Congress abandons immigration reform
September 5, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward
America's borders remain porous, but Congress may not do anything to secure them.
Congressional leaders will not act to secure America’s borders or enact urgently-needed reforms to the broken immigration system this year, The New York Times reports today.
The newspaper reports that “Republicans in the House and Senate say they will focus on Pentagon and domestic security spending bills, port security legislation and measures that would authorize the administration’s terror surveillance program and create military tribunals to try terror suspects.” All of these are vitally important matters, of course, but immigration reform is equally as pressing.
Assuming the current agenda holds, Congress will spend fewer days in session this year than the so-called “do-nothing Congress” of 1948. With this schedule, can members of Congress not find the time to see that the crisis on the borders is finally resolved?
Conservatives won’t abandon reform
Even if Congress has given up the fight for secure borders and a sane immigration policy, Heritage has not. Our experts, including former Attorney General Ed Meese, Heritage’s Ronald Reagan Fellow, have scheduled meetings with Congressional leaders to press for conservative reform.
Heritage is also working closely with Congressmen who remain committed to comprehensive change. On September 21, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) will speak at Heritage about the need to properly enforce the law both internally and along the border. (Please note that this event was originally scheduled for September 6.) Be sure to check back to MyHeritage.org for updates on Rep. Tancredo’s talk.
Congress should adopt a sound immigration policy that
- Does not grant amnesty to illegal aliens.
- Includes an effective border control strategy.
- Ensures internal enforcement of immigration laws.
- Provides the infrastructure to properly implement a guest worker program.
- Effectively engages the cooperation of states in Latin America.
Read a complete outline of Heritage’s conservative proposals for immigration on MyHeritage.org.
A victory for spending reform
On August 23, Heritage President Ed Feulner wrote in a widely-cited article in The Chicago Sun-Times that an unknown Senator or Senators had placed a procedural block on legislation that would detail how government spends its money. Co-sponsored by 29 lawmakers including Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), the law would create a database of all federal grants and government contracts—allowing citizens and lawmakers alike to identify wasteful government spending.
The identity of those preventing a vote on the new law remained a secret until last week, when PorkBusters, an online grassroots coalition dedicated to spending control, called every Senator’s office and discovered that two lawmakers, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Sen. Bob Byrd (D-WV), had been behind the block.
If passed, this law would be an important first step towards getting spending under control. Furthermore, the grassroots effort to support the bill indicates the broad appeal of spending reforms. Now is the time to implement these and other essential changes.
What the UN means by ‘freedom’
The United Nations portrays itself as a champion of human rights around the world. But as Heritage’s Helle Dale reports, the rights espoused by the UN reflect a strong “socialist bias, which is derived from a different understanding of ‘rights’ that often dominates thinking in international institutions.”
Here’s a sampling of just some of the many bizarre “rights” asserted in UN documents:
- “Right to social security”
- “Right to just and favorable remuneration to ensure a standard of living for his family and right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family”
- “Right to the regulation of the labor supply”
- “Right to rest and leisure”
- “Fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger”
- “Right of everyone to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health”
These bogus “rights,” of course, are not individual rights as you and I understand them. The freedoms and rights espoused by the UN are instead little more than big-government entitlements enacted n the name of what Dale calls “an ambiguous and indefensible notion of the ‘common good.’”
“Freedom, properly understood, means the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Dale explains. “It is time to change the ground on which international discourse takes place and to bring it back to the basic definition of human rights and freedom that serves as a cornerstone of conservative thinking.”
In other news
- New oil discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico could increase known national reserves by up to 50 percent, the AP reports. Estimates suggest that 15 billion gallons of crude could lie below the sea. It is discoveries like this that justify expanded oil exploration, yet liberals continue to object to any new drilling.
- In the fourth day of a new offensive against Taliban holdouts in Afghanistan, NATO forces killed 60 terrorist fighters Tuesday. The military estimates that 200 or more terrorists were killed over the weekend.
- A radical organization calling itself World Can't Wait has scheduled a nationwide demonstration to “drive out the Bush regime” for October 5. Their extremist message is almost a parody of leftist rhetoric: “The Bush Regime is radically remaking society very quickly, in a fascist way and for generations to come,” reads the group’s ad in The New York Times(link in PDF). “A regime that steals elections and believes they’re on a ‘mission from God’ will not go without a fight.”
- Conservative television host Steve Irwin was killed over the weekend by a stingray while filming his latest television special. The widlife expert was a firm supporter of conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard, calling him the “greatest leader in the entire world.”
Coming up at Heritage
- On Friday, September 8 at noon, presidential scholars Elizabeth Spalding and Steven F. Hayward will discuss the role of faith in the presidency, and especially its impact on the Bush administration.
- On Friday, September 15 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm, Heritage hosts a discussion with experts from government and the private sector about ways to improve airline security in the face of evolving threats.
- On Thursday, September 21 at noon, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) will discuss the need to restore public confidence in our immigration laws by controlling the border and enforcing the law internally.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
Congressional leaders will not act to secure America’s borders or enact urgently-needed reforms to the broken immigration system this year, The New York Times reports today.
The newspaper reports that “Republicans in the House and Senate say they will focus on Pentagon and domestic security spending bills, port security legislation and measures that would authorize the administration’s terror surveillance program and create military tribunals to try terror suspects.” All of these are vitally important matters, of course, but immigration reform is equally as pressing.
Assuming the current agenda holds, Congress will spend fewer days in session this year than the so-called “do-nothing Congress” of 1948. With this schedule, can members of Congress not find the time to see that the crisis on the borders is finally resolved?
Conservatives won’t abandon reform
Even if Congress has given up the fight for secure borders and a sane immigration policy, Heritage has not. Our experts, including former Attorney General Ed Meese, Heritage’s Ronald Reagan Fellow, have scheduled meetings with Congressional leaders to press for conservative reform.
Heritage is also working closely with Congressmen who remain committed to comprehensive change. On September 21, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) will speak at Heritage about the need to properly enforce the law both internally and along the border. (Please note that this event was originally scheduled for September 6.) Be sure to check back to MyHeritage.org for updates on Rep. Tancredo’s talk.
Congress should adopt a sound immigration policy that
- Does not grant amnesty to illegal aliens.
- Includes an effective border control strategy.
- Ensures internal enforcement of immigration laws.
- Provides the infrastructure to properly implement a guest worker program.
- Effectively engages the cooperation of states in Latin America.
Read a complete outline of Heritage’s conservative proposals for immigration on MyHeritage.org.
A victory for spending reform
On August 23, Heritage President Ed Feulner wrote in a widely-cited article in The Chicago Sun-Times that an unknown Senator or Senators had placed a procedural block on legislation that would detail how government spends its money. Co-sponsored by 29 lawmakers including Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), the law would create a database of all federal grants and government contracts—allowing citizens and lawmakers alike to identify wasteful government spending.
The identity of those preventing a vote on the new law remained a secret until last week, when PorkBusters, an online grassroots coalition dedicated to spending control, called every Senator’s office and discovered that two lawmakers, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Sen. Bob Byrd (D-WV), had been behind the block.
If passed, this law would be an important first step towards getting spending under control. Furthermore, the grassroots effort to support the bill indicates the broad appeal of spending reforms. Now is the time to implement these and other essential changes.
What the UN means by ‘freedom’
The United Nations portrays itself as a champion of human rights around the world. But as Heritage’s Helle Dale reports, the rights espoused by the UN reflect a strong “socialist bias, which is derived from a different understanding of ‘rights’ that often dominates thinking in international institutions.”
Here’s a sampling of just some of the many bizarre “rights” asserted in UN documents:
- “Right to social security”
- “Right to just and favorable remuneration to ensure a standard of living for his family and right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family”
- “Right to the regulation of the labor supply”
- “Right to rest and leisure”
- “Fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger”
- “Right of everyone to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health”
These bogus “rights,” of course, are not individual rights as you and I understand them. The freedoms and rights espoused by the UN are instead little more than big-government entitlements enacted n the name of what Dale calls “an ambiguous and indefensible notion of the ‘common good.’”
“Freedom, properly understood, means the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Dale explains. “It is time to change the ground on which international discourse takes place and to bring it back to the basic definition of human rights and freedom that serves as a cornerstone of conservative thinking.”
In other news
- New oil discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico could increase known national reserves by up to 50 percent, the AP reports. Estimates suggest that 15 billion gallons of crude could lie below the sea. It is discoveries like this that justify expanded oil exploration, yet liberals continue to object to any new drilling.
- In the fourth day of a new offensive against Taliban holdouts in Afghanistan, NATO forces killed 60 terrorist fighters Tuesday. The military estimates that 200 or more terrorists were killed over the weekend.
- A radical organization calling itself World Can't Wait has scheduled a nationwide demonstration to “drive out the Bush regime” for October 5. Their extremist message is almost a parody of leftist rhetoric: “The Bush Regime is radically remaking society very quickly, in a fascist way and for generations to come,” reads the group’s ad in The New York Times(link in PDF). “A regime that steals elections and believes they’re on a ‘mission from God’ will not go without a fight.”
- Conservative television host Steve Irwin was killed over the weekend by a stingray while filming his latest television special. The widlife expert was a firm supporter of conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard, calling him the “greatest leader in the entire world.”
Coming up at Heritage
- On Friday, September 8 at noon, presidential scholars Elizabeth Spalding and Steven F. Hayward will discuss the role of faith in the presidency, and especially its impact on the Bush administration.
- On Friday, September 15 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm, Heritage hosts a discussion with experts from government and the private sector about ways to improve airline security in the face of evolving threats.
- On Thursday, September 21 at noon, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) will discuss the need to restore public confidence in our immigration laws by controlling the border and enforcing the law internally.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.