House Democrats and Republicans Collude on Dangerous Immigration Bill

Legislation ignores findings of the 9/11 Commission.

Virtually all news organizations, and not just within the dreaded mainstream media, frequently lament that the Republicans and Democrats will never work cooperatively, particularly where the supposedly contentious issue of immigration is concerned.

The ongoing efforts by the radical Left to impeach President Trump has sucked the air out of the (news)rooms so that while there is now a laser-like focus on those impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives, not much else in Washington receives coverage.

However, on December 11, 2019, CNN reported, “House votes to provide a pathway to citizenship for thousands of undocumented farmworkers.”

Here is an excerpt from that article:

While previous legislative efforts seeking to legalize a larger number of undocumented immigrants have failed, Wednesday’s vote is significant both for what it tries to achieve and for the Republican support it received. The bill passed with a bipartisan vote of 260-165, though it faces an uncertain future in the Senate.

Just as magicians distract their audiences with smoke, mirrors, lighting and a scantily-clad attractive assistant or two prancing around the stage, America is being distracted by the impeachment circus that should probably be accompanied by circus calliope music to complete the effect!

An integral element of the disastrous 1986 amnesty program that was part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act enacted by the Reagan administration was the inclusion of amnesty for Seasonal Agricultural Workers (also referred to as Special Agricultural workers or “SAW” for short).

In order to qualify, illegal aliens simply had to claim that they had worked on a farm for a specified period of time.

Fraud permeated that program. As an INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) special agent, I participated in investigations of farms that had provided, for a fee, bogus employment records that enabled many illegal aliens to game this element of the amnesty program.

One of the investigations in which I participated focused on a relatively small farm that had provided thousands of illegal aliens with false documentation. In fact, if all of those supposed farm workers had shown up at the time their paperwork claimed they were employed, they all could not have stood on the farm simultaneously. The farm would have been more crowded than a NYC subway car during the rush hour. There would have been no room to grow anything.

Among those aliens who were granted amnesty under the SAW amnesty program were illegal aliens who were criminals and even terrorists.

Consider this excerpt from the official report, 9/11 and  Terrorist Travel – Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States:

Once terrorists had entered the United States, their next challenge was to find a way to remain here. Their primary method was immigration fraud. For example, Yousef and Ajaj concocted bogus political asylum stories when they arrived in the United States.

Mahmoud Abouhalima, involved in both the World Trade Center and landmarks plots, received temporary residence under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers (SAW) program, after falsely claiming that he picked beans in Florida.”

Mohammed Salameh, who rented the truck used in the bombing, overstayed his tourist visa. He then applied for permanent residency under the agricultural workers program, but was rejected. Eyad Mahmoud Ismail, who drove the van containing the bomb, took English-language classes at Wichita State University in Kansas on a student visa; after he dropped out, he remained in the United States out of status.

This gaping hole in the immigration system became well-known around the world during the Reagan administration, that any alien who could enter the U.S. by any means, could easily secure bogus documentation to qualify for lawful status as supposed “agricultural workers.”

I will never forget a particularly personally infuriating situation. A television studio had sent a limo to drive me to the studio for an on-air interview. My driver was pleasant and proficient. We chatted during the drive and I could not help but notice his Middle Eastern accent. He told me he had come to the U.S. from his native Lebanon during the administration of, as he put it, “idiot Reagan.” (He did not know I was a retired INS agent.) I asked him why he had so low an opinion of President Reagan and he told me that he came to the U.S. illegally and once here claimed to have worked on a farm and was quickly granted amnesty. He subsequently petitioned for his entire family. Furthermore, he told me that his neighbors from his village in Lebanon had all availed themselves of that opportunity provided by that amnesty even though he had never set foot on a farm.

How dumb, he asked, was our former president and our immigration officials?

How dumb, indeed! What a dangerous message to send to people around the world including the citizens of countries that are associated with terrorism!

If the goal in seeking amnesty is to provide farms with adequate numbers of workers, members of Congress should be happy to hire many more ICE agents to make certain that farm workers actually show up on farms to do the work.

In the late 1970’s we found that many supposed farm workers from the Caribbean had obtained visas to work in the citrus groves of Florida and the apple orchards of New York. They either quit after a couple of short weeks or never showed up at all. They had gone on to sell another agricultural product, however: marijuana and then cocaine. They formed violent gangs that were notorious for their murderous rampages.

Meanwhile, the farmers who had applied for their visas did not get the workers they needed and we wound up with violent criminals we certainly don’t need.

More ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents could imbue this system with badly need integrity — but there is never any effort to hire more desperately-needed ICE agents.

This is not, however, the first time this year that the Democrats and Republicans joined forces to pass dangerous immigration bills that would undermine national security, public safety and/or the jobs and wages of Americans. On  July 22nd, FrontPage Magazine published my article, “Democrats and Republicans Passed An Immigration Bill” that focused on the passage of a previous bill that betrays hardworking, highly-educated, experienced and talented American workers, that went largely unreported.

My article noted, however:

Yet this bill went largely ignored by the mainstream media that even on July 10, 2019 when that legislative disaster was passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 365-65, 57 Republicans voting against the bill.

Furthermore, the bill was voted on without a single hearing and without any amendments being added.

However, the Western Free Press certainly took note of this legislative betrayal in an article entitled, GOP Legislators Back Bill to Replace American Workers.  The subtitle completed the infuriating picture, H.R. 1044 would flood the country with Indian tech workers and Chinese investors.

That July 22nd CNN article included a link to a June 4, 2019 CNN article, “House passes bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants.” This article that focused on legislation to legalize so-called “DREAMERS” began with the following:

(CNN) The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would provide a pathway to citizenship for more than one million undocumented immigrants, a move that comes amid a fierce debate over illegal immigration.

It passed 237-187. The chamber erupted in cheers of, “Sí se puede,” translated to, “Yes, we can.”

So here we have three concrete examples of Republicans and Democrats, colluding to pass laws that would create massive amnesty programs for illegal aliens and/or permit many more high-tech workers to enter the United States to the detriment of American workers’ jobs and wages.

None of these bills call for the hiring of a single additional ICE agent to conduct investigations into the aliens’ backgrounds or their applications for immigration benefits and/or visas.

The first issue raised in the wake of the shooting at Pensacola as I noted in my earlier article, “Terror Attack At Naval Air Station Highlights Immigration Catastrophe” was the limitations in the vetting process that endanger national security.

Insanity has been defined as doing the same things the same way and expecting a different outcome. The question is, who is crazier, our elected “representatives” or We the People for reelecting them — repeatedly?

EDITORS NOTE: This FrontPage Magazine column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

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