom Bus Ride, the May Day marches and boycotts circa 2006, 2007 and 2008 and the touching story of Elvira Arellano and her anchor baby son little Saulito.
What became of all that was a big fat zero.
Amnesty isn’t even a hot topic among Hispanic Americans.
Latino voters surveyed by the Pew Hispanic Center in January, immigration lagged behind the economy, health care, national security and the environment in the ranking of important issues. [Hispanics and the New Majority, Pew Hispanic Center, by Mark Hugo Lopez, January 15, 2009]
Only three-in-ten Latinos rate immigration as an "extremely important" issue, according to Pew’s research. Coincidentally, that’s about the same percentage as native-born Americans.
And in my January column, I placed Democratic-style immigration reform as thirteenth most important on President Barack Obama’s list of top thirteen priorities.
I’m worn out by the empty rhetoric that flies in reality’s face.
Not only am I convinced that there will be no amnesty this year — or next year, for that matter — I'd be shocked if a bill ever reaches the floor for a vote.
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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