For whatever politically opportunistic reason, Obama chose to give a speech on immigration right before the weekend when we celebrate Independence from the Brits.
So he misquoted Emma Lazarus, and declared that the US-Mexico border “is more secure today than at any time in the past 20 years”, which he quickly followed by saying that border control is out of control, and forget about that fence, folks:
So the bottom line is this: The southern border is more secure today than at any time in the past 20 years. That doesn’t mean we don’t have more work to do. We have to do that work, but it’s important that we acknowledge the facts. Even as we are committed to doing what’s necessary to secure our borders, even without passage of the new law, there are those who argue that we should not move forward with any other elements of reform until we have fully sealed our borders. But our borders are just too vast for us to be able to solve the problem only with fences and border patrols. It won’t work. Our borders will not be secure as long as our limited resources are devoted to not only stopping gangs and potential terrorists, but also the hundreds of thousands who attempt to cross each year simply to find work.
Of course he blamed Republicans.
Thing is, it’s the Democrats who have the majority in Congress, and they are not going along with what Obama’s proposing. Bipartisanship? How’s this for bipartisanship?
according to Democrat Luis Gutierrez — who’s as pure an amnesty shill as there is in Congress — there actually aren’t enough Democrats either in favor of comprehensive immigration reform to pass something. (And he doesn’t just mean in the Senate.) As with so many policies championed by The One, it’s the opposition, not the support, that’s bipartisan.
Victor Davis Hanson talks about the border:
It is disturbing to hear a president confess that he cannot enforce the law or secure the border. (“But our borders are just too vast for us to be able to solve the problem only with fences and border patrols. It won’t work. Our borders will not be secure as long as our limited resources are devoted to not only stopping gangs and potential terrorists, but also the hundreds of thousands who attempt to cross each year simply to find work.”) I hope the Taliban are not listening to that admission.
For most of our history, illegal immigration was not a problem of the present magnitude, and the country had confidence that it could enforce its borders when it wished to. What has changed is not the terrain, or the reality that many wish to enter illegally, but our attitudes about such fundamental issues as the rule of law, national sovereignty, and assimilation. Indeed, the president ordered a halt to the building of the border fence, suggesting an absence of will rather than a hopeless task.
It’s an absence of will when it comes to the border, but the purpose of Obama and the Democrats is to perpetuate themselves in power:
The subtext of the speech was politics of the very sort the text often deplored. Obama has to square a circle: He and his base, as we saw in the campaign of 2008, want veritable open borders that will result in more Democratic constituents, who in turn will change the politics of the Southwest; more recipients of federal largess; and more government workers to dispense it. This is in line with a postmodern sense that sovereignty is passé and commitment to principle is as mundane as obedience to the law. On the other hand, a vast majority of the American people, of all races, oppose illegal immigration for reasons that have nothing to do with race or class, and simply want the borders enforced.
So, presto: You confuse illegal and legal immigration, deplore politicking, blame the opportunistic employer more than the opportunistic illegal-alien employee, and pretend to lecture all sides while in fact demanding amnesty (something doable) as a condition of closing the border (something impossible). That’s pretty much where we are, and it will not work.
It’s enough to give you chills, but not in the MSNBC sense of the word.
