07/15/2014
Last night, in Immigration Is Destroying America, Pat Buchanan wrote
In 2007, backed by John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Teddy Kennedy and Barack Obama, Bush backed amnesty for the 12 million people who had entered America illegally.The nation thundered no. And Congress sustained the nation.
It happens that in 2007, Barack Obama was very much for amnesty. Although still a first term Senator, he was a cool black first term Senator, and thus people cared what he thought. The link above on Obama’s name — added by me, not Pat — goes to Obama’s appearance on Larry King Live, March 19, 2007, and Senator Obama was saying things like
Number one, we're going to have to secure our borders. And this past year, the Senate invested billions of dollars in improving border security. I think that’s important because I think all Americans think that we should be able to regulate who comes in and out of this country in an orderly way, not only for the sake of our sovereignty, but also to avoid the hundreds of people who have been dying across the desert, the enormous costs that are placed on border states and border towns.
This, as Mickey Kaus points out, has always been the big lie of immigration “reformers.” Their reaction to the border surge proves that — and Obama, as Reactor-In-Chief, is the best proof. [Lie at Heart of “Immigration Reform” Exposed, Daily Caller, July 14, 2014]
What Obama also told Larry King, and this part he did mean, was
But we also have to recognize that we've got 12 million undocumented workers who are already here. Many of them living their lives alongside other Americans. Their kids are going to school. Many of the kids, in fact, were born in this country and are citizens. And so, it’s absolutely vital that we bring those families out of the shadows and that we give them the opportunity to travel a pathway to citizenship. It’s not automatic citizenship. It’s not amnesty. They would have to pay a fine. They would have to not have engaged in any criminal activity. They would have to learn English. They would have to go to the back of the line so that they did not get citizenship before those persons who had come here legally.
But I think that if we have a program of that sort, then we can combine the inherent compassion of the American people with the tough- mindedness that’s necessary for our security and our long-term wellbeing. [Links added by me.]
So Senator (and Presidential candidate) Obama did support the failed 2007 attempt at an amnesty. But why not? He was a Senator, and if he had been able to get his fellow Senators to change the law, that would have been constitutional. (It would have been a disaster for the country, but it would be constitutional.)
What he’s doing now, with his Administrative Amnesty, and his cooperation with the Border Surge, where he’s using Federal funds to fly the illegals all over the country — Mark Steyn referred to him as the Coyote-In-Chief — that’s unconstitutional, in defiance of the law, and an impeachable offence.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.