Editor’s note: Having missed a day at the computer, especially one following the Republican debate on Wednesday night, I am woefully behind, so I have catching up to do, but this trip was well worth it. One thing I want to make clear to faithful readers is that for most of my years writing this blog, I tended to focus on problems with LEGAL immigration programs and kept the topic somewhat separate from the battles over ILLEGAL immigration. Partly that is due simply to the magnitude of the issues involved and I couldn’t follow the two tracks of controversy and do them both justice, but I have come to realize that the other side—those FOR mass migration— makes no such distinction. They are all working together to flood America with migrants no matter how they get here. I always thought some commonsense might prevail with the federal resettlement contractors who would be concerned with huge numbers of legally permitted migrant workers under Obama’s DACA or DAPA (or proposed via comprehensive immigration reform) competing with low-skilled refugees for few available jobs, but they aren‘t.
It is unrestrained MASS MIGRATION (and wide open borders) that they all want and they are all working together toward that end while those of us concerned with the numbers assiduously kept the two issues separate. NO more!
Don’t let the pundits and the politicians (and the likes of Fox News) make the distinction either—Legal immigration is pure as the driven snow and Illegal is bad—call them out whenever they do it. Again, this is about MASS MIGRATION straight-up! They are changing America by changing the people! The illegal immigrants and the refugees are simply pawns. This is about power, not humanitarianism.
I don’t have the skill or patience to write a news article so below find bullets from my notes. It is long, but wanted to get it on paper while it’s fresh in my mind. It was an eye-opener on many levels.
A report from the 12th Annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference
October 29, 2015
Washington, DC
Sponsors: Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc (CLINIC), Migration Policy Institute, and Georgetown Law
Click here for the agenda.
If anyone sees a media report (press was permitted) send it my way. And, we will be looking for a video of the conference since it was obviously being taped.
The auditorium at Georgetown Law school was filled—I’m guessing maybe 200 people, maybe more. A large segment of the audience was law students presumably hankering to become immigration lawyers. When Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson spoke, some of his staff filled seats in the center of the auditorium. I believe I saw Barbara Strack from USCIS (she recently testified at Senator Sessions’ hearing, here). Some in the audience were identified with Catholic Charities.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said:
~Immigration is an emotional issue with lots of misinformation floating around, he used the word “hysteria” to describe the reaction of critics of what Obama is seeking to do.
~He said that in the last fiscal year, we had the lowest number of apprehensions on the border since 9/11 and that is a good thing. He was trying to imply that fewer were coming across the border, but of course the flip side is that perhaps many more went through without being detained.
~He is very disappointed in the administration’s new program for Central American Minors to apply for refugee status in three central American countries because not many are signing up. By the way, a recurring theme throughout the day was that they are seeking to broaden the legal definition of “refugee.”
~He lamented the fact that Obama’s plan to give amnesty to parents of children born here (DAPA) has been enjoined by the 5th Circuit. (DAPA figures again below in another panel discussion).
~The administration is working hard on 9 out of 10 executive orders because they want to be sure America has “no second class people” and that America “celebrates diversity.”
Only a few members of the audience asked questions and one was James Simpson who asked about the security screening for Syrian refugees. I’m paraphrasing but Simpson said that since he (Johnson), James Clapper (Director of National Intelligence) and the Director of the FBI James Comey have all said that Syrian refugees cannot be properly screened, and at the same time Anne Richard (Asst. Sec. of State for PRM) was expediting the process, wasn’t the administration talking out of both sides of its mouth when agreeing to admit 10,000 Syrians this year? In this case, don’t you think you should be more concerned, he asked.
~It was clear by what came out of Johnson’s mouth that he didn’t know what he was talking about. He said the screening process has greatly improved since the Iraqis began being resettled. Those of us who follow this closely know that the Iraqi situation is different, there are some records on the Iraqis (Comey et al have said that), but what the audience also didn’t know is that the “improvement” came as a result of the discovery of Iraqi terrorists getting into the US through the refugee program. The screening process was put on hold a few years ago and thousands of refugees were rescreened. But, that still doesn’t explain how those charged with security in the Obama administration are sending out warning signals while the US State Department and the UN are getting them in here as fast as they can.
~He said he thought 10,000 was a good number.
~He went on about asylum seekers at the border. (I wonder is their a strategy to put out just a bunch of words so as not to answer the question?). And, he wrapped up with a really important assurance to us all (Not!) and that is that the Syrians are being “welcomed” to America by a Syrian American community already here—as if that had anything at all to do with the security question!
If it weren’t for Simpson’s question, this audience would have no idea that one of the most pressing issues (making people “hysterical” to use Secretary Johnson’s own word) going on right now with refugee resettlement was the one about Syrian Muslims being admitted to the US without thorough screening.
Immigration and the Latino Vote
The first session after Johnson’s departure was all about the 2016 Presidential election with some discussion about the House leadership change and what that would mean for the passage of ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform.’
The moderator of the session was Doris Meissner. Session participants were Matt Barreto (a pollster), Fawn Johnson (a reporter) and Cesar Gonzalez (Chief of Staff for Florida Republican Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart). This session, to prime the audience for 2016, was worth the price of admission!
***Update*** Donald Trump gives them more reason to worry, here.
~The “Trump phenomenon” has them obviously shaken and they are trying to figure out how to cope with it. The phrase “Trump phenomenon” was practically the first words out of Ms. Meissner’s mouth when she opened the session. They expected immigration to be an important issues in 2016, but with a different tone to the discussion, not Trump’s outright “anti-immigrant tone.” The whole presentation that followed was based on the understanding that this audience was all pro-Democrat/pro-Hillary.
~Barreto showed a map of the states in which they have to mobilize the Latino vote: New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Florida, and Iowa.
~Ohio and Virginia are razor thin, he said.
~At one point in the panel’s discussion of the opposition to “immigration reform,” the panelists agreed that it was the hardcore Tea Party that was blocking everything they wanted to do because those people, which at one point they said represented about the “extremely organized” 12% of the Republican base (didn’t write down where they got the 12%) were active at the local level, voted in primaries and called Members of Congress. (Just a reminder, that some of the Tea Parties in the country are not involved in the immigration fight especially those getting any funding from the Koch brothers who are advocates of more immigration—cheap labor). Not to take anything away from the Tea Party, but the grassroots activists concerned with MASS migration come from a much broader spectrum of American society than the Tea Party.
~I suspect Dr. Barreto finds it easier to blame the Tea Party and those he said “don’t want to give money to people who don’t look like them,” then to have to admit they really don’t know how deep and wide the opposition is to changing America by changing the people.
~The news that came loud and clear was that it does matter that you get involved in the immigration battle—that you do participate in primary elections, call and write Congress as Cesar Gonzalez revealed during his remarks. Gonzalez said that his boss, as one of the ‘Gang of Eight’ in the House, was pounded by opposition from his district in Miami—a district largely made up of immigrants!
At another point in the back and forth discussion, Barreto showed numbers comparing a Hillary v. Rubio match-up and showed that even Rubio (the R’s best shot with Latino voters) would get less of the Latino vote than even Romney got. Hillary, who has been out front supporting DACA and DAPA would gobble up the Latino voters. He said that Rubio “can’t resuscitate his position with Latino voters.” So, what that says to me is that Trump, or whoever gets the nomination, must work really hard to get out white and black voters who see the migration tide taking their jobs. (more below on black voters)
Cesar Gonzalez, who we were told did not represent his boss (Rep. Diaz-Belart) when participating in this conference was very revealing. And, btw, at some point reporter Fawn Johnson said that due to the “Trump phenomenon” she predicted nothing would get done in Congress this fall on immigration reform. She said that the House Republicans do not want to talk about immigration (which is why we need to keep hounding them and the Republican Presidential candidates).
~Gonzalez, a staffer, is clearly one of the key players in Congress working on ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform’ here. Although I haven’t watched it yet, he was (he says he was) an important source for the PBS documentary that Julia Hahn so ably reported on here at Breitbart. Notice in the NBC Latino article here, the discussion about creation of a movement called “Bibles, badges and business” that Gonzalez says was helping drive the Republicans toward immigration reform, we wrote about that in 2013, here (Grover Norquist project!).
~Gonzalez told the audience that they came very close to “reform” legislation from the Gang of Eight in the House. However, two things happened that killed their chances. One was Obama’s DACA and DAPA executive orders that caused Republicans to not trust this administration and the other was the shocking primary defeat of one of their chief supporters, Rep. Eric Cantor, by an out-and-out immigration control advocate, Dave Brat in Virginia.
~See here when the House ‘Gang of Eight’ became the gang of five. Diaz-Belart was the only R left on the draft bill which Gonzalez says is “locked in his desk” in hopes a window will open in the future for him to whip it out.
~This part of what Gonzalez said really steamed me! He says that those behind the ‘Gang of Eight’ in the House “polled their bill” in June 2014. He said they used something called “Wordsmith” to find just the right words to best manipulate other Republican members of Congress and the Republican voting public into supporting ‘immigration reform.’ LOL! one word he said they learned NOT to use is “comprehensive” so that has been dropped from their manipulative strategy to “sell the bill.” Think about it! They must have used taxpayer dollars to get advice on how to snooker you! Or, did some big business lobbying group pay for it?
~There was also a discussion about getting control of Texas by using the Hispanic vote. They said that Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), who they bragged held town hall meetings in Spanish, wanted “comprehensive immigration reform” to get the unregistered Hispanics to ultimately vote for Republicans.
There was much much more, we will be waiting for the video of the conference to be made available.
Then questions were invited from the audience. A woman identifying herself as being with a Catholic group of some sort said she had a workman at her home recently, a black workman, who told her he and his friends are voting for Trump. He told her they talk about it almost every day as they are concerned about the Hispanics here illegally who are taking their jobs and getting away with breaking the law. (A murmur rippled through the audience at this comment indicating, I think, a fear that deep down they know that these black working class men are right!).
And then, here comes James Simpson again to the microphone. I’m paraphrasing because I didn’t write down what he asked verbatim. It went something like this: First, I want to say that Mr. Baretto expressed a subtle bigotry by smearing anyone who questions their agenda as people who are “afraid of people who don’t look like us.” I have black friends, Simpson said emphatically, who are indeed angry because they are losing their jobs to illegal Hispanic workers. Here you are at this prestigious law school—Georgetown—advocating the undermining of the rule of law. That (the rule of law) is our greatest concern. What sort of message are you sending to the students here?
Baretto jumped in to say that he sees no evidence of black voters abandoning the Democrat Party. And Gonzalez said something that made no sense as the moderator quickly cut off the discussion.
Whew! I am running out of steam and still have more to go!
Obama’s Executive Amnesties…..
I’ll keep it short on the next panel which was an update for the audience on Obama’s Executive orders—most specifically the DAPA lawsuit has them befuddled. However, they expect it to go to the Supreme Court and they want that to happen prior to the 2016 Presidential election so that they can organize a massive grassroots campaign where they would bring in thousands (hundreds of thousands!) of illegal aliens to demonstrate at the Supreme Court.
Marielena Hincapie, the Executive Director of the National Immigration Law Center was crowing about how they plan to make it a big action. She related a little sob story about a 13 year old girl writing to her about how she didn’t want her Daddy arrested by the ICE police (sniff! sniff!).
And, then here comes James Simpson to the microphone again! This time moderator Muzaffar Chishti purposely did not let Simpson ask a question. Jim told me afterward he was going to ask if Ms. Hincapie ever got letters from any of the thousands of families who had a loved one murdered by an illegal alien.
By the way, last weekend I had the opportunity to hear from The Remembrance Project. I urge all of you to visit their website here and read about those murdered by illegal aliens in America. Maybe it could be a project of The Remembrance Project to send their stories to Ms. Hincapie so she might have some balance to the stories she relates.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Antonio Guterres) was the noontime speaker.
And, now when I get to the high point of the day for me, I am definitely running out of steam. I will be brief, hang in there.
~Antonio Guterres has been the UNHCR for the last 10 years and is about to retire.
~He spoke mostly about Climate refugees and finding a new category of legal refugee in which to place them because they do not fit under the 1951 Convention.
~He wants the US to play a major role in the Nansen Initiative which deals with cross border migrations due to everything under the sun!
~Migration is increasing (duh!) and the distinction is being blurred between migrants and refugees. I maintain that this is on purpose. The No Borders movement wants everyone to be a refugee and so the word is being used (on purpose) to describe people on the move for whatever reason. He wants more people to have “access to a refugee definition.”
~Wants the 1951 Convention expanded to include those running from crime. Presently a “refugee” is required to prove they are persecuted.
~He scoffed and joked (and the audience laughed along with him) when he said that terrorists wouldn’t go to all the trouble to use the refugee pipeline to infiltrate the West.
~He said Canada has given them a little problem because the new government wants 25,000 Syrians ASAP and he isn’t sure that the UNHCR can move fast enough to supply that number.
~In answer to a question, he said that what the US does is important to encourage other countries to do more.
~I believe he said, in answer to another question, that Europe wouldn’t have the huge migrant crisis it has now if they would just have a legal system for all to come!
Then here comes James Simpson to the microphone yet again….
LOL! One could almost feel the audience groaning!
Simpson asked (and again I am paraphrasing) why it is that only 3% of the Syrians chosen for America so far are persecuted Christians and the vast majority are Muslims? (BTW, no where in Guterres prepared talk did he mention Islamic extremists as being behind the huge migrant crisis going on in most of the world!).
Guterres answered with this shocking bit of news: Well, the Christians aren’t being persecuted by their government (the Assad regime) and so aren’t in the same great need for protection as the Muslims who are fleeing Assad are now. What! So one can only be a legitimate “refugee” when one’s government is doing the persecuting? Who ever said that? I’m sure that those fearing they will be beheaded by ISIS for being a Christian or an apostate aren’t making any fine distinctions about persecution by a national government vs. ISIS as they try to escape Syria.
Simpson also asked why the Gulf states aren’t being pressured into resettling refugees (Guterres obviously loves refugee resettlement as he told the audience several times). UNHCR Guterres answered that the Gulf states helped monetarily (they donate to the UNHCR!) but that they would like them to take some refugees. He then defended Saudi Arabia by saying that 600,000 Syrian workers have been permitted to stay in S.A. while the civil war continues in their homeland. But, what the audience doesn’t understand is that the Syrians will never be permitted to become VOTING CITIZENS OF S.A. as they will when resettled to Canada, the US, Australia and most European countries where they will change the government as their numbers increase.
Congratulations to all who made it through this account of my excellent adventure to Georgetown Law yesterday.
Again, when we have a link to the video of the conference, we will let you know!
One thought on “Washington DC gathering of Open Borders Activists/lawyers was revealing”