Paul Mirengoff: Would the GOP Benefit from Amnesty?
Evangelical Groups Divided on Amnesty
“An open letter from the group demanded that Mr. Obama and the heads of the Senate and House of Representatives support a legalization program for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.,” the Wall Street Journal reports.”Not all evangelicals are on board with legalizing undocumented immigrants. But leaders say a shift is happening. ‘I think there is still anxiety but there is an openness now by more people,’ said Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy at the Southern Baptist Convention.”
Rand Paul Cited as New GOP Direction on Immigration Debated
“Republican Senator Paul is expanding his national profile in what has been tagged a ‘Rand Paul Evolution,’ Tuesday, according to Politico. It began when the Kentucky senator launched television ads in ‘Ohio, West Virginia and Florida Senate races, hammering incumbent Democrats on foreign aid,’” says the Examiner.”With money from his political action committee, Paul is pushing a foreign aid policy that would block funds going to Libya, Egypt and Pakistan. Paul also hopes to endear himself and his party to young and minority voters. He is prepared to introduce two proposals to develop workable, conservative compromises on popular social issues.”“Paul is proposing assimilation for undocumented immigrants already in America, with an ‘eventual path’ to citizenship. The ‘trade-off’ to make it palatable to conservatives would be ‘not to accept any new legal immigrants while we’re assimilating the ones who are here.’”
Rick Sanchez: Rewards for Illegal Immigration Will Turn Around the GOP
“When it comes to immigration, it’s no longer about tone or words. It’s about what I and many others like me in the Latino community have been saying all along: it’s about facts,” say Rick Sanchez at Fox News Latino.”Are you telling me that someone who’s been here for a decade (or two), has consistently held down a job (or two) and has paid property taxes and sales taxes should be replaced by somebody, somewhere who’s just arrived and never contributed a dime to this country?”
Paul Mirengoff: Would the GOP Benefit from Amnesty?
“Where, exactly, does the clamor for “comprehensive immigration reform” come from? I don’t see any existing problems that would be solved, as a matter of policy, by “comprehensive immigration reform,” as opposed to more effective law enforcement, e.g. at the borders. The real motivation on both sides seems to be political: Democrats want to add millions of loyal Democratic voters, and Republicans are afraid that opposing “comprehensive reform” will cause them to lose votes with Mexican-Americans and others who are already citizens,” Paul Mirengoff writes at Powerline blog.”Both sides cannot be right in their political calculations, and when it comes to political calculation, it is generally a good bet that the Democrats are the ones who have it figured out. In my opinion, the idea that the illegals who would become voters by virtue of “comprehensive reform” are Republicans in training is delusional.”