Schumer-Lankford Propose An Immigration Disaster

Amnesty by any other name would smell as rotten

Senator James Lankford’s (R-Oklahoma) brewing legislative deal with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is appalling.

Leaked provisions of the bill make it clear this is amnesty by another name.

At a time when 73% of Republicans are demanding a decrease in immigration, Lankford is seeking to increase legal immigration.

At a time when voters are most frustrated about the border crisis, the Oklahoma Senator is agreeing to policies that would increase illegal immigration.

Namely, Lankford is agreeing to reward illegal immigrants released from ICE custody with work permits. For reference, 318,000 illegal immigrants were released in the country’s interior just last year alone.

This proposed policy will not only incentivize more illegal immigrants to come to the United States but it will reward those who broke our laws by creating a de facto right to employment.

This is amnesty in its most noxious form.

If Lankford must compromise with a Democrat, can he not compromise with the late Texas Democrat Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, when she said “Immigration is not a right… immigration is a privilege, granted by the people of the United States to those we choose to admit”?

Indeed, one can not help but wonder what the mass issuance of Green Cards will do to working-class wages when the market is flooded with thousands of new unskilled workers.

The new influx of illegal immigrant labor will surely suppress American wages, as it has for decades.

As Jordan stated after the bipartisan Commission On Immigration Reform issued its report, “The Commission finds no national interest in continuing to import lesser skilled and unskilled workers to compete in the most vulnerable parts of our labor force.”

“The Commission finds no national interest in continuing to import lesser skilled and unskilled workers to compete in the most vulnerable parts of our labor force.”

- Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, Chairmen of the bipartisan Commission On Immigration Reform (1995)

“Many American workers do not have adequate job prospects, we should make their jobs easier to find employment, not harder,” she went on to state.

The Commission recommended that the United States:

• End immigration for low-skilled workers

• Enhance border security

• Prevent hiring of illegals

Yet, nearly 30 years after the report was issued and following a score of major electoral defeats for pro-amnesty Republicans (like the 2006 midterms), some Republicans are still deadset on increasing legal and illegal immigration.

Other provisions of this bill are equally maddening like only restricting immigration parole for those who enter the country between the ports of entry.

First, immigration parole, when it was created by Congress, was intended to be used in rare situations like allowing the cancer-stricken Shah of Iran to receive life-saving medical care in the United States. These instances were never intended to number more than a handful every year.

However, around 30,000 immigrants were paroled by the Biden Administration in 2023.

Second, there is no reason a person who qualified for parole would need to cross the border illegally instead of a lawful port of entry. This dubious action should automatically preclude a parole request.

Obviously, merely restricting the program is not enough. Congress should impose a yearly cap on parolees to prevent this program from being abused again.

The other proposed policies like allowing 5,000 illegal aliens to enter the country a day (260,000 a year) are unacceptable for the reasons aforementioned.

If there was ever a time for amnesty, it is not now–– when even New York is beginning to feel the strain that border states have felt for decades. Just this week, New York public schools kicked out American students to make room to shelter illegal immigrants.

Likewise, plaintiff calls from New York City Mayor Eric Adams to President Biden to do something on immigration have fallen on deaf ears.

Americans should be supremely aware, if they are not already, that elected officials are not putting America First.

The terms of this unacceptable agreement are a hallmark of America Last. Republicans should never make a deal on immigration without full border wall funding, a halt to immigration from unskilled labor, and the passage of policies like mandatory E-Verify which would discourage or prevent the employment of illegals.

This bill must be defeated.

If you are an Oklahoman, here is the contact for Senator Lankford’s office:

• Telephone: 202-224-5754

• Email: (click this link)

If you are a Texan, here is the contact for Senator Cruz and Cornyn’s office:

Cruz

• Telephone: (202) 224-5922

• Email: (click this link)

Cornyn

• Telephone: 202-224-2934

• Email: (click this link)

If you live outside Texas or Oklahoma, you can find your senator’s contact here.

Please also consider sharing this story with friends and family to spread awareness of this dangerous immigration gambit.

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